Victory for Iron Lynx in the Italian GT Finale at IMOLA

For the finale of the Italian GT Championship Sprint Cup, Iron Lynx arrived at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari with a three-car entry for two 50-minute races.

Joining Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni in the yellow #20 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 and Luciano Privitelio in the white #208 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 for this round was the green #209 Super Trofeo EVO2 driven by Bruno and Fabio Malerba.

The conditions were good throughout the weekend around the Emilia Romagna-based circuit, and the trio of cars completed plenty of laps during Friday’s practice sessions ahead of Saturday’s qualifying sessions. Claudio took the #20 for the first 20-minute sessions and ended up seventh in class for Saturday’s race.

In the second session, which determined the grid for Sunday, a masterful lap early on from Matteo took him to the top of the timesheets, and he would stay there for the remainder of qualifying.

In Q1, Luciano qualified in 15th before improving his lap times in Q2 – placing 14th. In the #209 driven by the Malerba pair, Fabio qualified 15th for race one, while Bruno was classified 13th for the second.

Saturday’s race occurred late afternoon as the sun descended behind the trees. Unfortunately, the race did not go the way of the Iron Lynx trio.

Claudio’s race was hampered early on as he was blamelessly tipped into a high-speed spin by another car. This necessitated a pitstop out of the pit window due to the flat-spotted tyres, limiting the result to sixth in class.

The lap times from Matteo when he took over were among the fastest in the field, making it a case of what might have been for the team. The #209’s race ended early after being hit from behind after making up ground during the pitstop. Luciano, meanwhile, put in some good lap times across his 50 minutes of action and ended up 13th.

Sunday’s race, the entire action throughout, went much better for the team. Matteo took the start from the pole in the #20 and had to manage two Safety Car restarts in the early stages, brilliantly opening up a good lead on both occasions before proceeding to lap significantly quicker than the cars fighting behind.

This meant that when he handed over to Claudio, the #20 had a comfortable advantage to manage in the second part of the race, which included working through lots of traffic. In the closing stages, his good times and race management meant he held a lead of five seconds when a late Safety Car was called, which nullified that lead.

However, the race finished under safe car conditions, meaning the crew had secured its second-season victory.

In the GT Cup Am class, Luciano spent much of the race in a battle over 11th, also managing his pace before coming home in 12th place to round out the season for the #208.

At the same time, the Malerba pairing had a clean race and raced their way to 13th in class, with Bruno taking the opening part of the race before handing it to Fabio.

Italian GT Championship Race 1

• #20 Iron Lynx – P6 (GT3 Pro-Am)
• #208 Iron Lynx – P13 (GT Cup Am)
• #209 Iron Lynx – DNF (GT Cup Am)

Italian GT Championship Race 2

• #20 Iron Lynx – P1 (GT3 Pro-Am)
• #208 Iron Lynx – P12 (GT Cup Am)
• #209 Iron Lynx – P13 (GT Cup Am)

Iron Lynx Team Principal and CEO Andrea Piccini, said: “It was a fantastic victory for Claudio and Matteo to round out the Italian GT season, and we have proved this weekend that our Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 is a speedy car. It was a perfect performance from Matteo, while Claudio showed a solid pace in race two.

“It was a very difficult track to have the first race for the Malerba pair, but they had fun and learned a lot through the weekend to bring the car home on Sunday. We enjoyed having them with the team here at Imola.

“Luciano raced alone for the first time in his home race, but he got plenty of track time this weekend, which will be useful when he is reunited with his son Donovan for the Super Trofeo World Finals at Vallelunga next month!”