The International GT Open is crossing the Channel for its third round of the 2015 season, to be held at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix. The fast and iconic circuit in Nothamptonshire is hosting the GT Open for the third consecutive year, but the series has a longer bond with Great Britain, having also visited in the past Brands Hatch and Donington Park.
British fans, among the most connoisseurs in the world, will have the opportunity to enjoy a very close fight, as the title battle is particularly close this year. Michele Rugolo and Pasin Lathouras are the current leaders but with the narrowest possible margin, 1 point. The AF Corse Ferrari pair formed by the well-known Italian GT driver and the raising GT star from Thailand have as main rival a British car, the McLaren 650S of Teo Martín Motorsport, driven by a pair of acclaimed Portuguese drivers, Álvaro Parente and Miguel Ramos.
No doubt that while the duel between the two leading pairs is going to be extremely hot, with Ramos-Parente certainly eager to clinch their first win of the season, the two front-running duos will not be alone. Alessandro Balzan-Nicola Benucci, the Villorba Corse pair, and Raffaele Giammaria-Ezequiel Companc, racing for AF Corse, are also in the race, while the Argentine pair of Baporo Motorsport, Emiliano López-Matías Russo, has also joined the club of race winners after their stunning performance at Estoril. Not to forget the AERT Lamborghini Gallardo of Anton Nebylitskiy-Álvaro Barba, more competitive at every outing.
British fans can hope for the best, as their national colors will be very well defended by long-time GT Open contenders Duncan Cameron-Matt Griffin, who will seek for a fourth race win in the series with their AF Corse Ferrari, and Phil Keen- Shaun Balfe (Balfe Motorsport Ferrari), who impressed everybody at Estoril by taking one pole and a superb podium finish in Portugal.
In the GT-Am class, Claudio Sdanewitsch-Ilya Melnikov (AF Corse) will try to extend their lead on Filipe Barreiros, this time associated with Denmark’s Mads Rasmussen, and the Sports&You Mercedes, entrusted here to a new Portuguese pair, Manuel Da Costa-Miguel Sardinha.
At Silverstone, the International GT Open will inaugurate its new championship format, which from now on will see in action also Cup and Challenge cars, which will have their own competition, the GT Open Cup, within the series. The first confirmed entries to the Cup will allow fans to enjoy a very interesting machine, the Radical RXC V8, the “coupé” version of the British racer, powered by a 480-hp 3 liter V8 engine. A number of these very interesting cars will be on track. Spanish GT enthusiast Rafael Unzurrunzaga will make his come-back in the series with one of these cars, while another will be entrusted Roger Green and Radical’s MD Phil Abbott.
Partnering with the GT Open in the rich racing programme of the weekend are the Euroformula Open, the SEAT León Eurocup and different Radical-based series: the European Master, the SR1 Cup and the Enduro Championship.