With this season’s summer break coming to an end, the GT4 South European Series resumes at the end of the week – August 30th – 31st – for its third round. The event will take place at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, Spain, where there will be remarkable additions.
THE THEATER
The Betano Portugal-sponsored championship continues its South-European journey and, after Nogaro in southern France, and Jarama, Madrid, Spain, will visit one of the most popular circuits in the world.
The Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya opened its doors in 1991, and since then it staged the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix. With its 4,655 kilometres and sixteen turns is considered to represent all the circuits that Formula 1 visits, making it the ideal testing track. During the winter months the Formula 1 teams will carry out testing on the circuit in nearby Barcelona to prepare their new single-seaters ahead of the new season.
However, the Spanish track isn’t just a Formula 1-devoted circuit and will host the third round of the GT4 South European Series next weekend. The championship will join the Barcelona 24 Hours race program, an event that continues to consolidate its position on the European racing scene.
THE RACING
Barcelona will bring the curtain down on the “Spanish Tour” of the series organized by Race Ready with the SRO Motorsport Group’s support and there will be plenty of interest – with numerous novelties and strong prospects of closely-fought battles.
In the Pro-Am Cup, the Madrid top contenders – the pairings of Miguel Cristóvão / Francisco Abreu with a Mercedes-AMG GT4 and Mariano Pires / César Machado at the wheel of a Ginetta G55 GT4 – will be head to head again, after they shared both wins at Jarama.
Veloso Motorsport duo leads the Drivers’ Standings, but they will be challenged again at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, with the ABM Grand Prix pair interested in trimming its deficit in the standings.
However, the two teams won’t be all alone, and they will have as contender the Generation AMR SuperRacing’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4, which will be shared by Mathew George and James Holder.
The team that took part in the GT4 European Series, in which stepped onto the podium, and in the Championnat de France FFSA GT – GT4 France comes to the GT4 South European Series to evaluate its 2020’s options, but it will not be merely aiming to make up the numbers and it will go to the track to maximize its opportunities on a well-known circuit.
Also in the mix for the Pro-Am Cup will be Mirage Racing, with an Alpine A110 GT4, who took part at the season-opening event of the racing series supported by Betano Portugal, at Nogaro. The French team is a full-season entry in the Championnat de France FFSA GT – GT4 France but it will cross the Pyrenees to enforce the Iberian Peninsula-based racing series.
Mirage Racing won’t be present just in the top cup, as it will also enter an Alpine A110 GT4 in the Am Cup, where it will face strong opposition.
Aston Martin will be also represented with a Vantage GT4 from the well-known Team Virage, who was in the mix at the Circuito del Jarama last June.
Carlos Barbot and Carlos Moreira da Silva will make their debut in the GT4 South European Series at the wheel of a Veloso Motorsport-run Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport, which will be the first Weissach-built car entering an event of the Race Ready-organized racing series.
KTM, with KTM España – the official importer for the Iberian Peninsula – will debut in the GT4 South European Series with two X-Bow GT4 cars entered in the Am Cup. Gabriela Correia and Francisco Carvalho will be one of the most exciting pairs, as they will form the first GT4 South European Series’ mixed gender driver line-up, who promises to be also competitive in the track.
In the GTC Cup, Marmaduke Hall and Edward Moore will continue at the wheel of the Tockwith Motorsport’s Ginetta G50 GT4. The young pair has been one of the surprises of the racing series, with results that put them on the front row for both Jarama’s races.
They will have the opposition from the Plemar Sport’s Ginetta G50 GT4, which will be shared by Juan Reina Martin and Lorenzo López. The Spanish pair currently sits third in the standings, seventeen points behind GTC Cup class leaders Marmaduke Hall / Edward Moore.
In the Teams’s standings, Veloso Motorsport leads with forty-seven points, with a fourteen-point advantage to Mirage Racing and fifteen to ABM Grand Prix.
Diogo Ferrão, Race Ready’s CEO, is pleased with the expectations created by the final round of the “Spanish Tour”: “I’m excited with the Barcelona weekend. We will be part of a great event, which will help us to leave our mark in the European racing scene. This was a hard event for us, as it is in the middle of the traditional European holiday season and clashes with the GT4 European season finale. However, we gathered an interesting and competitive field, which will allow us to have exciting races next Friday and Saturday”.
HOW TO WATCH
As usual, both races will be broadcasted live on the series’ social platforms. The first race will take place on Friday, August 30th, at 18h10 (GMT+1) and the second on Saturday, August 31st, 9h10 (GMT+1).