GT Open
Elite Motorsport prepares for GT3 category debut in International GT Open
25 Sep. 2024 • 14:21
GT4 championship leading and race winning British team plans to race Ferrari 296 GT3 next year.
© Elite Motorsport
Current GT4 European Series Silver Teams’ leaders Elite Motorsport has purchased a Ferrari 296 GT3 to campaign in the 2025 International GT Open Championship. It will mark the first time Elite has raced a GT3 car, a Ferrari and contested the GT Open series.
The Norfolk-based team is eager to hear from Silver graded drivers who would be interested in racing the Ferrari 296 GT3 which produces in excess of 600 horsepower from its 2.9-litre engine.
The Eddie Ives led team quickly became synonymous with one-make, Ginetta racing since its formation at the end of 2011. Elite has won the Ginetta Junior Teams’ Championship three times (2018/19/22) and guided Tom Gamble (2017), Adam Smalley (2018), James Hedley (2019) and Tom Lebbon (2020) to the GJ Driver’s titles.
Additionally, Elite won the Ginetta GT5 Teams’ Championship in 2020/21/22 & Ginetta SuperCup championship with Harry King (2019) & Adam Smalley (2021).
In recent years, Elite has competed in the GB3 (from 2021) and GB4 (from 2022) single-seater Championships, winning numerous races in both, and over the past two years, expanded its activities to include successfully racing a McLaren Artura GT4 in the GT4 European and GT4 Winter Series, winning races outright in both championships.
Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering drivers Tom Lebbon and Josh Rattican head the Silver Driver GT4 European Series rankings having scored five overall podiums, including two wins, three pole-positions and two fastest race laps in the eight races staged to date this season.
“This new venture marks another big step for our team, Ed Ives said. GT3 racing is the obvious route forward for our existing drivers from all of the different categories that we currently participate in. I want to thank our team sponsor, Entire Race Engineering, for playing a big part in making this project possible.
"Our intention with the Ferrari is to take ‘Silver’ graded drivers into the Pro Class of the International GT Open Championship in 2025 with a view of gearing up for GT World Challenge Europe the following year.
"The Ferrari 296 has clearly been a leading GT3 car around the world this year. Ferrari has been exceptionally welcoming to us and we are very proud to be associating ourselves with the world-famous Prancing Horse brand.”
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