Wednesday 18 / September / 2024
MONZA: Australian racer Broc Feeney will join forces with Oman’s Al-Faisal bin Khalid Al-Zubair and Austrian Dominik Baumann to compete for Gold Cup honours at the fourth round of the 2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Monza this weekend.
Feeney replaces Canadian Mikaël Grenier in the Al-Manar Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo as the new racing combination aims to close the nine-point gap on the Saintéloc Racing trio of Paul Evrard, Gilles Magnus and Jim Pla in both the Team and Gold Cup Championships. Saintéloc Racing won rounds one and three at Paul Ricard and the Nürburgring, while the Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed crew prevailed at the prestigious Crowdstrike 24 Hours of Spa.
Feeney, 22, is a well-known young Australian racing driver who competes in the Repco Supercars Championship and was also the winner of the 2021 Dunlop Super2 Series in a VF Commodore. He started karting 11 years ago and won numerous state and national championships before graduating to the Toyota 86 Racing Series Australia.
The Gold Coast youngster is also a class winner at the Bathurst 12-Hour and finished third, fifth and sixth overall on his last three outings in a Triple Eight Race Engineering Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.
Al-Faisal said: “Looking forward to this weekend’s race in Monza. It is the penultimate round of the championship before Jeddah. We are currently second in the championship, nine points behind the Saintéloc Audi. Anything is really on and it is still possible to win the title. This weekend we have a good package with the Mercedes for Monza.
“We will have Broc Feeney joining us instead of Mikaël Grenier, as Mik has a race in the IMSA Championship. We really believe in Broc’s strength and we think we can achieve a good result at the weekend and continue the fight for the championship.”
Fifty-two cars will compete for honours across the various categories in Italy this weekend. Gold Cup rivals include the third-placed Haupt Racing Mercedes crew, the Tresor Attempto Racing Audi and the CSA Racing Audi that claimed a podium finish at the opening round in France.
The weekend’s action gets underway with a bronze test on Friday (September 20th) afternoon before a two-hour free practice session takes centre stage from 09.00hrs on Saturday (September 21st). Pre-qualifying will be permitted for an hour in the afternoon.
A hectic Sunday (September 22nd) sees the three qualifying sessions take place from 09.00hrs and then the three-hour race fires into life at 15.30hrs.
Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup competitors will share the circuit with the McLaren Trophy Europe, the Fanatec GT2 European Series powered by Pirelli and the GT4 European Series powered by RAFA Racing.
2024 Fanatec GT World Challenge powered by AWS Endurance Cup – latest standings:
Teams
1. Saintéloc Racing ` 89pts
2. Al-Manar Racing by Getspeed 80pts
3. Haupt Racing Team 51pts
4. Tresor Attempto Racing 43pts
5. 2 Seas Motorsport 39pts
6. CSA Racing 35pts
Drivers
1. Paul Evrard/Gilles Magnus/Jim Pla 89pts
2. Al-Faisal Al-Zubair/Dominik Baumann/Mikaël Grenier 80pts
3. Arjun Maini/Michele Beretta/Jusuf Owega 51pts
4. Philip Ellis 43pts
5. Lorenzo Patrese/Leonardo Moncini/Lorenzo Ferrari 43pts
6. Isa Al-Khalifa/Martin Kodric/Lewis Williamson 39pts
7. Ugo de Wilde 38pts, etc
