IGTC Points Leaders Marciello, Vautier Split Up for California 8H

Photo: Gruppe C

Intercontinental GT Challenge championship leaders Raffaele Marciello and Tristan Vautier will be split between different cars in next weekend’s season-ending California 8 Hours.

Mercedes has revealed an eight-car entry for the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca event, including six Mercedes-AMG GT3s.

Two Pro class cars will be entered, one each from Strakka Racing and SunEnergy1 Racing.

Both will feature one of the current joint championship leaders, with Marciello at Strakka alongside Maxi Goetz and Lewis Williamson and Vautier joining Maro Engel and Maxi Buhk in the AKKA ASP-run SunEnergy1 car.

It is be the first time in the IGTC this season that Marciello and Vautier, who won the most recent race at Suzuka, will be in different cars.

Strakka will also campaign a pair of Pro-Am entries with Jack Hawksworth joining the squad in the No. 44 car alongside Adrien Tambay and Christian Vietoris.

The team’s No. 42 entry will be piloted by Felipe Fraga, David Fumanelli and Nick Leventis.

A second SunEnergy1 car will be shared by Mikael Grenier, Luca Stolz and Kenny Habul.

The Australian-American heads to Laguna Seca with a 20-point lead in the Bronze drivers’ standings after taking maximum points at the Bathurst and Suzuka rounds.

DXDT Racing rounds out the manufacturer’s GT3 contingent with a Pro-Am car driven by Ryan Dalziel, Mike Hedlund and David Askew.

Murillo Racing will enter a pair of Mercedes-AMG GT4s, bringing the total number of Mercedes entered to eight.

Matt Fassnacht and Christian Szymczak will share one GT4 car while Tim Probert, Justin Piscitell and Jeff Mosing will be behind the wheel of the second car.

Race organizer SRO Motorsports Group is yet to release a first entry list for the event but grid numbers are expected to be upwards of 30 cars.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.