Trio of European podiums for GT Aussies

The opening weekend’s for the GT WCE and ELMS series produced three Aussie GT podiums for Calan Williams, Ricky Capo, and Martin Berry.

At Monza, Italy, the opening of the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup saw two of the three Aussies claim podiums, with WRT’s Williams, and Grasser Racing’s Capo taking out Gold and Silver Cup class trophies.

Whilst in the European Le Mans Series at the 4 Hours of Barcelona, Berry took out P3 for JMW Motorsport in his ELMS GT debut.

Williams, a former Formula 2 racer, took out a P3 in the Gold Cup class in the Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, alongside his teammates Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer, and Niklas Krütten.

Williams (R) took out a podium in his WRT GT3 debut at Monza in the GT WCE Endurance Cup season opener

After 94 laps of racing at the Temple of Speed, the Williams and the #30 BMW team finished in P12 overall with a time of 1:48.035, +1:04.881 in arrears of the outright Pro Cup winners, and around 14 seconds back from the Gold Cup winners in the #21 Audi R8, which included Max Hofer, winner of the opening GT WCA round at Bathurst last weekend.

Williams and the #30 WRT BMW team execute a driver change during the 3 Hours of Monza

Williams proved himself a handful in the qualifying, taking out P1 in his class, and P7 overall in his session (under the combined times, the team started in P2 in its class, and 15th overall).

It was another class P3 at Monza for Australia’s Ricky Capo, with the experienced Victorian journeyman helping guide the Lamborghini Huracan Evo 2 to a podium in the Silver Cup for Grasser Racing.

Alongside Sam Neary and Fabrizio Crestani, the trio were also the 2nd out of the eight new Lamborghini GT3’s on track, finishing 27th outright in the #58 Huracan, with its sister #85 car retiring after the first hour.

Grasser Racing’s Ricky Capo took out a P3 to help celebrate the home racing debut of the stunning Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2

Along with the Pro Cup and Pro-Am Cup podiums, Capo can count himself amongst the first racers to take the steps in the brand new Huracan GT3, which was making its home racing debut.

Smiles all-round for the Grasser Racing #58 team. (Capo front of shot)

For fellow Aussie Alex Peroni, his GT debut ended via his teammate Florian Scholze taking contact on the first lap, causing damage to the front left and forcing the German GetSpeed #3 Mercedes into retirement.

At the ELMS opener at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Berry and his team couldn’t convert its pole – taken by the Aussie – into a victory.

Aussie GT racer Martin Berry took pole in the Ferrari 488 at the Barcelona ELMS opener, with the team converting it into a P3

But they did guide the Ferrari F488 GTE EVO to a P3 in the LM GTE class, with Berry competing in his first ELMS series alongside teammates Lorcan Hanafin and Jon Lancaster, finishing 1 Lap behind the Formula Racing Ferrari, and Proton Racing Porsche 911 class winner. 

For Capo, Williams, and Peroni, their next round comes at Circuit Paul Ricard on June 2-4, for a 1000km race before the Spa 24 Hour at the end of the month.

Berry will again jump in the JMW Ferrari for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet at Paul Ricard on July 16.

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