GT4 European Series kicks off its 2022 season from Imola today (Updated)
With one or two already having started, this weekend sees the start of the season for two headline European GT3 and GT4 series as the SRO’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and GT4 European Series finally get underway from the Italian circuit of Imola.
As you will have seen over the last couple of months, it has been a busy winter for the Aston Martin Racing facility at Banbury as they have been building over twenty new Vantage GT4 race cars for their new and expanding customer base – many of whom will be competing this weekend.
As a result of some intense work by many in the background, the AMR Vantage GT4 headcount has risen from the six full season entries of 2021 to a remarkable ten entries featuring this weekend with another waiting in the wings for the next round at Paul Ricard in early June.
Whilst we have lost the French Mirage Racing team from this SRO series over the winter, the French AGS Events Racing team return with another three entries of their own whilst we now welcome three from the German Racing One team (with another in the wings as said), two from the German based PROsport Racing team and two from new Swiss team Racing Spirit of Lemans.
Confirmation of entries are: -
#5 Racing One Silver Cup - Kenton Koch/Thijmen Nabuurs
#18 Racing One Am Class – Henrik Lyngbye Pederson
#9 Racing One PAM – Christian Gisy/Ralf Kelleners
#7 AGS Events Silver Cup – Noah Andy/Hugo Conde
#89 AGS Events Am Class – Julien Lambert/Wilfried Cazalbon
#80 AGS Events Silver Cup – Tom Verdier/Ruben Del Sarte
#19 Racing Spirit of Lemans Silver Cup – Tom Canning/Akhil Rabindra
#10 Racing Spirit of Lemans Silver Cup – Gus Bowers/Konstantin Lachenauer
#25 PROsport Racing PAM – Rodrique Gillion/Nico Verdonck
#24 PROsport Racing Silver Cup – Mike David Ortmann/Hugo Sasse
The opening track action is already in effect at the circuit with Private testing today ahead of the start of more formally timed sessions this Friday with two Free Practice sessions before Qualifying for race 1 and 2 on Saturday morning before the opening one-hour race on Saturday afternoon and race 2 on Sunday morning.
Photo credits – Teams
German based Racing One confirm FOUR Aston Martins into the GT4 European Series
A big day today for the German based Racing One team as they announce a mighty four car entry into this season’s GT4 European Series that starts at Monza at the end of the month.
Last night saw an early revelation that American racer Kenton Koch will now be conducting race programmes on either side of the Atlantic as he pairs his GT America/GT4 America duties with the Bsport Racing team with that of the GT4 European Series where he shall share one of the team’s Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT4’s with Dutchman Thijmen Nabuurs in the Silver Cup Class.
Neither of these pair come short of experience and skill with both finishing their last year’s programme at the sharper end of the table in their respective series and make for a car in class to be closely watched.
Then today, the Series have also confirmed a further three cars from the team – one for returning Am Class pairing of Henrik Lyngbye Pederson and Marcus Lungstrass as well as a car apiece from the Gisy family as the father, Christian converts to the AMR platform and sons Moritz and Vincent make their GT race debut at Monza.
Christian will partner established series rather Ralf Kelleners in the Pro-Am class whilst both Moritz and Vincent share the teams fourth car in an as yet undetermined class.
All the Gisy family (and others listed above) have spent a number of days testing and racing their new cars in both Spain and Portugal under the watchful eyes of both Lungstrass and Kelleners in series like the GT Winter Series.
This news also brings the Aston Martin ‘head count’ up to nine so far with entries still yet to be confirmed from the likes of GPA Racing, Team Speed Monkeys and Mirage Racing.
The GT4 European Series might just get extremely busy!
Photo credits – GT4 European / Teams / GT4 America
