Amici: North America the “Hardest” of Super Trofeo Series

Photo: Jamey Price/Lamborghini

Andrea Amici believes Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America has developed into the “hardest” of the single-make series to win, as the 26-year-old Italian continues his quest to become the first driver to claim championship titles in all three major Super Trofeo series.

Amici, who is embarking on his first season of racing in North America with Prestige Performance/Wayne Taylor Racing, currently sits third in the Pro driver championship alongside co-driver Sandy Mitchell entering this weekend’s fifth and sixth rounds of the season at Road America.

For Amici, who won the Super Trofeo Europe Pro-Am title in 2013 and Pro championship in Super Trofeo Asia last year, the challenge the North American series provides, both in tracks and the level of competition, helps set it apart as one of the most challenging at the moment.

“Considering this year, I would say that North America is maybe the hardest of the Super Trofeo series,” he told Sportscar365.

“We only have five Pros, but all of them are really strong, especially the Change Racing car. For that, it’s nice.

“Looking forward to the World Final, I think that American drivers will have a good possibility to do well.

“In the past, America and Asia are not like Europe in terms of car count, but this year they made a really good step.”

Amici is hoping to make inroads on the Pro championship this weekend following a tough start in the the season-opener at Barber Motorsports Park, where he and Mitchell scored minimum points due to an issue.

It’s put them at an 18-point deficit to championship leaders Corey Lewis and Richy Antinucci of Change Racing heading into the third of six race weekends.

“In this kind of championship, it’s difficult to recover the points if you have one retirement,” Amici said. “There is not a big gap between P1 and P3.

“It will be difficult to recover, but we will give the maximum to get those guys. We will do our best and we want to win all the races [remaining].

“At Watkins Glen we didn’t have the best qualifying, but we had a really quick car. It was difficult to stay in front – the safety car in Race 1 slowed down my teammate, and we also had one slower car in the middle, so we lost a lot of time.

“We will see what we can do in Road America. We are confident that we can get a good result.”

Amici, who became the first driver to achieve a championship title in Lamborghini’s Huracan GT3 by winning the GT Asia series in 2016, says he’s enjoying his return to Super Trofeo competition over the last two years, and particularly getting his first taste of the American scene.

“In the U.S. it’s important to master the tracks because compared to Europe it’s really old-school,” he said. “You cannot do a lot of mistakes because you pay for it.

“It’s a new experience. I’m racing GT3 a lot in Europe and Asia, winning in Asia with GT3 and Super Trofeo, and in Europe winning in Super Trofeo there.

“So I wanted to do some experience in the U.S., [which is] much different compared to the other continents. But it’s nice.

“I like all the historic circuits, like Road America this week.

“When you have a team like Wayne Taylor behind you, you feel really confident and you feel like that even if you don’t know a system or a new track, you feel positive and confident for a good performance.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John