04.04.2019 – Waiting is over. Imperiale Racing is all set to get on track this coming weekend for the first round of the season in the Italian Grand Touring Endurance 2019 Championship on the most iconic Italian racetrack: the Autodromo Nazionale of Monza.
The Italian team will be at a full-season comeback in the Italian series after some spot participation last year and will field two Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo in this occasion. The #63 challenger will contest PRO with Vito Postiglione (ITA), Jeroen Mul (NL) and Alex Frassineti (ITA), while the #19 car will be driven by Pietro Perolini (ITA), Ben Gersekowski (AUS) and James Pull (GB) in Pro-Am.
The young James Pull, class 1999, joined the line-up announced a few days ago. He made his debut on karts at eleven and competed there until 2014. The British driver won the MicroMax category of Rotax Max Challenge Singapore in 2011, which was his best karting result before the switch to single seaters. He shone in the F4 British Championship ending fourth in 2016 and in the BRDC British F3 Championship, where he came second in 2017. His debut on GT cars took place last year in an amazing season. He was second in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia, claiming ten podium finishes on twelve races, and was also second in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Middle East. He secured four podiums in the Continental Lamborghini Huracàn series. He won in Spa-Francorchamps and claimed two podiums in Monza.
The intense racing weekend will take place on the famous 5.793 meters of the Monza Eni Circuit, which are characterized by the low aerodynamic load to favour top speeds, which will put a lot of stress on engines that will be flat out for most of the time. The long pit-straights leads into the first chicane that is a good overtaking point, but that will be quite tricky especially in the first few laps. The long Biassono bend comes then before the Roggia chicane that ends the first sector. The central part of the circuit is characterized by the two Lesmo corners, the fast Serraglio and the spectacular Ascari chicane, that is a highly appreciated place by fans. The closing sector is high speed again and the Parabolica right-hander leads drivers on the main straight again.
The program of the weekend will begin on Friday with the first free practice session at 13:10 (GMT +2), while the second session will be on Saturday morning at 9:05. Qualifying will be split into three sessions on Saturday: Q1 at 13:00, Q2 at 13:25 and Q3 at 13:50 and the pole position will be decided by summing the best time of each driver in every single session. The three-hours long race will get green lights on Sunday at 14:10.
Fans will be admitted free of charge in the paddock and on grandstands. Parking fees for cars and motorbikes will apply on Saturday and Sunday and tickets will be available at the entrance of the circuit.
Media coverage of the event will be quite important with the whole race available in live streaming on the official website www.acisport.it/CIGT and on Facebook @CIGranTurismo. RAI sport and AutomotoTV are the two main TV networks that will broadcast the racing action with a detailed program to be published shortly on the official website of the championship.
Luca Del Grosso (Imperiale Racing, Team Manager):
“The whole team is very focused on this first exit of the Italian GT Endurance Championship. This is not going to be an easy weekend, speed and experience will be needed to shine in the Temple of Speed, especially considering the high level of the championship and its new series. A total of 60 drivers will be present and, among these, some outstanding endurance racing crews. Monza is quite a peculiar racetrack, setups are particular and some parts of the car will be subject to high levels of stress. The feelings we have on the new Lamborghini Huracàn GT3 Evo are definitely positive therefore we cannot wait to compare ourselves to our rivals”.