The time has come for a roundup of the 2016 season and the many successes racked up by the cars prepared by Michelotto, which also sport our Tubi Style exhaust systems.
WEC
The WEC ended the 2016 FIA Endurance Championship season with controversy raging about Balance of Performance (BoP) adjustments. The Michelotto car took the World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers on 294 points.
ELMS
Bad luck deprived the JMW Motorsport team and Andrea Bertolini (a driver with longstanding links to the Tubi Style brand), of a title that looked in the bag. The British team can console itself with the fact that it looks certain to be one of the protagonists in the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans, having taken the top two spots in the rankings.
Blancpain Endurance Cup
The Blancpain Endurance Cup concluded at the Nürburgring, delivering a superb mix of exhilaration and spectacle with Kessel Racing taking the title in both the Pro-Am Cup and Am Cup classes.
Blancpain Sprint Series
The Blancpain Sprint Cup ended on a positive note for the Michelotto cars with Polish driver Michal Broniszewski taking the title, having previously won the Endurance Cup and Overall title. It was a perfect championship too for Am Cup expert Claudio Sdanewitsch. The Pro-Am Cup went to another Michelotto-prepared car fielded by Rinaldi Racing.
Blancpain Series GT Sports Cup
Driving the Michelotto-prepared AF Corse Ferrari, Martin Lanting took victory for the second consecutive year in the Iron Cup, a category reserved for Over 60s drivers.
PWG
Martin Fuentes is the new Pirelli World Challenge GT-A class champion. His victory is the fourth title won in North America by the Michelotto Ferrari 458 Italia after previous triumphs in 2012 and 2013 in the Grand-Am, and in 2015 in the GT-Daytona class of the IMSA SCC.
IMSA SCC
Christina Nielsen more than lived up to expectations last season. The 24 year old Danish driver from Hørsholm became the first woman to win one of the world’s leading championships, the GT-Daytona class of the IMSA series. She was helped on her way to making motorsport history by Italian driver Alessandro Balzan, on his second title in a Michelotto-prepared car after his 2013 Grand-Am triumph in the 458 Italia.
VdeV endurance
Jean Bernard Bouvet, Jean-Paul Pagny and Thierry Perrier retained their VdeV Endurance title after the Magny-Cours race. This was the Visiom Racing team’s second consecutive win. In 2015, Pagny, Perrier and Bouvet drove the 458 Italia to victory also, and then repeated their feat in 2016 in the 488 GT3, on its debut on the international scene.
VLN
After a very successful season, the RaciNGK Team was honoured as the overall champion of the SP8 class during the Endurance Championship Nurburgring (VLN) award ceremony in the Warsteiner Event Center. In the overall ranking of the various classes, the RaciNGK Team drivers Mike Jäger, Stephan Köhler and Christian Kohlhaas get to share 12th place (out of a total of 863 drivers).
GT ASIA SERIES
A Michelotto-prepared Ferrari won the 2016 GT Asia Series, thanks to Kantasak Kusiri and Bhurit Bhrimobhakdi who took the title well ahead of time in the GTC class at the wheel of a 458 Challenge Evo fielded by Singha Plan-B Motorsport.
GT3 Le Mans Cup
A second position was all that Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar needed to give them the first ever GT3 Le Mans Cup Driver’s title. The number 72 Ferrari 488 of SMP Racing did the business in the final race of the season at the famous Estoril circuit in Portugal.
Italian GT Championship
The end of the Italian GT Championship was dominated by Michelotto-prepared cars. The Michelotto drivers and client teams took home the Super GT3 title thanks to Stefano Gai and Mirko Venturi in the 488 GT3 of Black Bull Swiss Racing, simultaneously winning the GT3 class with Eddie Cheever III and Federico Leo in the Scuderia Baldini 27 Network’s 458 Italia.
AUSTRALIAN GT TROPHY
Queensland driver Scott Hookey won the Challenge Class of the Australian GT Trophy. The Exotic Track Days man delivered a second and a third place in the final round at Phillip Island, ably fending off a last attack from Ockert Fourie.
CIVM
At the end of the Mount Erice Hill Climb Time Trial, Lucio Peruggini was crowned the new Italian GT Class Champion at the wheel of a Michelotto-prepared AB Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.
