Other Series

GT Open: Team and driver updates

Lots of good news in the last two weeks for GT Sport, the organisers of the International GT Open. The Spanish organisers saw several teams announce their plans and the series completed a successful two-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya on March 2nd and 3rd.

AF Corse will return to the International GT Open series in 2010 with three cars. Álvaro Barba and Pierre Kaffer will spearhead AF Corse’s bid to claim the International GT Open title. The Italian squad will no longer be using the Advanced Engineering.

International GT Open regular Matt Griffin will drive the second AF Corse entry and will be joined in the Ferrari F430 GT2 by rookie Jack Gerber from South Africa. The third car that will be run by AF Corse will be racing under a different banner, namely AT Racing. This Ferrari F430 GT will be driven Alexander Talkanitsa senior and junior, who raced in the FIA GT Championship back in 2008 with a Corvette C5-R.

Another Ferrari squad that confirmed its participation in the 2010 championship was Racing Team EdilCris. The Italian squad will enter one 2010-spec F430 GT2 for Raffaele Giammaria and Enrico Toccacelo.

In the GT3 category (GTS) Brinkmann Motorsport will make its debut in the series with an Audi R8 LMS. The team, which raced in the Dutch Supercar Challenge in recent years, will be entering the R8 LMS for Siebrand Dijkstra and Arjan van der Zwaan, the latter having raced in FIA GT in a Chrysler Viper GTS-R some years ago and more recently a Saleen S7R.

To end the International GT Open news here are the top times from the Barcelona test held in early March (credit: GT Sport). Two days of testing saw different weather conditions, sun on day one, rain on day two.

Best times of the two day session
1. Mullen/Niarchos – Ferrari F430 GT – CRS Racing – 1.47.828
2. Lietz/Roda – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR – Autorlando Sport – 1 :48.012
3. Peter/Broniszewski – Ferrari F430 GT – Kessel Racing – 1 :48.719
4. Hummel/Goodwin – Ferrari F430 GT – CRS Racing – 1.49.766
5. M.Venturi – Lamborghini Supertrofeo – Black Bull Swiss Racing – 1.51.107
6. A.Invernizzi – Lamborghini Supertrofeo – Black Bull Swiss Racing – 1.52.991
7. J.Diez Villaroel –Ferrari F430 GT – Team Icer – 1.53.30

Next week the International GT Open teams will have the chance to test at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.