A PRO-AM Team Just Set the Fastest Lap of Qualifying
Bonaldi Motorsport’s PRO-AM pairing posted a 2’09″500 in Super Trofeo qualifying, and that time was not just good enough to lead their class. It topped the entire session, beating PRO class championship leader Jeroen Mul of Automobili Lamborghini Racing Team Germany by 676 thousandths of a second. Mul will still start from the front row, but the result is unmistakable: a crew that includes a Bronze-rated amateur driver just outpaced a field of Gold and Silver-rated professionals on raw pace.
The team’s second car, piloted by Milos Pavlovic and Edoardo Piscopo, qualified third overall, meaning Bonaldi locked out two of the top three positions. Pavlovic and Piscopo sit five points behind Mul in the PRO Class Championship standings, which makes tomorrow’s two 50-minute races considerably more interesting than a typical mid-season round. In a series built to develop talent across experience levels, Bonaldi just demonstrated that the ladder works both ways: customer teams with mixed lineups can genuinely threaten the outright pace of full-professional entries.
Why PRO-AM Beating PRO Actually Matters
In the Super Trofeo structure, the distinction between PRO and PRO-AM is not about the car. Both categories run identical Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo machinery. The difference is the driver lineup. PRO entries field Gold or Silver-rated drivers under FIA categorization and can run solo or as a pair. PRO-AM entries pair a Bronze-rated driver, typically a gentleman racer or less experienced competitor, with a Gold or Silver-rated co-driver.
When a PRO-AM car tops the combined qualifying sheet, it means the Bronze-rated driver’s stint was fast enough, or the Silver/Gold driver’s stint was extraordinary enough, to overcome the inherent pace disadvantage of including a less experienced driver. That is a meaningful result, not a statistical curiosity. It speaks to the depth of preparation at Bonaldi and, more broadly, to the Super Trofeo’s design as a series where customer teams with mixed-experience lineups can genuinely compete against full-professional entries.
Ferrari’s Challenge series and Porsche’s Carrera Cup both cultivate customer racing, but the Super Trofeo’s class structure, where PRO-AM and PRO share the same grid and the same car, creates a unique tension. A gentleman racer does not just compete for a class trophy; the combined timing sheet puts every entry in direct comparison. Results like Bonaldi’s qualifying performance illustrate why that structure matters for Lamborghini’s broader talent pipeline.
Championship Pressure Building Across the Grid
Behind the Bonaldi cars and Mul, Giovanni Venturini qualified fourth for GRT Grasser Racing Team, followed by his teammate Danial Higmar-Fairuz Fauzy. The 2014 PRO-AM Champion Alberto Di Folco, running with Autocarrozzeria Imperiale, also featured in the qualifying order, a reminder that Super Trofeo alumni tend to stick around and that the series genuinely functions as a development pathway.
In the AM Class, Simone Pellegrinelli of DTMotorsport set the pace, with Jake Rattenbury of Automobili Lamborghini Racing Team UK second and Roberto Tanca of Autocarrozzeria Imperiale third. The AM category, reserved for Bronze-rated drivers competing solo or in pairs, operates as the entry point for Lamborghini’s customer racing ladder, and the names that emerge from it often reappear in PRO-AM or higher categories within a season or two.
The five-point championship gap between Mul and the Pavlovic/Piscopo pairing is slim enough that a single poor race could flip the standings. With two races scheduled, each running 50 minutes with a mandatory pit stop and driver change, strategy and clean execution will matter as much as outright pace. The question is whether Bonaldi’s qualifying form translates into race-day dominance or whether Mul’s championship experience keeps him ahead when it counts.
What Bonaldi’s Result Means for Lamborghini’s Customer Racing Future
Lamborghini’s broader motorsport picture lends extra weight to performances like this one. The SC63 LMDh prototype program, which represented the brand’s push into top-tier endurance racing, was discontinued after difficult results. According to Jalopnik, Lamborghini pulled the plug on the effort for 2026. That makes the customer racing ecosystem, anchored by Super Trofeo and the Huracán GT3, even more central to Squadra Corse’s identity.
The Temerario GT3, revealed at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, will eventually replace the Huracán GT3 as the platform for these series. Jalopnik reported that the racing version strips out the road car’s hybrid system entirely, relying on a twin-turbo V8 alone. For teams like Bonaldi Motorsport, that transition will mean adapting to an entirely new powerband, different weight distribution, and the complexities of turbo lag management in close racing. The current Huracán platform’s naturally aspirated character rewards a very specific driving style, one that Bronze-rated gentlemen drivers and seasoned professionals alike understand intimately.
Bonaldi’s qualifying performance is a useful data point for Squadra Corse as it plans that transition. A series where customer teams with mixed-experience lineups can top the combined sheet is a series worth protecting. The engineering challenge with the Temerario GT3 will be ensuring that the car remains approachable enough for the Bronze-rated drivers who give Super Trofeo its distinctive competitive character, while still delivering the performance ceiling that PRO entries demand. Whether the new platform preserves that accessibility will shape the health of Lamborghini’s entire racing ladder for years to come.
How to Watch Tomorrow’s Races
Both 50-minute races run tomorrow: Race One at 10:50 and Race Two at 16:00 (GMT+8). Lamborghini will live stream both on the Squadra Corse website. Given the qualifying drama and the tight championship battle, the opening-lap positioning between Bonaldi’s PRO-AM car and Mul’s PRO entry should be worth tuning in early to catch.
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