Nogaro Saturday Notebook

***Chances of a second Reiter Engineering Lamborghini joining the grid later on in the season are slim. Team owner Hans Reiter told Sportscar365 that he is not actively pushing for a second entry, unless a new opportunity presents itself. Reiter was in talks with Dutch driver Max Koebolt, who signed with WRT last week (BES Pro-Am Cup).

***Meanwhile SRO remains confident the grid will grow in size during the course of the season, as was the case last year. The races in Moscow and Baku will be standout events and will boast lager fields.

***One of the former Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Gallardo FL2s has been sold to AERT. The new Russian team is based in Spain and will be managed by former WTCC driver Félix Porteiro. Having spent the last four seasons in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series, 25-year-old Anton Nebylitskiy switches to GTs and will race the car in the International GT Open this year.

***Several manufactures are present in the Nogaro with their support trucks, despite limited numbers of their cars running. The presence of several factory drivers also points towards the reputation and level of competitiveness the series boasts. No less than nine different brands are represented on the 19-car grid.

***The Lamborghini Gallardo R-EX developed by Reiter Engineering is not yet homologated as a GT3 car. The improved Gallardo car is currently competing under a national (Belgium) G3 homologation, as the German team/constructor can’t apply yet for official GT3 status since the last modification to car was made less then two years ago. GT3 homologation should be in order by July.

***Both GT Russian team Mercedes SLS AMG GT3s ignored the checkered flag at the end of Free Practice 1. After being shown the red flag they realized their mistake and remarkably decided to return to the pits via the service road (pictured, above).

***Several teams are struggling with the strict tire allocation this weekend. As this is the first event of the season, teams are limited to six new sets of tires and aren’t able to carry over any used sets from previous rounds. Some teams already encountered flat tires during today’s practice sessions, effectively eliminating an entire set.

*** Be sure to download the official SRO Spotter Guide, which features all 19 starters in this weekend’s event. Click here to download.

***Reigning Blancpain GT champion Laurens Vanthoor will compete with Robin Frijns for the first time this weekend. The Dutch-speaking duo already has a long history and only lives roughly 30 miles apart. “Robin was my teammate in karting for five years,” said Vanthoor. “We get along well, talk the same language and respect each other. I shall in any case try to help as much as possible to make him feel at ease in the Audi as quickly as possible. And if one day he’s faster than me, I will analyze data to see how I can improve myself.”

#TBT @RFrijns and me fighting for the Belgian Championship in 2005. Today we are teammates @WRacingTeam1 @BlancpainGT pic.twitter.com/SoKra7Qr7D

— Laurens Vanthoor (@VanthoorLaurens) April 2, 2015