Target Racing dominates Nürburgring weekend with double victory

Target Racing claimed both race victories in a dramatic fourth round of the 2025 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season at the Nürburgring. Solo driver Guido Luchetti passed two cars late on to take his first-ever victory in cars, while a bold strategic call to start the damp second race on slicks gave Giacomo Pedrini and Patrik Fraboni their first overall win of the year.

The returning Micánek Motorsport squad took Pro-Am victory in race one with Štefan Rosina and Bronislav Formánek, while Renaud Kuppens and Hugo Bac won race two for Boutsen VDS. Pietro Perolini and Massimo Ciglia (Oregon Team) claimed a clean sweep of Am wins as Karim Ojjeh did likewise in Lamborghini Cup for Rexal Villorba Corse.

Luchetti takes emotional first victory; Fraboni-Pedrini gamble pays off

From second on the grid and pole in the Pro class, Luchetti maintained position off the rolling start behind Georgi Dimitrov’s Pro-Am #13 CMR Huracán which led overall. Behind, the interloping Riccardo Ianniello (#6 VSR) took third at the end of the opening lap after a late lunge on Pedrini (#9 Target Racing). Luchetti established a healthy margin over Jerzy Spinkiewicz (Uniq Racing), who subsequently fell behind the Pro-Am car of Luca Segù (#72 DL Racing) to fourth overall.

Luchetti remained in charge after the pit-stops and overtook Dimitrov’s team-mate Stéphan Guerin at turn one. He then attempted to pass Segù’s Pro-Am leading team-mate Locanto at turn eight but made contact which forced Locanto briefly through the gravel. Luchetti received a five-second penalty for the incident, but such was his dominance in the second stint that he was able to claim his first-ever victory in motorsport. Josef Knopp and Enzo Geraci (#36 Oregon Team) charged through from sixth on the Pro grid to extend their championship lead with second place. Geraci swapped with Knopp at the stops and passed Adam Putera (#6 VSR) with a late dive at turn one. That left Putera vulnerable to a large train of cars including Fraboni, Benedetto Strignano (#15 Rexal Villorba Corse), Silas Lovén Rytter (#99 Leipert Motorsport) and Spinkiewicz, the latter recovering after losing time during the pit window. Strignano brilliantly passed both Fraboni and Putera in two corners to take third before the race was red flagged after contact between Locanto and Rytter at turn one following the FCY restart left both stranded on the track.

Sunday’s second race was a damp affair, with the majority of crews electing to start on wet tyres. Of those who chose to gamble on slicks was race one winner Luchetti, who went too deep under braking for turn one from second on the grid and dropped towards the back of the field. The sister Target Racing car of Fraboni and Pedrini also took early pain after starting on slicks, slipping outside of the top 20. But the #9 soon found its feet on a rapidly drying circuit, with Fraboni charging up the order in impressive fashion.

The 16-year-old made easy work of more experienced crews around him, passing Rytter, Pretorius and Geraci to run second before catching and passing race leader Egor Orudzhev, whose #12 Art-Line Pro-Am Huracán was beginning to struggle on wet tyres midway through the pit-stop window. Pedrini took over from Fraboni and held a 12-second margin over Luchetti, who had made equally strong progress, in the second stint. The #9 stayed out of trouble and came home to record its first overall victory of the season and second Pro success, while Luchetti made it a Target Racing one-two. Geraci and Knopp completed a positive weekend with another podium in third.

Rosina-Formánek take comeback victory as Bac-Kuppens open 2025 account

Dimitrov topped opening qualifying by a mere one-hundredth of a second and raced to an early overall lead with Luchetti keeping chase in second. The Pro-Am leader maintained his advantage before the pit window opened, despite being held up by two lapped cars towards the end of his stint. After changing with Guerin, the #13 CMR Huracán dropped to second in class and third overall behind Luchetti but moved back into the lead following Luchetti’s incident with Locanto at turn eight.

Unfortunately for Guerin and Dimitrov, their run of consecutive finishes came to an end after contact with another car left him in the gravel at turn five. The resulting FCY neutralised the field, with Rosina and Formánek claiming victory on their return to the championship from Art-Line’s Orudzhev and Shota Abkhazava. Kuppens and Bac (#2 Boutsen VDS) completed the podium in third, while Dimitrov and Guerin were classified in seventh.

With clear air ahead of him, Orudzhev held onto his advantage at the head of the field, with BDR Competition’s Dimitri Enjalbert initially running second before losing out to the slick-shod Renaud Kuppens (#2 Boutsen VDS). Along with fourth placed Pavlović, all three crews remained inside the top 10 and within striking distance of Orudzhev throughout the first stint. As the track dried out, Orudzhev began to struggle and pitted at the start of the window as Kuppens surged past into the class lead.

