The Spanish weekend smiled on the cars from the Maranello manufacturer. At Valencia in the GT World Challenge Europe – Sprint Cup, the number 69 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Emil Frey Racing clinched the title in the Gold Cup, while the number 74 of Kessel Racing was crowned champion in the Bronze Cup. In the International GT Open, thanks to results at the Barcelona circuit, two crews are still in contention for the championship, which will be decided in the final round at Monza. In Indianapolis, in the IMSA championship, victory in the GTD class went to the Inception Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Also on the podium, in third, was official driver Daniel Serra with the Conquest Racing team. In GTD Pro, the number 81 Ferrari 296 GT3 of DragonSpeed, with official driver Davide Rigon, took the runner-up place.

IMSA. Ferrari brought another team to its first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory, with Inception Racing dominating the final hour of Sunday’s Battle on the Bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win the GTD class.

Brendan Iribe, Frederik Schandorff and Ollie Millroy started 15th, and were up to 13th at the halfway point. Millroy worked his way to the class lead during a round of green flag pit stops with just over two hours remaining in the six-hour contest, and led the final hour to win by 1.586 seconds.

“This is incredible,” said Millroy, who saw a nine-second lead negated when a late caution led to a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag. “The team has done a fantastic job all year. This is our first full season with the Ferrari, and we are showing everybody how good a job we’ve done to learn this car. We’ve been close so many times (finishing second six times), and now we’re finally doing it. I could have done without the last safety car, but it made it a little more exciting.”

“There’s been such a build up for this,” Schandorff added. “We’ve been so close, so many times. My heart rate was actually higher watching Fred on my Apple watch during the final laps than it was while I was in the car. That shows how emotional this win is.”

Inception entered the event tied for the lead in the Endurance Cup, gaining the maximum five points for the final segment.

Albert Costa and Ferrari factory driver Davide Rigon finished second in GTD Pro,  driving the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3. The team spent much of the event running a competitive fourth, making its move late in the race. Costa took second with 25 minutes remaining, with his late charge coming up 0.594 seconds short at the checkered flag.

Costa remains second in the GTD championship, entering the season finale only 18 points behind the leader.

Conquest Racing once again placed on the GTD podium, with Manny Franco, Ben Tuck and factory driver Daniel Serra sharing the No. 34 Corsa Horizon 296 GT3. Serra was fourth with 30 minutes remaining, but was spun by an LMP2 Protoype and fell to sixth. He was up to fourth by the white flag, taking third on the final lap.

Triarsi Competizione came home a first-time IMSA winner in the recent race at Road America. 

At Indianapolis, owner/driver Onofrio Triarsi started eighth in his No. 023 Ferrari of Central Florida / David SW Ferrari 296 GT3, but served an early penalty for a grid infringement and fell to the rear of the 18-car field. Undaunted, he worked his way up to fifth before pit stops. Factory driver James Calado took over and was third before pitting and turning the car over to Kenton Koch, who ran second behind Millroy entering the final hour. Koch pitted with 14 minutes remaining, falling to seventh at the finish.

Triarsi Competizione’s No. 021 Ferrari of Central Florida entry driven by A.J. Muss, Niccolo Schiro and Joel Miller started 11th and finished eighth.

Factory driver Lilou Wadoux carried Ferrari’s hopes into the event. She was third fastest in qualifying for the combined GT3 classes, and started out the outside of the front row in GTD. 

After running second prior to her first pit stop, she was fifth after 27 laps when she went wide through the grass in the final turn and came to a stop on the front stretch. She managed to get to the pits, but retired in 18th position before fellow Ferrari factory driver Alessandro Pier Guidi and Simon Mann had the opportunity to drive. The team entered the race tied for the lead in the Endurance Cup, but earned minimum points for their effort.

It was also a difficult day for the No. 47 Cetilar Ferrari of Nicola Lacorte, Lorenzo Patrese and factory driver Antonio Fuoco. Lacorte started sixth but was caught in the middle of three-wide action in Turn 1 seconds after taking the green flag. A car came on the inside and hit the blue Ferrari, which had nowhere to go. The team had a lengthy pit stop, losing 13 laps before returning to the contest. They soldiered on for the remainder of the event, finishing 12^th.

