Pole, Lead, Flag: Imperiale Racing’s Dominant Three Hours at Vallelunga
Imperiale Racing‘s #32 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo put together the kind of endurance race that looks simple on paper and almost never is in practice. Kikko Galbiati, Alex Frassineti, and Lamborghini Factory Driver Giovanni Venturini started from pole at Vallelunga and controlled every phase of the three-hour Italian GT Championship Endurance round, delivering Lamborghini’s first endurance victory of the season.
Frassineti opened the gap early, building a comfortable margin before handing the car to Galbiati at the first driver-change pit stop. Galbiati held station, and by the time Venturini climbed in for the final stint, the outcome was effectively decided. The #19 Vincenzo Sospiri Racing Huracán, driven by GT3 Junior drivers Leonardo Pulcini and Yuki Nemoto alongside Raffaele Giammaria, completed a Lamborghini one-two, crossing the line just over six seconds behind the sister car.
Six seconds in a three-hour endurance race sounds modest, but in GT3 competition, where Balance of Performance regulations compress performance differences between manufacturers, it reflects the kind of consistent, error-free execution that wins championships. That is exactly what Galbiati and Venturini are chasing: the duo now sit second in the Italian GT Endurance points standings, trailing the leading BMW crew of Stefano Comandini and Marius Zug by just two points heading into the season finale at Monza in early November.
A Naturally Aspirated V10 Still Winning in a Turbocharged World
The car doing the winning deserves as much scrutiny as the result itself. The Huracán GT3 Evo carries a 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10, a powertrain philosophy the rest of the GT3 grid largely abandoned years ago in favor of turbocharged engines that deliver torque in a fatter, more forgiving band. The V10 demands precision from its drivers: careful throttle application through corners, commitment to a powerband that rewards high-rpm aggression, and the discipline to extract performance from an engine architecture that prioritizes response over brute mid-range shove.
Introduced in 2015 as a replacement for the Gallardo FL2 race car, the Huracán GT3 debuted in North American GT3 racing the following year. In the decade since, Lamborghini evolved the platform through successive Evo updates while competitors like Porsche cycled through multiple entirely new GT3 chassis. That an updated version of a 2015-vintage design can still dominate an endurance round against newer machinery speaks to the fundamental soundness of the car’s hybrid aluminum-and-carbon-fiber chassis and the aerodynamic development Squadra Corse continued to invest in.
For customer teams, the Huracán GT3 Evo’s longevity is a practical advantage too. Teams running these cars know every quirk, every setup trick, every tire-management strategy. That institutional knowledge compounds over seasons, and Imperiale Racing’s clinical execution at Vallelunga is a textbook example of what happens when driver talent meets deep platform familiarity.
From Track Validation to Road Car DNA
Lamborghini’s motorsport program under Squadra Corse operates differently from some rivals’ factory efforts. The GT3 program is fundamentally a customer racing operation: privateer teams buy the cars, run them, and compete. Lamborghini supplies factory driver support and engineering guidance, Venturini’s role at Imperiale Racing being a clear example, but the cars need to be durable and manageable enough for teams that do not have a factory’s unlimited resources.
That constraint forces engineering discipline. The aerodynamic improvements that went into the Evo specification, from revised front splitters and dive planes to the redesigned carbon fiber hood with its central cooling rib, all had to work reliably across different circuits, weather conditions, and driver skill levels. Suspension components evolved from steel to billet aluminum at the front, and the rear axle received updated hubs and driveshafts. None of these are headline-grabbing changes, but they reflect the kind of iterative refinement that also shapes Lamborghini’s road car development process. Lessons about durability, thermal management, and aero efficiency flow back to Sant’Agata Bolognese, informing the engineering culture even when specific parts do not transfer directly.
The Temerario GT3 and What Changes Next
Every Huracán GT3 Evo victory now carries an additional layer of meaning because the successor is already public. The Lamborghini Temerario GT3 replaces the Huracán GT3 Evo 2 as the brand’s factory-backed GT3 effort, and according to Car and Driver, it represents the first race car entirely designed and developed by Lamborghini at Sant’Agata Bolognese. Previous GT3 programs involved collaboration with Dallara; the Temerario GT3 is Lamborghini going it alone.
The powertrain shift is dramatic. GT3 regulations mandate that the Temerario GT3 will use a modified version of the road car’s 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8, stripped of its hybrid components. The naturally aspirated V10 soundtrack that defines the current car will give way to a fundamentally different engine character. For teams, the transition means adapting to a new powerband, different weight distribution, and the complexities of turbo management in wheel-to-wheel racing. For fans, it means Vallelunga and Monza represent some of the final chapters of a V10 GT3 legacy that stretches back nearly a decade.
Road & Track noted that in the ten years since the Huracán GT3 arrived, eleven brands released entirely new GT3 cars while Lamborghini iterated on the same basic platform. The Temerario GT3 is Lamborghini’s answer to that criticism, built from the ground up to compete against the latest generation of GT3 machinery.
Two Points, One Race, and a Title Fight at Monza
The championship math is straightforward and compelling. Galbiati and Venturini trail the leading BMW crew by two points with one endurance round remaining. Monza, the season finale, is home turf for Italian GT racing and a circuit where the Huracán GT3 Evo’s V10 can stretch its legs on the long straights between chicanes.
For buyers considering Lamborghini’s customer racing ecosystem, this is the competitive narrative that validates the investment. A Huracán GT3 Evo is not a garage ornament; it is a car that can fight for championships in 2020 with a platform architecture rooted in 2015. That kind of competitive longevity is rare in GT3, where the pace of development often renders cars obsolete within a few seasons. Whether Galbiati and Venturini can overhaul the BMW crew at Monza will depend on qualifying, race-day execution, and the usual endurance variables. But the Huracán GT3 Evo proved at Vallelunga that it can deliver when the car, the team, and the drivers all operate at their best.
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