After an unlucky outing in the opening round of GT Cup Europe at Portimão earlier this year, Michele Merendino returns to the track this weekend (2–4 October) to make his Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe debut.
The Italian driver and WYDA GT Ambassador will contest the fifth and penultimate round of the one-make series for Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 cars in Barcelona, sharing a Rexal Villorba Corse entry with British driver Philip Truman to form a strong Pro-Am pairing.
The continental championship presents a new challenge for Merendino, featuring cars from the Sant’Agata Bolognese marque powered by a 5.2-litre engine producing 620 hp.
Also an instructor at Lamborghini Accademia, the Sicilian is the son of Alfonso, known as “Apache”, who won the final edition of the Targa Florio held as a road race in 1977. Michele’s racing career began in single-seaters in the early 1990s before progressing through touring cars, sports prototypes and GT racing.The weekend’s track action gets underway tomorrow with two 60-minute free practice sessions. Qualifying starts at 11:10 CEST on Saturday, followed by the first of two 50-minute races at 16:50 CEST. Race 2 takes place on Sunday at 12:10 CEST. Both races will be streamed live on the official Lamborghini Squadra Corse YouTube channel.