Pescara, Italy – The 2015 season of the International GT Open will start this week end in Paul Ricard with the 10th edition of the GT3 european series wanted by Jesus Pareja. It will be the first complete season for Solaris Motorsport in a GT series, after the victory in the last round of the Italian GT Championship in Monza, where Francesco Sini and Tomas Enge catched an historical first European win for the Chevrolet Camaro GT3. In 2015 the team will be again in faith with the American brand, adopting a Corvette Z06R GT3 for the confirmed Francesco Sini, reigning EuroV8 Series champion, and Stefano Costantini, GT Open veteran with a great 2014 under the belt.

“Finally we get back to racing! I’m really excited and at the same time determinate for this new challenge we will face. – said “Ringhio” – I’m conscious we have in front of us a really hard championship. Probably we have to reduce a little bit of experience gap with this kind of championships, but the performances and the work made during the winter tests make me very confident. Stefano is very important for the team, his experience will help all us to grow up quickly.” This is a comeback to endurance world for Sini: “It’s a comeback to my roots. For sure, the sportscar I drove in the past were very different from the current GT, but I’m confident that the experience will help me a lot during the races, when I will manage the car and the tyres.“, concluded the Italian driver that in his career has already won an Italian and an European title and a World Cup at the wheel of Radical cars, becoming also official driver of the Constructor.

With one victory and four podiums in five rounds in 2014, Stefano Costantini is surely the most expert man of the new Solaris Motorsport challenge: “Last year I was often very competitive, so the minimum goal for this season is to repeat the good performances of 2014. I’m really happy about what I saw during the test, the team is very motivated and the Corvette was a pleasant surprise for me. I’m sure that with Francesco we can reach important goals.” The feeling between the two drivers is very close: “Francesco knows a lot of the tracks we will race at and he has a driving style and a setting very similar to mine. We have a great relationship in and out the track. I’m in the right team to be competitive.”

Sometimes the fate is strange: Sini and Costantini faced themselves during the last round of the Italian GT championship in Monza, splitting equally the victories in the two races on Saturday and Sunday. The sporting season of the Solaris Motorsport restarts from Monza, with the Team Principal Roberto Sini well aware of what awaits the Notaresco-based squad: “We have a couple of drivers who are different in racing roots but very competitive and determinate. Last year Stefano was one of the best in the GT Open, Francesco won both in EuroV8 Series and in GT. I think we have great mix of drivers that will help us to reach quickly our goal for the season.” About the new challenge in the International GT Open, Roberto Sini is optimistic: “We have made a lot of tests during the winter in order to know better the car and prepare all of us for this new adventure. We will go in France with the awareness to have a good potential and for doing our best, but also with the humility to know we will have to learn still a lot of things and we will have to reduce an initial experience gap.” The partnership with the American brand is a constant for Solaris Motorsport: “We started to work with Chevrolet in Superstars with the Lumina and we have kept on winning the Euro V8 Series with the Camaro. Again with a Camaro, we wrote a little page of history conquering in Monza its first european victory in GT. Now we have a Corvette, but our future is still close with Chevrolet: next year we will be one of the first european team to race with the brand new C7R GT3.”

The first weekend of the 10th edition of the International GT Open is scheduled this week in Paul Ricard circuit. Free practice 1 will start on Friday at 1:50 PM, while the second session is scheduled at 6 PM. Saturday at 10:50 will start the qualifying session for the first race, with the green light at 4 PM. Sunday morning at 9:05 there will be the qualifying session for the second race, that will start at 2 PM.

Both the races will stream on the official International GT Open web site (www.gtopen.net).

Massimiliano Palumbo