Dream Racing driver Alessandro Bressan enters the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX finale at Utah Motorsports Campus this weekend holding third place in the Pro-Am standings with his co-driver Yuki Harata.
This week in the Pirelli Paddock Pass, the Italian assesses the season so far, tells us why he now lives in Las Vegas, and explains how he’s been coming to the race track since before he was even born.
Has the season so far met your expectations?
“Yes! This year for us was the first year jumping from the GT Cup class to the GT3, so it was a big step for us. We already knew it was a big challenge for us but we approached it the right way: just learning.
“I think the expectations have been met as far as getting experience, and we have a couple of wins in there, so that was all good.
“Of course once you start winning you want more so we want to close the championship in a good way, but so far it’s been a great championship for us.”
You come from a racing family, so what are your earliest memories of motorsports?
“I think that I’ve been coming to race tracks even before I came into the world. The story is that my father was racing and my mom was the engineer, so she was following him even when she was expecting me.
“Then my older brother, who is ten years older, was racing as well, so I was following that track and it was a natural passion.
“I grew up around motorsports, go-karts, and that kind of became my world.”
What are your hobbies outside of motorsports?
“I love sports and the outdoors. I play a little bit of tennis, snowboarding, the fun stuff that you try to do.
“I love the sea so I go boating when I can or jet skiing, all the extreme stuff let’s say. I try to stay safe for the racing, but having fun.”
How did you come to live in Las Vegas?
“It was more of a job opportunity and racing opportunity together because I went to work for Dream Racing. I was racing professionally in Europe and then I got the proposal to come over there for a new experience.
“I went there and took over some of the jobs and also coach people with the cars because we have a driving experience over there.
“I grew up with the company and ended up staying over there. I love it. I always had the objective to move abroad from Italy to a new experience, and the United States was the perfect fit for me.”
What are your goals this weekend?
“We will have to see as far as the car goes because we are at high altitude and it effects our car a little bit more since it’s not a turbo.
“We will see how it goes, but of course the objective is to close championship with possibly two wins. We are going for that.
“It’s always the same goal that we have, but reaching another two podiums would be within our expectations. We’ll try to do the best that we can to get that.”
What are your plans for next year at this stage?
“I’d love to do more Pirelli World Challenge. It’s a very nice championship and I would love to still be in the paddock and maybe expand the racing program.
“If some opportunities arise inside the GT3 realm, I know that a lot of stuff is moving around with all the championships and there’s always more interest in GT racing in the US, so we’ll see.
“Hopefully we’ll develop a good program over the winter and be out there again next year.”