Misano Saturday Notebook

***After the conclusion of the Super Trofeo North America and Europe seasons on Friday, attention turns to the Lamborghini World Final which combines the two regional grids.

***The World Final will be split between two category groups: Pro/Pro-Am and Am/LB Cup. Each group will consist of two races. The world champions will be decided based on cumulative points using the usual Super Trofeo distribution system, including a single point score for each pole position.

***A field of 24 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVOs is confirmed for the Pro/Pro-Am group while 25 cars are registered for Am/LB Cup, according to the official entry lists published on Saturday morning.

***Karol Basz is teaming up with Mattia Michelotto at Vincenzo Sospiri Racing in Pro, while the Polish racer’s Super Trofeo Europe co-driver Andrzej Lewandowski is focusing on the Am class with the same team.

***Loris Spinelli, who competed in both the North America and Europe season finales at Misano, will contest the World Final in the Pro-Am bracket with his full-season North America co-driver Claudinei Senhoreti.

***Fellow double-duty regional series driver Max Weering, who teamed up with Spinelli in the Europe round, is listed as a solo Pro competitor with Johan Kraan Motorsports.

***Spinelli set three fastest laps across the four regional series races held on Friday. The on-form Italian was beaten only by Weering in the first European encounter.

***Edoardo Liberati is not driving the No. 122 Dream Racing Motorsport Lamborghini in the World Final because he falls short of the requirement of contesting two Super Trofeo meetings in the same series this year. Liberati has raced in two events at the Nürburgring and Misano, but these occurred in different championships.

***As a result, Dario Capitanio will tackle the World Final on his own in the Pro category.

***IMSA President John Doonan is in attendance this weekend, as part of the organization’s sanctioning role for Super Trofeo North America. Doonan’s on-site presence follows on from his predecessor, Scott Atherton, attending the Jerez World Final in 2019.

***Lamborghini and IMSA are close to signing an extension of their collaboration, according to Lamborghini America’s senior motorsport manager Chris Ward. The two organizations have been linked since 2013. “Our partnership is up for renewal at the end of this year,” Ward told Sportscar365. “We’re right on the cusp of putting ink on that, and we’ll have an announcement on that very shortly.”

***Key figures from K-PAX Racing are also at Misano, including program manager Darren Law and team manager Thomas Blam. K-PAX won the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS title in its first year as a Lamborghini team.

***Five Lamborghini factory drivers are at Misano on official duties, supporting road car track sessions and other brand-related activities. Mirko Bortolotti, Marco Mapelli, Andrea Caldarelli, Giacomo Altoe and Sandy Mitchell are all present.

***Vincenzo Sospiri Racing’s International GT Open title-winning Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo is on display at Lamborghini’s substantial hospitality unit near Turn 1. Super Trofeo Europe competitor Kumar Prabakaran is understood to have purchased the car.

***A fuel pump issue was the cause behind Stevan McAleer’s North America Pro title challenge evaporating during Race 1 on Friday. McAleer’s co-driver Jeroen Mul brought the No. 116 Change Racing car to a halt in the second stint, paving the way for Richard Antinucci to secure the championship.

***Antinucci says he’s trying to secure a GT3 return next year after winning his third Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America title. “I would love to do GT3,” he said. “With the pandemic, I didn’t race last year, so I am just grateful to be racing.”

***Despite sweeping the North America round, experienced GT racing driver Antinucci hadn’t raced at Misano prior to this event. Most of the field has been discovering the Italian circuit for the first time.

***North America LB Cup champion Terry Olson gave full marks to the track surface in a TV interview during Race 2: “This track is above and beyond anything I’ve ever driven on,” he said. “The grip is just amazing and the layout is spectacular. It’s well beyond anything else we have in the U.S in terms of track smoothness and grip.”

***A problem with the fuel pressure of the No. 101 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini caused Kyle Marcelli to stop at the first sequence of corners shortly after his change-over from Danny Formal in Race 2.

“We have worked hard this weekend; that was the closest we had been to the leaders,” Formal said. “We did a great stop and were there to fight for the win. He had a fuel pressure issue with the car. We’re not sure what happened, but we had to stop on track.”

***Another crew to encounter issues on Friday was the US RaceTronics pairing of Patrick Liddy and Mel Johnson. They changed to a new Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO after qualifying due to electrical gremlins, only for the replacement car to encounter a power steering failure in Race 1. Liddy and Johnson managed to have a cleaner second race, in which they scored an Am podium.

***Sebastian Balthasar was handed a five-second post-race time penalty for contact with Glenn van Berlo in the podium battle near the end of Europe Race 2. Balthasar’s sanction did not affect his Leipert Motorsport machine’s 17th-place finishing position.

***Lamborghini has joined as an official partner of Movember, the men’s health charity. As part of a fundraising drive through November, Lamborghini will parade 1,500 mustachioed road cars in different cities around the world including London, New York and Bangkok. The ‘Bull Run’ will involve 92 Lamborghini dealers. More than $75,000 has been raised so far.

***The venue for next year’s Lamborghini World Final is set to be announced this evening. Sportscar365 understands that the chosen circuit will be located in Europe and will be venue not previously visited by the Italian manufacturer’s annual event.

***The first World Final race for Am/LB Cup takes place at 4:30 p.m. CEST (10:30 a.m. EST) while the Pro/Pro-Am opener gets underway at 5:55 p.m. (11:55 a.m.). Both 50-minute races will be streamed live on the official Lamborghini Squadra Corse YouTube channel, with commentary from David Addison.