Nova Race Hondas ready to enter GT3 showcase series

In 2023 Nova Race will join the top international GT series full-time with a pair of NSX GT3 Evo 2 Hondas, the Varese-Italy-based Team Manager Christian Pescatori confirmed today. "I am very proud to announce that this year Nova Race will participate in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Sprint with two cars: one will be driven by Leonardo Moncini and Jacopo Guidetti, the other car by Erwin Zanotti and Diego Di Fabio," Pescatori said.

Guidetti, Moncini have raced together in 2022 winning the Italian GT Sprint Championship, and their young age --a trait shared by their team mates Zanotti, Di Fabio-- is an asset according to the former Sportscar driver: "We're aware this will be a difficult journey, given that we will participate to the full schedule and we know all too well that it will be a very, very demanding season. We'll take it on with a lot of humility, but above all poised to give all we have to prove we belong. I am really keen that we have onbard four very young Italian drivers who will be in their maiden Fanatec GT season after proving their worth in our cars in the national series. And so I'm very pleased to give them and all of us this opportunity to make our mark in the most important GT3 championship in Europe."

This year Nova Race raises the level of its learning curve plan: since it's brought the JAS Motorsport-built cars under its roof, the Japanese cars have been engaged with increasing success in the domestic series over the past two years, also sweeping the titles available in the 2022 Italian Sprint series. This harvest set the stage for the new adventure of the team owned by entrepreneur and race weekend warrior Luca Magnoni.

Created in 2016 alongside the established endurance championship to which the industry has decades-old links, the SRO-run Sprint series boasts 32 top-level crews at the wheel of GT3 cars from 10 different marques that will compete for every available point in two double races spread over five weekends at some of Europe's most beautiful tracks. Misano World Circuit will host the lone Italian leg, on July 15 and 16.

Next week on March 7 and 8, the quartet of Italian young guns and their orange-liveried Hondas will travel to Circuit Paul Ricard, in Southern France, for test days that officially kick off a calendar that will award the first victories in England, at the scenic Brands Hatch venue, on May 14 and 15.

DRIVERS' QUOTES

JACOPO GUIDETTI (Nova Race driver): "I'm really looking forward to getting started, and I'm happy to share the wheel with Leonardo [Moncini] again because we hit it off right away and we have some pretty good GT3 results under our belts. The tracks on our schedule are really motivating and the same goes for the new challenge. It's nice for me to be able to continue for the fourth straight season with Honda, I am keen to keep this project going and I feel quite committed to both Nova Race and JAS Motorsport. We are doing a great job, the car in my opinion will be competitive, although we will have to put in some mileage. Battle-hardened teams await us and also challenging will be to figure out how we stack up against the series' factory drivers, starting with 2023 Test Days in France. We know very little about the track, but we will give our best to come out well from this showdown.”

LEONARDO MONCINI (Nova Race Driver): "This year we will be racing in a championship which definitely stands out as the most prestigious and difficult in Europe and maybe even in the world as far as GT3s are concerned; actually forget "maybe", after all drivers from all over the world bend over backwards to be part of the series. There is no question it's going to be a challenge and it will be interesting to see how we position ourselves. For us I guess especially the first few races will be quite complicated, since we have no experience at any track on the calendar except Misano Adriatico. And I mean both drivers and team, on top of that there are a few tracks where the car has not yet raced. But it will be an additional incentive to give even more to improve quickly."

DIEGO DI FABIO (Nova Race driver): "I am really pumped up for this new season, and I am especially craving to discover new tracks. I never had any driving before at venues outside of Italy, so I can't wait to get started. The tracks that this series will face are awesome: the first one we will take on to kick off the season, Brands Hatch, is very old-fashioned and I definitely like the atmosphere the Kentish track is made of, especially if you sit in a GT3 cockpit. The Paul Ricard test will be important to knock off some of the rust and resume work with the team as best we can. It will also be important to learn to get used to working together, Erwin Zanotti and me. I hope that during the year we can grow, both as drivers and as group as well, as the team also switches to a completely different backdrop from the Italian Championship we're used to."

ERWIN ZANOTTI (Nova Race Honda driver): "I am stoked to take on the 2023 Fanatec GT season by returning with the team I got acquainted with in our domestic GT3 series back in 2021. I am very satisfied with the first tests with our car and also with the feeling that is already being created with my new team mate Diego Di Fabio. Expectations for the forthcoming season are high: we are poised to give our best, which we will certainly succeed in doing, and to get good results on top of that. I can't wait for the new season to begin, and fortunately the waiting time is dwindling as Paul Ricard Test Days are around the corner."