The second round of the International GT Open 2012 will take teams and drivers to one of the most exciting motorsports venues in Europe, the Nürburgring. After one year of absence, the series is back to the Eifel hills for one of its most appreciated rounds.

Following a thrilling start of the season in the Algarve, the duel between Porsche and Ferrari will continue in Germany. Marco Holzer and Nick Tandy took a double win for Stuttgart and the Manthey Racing in the season- opener and the top Ferraris of AF Corse, aabar Villorba, Kessel Racing and Black Team will certainly seek revenge on German soil. In the Porsche camp, Manthey Racing, which has it base at the Nürburgring itself (and is this weekend racing the prestigious 24 Hours which he has won five times) will of course be “at home” and lead the Porsche representation together with IMSA Performance and Drivex. The Villois Racing Aston Martin and the Lotus Evoira will again be serious outsiders. In the GTS category, with one win each for AF Corse and Autorlando Sport, Ferrari and Porsche are on an equal foot.

The official entry list will be released next Monday, but a number of additions to the grid have already confirmed. First of all, this second round will mark the debut of arrival of another great sportscar constructor, Maserati, to the GTS category thanks to the MC3, a GT3 car developed by the Swiss Team of Guido Bonfiglio on the base of the car that competed in the Superstars last year. The Helvetic team is entrusting its creation to a high-level pair, composed of Alessandro Pier Guidi (a vice-champion of the GT open in 2006) and Gabriele Gardel.

The German round will also see the debut of a new German team, Lapidus Racing, led by Andreas Möntmann, with a McLaren MP4 12C for Adam Christodoulou and Klaas Hummel, also familiar to the GT Open, where they competed in 2010. Finally, a regular contender in the last two seasons (and winner of one of the Winter Series races at the Paul Ricard earlier in March) is also joining from this round onwards: the Porsche 911 R of Austrian Race Team Deboeuf, with its regular pair, Thomas Gruber-Marco Seefried.

There is also another key development to report in the area of TV coverage, as from now on the GT Open will be broadcast live/delayed live in Germany by Sport 1 (on its Sport 1 and/or Sport 1+ platforms, according to the events), an agreement that further enhances the excellent TV coverage of the series.
As usual, the European F3 Open and the FIA Formula 2 partner with the GT Open for the Nürburgring round, together with other series included in the Euro Race program by the AvD.

Source : International GT Open