Oregon Team is set to take on its second International GT Open season as the opening round of the 2023 calendar is schedule this coming weekend (29/30 April) at the Portimão track. The Italian squad hits the track to defend the crown, having won both the GT3 drivers’ and teams’ titles last year.
The team led by Jerry Canevisio and Piergiorgio Testa will field two brand-new Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2s. German racer Maximilian Paul (23) pairs with Frenchman Pierre-Louis Chovet (21) aboard one of the cars to battle it out in premier GT3 Pro division. Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe stars Italian Pietro Perolini (31) and Dutchman Daan Arrow Pijl (19) complete the other duo. The latter ones set the second quickest time of day 1 in the recent collective testing held in Barcelona last March.
All four drivers are strange to the championship, despite Paul contested the ADAC GT Masters series in the last four years and raced a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO in 2021 and 2022, when he also made his 24H Daytona debut. Chovet is a former open-wheels driver in the highly competitive Formula Regional European Championship before moving to the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe last season. Perolini became the Italian Super GT Cup champion in 2018, whilst Pijl claimed a victory in the Sant’Agata Bolognese’s one-make series in 2021.
A total of 33 cars will enter the season opener at Autódromo internacional do Algarve. The first two free practice sessions of the year are due to commence on Friday at 10.46 and 15.34 local time. Qualifying one will start on Saturday at 11.10 and decide the grid for 70-minute race one, scheduled at 16.30. Race two (one hour) will start on Sunday at 13.35, with the grid determined by the second qualifying scheduled bright and early at 9.00.
Both qualifying sessions and races will be live streamed at the International GT Open YouTube channel.
