16 Car Entry For GT Open Season Opener
The 2021 GT Open season kicks off at the Circuit Paul Ricard this weekend, the first of the seven two-race rounds.
Seven different car brands (Audi, Bentley, Honda, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes and Porsche) and 13 teams are represented in the 16 car grid for the first round.
In addition, Race 2 on Sunday will the fields of the GT Open and its junior sister series, the GT Open Cup Europe (see below), racing on track together, a combined 30 car grid.
In GT Open proper the field is again divided into Pro, Pro-Am and Am classes for the GT3-spec Series.
In the Pro class, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche teams will do battle.
Vincenzo Sospiri Racing, who have already taken Pro-Am and Am titles in the series, is back as the reference team of Sant’Agata and fields two Huracan GT3 for two stars of the young GT racer generation, Frederick Schandorff-Michele Beretta, and young guns Baptiste Moulin-Yuri Nemoto, the latter a reigning Italian GT Champion.
Team Lazarus is in its second year with the Bentley Continental and fields young Ukranian Ivan Peklin and Bentley’s ex-works driver Jordan Pepper.
Lechner Racing from Austria fields. new Porsche 911 GT3 R, for former F2 Champion Andy Soucek and Oman’s Al Faisal Al Zubair.
It will be a five-brand battle in the Pro-Am class, with McLaren, Mercedes, Honda, Lamborghini and Audi all represented.
Inception Racing fields two two McLaren 720S GT3, again prepped by Optimum Motorsport – returning pairings Brendan Iribe-Ollie Millroy and Nick Moss-Joe Osborne were both top contenders last year.
Balfe Motorsport, a former class championship winning team, is back for a full campaign, having switched to an Audi R8 LMS, with Shaun Balfe paired this time with former single-seater star Adam Carroll.
JP Motorsport, after a stunning debut in 2020, has also switched car and now runs a McLaren, with Patryk Krupiński-Christian Klien aiming for more success.
AKM Motorsport, the San Marino-based squad led by Marco Antonelli, is another team with a two-car entry, remaining faithful to the Mercedes AMG. Alex Moiseev-Loris Spinelli drive the car in Pro-Am.
Reno Racing from Denmark is back for a full season, defending the colours of Honda with its NSX GT3 Evo. Jens Reno Møller is now paired with Norwegian young gun Marcus Påverud who moves across from a proposed effort in ADAC GT Masters to contest GT Open instead.
Winward is another long-standing Mercedes customer and its car will be in the hands of Markus Sattler-Nico Bastian, who tasted the series last year and are back for a full campaign.
HP Racing International is a new entry in the GT Open. The team led by Harald Proczyk enters a Lamborghini Huracan full-season, with Coach McKansy-Jan Seyffert at the wheel in Paul Ricard.
Twin Busch by Equipe Vitesse is another new entry, but the German squad has over 40 years of presence in all kinds of racing categories. It enters a Mercedes AMG for Mario Hirsch- Dominik Schraml.
The Am class sees reigning champions Jens Liebhauser-Fabian Scholze back to defend their crown, still driving a Mercedes AMG but from a different team, AKM Motorsport.
Another returnee is Giuseppe Cipriani, the class champion in 2019, who will be driving a Lamborghini Huracán and has revived the team he had when he raced in formula cars, the iconic Il Barone Rampante.
Boutsen Racing is entering its first full campaign in the series. The Belgian squad fields a fan favourite car, the Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX by Reiter, for Swiss racer François Grimm.
GT Open Cup Europe
The GT Open Cup Europe returns too at the Circuit Paul Ricard, this the third season for GT Open’s junior GT Series that blends single make racers with GT4-spec machinery.
The Paul Ricard round lists 14 cars with the promise of more to come and a race weekend plan that sees the two grids combined on Sunday.
The Pro-Am class (for pairs of one Gold or Silver and one Bronze drivers) will see a battle between Porsche, Aston Martin and McLaren. The former represented by German squad ProSport Racing with its usual Belgian driver pairing of Rodrigue Gillion and Nico Verdonck.
For Porsche, Italian racers Eugenio Pisani and Stefano Bozzoni, who took part in the Cup in 2019, are back with 911 Cup gen.1 under the colours of CAME Racing. The reigning Polish Endurance Champions stepping up to the European scene: the team has a long name, A&P Racing Team PTT Tech Support, and an established reputation in Central Europe and the driver pairing is composed of Maciej Blazek and GT star Mateusz Lisowski, often seen in the GT Open with Olimp Racing.
Another pair from Poland is Maciej Darmetko and GT expert (and former Euroformula race winner) Artur Janosz. They too will be driving a gen.2 version entered and assisted by Belgian squad Q1 Trackracing.
Spain’s E2P Racing Team of Javier Morcillo also enters a Porsche 911 Cup gen.2 for Dino Zamparelli and Jan Klinkelnberg from Switzerland.
Germany’s Team GT is planning to debut in the Cup with two McLaren 570S and line-ups to be confirmed.
In the Am class (for Bronze drivers) it is the Lamborghini Huracán SuperTrofeo which will be the challenger to the Porsches.
Two of the Italian supercars will be present at Paul Ricard, with Glauco Solieri (who took two overall race wins and finished 4th in Am in 2019) driving a car entered by AKM Motorsport, the squad led by Marco Antonelli, while Vincenzo Sospiri Racing is back with another driver racing alone, Andrzej Lewandowski, a former GT Open Am champion.
ALDA Motorsport, from Poland, fields a Porsche 911 Cup gen.2 for Jakub Dwernicki and Jan Antoszewski.
Four Spanish cars complete the field. Victor Colomé’s Three Sixty Racing Team has been an active contender in 2019 and is back, with two Porsche gen.2 for Andorra’s Oscar Aristot and Brazil’s Márcio Mauro, and another Brazilian driver, Fernando Fortes, in the other car.
The Andorra-based squad is also fielding the quirky TransAm Euro Mustang in 2021 with which Albert Estragués shone in some races last year, and is also partnering with Autory Competición in entering a further 911 (gen.1) for the Fernando Navarretes father-and-son pair, who both contested the series in 2019.
21-02 GT CUP Ricard Entry list_prov
2021 GT Cup Open Europe Round 1: Circuit Paul Ricard, France Timetable (All times local, CET)
Thursday 13 May 2021
14:00-15:00 Private test 1*
16:10-17:10 Private test 2*
18:20-19:00 Free practice 1 (Bronze drivers only)*
Friday 14 May 2021
11:31-12:31 Free Practice 2
14:55-15:55 Free Practice 3*
Saturday 15 May 2021
11:05-11:35 Qualifying 1 (driver 1)
26:45-17:45 Race 1 (70’ – Rolling Start)
Sunday 16 May 2021
09:00-09:30 Qualifying 2 (driver 2)*
13:40-14:40 Race 2 (60’ – Rolling Start)*
* joint with GT Open Cup Europe