The International GT Open starts the 2023 season in style in Portugal

Ready to race again! The winter break and the long wait are over: the International GT Open is back to action and will again kick off in Portugal, but this time on the acclaimed Autódromo internacional do Algarve near Portimão. It will do it in style as the premises for the 2023 season could not be better. With 33 cars in the entry list for Round 1, of which 31 are full- season entries, the show promises to be of the highest level. Seven brands (Aston Martin, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes and Porsche) are represented at the moment, evenly spread in the three classes (Pro, Pro-Am, Am).

This season will mark the 18th edition of the International GT Open, but there is a more important milestone than the series’ coming of age to celebrate, as 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of GT Sport Organización. It was in 1999 that the Spanish GT Championship was launched by the Madrid-based organization and building on that experience, the International GT Open was established in 2006.

Jesús Pareja, CEO of GT Sport, admits: “It is hard to admit that twenty-five years have passed so quickly. I remember that once my driver career was over, I tried to get involved in a normal business life, but it didn’t last long... I missed the racing world! Becoming a promoter and organizer was more than a bet, a jump into the unknown, but here we are, twenty-five years later, organizing three series across Europe. Things worked well and I am grateful to all the people that made it possible, our participants, partners and the GT Sport staff, most of whom are with the organization since the early years.

There is no better way to mark this anniversary than seeing how good things look for the International GT Open this year. With 31 full-season entries, we are back to where we were before the economic slowdown and the horrible pandemic period. The GT3 racing market is in good health, for sure, but competition remains fierce and I am happy that we have been able to keep our core of contenders and attract many new teams and drivers, who trust our product, the organization and the friendly atmosphere of the series.”

Of the 18 teams present in Portugal, three (Greystone GT, Motopark and Baron Motorsport) will be on their first full campaign in the series and five more are absolute new entries: racing one, Eastalent-Racing, Lionspeed GP, Bonaldi Motorsport and Engstler Motorsport). A lot of new faces also among drivers, but also the appreciated return of two former champions and stars of the early days of the series, Richard Lietz and ‘evergreen’ Andrea Montermini.

Time, now, to review the field.

PRO: THE BIG BATTLEFIELD – Ten cars will be present in the top class, representing six brands and nine teams, for what promises to be a very competitive field. Reigning champions Oregon Team will defend their titles (Driver and Team) with their usual multicolored Lamborghinis and new, young line-ups: Pierre-Louis Chovet and Maximilian Paul will drive one car, with Pietro Perolini and Daan Arrow (the pseudonym now used by Daan Pijl) in the other.

SPS automotive performance is betting also on youth, entrusting its Mercedes AMG to Irishman Reece Barr and Mikaeel Pitamber from South Africa. The Mercedes camp includes also a top South American duo, Diego Menchaca-Marcos Siebert, defending the colors of Team Motopark, while Al Faisal Al Zubair-Fabian Schiller will drive in Portugal, the first of their three planned outings, the third car of Getspeed Performance, under the banner of Al Manar Racing.

One other team making the first of two programmed appearances is Engstler Motorsport, which launches a GT3 programme (managed by Manuel Reuter) alongside its successful presence in touring car racing. Luca Engstler and Dylan Yip will be at the wheel of the Audi R8 LMS of the German squad. Another Inglostadt racer is fielded by Eastalent-Racing, a new entry that joins from Germany with Simon Reicher and Audi Sport driver Christopher Haase.

Ferrari is represented in Pro by the AF Corse car of young Italian duo Nicola Marinangeli- Riccardo Agostini, while the McLaren 720S of Optimum Motorsport is back with a new line- up, composed of Britons Sam De Haan and Charlie Fagg. Last but not least, Porsche will bid at the title with one of its new Porsche 911R, fielded by another debuting team, Lionspeed GP, with NLS specialist Patrick Kolb and factory driver Richard Lietz. The Austrian, a Champion back in 2007, is making a welcome return to the series where his sensational career took off.

PRO-AM: EVEN MORE COMPETITIVE – Again, this will be the most well-attended class, with a great level of competition, involving four brands and 13 full-season entries.

Ferrari will be the best-represented maker and one 296, its last GT3 racer, will already be in action at the season-opener (others will join progressively), fielded by racing one, another debuting squad from Germany. Its line-up will be confirmed in the forthcoming hours.

The 488 delegation includes cars by well-known teams. Switzerland’s Kessel Racing enters Frédéric Jousset-David Fumanelli and Nicolò Rosi-Niccolò Schirò (the latter being a former Euroformula champion), while AF Corse also fields two cars, for Marco Pulcini-Eddie Cheever and Laurent De Meeus-Jamie Stanley.

Mercedes is also well-represented in this class. Reigning champions Marcin Jedliński-Karol Basz have switched to the AMG, one of the many cars in the stable of Poland’s Olimp Racing. On their side, Team GT will continue its growth path in the series with Alain Valente-Florian Scholze and so are also Dexter Müller-Yannick Mettler (3rd last year) at CBRX by SPS automotive performance, and Steve Jans-Axel Blom at Getspeed Performance.

Lamborghini is also part of the battle in Pro-Am thanks to the arrival of Bonaldi Motorsport. The well-known Italian squad makes its GT Open debut with a line-up with a strong Croatian and Serbian presence: in one car Sandro Mur is joined by Martin Kodrić, already a race winner in the series, while in the other Thailand’s Sanporn Jao-Javanil is associated with Miloš Pavlović.

Last but certainly not least, McLaren will have two 720S in the class, as Greystone GT doubles its presence, with Andrew Gilbert-Fran Rueda being joined by the father-and-son pair of Stewart and Lewis Proctor.

AM: THE GENTLEMEN ARE WELL PRESENT – With 10 cars full-season, in representation of four brands and eight different teams, variety and competition is ensured also in the Am class.

The Prancing Horse and the Star are again present in force. The Ferrari camp includes cars from racing one, with the German duo Stefan Aust-Jakob Schell, while Baron Motorsport is back with Ernst Kirchmayr-Philipp Baron after the positive exploration of last year, and the faithful Olimp Racing pair of Stanislaw Jedliński-Krystian Korzeniowski, is ready for another season. AF Corse will have three cars, for Alessandro Cozzi-Giorgio Sarnagiotto, Americans Jean-Claude Saada-Conrad Grunewald and Gino Forgione-Andrea Montermini. The veteran Italian is the other champion, and a double one, back to this series this year.

The Mercedes camp sees the return of the popular Getspeed Performance pair composed of team boss Adam Osieka and Thai star Kiki Sak Nana, who came vice champions last year, while another team boss, Timo Rumpfkeil of Motopark, will share an AMG with Heiko Neumann, after having tasted the series last year.

The AM class will see again in action the sole Aston Martin Vantage on the grid, in a new arty livery, always thanks to Belgium’s Street-Art Racing, with Jahid Fazal Karim-Pascal Bachmann at the wheel, while faithful Giuseppe Cipriani is also back for another season, at the wheel of the Lamborghini of Il Barone rampante.

As customary, the other series by GT Sport will also start the season at Portimão: the GT Cup Europe will bring more GT excitement, with a grid extended in numbers and variety, while the Euroformula Open, more and more established as a key ladder in the formulae pyramid, will bring the excitement of single-seaters to Lusitanian fans. Those will have the opportunity to enjoy also top touring car excitement, thanks to the TCR Europe. The event will also mark the kick-off of the Kumho TCR World Tour, the series of events that will see in action the best touring car teams and drivers of the world. The rich race programme also includes the magic of classic car racing thanks to the local CPV series.