21.06.2004 After almost a month's break, the FIA GT series moves to Donington Park this weekend, with French team DAMS scheduled to enter the fray with their new Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT

After a break of nearly a month, the sixth round of the LG Super Racing Weekend series will see the teams and drivers head over the English Channel to the British circuit of Donington Park, in the Midlands.

A popular circuit with everyone involved, the multi-platform series has raced there in both 2002 and 2003. The historic circuit, dating back to after the Second World War, is 4.023 km long. Located next to the Nottingham-East Midlands airport, it has a finely balanced combination of fast, challenging corners and a slow, technical hairpin section, meaning that the car set-up is crucial.  

This will be the sixth time that the FIA GT Championship has raced at Donington, last year, the fifth round of the Championship was held there, and it saw the fifth consecutive victory for BMS Scuderia drivers Matteo Bobbi and Thomas Biagi, in their Ferrari 550 Maranello.

The duo went on to win the Championship title, as did Stéphane Ortelli and Marc Lieb, who were victorious in the N-GT category at Donington, in their Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 996 GT3. 

This year, at the half-way point, the Championship classifications bear a certain similarity to those of last year, with BMS Scuderia Italia and Freisinger Yukos Motorsport in the lead in the Teams Championship. But with three different winners in each category from the first five rounds, no-one has come close to matching the Bobbi/Biagi domination of 2003. 

Uwe Alzen and Michael Bartels took their second win of the season in the previous round in Brno, while in N-GT, Christian Pescatori and Fabrizio De Simone gave new team GPC Giesse Squadra Corse its first win, with their Ferrari 360 Modena CS.

Donington should see some new faces in the paddock, with the planned debut of the DAMS Lamborghini, some entrants from the British GT Championship including double winner of the last round, Scuderia Ecosse, Gruppe M and JRW Racing, bearing the colours of event sponsor John Guest.
 
A thrilling race in Brno saw Bartels and Alzen take their second win of the season, in their Vitaphone Saleen S7-R, despite losing a wheel. This result has moved their team up to fourth in the Teams classification, but after five rounds, BMS Scuderia Italia have a commanding lead, and are currently on 71 points. 

JMB Racing and GPC Giesse Squadra Corse are joint second, both with 26. Fabrizio Gollin and Luca Cappellari continue to lead the Drivers points table, with Matteo Bobbi and Gabriele Gardel, who failed to finish in Brno, nine points behind them.  Karl Wendlinger is a further ten points behind them, with Alzen and Bartels just one point below, on 20. 

The N-GT classification is much closer. A well-deserved win for the Ferrari 360 Modena of GPC Giesse Squadra Corse in Brno close the points up, and Porsche drivers Sascha Maassen, Lucas Luhr, Stéphane Ortelli and Emmanuel Collard are all tied on 38 points, with De Simone and Pescatori a further 6 points below them.  In the Teams classification, Freisinger Yukos Motorsport has a healthy lead over Freisinger Motorsport and GPC Giesse, both of which only have one car compared to the two Yukos Porsche 996 GT3-RS cars.

The teams are also close in terms of the handicap weights : the nr 50 Freisinger Yukos and the nr 99 Freisinger Porsche are both on the maximum 50 kg, while the nr 62 Ferrari is on 40 kg. 

In GT, the nr 2 Ferrari 550 Maranello will carry 100 kg, with the nr 1 car going down to 40 kg.  The nr 5 Saleen will also carry 40 kg after its win in Brno, while the nr 17 JMB Racing car, second in Brno, will have 30 kg. Any cars which are new race-by-race entries, or returning after missing a round, will carry 60 kg in the GT category, or 30 kg in the N-GT.

A new team for the FIA GT Championship, but familiar drivers. Scuderia Ecosse is one of the leading teams in the British GT Championship, with Nathan Kinch - a race winner with Lister last year - and former Veloqx driver Andrew Kirkaldy. The team is entering a Ferrari 360 Modena in the Donington round to try themselves against the international field.

Stewart Roden, the Team Principal explained, "This is our first year in GT racing and we’re having a fantastic time. Our goal for 2004 is to win the British GT Championship and learn more about international GT racing along the way. The FIA GT event at Donington is the perfect opportunity for us to gauge our position within a strong international field and a great test of our mettle.”

As for Andrew, he is also looking forward to the race, "It’s a tight turnaround for us as we have a British GT race the weekend before. We’ve already raced at Donington this year so we know how the Ferrari performs there and have a good idea of where to go with the car set-up. Nathan (Kinch) and I won last time we raced at Donington and I don’t see any reason why we can’t have another good weekend there.”

It has been announced that former Formula One driver Gianni Morbidelli will be joining GPC Giesse Squadra Corse, to share the nr 13 car with Emanuele Naspetti. Morbidelli was a race-winner in the FIA Super Production Championship in 2001, and has since then competed in a number of rounds of the FIA ETCC, most recently for SEAT Sport Italia in Monza. 

Morbidelli already tested the Ferrari at Vallelunga, along with Vincent Vosse and Frédéric Bouvy, who will drive for the team in the Proximus 24 Hours of Spa

After finishing in second place at Brno in his first-ever FIA GT race, Jaime Melo should be back in the nr 17 JMB Racing Ferrari 575 M Maranello, alongside Karl Wendlinger. "My last win at Donington was in 1999, in the FIA GT," Wendlinger said."The atmosphere at British circuits is very good, with a lot of people and a lot of interest, and I am really looking forward to going there again."

Wieth Racing's Ferrari 550 Maranello should be back for Donington. Mark Mayall, a JVG driver in 2003, will be alongside Wolfgang Kaufmann, with a third driver yet to be named. "We will know more after a test session at Oulton Park on Tuesday," team manager Florian Hebel explained.

BMS Scuderia Italia's Technical Director, Marco Gadola is to take up a seat on the GT Commission, as one of the two Teams representatives.  As well as his work for BMS, the 38-year old also holds the chair in Vehicle Dynamics at the University of Brescia. 

"With his experience in GT and motor racing in general, he has the right experience for the commission; we are very happy for him and for this recognition of his work," Sporting Director Marco Streparava explained.