Carrera Cup Italy | The pre-season test in Imola with 28 at the start

The Porsche Carrera Cup Italia begins to reveal the first cards of the 2024 season in today's pre-season tea day which has just begun in Imola with clear weather and a dry track (the light rain that fell yesterday evening was irrelevant).

2023 of the prestigious single-brand championship ended in Imola at the end of October and the engines are officially restarted from the Santerno circuit in view of the first round of 2024 on 3-5 May in Misano. Not all the protagonists expected for that date are present today, but there are already 28 drivers and 13 teams representing 19 Porsche Centers throughout Italy working on the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup.

Curiously, 28 drivers also participated in the official shakedown last year. It was Monza, this time it's Imola's turn and among the protagonists there are 19 Pros (of which 8 eligible for the new Rookie classification, i.e. in their first season in the Carrera Cup) and 9 entered in the Michelin Cup.

The number 1 stands out on the Enrico Fulgenzi Racing car driven by Larry Ten Voorde, the Dutch reigning champion confirmed in the Marche team and awaited by many rivals in the fight for the 2024 title. His double is not a given, at least according to the names present since these first tests.

In fact, the two-time champions Simone Iaquinta, again with Prima Ghinzani, and Gianmarco Quaresmini, who returned to Tsunami RT after 2023 in Dinamic, did not miss the opportunity, as did the 2021 titleholder Alberto Cerqui (still in BeDriver) and Diego Bertonelli (TDE ).

Among the foreign drivers with high ambitions, however, here is the South African Keagan Masters, new driver and testimonial of the Q8 Hi Perform Team (whose 911 GT3 Cup number 8 in livery is this year technically followed by Ombra Racing), and the two-time French champion Marvin Klein, again fielded by Target Competition after his “spot” presence, complete with victory in race 1, in Imola last October.

Among the well-known faces, Aldo Festante, who remained in Dinamic, and Pietro Armanni are at it again: the 18-year-old from Brescia moved from Ombra to Ghinzani and is currently the only young person remaining in the Scholarship Program compared to last year. A generational change that this year in the Porsche Italia coaching project will involve many very young people, including absolute “debs”.

In Imola there are 8 in total: in addition to Armanni, present with Villorba Corse are the Padua born in 2003 Steven Giacon and the Pordenone born in 2007 Nicholas Pujatti (the youngest of the lot), the other two born in 2007 Flavio Olivieri (Roman coming from the formula and now working for Raptor Engineering) and Janne Stiak (German deployed by Target), the other German Daniel Gregor (TDE, born in 2005), the Austrian Horst Felix Felbermayr (also in TDE and present last year only in the final of Imola) and the Catholic born in 2004 Francesco Braschi, confirmed in Dinamic Motorsport after participating in the last two rounds of 2023 (Misano Porsche Festival and Imola).

Among the new Pro entries, the arrival in Ombra Racing of the German born in 1999 Lirim Zendeli is surprising, with an excellent past in formula with a 2018 title in the ADAC F4 and then good things in FIA F3 until he also made his debut in F2 before leaving for a while ' from the “radars” still competing in the preparatory formulas but in the States.

And there is also Filippo Fant, a driver from Belluno and the new representative of Team Malucelli, a team that completes a trio of cars by fielding in the Michelin Cup the confirmed Max Montagnese and the returning Stefano Stefanelli, who in the test will alternate with the coach driver Matteo Malucelli and returns to the Carrera Cup Italia after the terrible accident with Tommaso Mosca in July 2018 at Mugello from which both fortunately recovered well in a relatively short time.

Also present in Imola was the reigning Michelin Cup champion, Alberto De Amicis, who with Paolo Gnemmi completes the Ebimotors line up. Alex De Giacomi (also in Tsunami) and Francesco Maria Fenici, in their first season with Raptor Engineering, then set off again with aims of revenge, while Gianluca Giorgi, who remained linked to BeDriver, aims for further progress.

Among the new drivers, both with Prima Ghinzani, there are the Bergamo driver Cesare Brusa, coming from the world of tourism, and the Apulian gentleman driver Ilarione Introna, involved in the shakedown after having already “tasted” the Italian single-brand championship on the occasion of the Porsche Festival stage 2023 in Misano.

The first round of this spring Thursday in Imola involves 3 and a half hours of testing and will end at 12.30. In the afternoon we will run from 2.30pm to 6.00pm with the possibility of trying the departures from 6.05pm to 6.20pm.

Those registered for the Imola test