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[GT] Capelli leads Maserati to Sandown
by Trofeo Motorsport
pic: Sean Henshelwood
Former F1 star Capelli to campaign Maserati in Melbourne
20th October 2008
Melbourne based team Trofeo Motorsport has today confirmed its entry into the final round of the Australian GT Championship scheduled for Sandown Raceway over the November 29/30 weekend. This will mark the debut of the FIA GT3 Maserati Trofeo Light cars which were campaigned in the 2006 Trofeo Motorsport team into the Australian GT Championship with their three European GT3 Championship.
This event marks the next phase in the development of the Trofeo team leading to a full scale assault on the Australian GT Championship in 2009.
Whilst good news in itself, the real surprise part of the announcement is that a third car will be entered for the popular two-car team, with former Ferrari Formula One pilot Ivan Capelli joining regular drivers Rod Wilson and Jim Manolios for a heavy-duty Maserati assault on the two-one hour events.
"We are delighted to announce the inclusion of Ivan into the team," said Trofeo manager Rod Wilson. "He joined us for a test earlier in the year at Calder Park and we have been waiting for the right moment to get him back here to race. He will drive our third car which has recently undergone a complete rebuild in preparation for this historic occasion. "I am not sure that we have had too many Formula One stars compete in Australian events in a locally prepared car - we have put an immense amount of work into the development of these cars and Ivan’s experience will be extremely valuable.
Trofeo owner Jim Manolios met Ivan whilst attending a Maserati Master GT course in 2003 “Ivan is a director of the Maserati Master GT program based in Italy that provides advanced driver tuition for Maserati owners world wide, since that event we became good friends which has lead to this opportunity for him to race with the Trofeo Team, he is a terrific guy and I was just so impressed with the way he has a handle on the car driving it to the edge with absolute confidence. His involvement also gives us the capacity to benchmark our cars and team and see where we are at with the development into competitive race cars.
Trofeo Motorsport have a busy program mapped out for Ivan during his stay in Australia, beginning with a visit to Adelaide the week before the Sandown event as a guest of Maserati at the Classic Adelaide Rally cocktail party, and then on the Monday before the event the team will head to Winton for a final shakedown of the three cars. This is a huge effort to get a three car team on the grid, and Trofeo have acknowledged the outstanding support of their partners Maserati, Pirelli and Iveco who are excited about the prospect of a great result at Sandown.
Trofeo Motorsport has a long history with the Maserati Brand with Rod Wilson winning on debut (Class A) in a Maserati Trofeo at the Australian F1 GP support event in 2003; this was in fact the world wide debut of the Maserati Trofeo and a historic occasion for the Maserati brand. Both Rod and Jim campaigned a pair of Maserati Trofeo’s in the 2007 Intermarque championship with a Championship win for Rod and third place for Jim in his maiden year.
Trofeo closely integrate their racing activity’s with a drive day program that they conduct at circuits around Australia utilising the Maserati brand exclusively, giving clients the opportunity to sample a range of Maserati cars and experience hot laps in the Trofeo GT3 Race cars. Trofeo Motorsport business portfolio includes being the appointed distributor for Pirelli Motorsport products in Australia and a range of unique Carbon fibre wheels from Dymag in the UK.
Trofeo will announce additional partners and information in the coming weeks.
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Ivan Capelli
Born in 1963 in Milan, Italy, Ivan began racing karts in 1978, before moving straight into the Italian Formula 3 Championship four years later. The following year, with the Coloni team, he dominated the Italian Championship with nine victories, and moved with Coloni into the European series, which he also won.
In 1985 he entered the European Formula 3000 Championship with a Genoa Racing March and won a race. The same year he made his F1 debut with Tyrrell, replacing Stefan Bellof, finishing an outstanding fourth in Australia. In 1986 he concentrated on Formula 3000 and won the title, while also racing for BMW in the European Touring Car Championship. He also raced a couple of times during the year in F1 with the AGS team.
In 1987 he entered F1 full-time with the Leyton House March Team, while also continuing to race BMW touring cars for the Schnitzer team, he took his Leyton House-Judd to second place behind Alain Prost's McLaren-Honda in the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, a performance which marked the Italian as one of the brightest stars of his generation.
In 1992 he joined the Ferrari team with team mate Jean Alesi but suffered a season of great unreliability, which stalled his F1 Career. A stint at Jordon in 1993 with Barachello as the second driver was Ivan's final year in F1. Since then he has kept himself sharp with numerous drives and testing roles with both Maserati and Ferrari, and is a respected F1 commentator on Italian Television.
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