The Autodromo Piero Taruffi of Vallelunga hosts the third round of the Italian Gran Turismo Endurance Championship this weekend. After the long summer break and the Monza and Misano events, the Rome meeting opens the second part of a season that will be wrapped up in less than a month. Five Ferraris will take part in the GT3 class, two in the GT3 Pro category and three in the GT3 Pro-Am, while this round will also see a 458 Italia GT3 compete in the GT Light.
GT3. There is very little to separate the crews, with the Easy Race guys just five points behind the leaders. Marco Cioci and Lorenzo Veglia will be partnered by Alessandro Balzan, a well-known face in the Italian series. In the Pro class, Giancarlo Fisichella, Stefano Gai and Jacques Villeneuve are looking for their first win of the season in the 488 GT3 of Scuderia Baldini 27. Among the Pro-Am crews, the German team Rinaldi Racing makes its series debut, entrusting its Ferrari to the Russians Rinat Salikhov, Denis Bulatov and the South African David Perel, the latter previously appearing in the 2015 season of the Italian championship. The RS Racing and AF Corse cars, crewed by Di Amato-Vezzoni and Mann-Cressoni-Nielsen respectively, will once again be on track.
GT LIGHT. The GT Light also welcomes a new arrival, the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 of PMA Motorsport driven by Maurizio Ceresoli and the Japanese Satoshi Tanaka.
PROGRAMME. The third weekend of the Endurance series opens on Friday 13 September with the first free practice session from 10.15 am to 11.15 am, followed on the same day by the second session from 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm. The third free practice session takes place on Saturday from 9.05 am to 10.05 am. Then come the three official practice sessions from 3.20 pm to 4.25 pm, which will decide the starting grid for the three-hour race that sets off on Sunday at 2.30 pm.