Frenchman Bac took over at the wheel of the #2 Huracán and remained in charge in a superb fourth place overall. Behind, the likely victory challenger Nahra, who had swapped with Enjalbert, saw his hopes dashed after receiving a 20-second penalty for a short pit-stop. That promoted Abkhazava and Orudzhev to second with Dimitrov and Guerin limiting the damage of their race one retirement with third.

Perolini-Ciglia close on points lead with weekend sweep

Off the start, Stéphane Lemeret (#27 CMR) held onto the lead as the field negotiated turn one, despite dropping four places to 10th from his impressive qualifying performance. Ciglia (#61 Oregon Team) maintained second place ahead of Paolo Biglieri (#32 ASR), but the latter dropped down the order after a spin at turn three on the second lap. He continued but, after swapping with newcomer Henri Tuomaala, could only managed sixth in class at the finish. Lemeret then swapped over with Rodrigue Gillion who kept the #27 car in the lead, only to come under pressure and eventually fall behind both Perolini – who took over from Ciglia – and Stéphane Tribaudini (#66 VSR) to third at the end. Just off the podium was the Rexal Villorba Corse duo of Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Mineki Okura; the Japanese pairing ran as high as third prior to the pit window but fell back in the second stint.

In race two, Perolini made the most of an exceptional start to catapult 11 places to run as high as third overall before dropping back to 10th. He kept the #61 Huracán in the class lead for the duration of the opening stint, one place ahead of VSR’s Tribaudini before handing over to team-mate Ciglia. The battle remained closely fought after the mandatory pit-stops, with Randazzo just over two seconds in arrears. However, a late-race incident between Randazzo and Lamborghini Cup leader Ojjeh dropped the former out of contention, and enabled Biglieri and Tuomaala to inherit second, with Hamaguchi and Okura (#76 Rexal Villorba Corse) completing the podium.

Ojjeh at the double to take control of Lamborghini Cup

With just eight points covering the top six crews in the standings, it was all to play for in LB Cup. Polesitter Karim Ojjeh (#7 Rexal Villorba Corse) maintained his lead early on, with Leipert Motorsport’s Gerhard Watzinger chasing hard in second.

Local driver Holger Harmsen made good initial progress, leaping three places to third before spinning by himself at turn three on the third lap. Like Biglieri in the Am class, Harmsen got going again but was out of contention, eventually finishing seventh. Meanwhile, it was a Villorba Corse one-two as Claude-Yves Gosselin moved up to second. The order remained that way after the pit window closed, with Ojjeh increasing his points lead with a fourth win of the season. Gosselin finished second, ahead of Adalberto Baptista (#14 Oregon Team) who battled past Donovan Privitelio for third late in the race. Watzinger’s race unravelled early on following a spin and then a trip into the turn one gravel trap. The American driver got back on track but retired for good soon after.

Ojjeh got the better of polesitter Watzinger at the start of the second race, while Harmsen made significant progress from eighth on the grid to run third in the early going. Having driven away from the competition in Saturday’s opener, Ojjeh maintained his dominance of the weekend either side of the pit window, and even bounced back from a late-race spin which looked to have scuppered his chances to catch and pass Philip Tang to secure back-to-back victories. Tang recorded his best finish to date in Super Trofeo Europe, with Harmsen just losing out to Gosselin in the closing stages.

Quotes

Guido Luchetti, race one winner (#10 Target Racing) “Finally, a victory has arrived that had already narrowly eluded me several times this year. The race was perfect; I managed to consistently set a good pace, maintaining maximum concentration from start to finish. I tried as hard as possible to stay out of trouble, despite that contact [with Locanto] and the resulting penalty. I'm happy with this success, both for myself and for my team.”

Patrik Fraboni (#9 Target Racing) race two winner: “It was not easy with the slick tyres at the start because the track was not completely wet, and I went a bit deep under braking for turn one. I lost quite a lot of positions but thankfully not too many and we were able to recover. We are very happy with the result, it’s good for the championship but we want to keep on pushing at the next round.”

Team-mate Giacomo Pedrini (#9 Target Racing): “I was a little bit nervous in the second stint, because Patrik had done an incredible job already. The track was dry so I knew I could push but I had a lot of responsibility on me to bring the car home for the victory. The gap was quite big, but Guido was really fast, so it was not easy. Overall, it has been a great weekend for Target Racing too, winning both races so we are really proud.”

Results are HERE