A 47-Car Grid Opens the Eighth Season at Monza
Forty-seven Huracán LP 620-2 Super Trofeo cars will line up at Monza this weekend for the opening round of the 2016 Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Europe. That figure represents the largest grid in the series’ eight-year history, with 22 teams fielding 70 drivers across two 50-minute races sharing the venue with the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup.
The raw numbers tell a story of growth, but the more revealing detail sits underneath. Seven of those 22 teams are brand-new entrants: Attempto Racing, Dörr Motorsport, FFF Racing Team, GDL Motorsport, GT3 Poland, MN Development, and Van der Horst Motorsport. When nearly a third of the paddock consists of first-timers, the series is clearly attracting fresh money and fresh ambition rather than simply recycling existing participants. Petri Corse, the 2009 team champions, also returns to the grid with former Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini behind the wheel, adding professional credibility to an already stacked field.
Why the Super Trofeo Keeps Growing
Giorgio Sanna, head of Lamborghini Motorsport, pointed to the participation numbers as evidence of increasing interest in the brand’s racing programs. More telling than the headline figure is what Sanna said about infrastructure: as car counts climb, Lamborghini says it scaled up its on-track organizational support to match the standards customers expect from the brand.
That point matters more than it might sound. Customer racing programs live or die on logistics. A wealthy enthusiast willing to spend six figures on a season entry expects factory-level technical support, reliable parts supply, professional race management, and a paddock experience worthy of the badge on the car. Ferrari Challenge and Porsche’s various one-make series understood this decades ago. Lamborghini’s willingness to invest in the operational backbone, rather than simply selling more cars and hoping teams sort themselves out, signals a program built for the long term.
The series was established in 2009 with the Gallardo LP560-4 Super Trofeo and was promoted as the world’s fastest one-make championship. Moving to the Huracán platform in 2015 brought a philosophical shift: the new car ditched the Gallardo’s all-wheel drive for a rear-drive layout. That choice was deliberate. Rear-wheel drive demands more from the driver, teaches better car control, and more closely mirrors the dynamics of GT3 machinery. For anyone using Super Trofeo as a stepping stone toward international GT racing, the rear-drive Huracán is a far more relevant training tool than its predecessor.
The New Lamborghini Cup: A Wider On-Ramp to Racing
The most strategically significant change for 2016 is the introduction of the Lamborghini Cup, a fourth class designed specifically for less experienced drivers. It sits alongside the existing PRO, PRO-AM, and AM categories, creating a gentler entry point for owners who want competitive wheel-to-wheel racing but are not yet ready to mix it with seasoned semi-professionals.
Every single-make series faces the same tension: attract enough cars to fill a grid while keeping the racing close enough to be enjoyable at every skill level. A dedicated novice class lowers the psychological barrier for a Lamborghini customer who might otherwise watch from the hospitality suite rather than risk embarrassment against faster drivers. It also builds a pipeline. A driver who enters in the Lamborghini Cup this year might graduate to AM next season, then PRO-AM, and eventually consider a Huracán GT3 program. Each step deepens brand loyalty and, not incidentally, generates further car and parts sales for Squadra Corse.
Ferrari Challenge operates with a similar tiered structure, and Porsche’s Carrera Cup and Supercup programs funnel talent upward through a well-established ladder. Lamborghini’s addition of the Lamborghini Cup shows the company studying what works in rival ecosystems and adapting it to its own growing base.
Prestige Venues and a Global Calendar
The 2016 European calendar reads like a greatest-hits tour of international motorsport: Silverstone, Paul Ricard, Spa-Francorchamps (where the series joins the 24 Hours weekend), and the Nürburgring, before the season culminates in Valencia for the fourth World Final. Running alongside marquee endurance events at circuits like Spa gives Super Trofeo competitors access to packed grandstands and serious media exposure, something a standalone one-make series at a lesser venue simply cannot replicate.
The Asia and North America series will also converge on Valencia for the World Final, turning the season-closer into a genuinely global championship decider. Both continental series launch in May, and each features a city-circuit race: Kuala Lumpur for Asia and a new street race in Boston for North America. Street circuits add spectacle and marketing value, but they also test drivers and teams in ways that purpose-built tracks do not. Tight barriers, bumpy surfaces, and zero runoff make for compelling television and a more demanding driving experience.
The Huracán LP 620-2: The Race Car at the Heart of the Series
At the center of all this activity sits the Huracán LP 620-2 Super Trofeo itself, developed in collaboration with Dallara Engineering, with founder Giampaolo Dallara directly involved. Dallara’s connection to Lamborghini stretches back to 1963, when he worked as an engineer at the company and later contributed to the development of the Miura. That pedigree is not decorative. Dallara’s expertise in aerodynamics and chassis dynamics is evident in a car that weighs 2,800 lbs thanks to a hybrid carbon fiber and aluminum chassis, achieving a power-to-weight ratio of 4.5 lbs per horsepower from the road car’s direct-injected V10 producing 620 horsepower in race trim.
Setup flexibility comes from a ten-position adjustable rear wing, front and rear diffusers, and adjustable front air intakes, giving teams meaningful tuning options across different circuits. The car runs exclusively on Pirelli tires engineered specifically for the series, ensuring a level playing field and allowing Pirelli to develop compounds tailored to the Huracán’s characteristics. For teams, this standardization simplifies logistics. For drivers, it means the car rewards technique rather than tire-budget advantages.
What This Means for Lamborghini’s Motorsport Future
The 2016 season opener at Monza captures a customer racing program in genuine ascent. Lamborghini recently debuted the Temerario GT3, its first competition car fully designed, developed, and built in-house, a significant evolution from the outsourced development model that produced the Huracán GT3. The Super Trofeo series feeds directly into that ambition: drivers trained on rear-wheel-drive Huracáns in controlled one-make competition become natural candidates for GT3 programs, and teams that build operational expertise in Super Trofeo carry that capability into higher-tier racing.
The practical question of entry cost remains unanswered by Lamborghini’s official material. What the 47-car grid at Monza confirms is that enough teams and drivers consider the investment worthwhile, and that the competitive environment is deep enough to justify the spend. Whether you are a collector eyeing a Huracán Super Trofeo as a future garage piece (at least one has reportedly been titled for road use by a Michigan dealer, according to Autoblog) or a driver evaluating your first racing season, the series is no longer a niche curiosity. It is the foundation Lamborghini is building its entire competitive identity upon.
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