Category Archives: Press
What the press wrote about Dimitris Deverikos and his racing agenda
Lamborghini Roma by DL Racing centra il podio nel diluvio di Pergusa
Prezioso terzo posto per i rookie laziali Fabi-Ianniello-Caiola all’esordio nel Campionato Italiano GT Endurance con il team che unisce la concessione della Capitale e la scuderia milanese e al volante della Huracan ST Evo2 gestita da Target Racing. Sfortuna invece per Bontempelli-Deverikos-Linossi
Enna, 21 maggio 2023. In un weekend difficilissimo, tra diluvio, forte vento e nebbia, arriva sull’autodromo di Pergusa un preziosissimo terzo posto in GT Cup Am per Lamborghini Roma by DL Racing, impegnato con due Hurancan ST Evo2 nel primo round del Campionato Italiano GT Endurance 2023. Malgrado le condizioni al limite del proibitivo trovate al loro esordio nella serie tricolore di durata, l’equipaggio formato dai rookie “terribili” Alessandro Fabi, Riccardo Ianniello e Alessio Caiola ha saputo gestire insidie ed emozioni fino a raggiungere il meritato podio di classe al termine delle due ore di gara. Il trio del team in partnership fra la concessione romana e la scuderia milanese ha anche lottato a più riprese ai vertici, nonostante un tamponamento causato da una vettura rivale (poi penalizzata) li abbia spediti in testacoda con conseguente perdita di due posizioni e secondi importanti e soprattutto una foratura proprio sul finire dello stint centrale di Fabi li abbia ulteriormente rallentati.
Per il 22enne pilota romano si trattava soltanto della seconda esperienza nell’automobilismo e al volante della Huracan gestita da Target Racing, con la quale era salito sul podio anche all’esordio assoluto nell’Italiano GT Sprint a inizio maggio al Misano World Circuit. Il 30enne driver della provincia di Latina Caiola, invece, era alla prima esperienza nel GT dopo i trascorsi in Turismo. Prima presenza addirittura assoluta in auto per il 16enne rookie romano Ianniello, promessa del karting e autore di un brillante ultimo stint di gara per un esordio bagnato dalla pioggia, certo, ma appunto anche dallo champagne condiviso con squadra e compagni. Il potenziale di un equipaggio così giovane è cresciuto a ogni turno disputato sulla pista ennese (purtroppo cancellata la terza sessione di prove libere e concluse anzitempo le qualifiche a causa delle condizioni meteo) e ora i tre sono attesi a ulteriori conferme nel prosieguo della serie endurance.
Sui 4950 metri del tracciato di Pergusa, sfortunata, invece, è stata la gara dell’altro equipaggio targato Lamborghini Roma by DL Racing, quello formato dal bresciano Luciano Linossi, dal milanese Lorenzo Bontempelli e da Dimitris Deverikos. Nello stint centrale proprio il pilota greco è stato costretto a fermarsi ai box per un guasto al semiasse dopo un’ottima prima ora di gara con Linossi in grande rimonta fino ai vertici di classe. La rivincita ha comunque già una data: 7-9 luglio, quando al Mugello Circuit andrà in scena il secondo round del Tricolore GT Sprint.
A capo di DL Racing, Diego Locanto ha rimarcato al termine del weekend siciliano: “Senza dubbio è stata una grande esperienza per i nostri rookie, che hanno dovuto affrontare condizioni meteo terribili, che però sono anche servite per crescere in determinate dinamiche. Siamo davvero contenti delle loro performance e del podio, arrivato malgrado un paio di sfortunati imprevisti che alla fine hanno pesato su una possibile vittoria. Peccato invece per i nostri piloti più maturi, ma si è intravisto anche il loro valore: è un equipaggio che ha tutte le carte in regola per navigare ai vertici della categoria. In generale, a Pergusa abbiamo vissuto la prima esperienza 2023 nella serie Endurance, la seconda dopo quella nello Sprint: in due weekend così diversi abbiamo ottenuto tre podi e ciò significa che nonostante le avversità siamo capaci di competere al top con costanza”.
