Super Trofeo Europe Kicks Off Second Half of Season

The Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe championship returns from its summer break this weekend for round four of the season at the Nürburgring circuit.

More than 30 Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 cars are set to do battle as the Sant’Agata Bolognese’s popular one-make series marks its 14th visit to the Eifel region of Germany.

Off the back of another entertaining weekend last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, all four class title battles are too close to call entering the second half of the season.

Less than 10 points split the top three in the Pro category, with 16 points separating the leading four in Pro-Am. Two crews are tied at the top of the Am class, while five are covered by just nine points in Lamborghini Cup.

As the only crew to have finished every race inside the top five so far this season, Silas Lovén Rytter and Patrik Fraboni (Oregon Team) lead the way at the top of the Pro class standings with 70 points, seven clear of Kevin Gilardoni and Simone Iaquinta (DL Racing).

Rytter and Fraboni backed up their strong form with a third successive victory in race one at Spa and took fourth in race two. Retirement in Race 2 following contact meant Gilardoni and Iaquinta lost their championship lead, leaving the Italo-Swiss pairing eager to bounce back this weekend.

Two points further back is Nicholas Pujatti and Benedetto Strignano (Rexal Villorba Corse), who claimed their fourth podium finish of the year in race two at Spa.

Finnish pairing Henri Tuomaala and Matias Salonen (Leipert Motorsport) are without a win so far this year, but a consistent run of results means they lie fourth in the standings with 45 points, two points ahead of team-mates Axel Bengtsson and Månz Thalin, who recorded a breakthrough maiden race win last time out.

For its home race, Leipert Motorsport is also expected to field a third Pro car, with Super Trofeo Asia regular Barrett Wolfe teaming up with Colombian Brazilian rookie João Paulo Diaz Balesteiro.

In the Pro-Am category, Bronislav Formánek and Anthony Pretorius (Mičánek Motorsport) hold a 11-point lead over Paolo Biglieri and Marzio Moretti (ASR) heading into the Nürburgring weekend, having upset the applecart by taking a super overall race win at Spa.

Biglieri and Moretti are in turn just two points ahead of Josef Knopp and Pietro Perolini (Oregon Team), with both crews determined to get back onto the podium this weekend after missing out in Belgium.

In contrast, Miguel Cristóvão and Paul Levet head into the second half of the year off the back of a double podium finish at Spa, their first of the season and sit just three points further back from Knopp and Perolini, while the ASR crew of Miloš Pavlović and Alessio Ruffini are also in the mix.

After making their European debuts at Spa, Chris van der Drift and Hairie Zairel Oh return for Leipert Motorsport.

Meanwhile in the Am category, there is nothing to choose between GT3 Poland’s Grzegorz Moczulski and the Mičánek Motorsport’s Jakub Knoll and Renaud Kuppens. Both crews are on 57 points, while Rodrigue Gillion and Stéphane Lémeret (CMR) remain in the title fight, 11 points in arrears.

All three crews ended their respective podium droughts at the previous round and, with several part-season entries not expected to be competing this weekend, look set to be the main contenders once more.

The LB Cup class has been the most competitive all season and the points standings prove it. Adalberto Baptista (Oregon Team) has a relatively healthy margin of six points over ASR’s Umar Abdullah Basalamah, who took his first victory of the year in race two last time out.

The Indonesian driver has a one-point advantage over Spa race one winner Francesco Turzo (DL Racing), who in turn also leads DC Motorsport’s all-Danish pairing of Peder Demant Møller and Nina Østergaard by a solitary point.

Another point further back is GT3 Poland’s Holger Harmsen who is competing on home soil this weekend. Keen to turn around his fortunes is the experienced Frenchman Claude-Yves Gosselin (Rexal Villorba Corse) who, despite taking three podiums in the first three races of the year, lies sixth in the standings and 21 points behind Baptista after failing to start either race at Spa.

Track action begins on Friday with two Free Practice sessions, followed by Qualifying and Race 1 (3:10 p.m. CEST) on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday (12:45 p.m. CEST). Both 50-minute races will be streamed on Lamborghini Squada Corse and SRO’s GT World YouTube channels.