BMW is off to a strong start in the Italian GT championship with the BMW Italia Ceccato Racing team, which is run by legendary BMW racer Roberto Ravaglia. The team has entries in both the Sprint Cup and Endurance Cup championships, most notably in the Sprint Cup with works drivers Jens Klingmann and Jesse Krohn. The team is defending champions from last season.
There are four race weekends in the Italian Cup Sprint Cup championship, with two races per weekend. In the opening Sprint Cup weekend at the Vallelunga circuit, Klingmann and Krohn won the first race in the #1 M4 GT3 EVO after starting from the third row, with both drivers putting in strong performances behind the wheel.
In race two at Vallelunga, Krohn, and Klingmann finished seventh after being allotted pit stop penalties, but it was a good start to the season. “Vallelunga was a very strong weekend for us,” said Klingmann. “With Saturday’s win, we’ve started our title defense mission for the third year in a row. That gave us and the team a lot of confidence that we’re competitive and can fight for the title again. On Sunday, we tried to make the most of the pit stop penalties, which are based on Saturday’s results, and to limit the damage. Our mission this year is clear: we want to defend the title.”
Jens Klingmann (left) and Jesse Krohn celebrate their win at Vallelunga.
The driver pairing in the #2 BMW Italia Ceccato Racing team M4 GT3 EVO also had a strong start to the Sprint Cup season, with William Alatalo and Leonardo Caglioni finishing third overall and first in the Pro-Am class in race one at Vallelunga. The pair had a DNF in race two.
Leonardo Caglioni (left) and William Alatalo finished third overall and first in Pro-Am in the first Sprint Cup race at Vallelunga.
The BMW Italia Ceccato Racing team also competes in the Italian GT Endurance Cup championship. In the first race at Misano, the trio of Leonardo Caglioni, Stefano Comandini, and Francesco Guerra had a DNF, but they bounced back to a solid fourth place overall and third place finish in the Pro-Am class in the second round at Monza. They had some bad luck in that race as well, as they were running in first when they had to serve a drive-through penalty which dropped them to eighth before they fought back to finish fourth.
BMW Italia Ceccato Racing finished third in the Pro-Am class in the Endurance Cup race at Monza.
The next round of the Italian GT championship is a Sprint Cup race weekend at Mugello on July 11th-13th, followed by an Endurance Cup round at Imola on August 1st-3rd.
—David Haueter
[Photos courtesy Italian GT]
