After a successful season-opener at the Ricard, the International GT Open heads to its second 2013 round and Portimão, in the Algarve, where it hopes to find … better weather! The Autódromo do Algarve has become a traditional fix in the calendar and one among the most appreciated tracks among drivers.

Around 30 cars will be expected in Portugal for a round valid also for the Spanish / Iber GT Championship. The official entry list will be published on Monday, but some interesting novelties can already be confirmed, while only two of the cars seen at the Ricard (the GPR Aston and the Ukraine Ferrari) not present, because of other commitments.

This round will mark the debut of Rinaldi Racing, the German team that will campaign for the entire season a Porsche 911 R GT3, entrusted to Russia’s Vadim Kogay and to Marco Seefried, who makes an appreciated return to the series.

More Porsches will appear as Spain’s Drivex is entering a second 911 RSR (in 2011-specs) in SuperGT and Autorlando Sport will be present with two GT3 cars, the second one containing a “heavy-weight” name in its driver line-up.

Esta Motorsports will be the second Russian team in the series, as it debuts with a Ferrari F458 GT3 for Aleksey Basov and GT star Alessandro Pier Guidi, while Kessel Racing enters an additional car for Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci, seen in the Winter Series.

Local fans will have an all-Portuguese outfit to cheer for, the Novadriver squad, whose Audi R8 LMS ultra will be in the safe hands of Manuel Gião-Lourenço da Veiga and César Campaniço-Carlos Vieira. From Spain are coming the Ginetta of Luis Villalba-Francesc Gutiérrez and the Mosler of Rafael Unzurrunzaga.

Source : International GT Open