The fourth FIA GT race of the 2004 season will take place in Germany, at the Hockenheimring Baden-Wurttemberg on Sunday.

The famous circuit, which hosts the German Formula One Grand Prix every year, welcomes back the FIA GT Championship runners after a four year break, and it will mark the first of two German rounds in the 2004 calendar, with a return visit to Oschersleben on September 19th.

There has been a circuit in the German town of Hockenheim since 1932. It has seen a number of changes over the years, with the Motodrom stadium being built in 1966.

The first Formula One race took place at the circuit in August 1970. In January 2002, work began on reconstruction and modernisation measures, reducing the length of the circuit to 4.574 km. The circuit no longer has the long power sections through the forests, but retains the famous slow and technical stadium section, to the delight of the spectators.

The FIA GT Championship visited Hockenheim on three occasions between 1997 and 1999; the circuit hosted the first-ever race of the Championship. The last visit was in June 1999, which saw Chrysler Viper Team Oreca dominate the event, with Jean-Philippe Belloc and Dominique Dupuy winning ahead of the second Chrysler Viper of Justin Bell and Luca Drudi. Franz Konrad and the late Bob Wollek were third in a Porsche 911 GT2.

Five years later, the Championship has moved on, and these days, battle is raging between the Ferrari and Saleen cars. Magny-Cours saw a historic first win for the Saleen, in the hands of the Vitaphone Racing Team and German drivers Uwe Alzen and Michael Bartels, while another German team, Freisinger Motorsport, claimed all the podium steps for their drivers, in the yellow and green of main sponsor Yukos, with Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr taking their second consecutive win.

After the first three rounds of the 2004 season of the FIA GT Championship, BMS Scuderia Italia has built up a healthy lead in the points classifications, and is currently 30 points ahead of nearest rivals JMB Racing. The team's four drivers are vying for the lead of the Drivers classification as well, with Gollin and Cappellari five points ahead of Bobbi and Gardel. However, after the Saleen cars dominated in Magny-Cours, where Walter Lechner Jr took pole, the Vitaphone car of Alzen and Bartels won the race and the JMB Ferrari 575 M Maranello finished on the podium, the fight is definitely on.

The points in the GT class remain provisional, pending the appeal lodged by BMS Scuderia Italia against the 50-second penalty awarded to the nr 1 car, judged to have been responsible for causing an avoidable accident with the nr 2 car. This demoted Bobbi and Gardel to fourth place, with Gollin and Cappellari moving up to third, and the JMB Racing trio of Wendlinger, Wolff and Lechner inheriting second.

In N-GT, Freisinger Yukos Motorsport is in the lead, fifteen points ahead of the third Porsche 996 GT3-RS run by the team under the name Freisinger Motorsport. GPC Giesse, with its Ferrari 360 Modena, is lying third, ahead of Proton Competition. Ortelli and Collard have a lead of four points over Luhr and Maassen, who were victorious in the past three races.

The International Court of Appeal will meet in Paris today, to hear the Automobile Club d'Italia appeal on behalf of BMS Scuderia Italia, car nr 1 Bobbi/Gardel, against the decision made by the Stewards of the Meeting on May 2nd, concerning the incident during the event run at Magny-Cours (France) and counting towards the 2004 FIA GT Championship. The decision will be announced on tomorrow.
 
The handicap weights for Hockenheim are provisional, depending on the outcome of the above-mentioned appeal. Although the provisional points and results take the penalty into account, the handicap weights are based on the race results without the penalty. This means that the nr 1 car provisionally has 90 kg for Hockenheim, the nr 2 60 kg and the nr 17 20 kg. Unaffected by the appeal, the nr 5 Saleen will carry 40 kg.