After a very entertaining season-opener at the Algarve, the 2025 International GT Open is heading North for another exciting Round 2: it’s Spa-Francorchamps, the magnificent track in the Belgian Ardennes, to host it, and it will be the first of the two GT Open 500 races on the calendar. This is the third year that the event in Belgium will be run on an endurance format (one single race of 500 km), and the successful introduction last year led to turning also the season-closer at Monza into a GT Open 500.
Thirty-one cars are entered in Spa, with some interesting additions, and an even closer fight is expected, as the Belgian track will certainly be more favourable to high-power cars.
PRO CLASS: YOUTH IS TAKING THE POWER
At Portimão, the Team Motopark Mercedes of Levente Révész-Matteo Cairoli and the Greystone GT McLaren of James Kell-Dean Macdonald shared the wins and took an additional podium finish, second and third, respectively. Hence, the very small gap (3 points) in the overall standings is in favour of the former. In third position, five points from the top, the Eastalent Racing Audi of the reigning champions, Simon Reicher-Christopher Haase, which took a second as best result.
With 12 cars entered, the top class includes many other candidates to victory, starting with the two pairs of British young guns that have already visited the podium in Portugal. Those are Michael Porter and Zac Meakin in the Optimum Motorsport McLaren and the two Toms, Emson and Lebbon, at the wheel of the Ferrari 296 entered by Elite Motorsport.
The GetSpeed pair composed of Anthony Bartone and Fabian Schiller also have already one podium finish under their belt, with the German squad fielding a second pair, Marcelo Ramírez-Ralf Aron. Team Motopark also has a second AMG in the class, for Robert Viseiu- Niklas Krütten, and the Stuttgart delegation completes the car of BDR Grupo Prom, racing at home with Amaury Bonduel-Luis Michael Dörrbecker.
The Lamborghini Huracans are seeking to shine after a somewhat slow start to the season: Oregon Team is well-armed with its two young pairs, Antoine Doquin-Artem Petrov and Robin Rogalski-Filip Ugran. So is the Ferrari camp, with AF Corse fielding one 296 in the class for more young talent, Carl Bennett-Tommaso Mosca.
PRO-AM: A CORVETTE JOINS THE ARDENNES BATTLE
The Pro-Am class continues to be the best-attended one (15 cars) and the most closely fought. It will host the three new entries of this round.
A Corvette Z06 R will make its first appearance in the series, thanks to Malaysian squad Johor Motorsport Racing, which will be making a one-off appearance at Spa as it did last year with a different car and operation. At the wheel, Prince Jefri Ibrahim is joined this year by his brother Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim.
On their side, Germany’s Rinaldi Racing, a familiar presence in the series in the past, will make its return to the GT Open with a Ferrari 296 for Christian Hook and Felipe Fernandez-Laser.
Another faithful contender, Baron Motorsport, had to withdraw from Round 1 because of a logistical delay. Their brand new Ferrari 296 has now arrived and the Austrian outfit will make its seasonal debut with Irani Masoud Jeberian and Italy’s Edoardo Bacci.
At the top of the class standings, there is a tie, as both Valentin Pierburg-Dominik Baumann in one of the Mercedes of SPS automotive performance, and ‘Hash’-Alex Fontana in the Porsche of Car Collection took a win and a second in Portugal. Eight points behind them, there is another tie for third, between the Mercedes of Steve Jans-Aaron Walker (GetSpeed) and Heiko Neumann-Lukas Dunner (Motopark). The large Mercedes delegation is completed by the other SPS car of Dexter Müller-Yannick Mettler and the Vimana by GetSpeed car of Ameerh Naran-Tom Jackson, while the other Porsche in the class is the one of Tsunami RT for Johannes Ziegler-Fabio Babini.
Two Audi R8 LMS are present in the class, with Czech outfit Team ISR fielding Libor Milota-Filip Salaquarda and France’s Saintéloc Racing contesting their first full season with Michael Blanchemain-Marcus Påverud.
The Ferrari representation includes four cars. On top of the already mentioned 296 of Baron Motorsport, Poland’s Olimp Racing is entering, as customary, its former class champion pair, Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz, while at AF Corse, Laurent De Meeus, racing on home soil, will this time be associated again with Jamie Stanley. The last Cavallino to be mentioned is the 488 entered by Mertel Motorsport, new to the series this year, which from Spa onwards brings back to the series one of the ‘GT Open icons’, as the new teammate of Luca Ludwig from Spa onwards will be Andrea Montermini, a former double champion and a race wins co-record-holder, together with Miguel Ramos. Interestingly enough, GT Open’s top legends are back in the series this year!
AM: THE GENTLEMEN READY FOR THE LONG RACE
Talking about Miguel Ramos, his comeback was punctuated by a class win at home in Portugal. He and his teammate Mark Sansom in the McLaren entered by Garage 59 are leading the class standings, but only two points ahead of the other race winners at the season-opener, Gino Forgione-Michele Rugolo in one of the Ferrari 296s by AF Corse.
At Spa, the opposition will come from GT Open regulars Stanislaw Jedlinski-Krystian Korzeniowski, in the other Ferrari 296 by Olimp Racing, and the Mercedes AMG by BDR Grupo Prom fielded for Mexico’s Alfredo Hernández, who for this endurance race will have as teammate GT expert Stéphane Tribaudini from France.