The BMW Italia Ceccato Racing team has gotten off to a great start in the first rounds of the Italian GT championship with their M4 GT3s. The team is owned by Gianfranco Ceccato, a former rally driver who owns the Ceccato Motors dealerships, and the team manager is BMW racing legend Roberto Ravaglia. The team has two M4 GT3s entered in the championship, one for works drivers Timo Glock and Jens Klingmann that competes in the sprint races in the series, and another for Giuseppe Fascicolo and Alfred Nilsson who are contesting the endurance races. The sprint and endurance races have their own distinct championships.
Glock and Klingmann had a great start to the championship at Monza, as they won the first race and finished second in the second race (Italian GT has two races for each of the sprint race weekends). Glock was happy with the car after the race. “I felt extremely comfortable in the M4 GT3, right from the first meter,” he said. “The car suits my driving style very well. Compared to my races in the M6 GT3, this weekend was a huge step in the right direction. Rarely have I ever laughed under my helmet as much as I did here at Monza – just from the sheer joy of racing. Saturday’s races were a real challenge for me, as it was the very first time that I had ever driven the car in the rain. However, Jens Klingmann did a superb job before me, and I felt more comfortable every lap.”
The second round of the championship was an endurance race at Pergusa, where Fascicolo and Nilsson finished seventh. In the second round of the sprint championship at Misano, Glock and Klingmann unfortunately had a tire puncture in the first race and ended up twelfth, but they fought back in the second race to finish in second, despite the requirement to make longer pit stops after their success at Monza (longer pit stops are used by the series as a way to balance performance). Their performance in the first four races put Glock and Klingmann in the lead in the drivers points for the sprint championship. The next round in the championship is an endurance race at Mugello on July 14th-17th, with Glock and Klingmann back in action in the sprint race at Imola on September 1st-4th. You can find out more about the championship at www.acisport.it/en/CIGT/home. —David Haueter
[Photos courtesy Italian GT]
