It’s time for the International GT Open to take the track again and head to one of its most appreciated summer rounds: the Hungaroring. The event on the outskirts of Budapest is always the best-attended by fans, and the warm atmosphere and the proximity to the beautiful capital city of Hungary make this round one of the most appreciated by contenders.
All these ingredients are present this year, and the forecast remission of the heat wave that has hit Europe recently is also good news. Last year, the GT Open inaugurated the magnificent new venues of the track, which are now fully completed. Race fans will enjoy an exceptional race programme, which, besides the GT Open, includes a lot of single-seater action, with the presence of the Euroformula Open, the FREC and the GB3, and spectacular touring car action thanks to the TCR Europe. Also heating up is the fight at the top of all the GT Open standings, as 28 cars head to Hungary.
PRO: A FOUR-CAR BRAND FIGHT FOR THE TITLE
At the top of the overall standings, things are very open and broadening. With their double success at Misano, in the championship’s first visit ever to the track on the Adriatic, Tom Emson and Tom Lebbon have punched the table. The two young Brits, at the wheel of the Elite Motorsport yellow Ferrari 296, are now leading the standings, sixteen points ahead of the Motopark Mercedes AMG of Christian Mansell and Maxi Götz, who are certainly eager to reduce the gap.
Third in contention, 17 points from the top, is the Greystone GT McLaren 720S of Zac Meakin and Dean Macdonald, another fast British pair, while the winners of the season-opening race in Portugal, Pietro Armanni and Alex Fontana, aboard the ZRS Motorsport Porsche 911R, have certainly not said their last word.
Still, the 8-car Pro class field for Hungary contains more potential race winners. The Villorba Corse Lamborghini Huracan of Leonardo Moncini and Rodrigo Testa has shown very good things so far and is ready for a maiden win, while the Ferrari camp can also count on the AF Corse cars of Rafael Durán-Tommaso Mosca and Yaroslav Veselaho-Thomas Neubauer, and Mercedes has a second representative in the Motopark car of Marcelo Ramírez-Dominik Baumann.
PRO-AM: CHASING THE LEADING PORSCHE
In the always competitive and well-attended Pro-Am class, which will see 11 cars on track in Hungary, the situation at the top is clearer, at least for the moment. Alexander Fach, at the wheel of the Porsche of Fach Auto Tech, enjoys a 20-point lead, thanks to four wins in five events. At the Hungaroring, the young Swiss is joined again by Alexander Schwarzer, who is not on equal points having missed the Spa round. Back is also the main challenger, the Blackthorn Aston Martin of Charlie Bateman, associated on this occasion with young star Kobe Pauwels from Belgium, who debuts in the series.
The top quartet in the class also includes the stalwart Olimp Racing Ferrari of Marcin Jedlinski-Karol Basz, always to be taken into account, and the always competitive Audi R8 LMS of Saintéloc Racing, with Michaël Blanchemain and Jim Pla at the wheel.
Another Audi always at the forefront is the car of ISR Racing and Libor Milota-Filip Salaquarda. For the Czech outfit, as for the many Polish contenders present this year, this is of course the closest thing to ‘home race’, with many friends and fans visiting. This is the case of PTT Racing, which enters a BMW M4, entrusted to Hubert Darmetko nd Fabian Dybionka.
Ferrari is present in the class with two cars, the AF Corse machine of Laurent De Meeus-Vincent Abril and the Into Africa Racing by Dragon unit of Xlile Letlaka-Stuart White, and so is McLaren, which can count on the Trackfocused car of the Kell family and Greystone GT’s second car for Andrey Borodin-Oliver Webb.
Last but certainly not least, the sole Mercedes in the class is the CBRX by SPS car of Swiss duo Dexter Müller-Yannick Müller, a protagonist Pro-Am pair for many years.
AM: A TIE AT THE TOP
The Am class is particularly closely fought and well attended this season, and there will be 9 cars entered in Hungary, where it arrives with a tie at the top of the standings. Joel Monegro, the racer from the Dominican Republic, in the Fach Auto Tech Porsche, is the surprise of the year and has two race wins to his credit. He is tied up on 44 points with the father-and-son pair from Poland, Andrzej and Adrian Lewandowski, in the Baron Motorsport Ferrari, winners of one race.
A close third, eight points behind, is the other Ferrari, entered by AF Corse, of Brazilians Marcelo Hahn and Galid Osman, also winners of one race, while not far behind is the GoodSpeed Racing of Piotr Wira and Tomasz Magdziarz, who took their first success in Misano.
More Poles are present in the class, with Stanislaw Jedlinski and Krystian Korzeniowski in the Olimp Racing Ferrari, and Seweryn Mazur in the Sendom Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan. The third Bronze driver racing solo is Mexico’s Alfredo Hernández in the Grupo Prom RT Mercedes.
Two new entries will appear in Hungary. Gamota Racing, a newly-created Slovak squad, is entering a BMW M4 for Antal Zsigo and Csaba Walter, two gentlemen regularly seen at this event in the past, while AF Corse is bringing a 296 for one of its pairs in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, featuring American racer Rey Acosta and GT specialist Marco Bonanomi.