The Italian GT Endurance Championship 2023 starts at Pergusa
This weekend, the endurance series kicks off on the Sicilian track, marking the first of four seasonal events. The regulations include two classes: GT3 and GT Cup, which will award a total of 14 Italian titles. The two-hour race will be broadcast live on ACISPORT TV (SKY 228) and streamed on all social platforms of the championship.
After the Sprint series that started in Misano two weeks ago, it is now time for the Endurance series of the Italian GT Championship 2023, which will begin at the Pergusa circuit in Sicily.
This season will also visit the Mugello and Monza, reaching its conclusion in mid-October at Vallelunga with the awarding of seven Italian championships in each of the two classes: GT3 and GT Cup.
GT3: Audi, BMW, Ferrari and Lamborghini are the featured brands at Pergusa in the top class. Among them are the two BMW M4 GT3 cars of BMW Italia-Ceccato Racing Team, driven by Stefano Comandini and the Swedish driver Alfred Nilsson, who continue their participation in the Endurance series from last year. They will be joined by Marco Cassarà, who will make his debut with the Bavarian manufacturer’s car. The second M4 will be driven by Francesco Guerra, the Italian GT4 Sprint 2020 champion, Salvatore Tavano from Syracuse, making his debut with BMW colours after winning three titles in TCR Italy, and 18-year-old Carlo Tamburini, who already participated at Misano in the Sprint series.
Ferrari will be represented by two 488 GT3 Evo2 cars, one with the colours of Scuderia Baldini, to be driven by former F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella and 23-year-old driver Tommaso Mosca from Brescia. The second car with the AF Corse livery will be driven by the Belgian driver Jules Castro, who had an impressive performance in Misano during the debut of the Sprint series, along with Eliseo Donno, one of the most promising young talents in Italian motorsport, and Stefano Gai, the 2019 GT3 Endurance champion and an experienced GT racer.
Imperiale Racing will field two Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo cars, with the first one driven by the British driver Jack Bartholomew, Paraguayan driver Miguel Garcia and Indian driver Mahaveer Raghunathan. The second car will be driven by Kevin Gilardoni, alongside Stuart Middleton and Raul Guzman. The latter two were already part of the team from Mirandola last year. Audi Sport Italia will open its sporting season in the Endurance series by fielding an R8 LMS with a new lineup consisting of the reigning GT3 AM champion, Marco Butti, Thai driver Sandy Stuvik, and 27-year-old Roman driver Luca Attianese.
GT Cup: Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche will compete in the class reserved for single-make configuration cars. The 488 Challenge cars will be fielded by Best Lap, with local driver Simone Patrinicola from Enna and Luca Demarchi, who already raced in Misano during the debut of the Sprint series, joined by Sabatino Di Mare from TCR Italy. The second 488 will bear the colours of Team SR&R, driven by Ciccio La Mazza from Catania, Manuel Menichini and Francesco Atzori.
There will be four Lamborghini Huracan ST cars on the track at Pergusa, two of them in DL Racing colours, driven by Alessandro Fabi, who already made his debut in Misano in the Sprint series, along with Riccardo Ianniello and Alessio Caiola. The second car will be driven by Lorenzo Bontempelli from Brianza, Luciano Linossi, returning to competition after 15 years and Greek driver Dimitris Deverikos.
The other two Huracan ST cars will bear the Bonaldi Motorsport livery and will be shared by the reigning GT Cup Endurance PRO-AM champions, the Serbian driver Milos Pavlovic, German driver Michael Fischbaum, and Colombian driver Andres Mendez paired with 22-year-old driver from Brescia Filippo Lazzaroni, a former Italian Prototypes Championship competitor. Completing the list of teams competing in the GT Cup are Davide Di Benedetto from Agrigento and Giuseppe Nicolosi from Catania, who will take their place in the Porsche 991 GT3 Cup of Krypton Motorsport alongside Stefano Pezzucchi.
