FIA GT Championship and European Ferrari Challenge at Silverstone
The English Silverstone circuit is this weekend hosting the
opening rounds of this year’s FIA GT Championship and
the European Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy series.
In the Grand Touring event, the GT2 class is particularly
popular, and it also sees the debut of the Maranello marque’s
F430 GTC, up against the Porsche, Nissan and Panoz cars. The
Ferraris are entered by the AF Corse team (crewed by Salo/Aguas
and Bobbi/Melo,) Scuderia Ecosse (Kinch/Kirkaldy and Niarchos/Mullen)
and JMB Racing (Sugden/Alexander-David and Kutemann/Gosse.)
There is a record number of entrants for the Prancing Horse
one-make series, which also features the Shell Cup category
for gentlemen drivers and features the new F430 Challenge
car, alongside some 360 Modenas which are in their final year
of competition. There are over fifty cars entered with drivers
from no less than fourteen countries. Ireland’s Michael
Cullen (Rossocorsa) will be out to defend his continental
title from 2005 in the main class, while also worthy of note
is the presence of two lady drivers, the Spaniard Maria de
Villota (Baron Service) and France’s Carine Sicart (Ferrari
West Europe.)
The event gets underway tomorrow, Saturday 6th May, with
qualifying for the FIA GT and the first events in the Challenge.
The European Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy will get ample
coverage on the television magazine programme ‘’Ferrari
Racing,’’ which goes out internationally, starting
in June. The Silverstone weekend is also being covered by
host broadcasters, Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London, as well
as a network of sixty local UK radio stations which will cover
the entire season for the European one-make series.
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