Vita4One set to drop FIA GT plans

The Vita4One BMW team looks unlikely to contest any races in the new FIA GT Series this year.

Vita4One, which as Vitaphone Racing won five titles in previous iterations of the series, missed the season opener at Nogaro and is now absent from round two at Zolder this weekend.

Team boss Michael Bartels explained that the chances of the team, which had planned to run at least one BMW Z4, joining the series later in the year are looking slim.

“We couldn’t find the drivers to compete at the correct performance level,” he said.

“Zandvoort [the next round of the series on July 6/7] is unlikely, because the test day for the Spa 24 Hours is just a few days before and straight after the Paul Ricard Blancpain Endurance Series race.

“I don’t know if it will be possible for us to do the test as well as Zandvoort. Spa is very important for us, so we have to be there.”

Bartels said that the focus for Vita4One was now the Blancpain series, in which it is looking to expand from two to three entries, and that it was also investigating programmes in other series.

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/vita4one-set-to-drop-fia-gt-plans

Mike Hailwood Mika Häkkinen Bruce Halford Jim Hall Duncan Hamilton