News and Vallelunga 6hrs with Porsche 997 GT3 RS preview

Dear Friends,

I am back after a few sabbatical months from my last race in Silverstone where with the Ferrari 458 GT3 of team Mtech. I managed to do a very good Qualifying that placed me in provisory Pole. I than decided to save the tires and did not go for other laps making me slide down to 6th on gird 1 second off Federico Leo's pole.

No need to mention my disappointment for not having been more on track to try and improve my time but the beauty of racing is made of it's Intensity and one wrong decision often costs more than you can think of.

Anyhow the races where not as good as we expected and in race one after a too conservative start I managed to climb a few places passing 2 Mercedes SL and catching the BMW Z4. But at our pit stop a slow release from the team made us lose 20 seconds that costed me and my teammate Lyons a possible 3rd place, placing us 10th overall, big disappointment for me and also end of the season as

On Sunday's race our luck was hit even more heavily by a harsh move from the BMW Z4 driven by Mrs Hurtgen that hit at the COPS turn our car driven by Lyons and making him badly crash into the barriers.

Even if she was than excluded from the race and received a 5 position penalty for the next race we had to say goodbye to our podium expectations and my season with MTECH was mutually agreed to end there.

Now this week-end I am due to race in the Vallelunga 6hrs, my first Race there since 1993 when I raced with Formula Europa Boxer, in a Autorlando Porsche GT3 997 R together with my buddy Paolo Ruberti and long time Porsche expert Marco Spinelli.

The competition is going to be fierce as Ferrari F1 Factory driver Fisichella will be there racing with Lorenzo case, last year teammate at Racing Box for the Silverstone leg, and other stars from the European GT crowds are all going to fight for what is now called Gran Premio di Roma as is supported by the local administration. There will be plenty of Porsches, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's and everyone of the 40+ car packed field is going to race for the 6hrs race to cross the chequred flag first.

Let's see what new experience with a new team and car brings, the year was not a lucky and we definitely want to end on a good note!

See you at Vallelunga this Sunday with race starting from 930 am to 1530 ( live on Nuvolari TV).

Luca