Pulcini and Hites claim a win for Oregon Team in their GT Open debut

It was a sensational International GT Open debut for Oregon Team in Estoril, as Leonardo Pulcini and Benjamin Hites took the victory in the #63 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo and teammates Glenn Van Berlo-Kevin Gilardoni finished third. “We didn’t have the strongest race pace”, said the winners “but we managed well the race, the car and the strategy.”

A very close second were Nick Moss-Joe Osborne in the #72 Optimum Motorsport McLaren 720S, while the #18 Theeba Motorsport/SPS Mercedes AMG of Reema Juffali-Adam Christodoulou took an historic Pro-Am win, the first at international level of a Saudi female driver.

The victory was claimed in a dramatic, incident-filled 70 minute race, which came to a prolonged halt just four corners into the race. The #911 GetSpeed Mercedes of Steve Jans got loose at turn four – Curva VIP – and collected the #8 Il Barone Rampante Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Alex Frassineti, who in turn had a heavy impact with the barriers. The Lamborghini then came back across the track, and was collected by Stephen Earle (#11 Kessel Racing Ferrari) and Stanislaw Jedlinski (#5 Olimp Racing Ferrari).

This incident brought out a red flag, as the debris and damaged barriers were attended to. Frassineti sustained bruising to his foot, while the forces of the impact left Stephen Earle in pain. But fortunately, all drivers left their vehicles under their own steam and were cleared after checks at the medical center.

All four cars would retire from the race, as did the #786 Getspeed entry of Kiki Sak Nana; the Thai driver picked up some front end damage picking his way through the incident.

When the race returned to Green Flag conditions, David Fumanelli (#133 Kessel Racing Ferrari) entered a duel with Joe Osborne in the #72 Optimum McLaren. Fumanelli, in the PROAM entry, would hand over to Murat Cuhadaroglu during the pitstops. The pit window opened on lap 18, and Fumanelli would eventually pit on lap 24.

Cuhadaroglu, the AM driver, lost the overall lead during the pitstop phase. Nick Moss, who had taken over the Optimum McLaren, assumed the lead.

Moss would perform impressively in the early stages of his stint. However, a delay while lapping eventual AM class winner Omar Jackson saw the McLaren driver lose time, and minutes later, Benji Hites in the took his opportunity to pass at the Curva VIP. Moss would go off-track exiting the corner, bringing an end to his challenge for victory.

Eventually, Hites extended his lead to 10.446 seconds by the end of the race. Moss came home in second, while Glenn Van Berlo rounded out the overall podium in the #19 Lamborghini, rounding out a fabulous debut for Oregon Team.

In PROAM, Adam Christodolou and Reema Juffali claimed victory. Christodolou fought through the field admirably to claim the win, and avoided a spinning Laurent De Meeus (#55 AF Corse Ferrari) early in his stint. Axcil Jeffries battled his way to second in PROAM along with Romain Ziemian in the #73 Kessel Ferrari, while Marcin Jedlinski and Karol Basz rounded out the class podium in the #777 Olimp Racing Audi.

AM honours went to Omar Jackson and Charlie Hollings in the #77 Kessel Ferrari, beating Laurent De Meuus-Jamie Stanley in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari in the closing phases.

Qualifying for Sunday’s race two will begin at 09:00 local time, with the race itself set to start at 13:30.

The results are here