Championship Battle Heats Up

Stuttgart Cup

Over the past couple years we’ve grown accustom to seeing ANDY PILGRIM leading the Championship points however Andy has switched from Maranello Cup to Stuttgart Cup for 2022! With his new team Bartone Racing, Andy is campaigning the #4 Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR and currently leading the points.

Not far behind Andy in second is teammate ANTHONY BARTONE in an identical Clubsport #427. New to International GT racing, Anthony has done an excellent job coming up to speed, with Andy’s coaching. Pilgrim and Bartone both have 3 races completed each.

Third in the Stuttgart Cup standings is MIKE WARD #711 Eastgate Sod Racing. Mike just started with the series at Road America however, he has plenty of time to catch the Bartone cars with four remaining races and 300+ points available.

With just a couple starts this season but plenty of time to make a run for the championship (5 race minimum) in fourth place is MIKE MARTIN #5 Zotz Racing and fifth belongs to JOE RIZZO #12 from the gang out of RS1 Racing. Both of these competitors are very strong racers and could top the charts on any given weekend!

In positions 6 and 7 also with two races this season are AL LASORTE#10 and MARIA MEJIA #11 Quirt Racing.

Rounding out the Top 10, with one race this season but slated for more are RUSSELL WITTENBERG #33, CHRIS RUPPEL #09 Zotz Racing and JOHN KOSTER #575 who had a great race at Lime Rock.

Maranello Cup

In Maranello Cup the category has been dominated by JUAN FAYEN in his black #17 Ferrari 488GT with FMS Motorsports. Juan has the most starts in Maranello Cup with 4. However he has to miss the upcoming Watkins Glen event which will be a good opportunity for others to make up ground in the championship.

Juan is followed in second place by JOHN PATRICK MULLANEY #36 in his white Ferrari 458 Challenge car. Mullaney made a strong start to the season at Sebring and Road Atlanta, hopefully we will see him back this fall.

Third place in Championship is ROB METKA #54 Etcetera Racing. Over the years we’ve become used to seeing Rob in his reflective blue Ferrari, but after the long Covid hiatus where travel was restricted for the Canadian, he returned to action with a beautiful red Ferrari. Rob has two starts and will be at Watkins Glen. It will be great to see where he ends up when he has 5 races complete.

With only one race start each, COLIN COHEN #15 Norwood Auto Italia, ROLAND VEIT #16 Pocono Sportscar and SEB COPPOLA #288 RM Motorsports all have a chance at the title by competing in the final four events, with 300+ points available.

Mission Food GT3 Cup Trophy

As always the most closely contested category is among the Mission Foods GT Cup cars. Leading the Championship is MARK MATHYS #77 in his MWM Motorsports/Wright Motorsports entry. Mark runs in the 4.OI category which was developed this season for overly improved 4 liter cars. 

Second place belongs to MARCEL FAYEN #03 FMS Motorsports. Marcel is son of Juan Fayen who is leading the Maranello Cup Championship – could we get our first father/son champions in 2022? 

In third is JODY MILLER #3 who is holding the highest place of the cars in the TLM Racing stable. However, TLM is well represented with 4 cars in the top 10 of the championship!

TOM PANK #42 Ultra Performance, past Mission Foods GT3 Cup Champion is holding down fourth position. Tom admits it’s been an up and down start to the season so with some consistency in the coming races he or anyone in the top ten could be Champion.

Positions 5-10 are covered by less then 50 points and with 300+ points available in the coming 4 races, we wouldn’t be surprised to see some in this group jump into the top positions! Here is the list and the number of races they have completed: 5. NICHOLAS GROOMBRIDGE #56, SpeedSport – 4 races, 6. STEPHEN HAMMAN #72, TLM Racing – 3 races, 7. LUKAS PANK #40, Ultra Performance – 4 races, 8. JAMES HAMMAN #176, TLM Racing – 4 races, 9. DAVID TUATY #68, TLM Racing – 3 races, 10. TODD SLOAN #25, J-Max Racing – 3 races.

The Changing Points Picture

As we enter the second half of the 2022 season the points picture has the potential to make big changes. For the final points in the championship, we count the best 5 enduro finishes and the best 10 sprint finishes. As competitors post better finishes they have the potential to drop some of their not quite as successful finishes and for those who may not have competed in five events yet, they can add to their total as they get closer to the five event mark.

Stayed tuned…this is when the fun starts!

Click on the picture to see the full points standings.

Watkins Glen Entries Filling Fast

We’ve mentioned it in the last couple emails however we only have a couple remaining spots open for the Watkins Glen September 7-11 event. Click on the Victory Circle photo to enter the race or see the event schedule. As a reminder the schedule for this event is a bit different than our usual with testing starting on Wednesday and all International GT racing completed on Saturday. If you have any questions contact Julie@International.net or call (770) 380-7770.

Marketplace

Do you have something to sell, looking for something to purchase? Use our Marketplace to promote your race car, transporter or equipment. It’s free to International GT participants.

Kernodle Photography

The official photographer for International GT is John Kernodle. Click on the photo to link to the Kernodle Photography website and see special offers from John to International GT competitors.

Pirelli Tire Orders

We are proud to partner with Pirelli tires as the exclusive provider to all International GT events. All Pirelli tire orders need to go through Frisby Tires. Frisby is on hand at all IGT events to service the IGT participants.

Click on the tire photo to link to the Frisby site for IGT orders or call (800)373-7390.

2022 Schedule