The GT4 European Series Northern Cup heads to the Slovakia Ring for the fourth round of the season this weekend. It is the first time the Slovakian circuit, located in Orechová Potôn (30 km from Bratislava), will host a round of the series. A grid of 31 cars is set to race on the 5,922 m long track, which already played host to the Blancpain GT Series and its predecessor, the FIA GT World Championship.
Silver Cup leaders Ekris Motorsport looking to continue podium streak
Ekris Motorsport and its drivers Ricardo van der Ende and Max Koebolt lead the Silver Cup standings, having shown strong form in the first half of the season. The Ekris M4 GT4 finished on the podium in all six races, including a double victory in Austria. Koebolt and Van der Ende, who will race in Slovakia despite just becoming a father for the second time, lead KTM driver Lennart Marioneck by 49 points. Marioneck, however, will not be racing in Slovakia this weekend.
After a podium finish in Austria, Street Art Racing driver Jerome Demay hopes to score more points in Slovakia and to move into second place in the points standings. Demay will share the Aston Martin Vantage with Julien Darras, as his regular co-driver Denis Dupont is unavailable this weekend. Will Moore and Matt Nicoll-Jones, sixth in the points, hope to bounce back after a difficult weekend in Austria.
RN Vision STS has entered its two Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4 cars again, with John-Louis Jasper and Pavel Lefterov currently three points behind Demay and Dupont in the championship standings. Gabriele Piana and Razvan Umbrarescu will line up in the second car of the team, which will compete in the Pro-AM class. Equipe Verschuur has rebuilt the McLaren 570S GT4 of Finlay Hutchison and Csaba Mor, after its crash in race 1 at the Red Bull Ring. Paolo Meloni and Massimiliano Tresoldi (Scuderia Villorba Corse) aim to score some more points in Slovakia.
Las Moras Racing vs Allied Racing in Pro-AM
Duncan Huisman and Luc Braams lead the Pro-AM class ahead of the Slovakian round, following two wins at the Red Bull Ring last month. The Las Moras Racing duo scored 92 points in the first six races of the season, 16 more than Allied-Racing’s Jan Kasperlik and Timothy Stupple.
Several teams will fight for third in class at the Slovakia Ring. TM-Racing.org’s Peter Terting and Daniel Rymes are currently third in Pro-AM with 48 points, but they will face competition from Umbrarescu and Piana’s Porsche and Bullitt Racing’s Andy Meyrick and Stephen Pattrick in the McLaren 570S GT4.
Red Bull Ring AM winners team up at Slovakia Ring
Red Bull Ring AM class winners Achim Mörtl and Eduard Anton will share a car in Slovakia. Instead of racing the SIN R1 GT4, Anton will join Mörtl in the RYS Team Schönramer / Racecom KTM X-Bow GT4. Anton lies fourth in the standings, 20 points behind championship leader Giuseppe Ghezzi, who is set to share the Autorlando Sport Porsche 997 GT4 with Alessandro Giovanelli again. Manuela Gostner, third in the AM standings, is the lead Scuderia Villorba Corse driver. She will be joined by Romy Dall’Antonia and Giuseppe Fascicolo in another Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4.
Allied-Racing will double up at the Slovakia Ring, with Joachim Bölting and German rally driver and TV presenter Niki Schelle joining the team in a second Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4, entered in the AM class. PROsport Performance will enter one of its Porsche Cayman PRO4 GT4s, while Besagroup Racing Team’s Franjo Kovac and Cora Schumacher are also back for their third weekend in the series. HP Racing’s Coach McKansy and Wolfgang Risch are also set to race a Porsche Cayman CS MR GT4.
Three teams from Poland this weekend
Lukasz Kreski and Maciej Marcinkiewicz, who last raced in the series at Spa-Francorchamps in 2016, will join the series with a Maserati GranTurismo MC GT4. The eSky AKVO Racing Team line-up will be the third fully Polish Maserati line-up in the series, with Kreski and Marcinkiewicz joining Sellite Racing Team’s Wojciech Lopallo and Lukasz Zielski and Scuderia Villorba Corse’s Antoni and Piotr Chodzen. Father and son Chodzen claimed a podium finish in Austria and would like to become the best line-up from Poland at the Slovakia Ring.
Revised Reiter Young Star line-ups
A total of eight Reiter Young Stars KTM X-Bow GT4s will race in Slovakia, with a number of lineup changes. Czech drivers Josef Zaruba and Erik Janis are set to race the #34 RYS Team Kiska car, replacing Lennart Marioneck and Gottfried Pilz, while American driver August MacBeth joins Benjamin Mazatis in the #54 RYS Team Pankl car. The other line-ups remain unchanged, with Laura Kraihamer and Cedric Freiburghaus, Marylin Niederhauser and Naomi Schiff, Eike Angermayr and Reinhard Kofler, Mads Siljehaug and Jamie Vandenbalck and Emil Westman and Slovak driver Samuel Sladecka all sharing cars.
Live coverage from Slovakia
The Slovakia round will not be streamed live on the GT4 European Series Northern Cup website. However, there will be live timing as well as text and photo updates on the website and the series’ social media channels.
SLOVAKIA RING SCHEDULE*
Friday, 14 July
11:35 – 12:35: Free Practice 1
17:50 – 18:50: Free Practice 2
Saturday, 15 July
9:45 – 10:30: Qualifying (20’ + 5’ + 20’)
17:30 – 18:50: Race 1 (60′)
Sunday, 16 July
11:05 – 12:25: Race 2 (60′)
*All times are local