Program and TV: The weekend in Pergusa will begin on Friday with a four-hour practice session (from 2 PM to 6 PM), followed by three additional one-hour practice sessions on Saturday (from 9 AM to 10 AM, from 11:25 AM to 12:25 PM, and from 1:55 PM to 2:55 PM), followed by three official practice sessions (from 5:20 PM to 6:30 PM). The two-hour race will start on Sunday at 12:30 PM and will be broadcast live on ACI Sport TV (SKY 228), on the website www.acisport.it/CIGT, and on the championship’s social media platforms, Facebook and YouTube
Dubai 24 hours
Glorax Racing has added Isaac Tutumlu, Gabriele Lancieri and Dimitri Deverikos to its lineup, which already had Andrey Birzhin Alexandrovich and Rino Mastronardi confirmed. Deverikos is the 2005 British GT GT3 champion, while 39-year-old Lancieri competed in the Italian GT championship in recent years.
Cruel luck ends the dream of Dimitis Deverikos
After spending 2014 away from the race tracks due to business commitments, Dimitris Deverikos had a plan for starting the 2015 season with a bang! Having already claimed two highly prestigious national GT titles (British in 2005 and Spanish Iber in 2013) there was still one major landmark missing from his long racing CV: participation in a major 24 hours race. Therefore when the opportunity presented to join his team mate from the successful 2013 Spanish Iber & Euro GT Open campaign Isaac Tutumlu for the Dubai 24 hours in the newly formed Glorax Racing team he literally jumped at it. Joining them in the Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, that was spotting the colors of Radisson Blu Park Hotel Athens, were experienced Italian racers Gabriele Lancieri, Rino Mastronardi as well as team owner Andrey Birzhin Alexandrovich. The crew, under the technical management of fellow Greek Giannoulis Kafetzis, started well on Wednesday’s open test by posting the 8th fastest time out of 24 entrants in the strongly contested A6 (i.e. GT3) class.
Dimitris equaled this achievement on Thursday’s final free practice session, a great performance given that this was his first experience of the daunting 5390 meters race track. Things were looking well for the Glorax Racing team as they entered qualifying and indeed their strong level was evident on the first half of the session where Alexandrovich posted the 6th fastest time! For the second and final half of the session it was Tutumlu’s turn to take the wheel and indeed the Spaniard improved as he was fighting hard for a place in the top 10. Unfortunately, it was then that disaster struck: braking hard from 240 kph Tutumlu found oil that the marshals failed to warn about. A big crash was unavoidable and unfortunately another two cars joined in sympathy creating a very expensive crash scene. The damage on the Ferrari was substantial and crucially impossible to fix until the race’s start leaving the team no option but to retire their entry.
The 24 hours dream of Dimitris may have to wait a little longer to be fulfilled, however with the continued support of Radisson Blu Park Hotel Athens, he has an exciting season to look forward and move on with his next racing challenge!
Links:
Greek motorsports federation (OMAE) official site
http://www.omae-epa.gr/index.php/news/press-releases/141-24-dubai
http://www.omae-epa.gr/index.php/news/press-releases/142-24-dubai-2
News portals
http://www.zougla.gr/automoto/article/trakare-me-240xlmora-ke-katastrafike-i-ferari-tou-deverikou
http://www.sport-fm.gr/article/o-dimitris-deberikos-stis-24-wres-tou-ntoumpai/821331
http://www.newspile.gr/15689/2015-01/o-dimitris-deberikos-stis-24-wres-tou-ntoumpai.html
Car & motorsports magazines/websites
http://www.4troxoi.gr/default.php?pname=Article&cat_id=7&art_id=17061
http://www.caranddriver.gr/article.asp?catid=33062&subid=2&pubid=7392216
http://www.newsauto.gr/o-dimitris-deverikos-stis-24-ores-tou-dubai/
https://time2rally.wordpress.com/
https://time2rally.wordpress.com/2015/01/10/deverikos_24h_stop/
http://www.kartnews.gr/2015/01/24-dubai.html
http://www.rallycar.gr/2015/01/10/prowro-antio-gia-ton-deveriko-stis-24-wres-tou-dubai/
http://www.autocarnet.gr/2015/01/24-dubai_12.html