One event remains on the WeatherTech Championship schedule, as the campaign comes to a close with the 10-hour Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta on Saturday, October 11.

GT World Challenge Europe – Sprint Cup. Ferrari leaves the season’s final round of the Sprint Cup, contested in Valencia, with two titles. In the Gold Cup, Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham were crowned Sprint Cup champions at the wheel of the number 69 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Emil Frey Racing after a thrilling finale to Race-2. The pair were second, at risk of losing the head of the standings, but a 10-second penalty for their rivals cleared the way to clinch the title. In the first race contested on Saturday, the number 69 Ferrari 296 GT3 had crossed the line first, but a drive-through, converted into a 26-second penalty for failing to observe yellow flag conditions, dropped them to fourth place overall, second in class.

The number 74 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Kessel Racing, meanwhile, won the Bronze Cup with the pairing of Dustin Blattner and Dennis Marschall. Crucial for the Swiss team in the Sprint Cup were the points earned in Valencia, thanks to victory in Race-1 and third place in Race-2, behind the number 93 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Ziggo Sport Tempesta, with Eddie Cheever and Marco Pulcini. In the first race, the two Italians had finished ninth. 

Among the Pros, the number 51 Ferrari 296 GT3 of AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors, with official driver Alessio Rovera and Vincent Abril, managed a sixteenth and a twentieth place. AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors second car, number 50, with official drivers Arthur Leclerc and Thomas Neubauer, returned from Spain with an eighth and a nineteenth place. Still among the Pros, the number 14 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Emil Frey Racing, with Konsta Lappalainen and Ben Green, only contested the second race, where it finished twelfth.

In the Silver class, the number 52 Ferrari 296 GT3 of AF Corse – Francorchamps Motors, with Jef Machiels and Marcos Siebert, took a seventh and a fifth place.

With the Sprint Cup concluded, the GT World Challenge Europe now moves on to the final round of the Endurance Cup, scheduled from 10 to 12 October at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

International GT Open. The final round at Monza (18–19 October) will decide the champions of the various classes of the championship, still wide open thanks to the Barcelona round results. Still in contention for the Pro title are Tommaso Mosca and Carl Bennett, who, in the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 number 51, collected a sixth place and, above all, an overall win in Race-2, which propelled them to third place in the overall standings, 11 points behind the leaders.

The Am class will also go down to the wire, with the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 number 21 of Gino Forgione and Michele Rugolo, who at Barcelona took a fourth place and a win. The Italian crew are four points clear in the standings over their closest pursuers.

Also in Pro, the number 17 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Elite Motorsport with Entire Race Engineering, with Tom Lebbon and Tom Emson, after retiring from the first race, crossed the line in Race-2 in fourth place overall.

In the Pro Am class, the number 777 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Olimp Racing, with Marcin Jedlinski and Karol Basz, managed a seventh and an eleventh place class finish, while the number 55 of AF Corse, with Laurent De Meeus and Jamie Stanley, was eighth and ninth. The number 88 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Into Africa Racing by Dragon, with Xolile Letlaka and Axcil Jefferies, took tenth and seventh, respectively, in Race-1 and Race-2.

In the Am class, two sixth places went to the car number 5 of Olimp Racing, with Stanislaw Jedliński and Krystian Korzeniowski. 

Super GT Japan. In the sixth round, contested at the Sugo circuit, the number 7 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Car Guy MKS Racing, with Rikuto Kobayashi and Zak O’ Sullivan, after taking pole position among the GT300s, failed to confirm itself among the leaders and closed the race in eighth place. The number 6 of Velorex, with Yoshiaki Katayama and Roberto Merhi Muntan, finished twelfth, while the number 45 of Ponos Racing, with Kei Cozzolino and Takuro Shinohara at the steering wheel, was twenty-first. 

The next round of the championship is scheduled from 18 to 19 October at the Autopolis circuit.