Weekend preview: Ferrari races at Indianapolis

Two Ferrari 296 GT3s will compete this weekend in the GT World Challenge America at the Indianapolis circuit. At the same time, Italy hosts the final round of the Italian Gran Turismo Sprint Championship at the Temple of Speed, where all titles will be awarded.

GT WC America. AF Corse has entered a pair of Ferrari 296 GT3s in this weekend’s Indy 8 Hour, the final race of the SRO GT World Challenge America campaign. 

Ozz Negri and Jay Schreibman will be joined by Ferrari Ambassador Driver Toni Vilander in the No. 163 iMBranded Ferrari 296 GT3 Ferrari 296 GT, while Custodio Toledo, Riccardo Agostini and Cedric Sbirrazzuoli campaign the No. 88 Ferrari 296 GT3.

Both cars are entered in the 15-car Pro-Am category in the endurance race, which also showcases the Intercontinental GT Challenge.

Negri and Schreibman made their SRO debut at Road America, winning the Am class on Sunday after taking second in the Saturday event. The showing prompted the team to add the races at Barber and Indianapolis to their schedule. They won the Am class in the Saturday feature before failing to finish the Sunday finale in the most recent World Challenge America event at Barber Motorsport Park. With no Am class at Indy, Negri and Schreibman finish the season leading the SRO Am standings.

Vilander finished second in Pro-Am for AF Corse in the Indy 8 Hour back in 2020. Vilander will also drive in the IMSA season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on Oct. 12, co-driving with Rasmus Lindh and Henrik Hedman in Dragonspeed’s new Ferrari 296 GT3 having joined the team ahead of its IMSA debut with Ferrari at Indianapolis earlier this month. 

AF Corse also added a second car for Barber, the No. 88 Ferrari 296 GT3 for Toledo and Agostini running in the Pro-Am category. After placing eighth in the category in Saturday’s opener, Toledo and Agostini took fifth in class and ninth overall in Sunday’s feature race.

Ferrari’s long history at Indianapolis Motor Speedway dates all the way back to 1952, when Formula One championship-bound Alberto Ascari qualified 19th for the Indy 500. He was running as high as ninth before spinning to the infield and exiting the event. He was classified in 31st position.

Ferrari captured six of the eight runnings of the United States F1 Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Michael Schumacher won the inaugural event in 2000, with teammate Rubens Barrichello winning in 2002. From there, Schumacher won the next four races from 2003 through 2006.

The SRO finale weekend opens Thursday with testing at 3:10 p.m. and practice at 6:45 p.m. (all times ET). Friday begins with 90-minute pre-qualifying practice on Friday at 10:45 a.m. 

Following will be a 15-minute qualifying session for each of the three drivers, beginning at 3:05 p.m. The fastest drivers advance to the pole shootout at 5:45 p.m. The eight-hour main event is set to take the green flag at 12:15 p.m.

CIGT. The final round of the Italian Gran Turismo Sprint Series Championship takes place at the Autodromo di Monza, during which the season’s titles will be decided. Fifty-five crews have registered to take part in the two races. The GT3 Pro class will feature two AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s: the number 88 driven by Amato and Boguslavskiy and the number 52 with Ferati and Nurmi. The GT3 Pro-Am class will see Easy Race's number 22, driven by Trulli and Bontempelli, and Double TT Racing's Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020, number 75, with Colavita and Maggi.

Rossocorsa Racing’s Ferrari 296 GT3 number 74, with Marazzi and Buttarelli, and JBR’s number 83, crewed by rookies Hoshino and Hama, will compete in the GT3 Am class.

In the GT CUP 1st Division Pro-Am class, Patrinicola and Pegoraro still have a chance of victory in Best Lap’s Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo number 111 despite a 38-point gap to the leader. Bucci and Croccolino will compete in Best Lap’s number 178, while Pierantoni and Di Fabio will drive Easy Race’s Ferrari number 111. The Belgian driver Renmans will take the wheel of Double TT Racing’s number 177, and Lovati and Liquorish will be in MERTEL Motorsport’s number 180. Four more Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos will race in the Am class: Best Lap’s number 218, driven by Naldi and Simonelli, and Pinetti Motorsport’s two entries, number 229 crewed by Giovanni Stefanin, and number 280 with Briselli and Tucci. Casè and Borelli still have title ambitions in the AF Corse number 250, currently in second place, just six points behind the leader.

The weekend will kick off on Friday with two free practice sessions, while Saturday will feature two official practice sessions from 10:10 to 11:30 a.m. GT3 Race 1 will start at 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, followed by the GT Cup class race at 5:55 p.m. On Sunday, the GT3 race will begin at 2:20 p.m., followed by the GT Cup race at 4:40 p.m.

All times are local.