Imola Weekend Puts Customer Racing and Factory Prototypes on the Same Tarmac
For the first time in its 16-season history, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe will race on the support bill of the FIA World Endurance Championship. That alone would be noteworthy. What makes the Imola opener genuinely significant is the timing: the SC63 LMDh prototype makes its European competition debut at the same event, meaning Lamborghini will field customer one-make cars and its factory hypercar on the same circuit, on the same weekend, for the first time. The entire racing ladder, from gentleman drivers in identical Huracans to a factory prototype contesting the top class of endurance racing, will share one piece of tarmac roughly an hour from Sant’Agata Bolognese.
Lamborghini says over 50 entries are expected, with 23 teams represented on the grid. Eight of those teams are competing in Super Trofeo for the first time, and more than 30 drivers will make their series debuts. The sheer volume of newcomers tells you something about the draw of running alongside WEC. By joining the undercard at Imola, Spa-Francorchamps, and Le Mans, Super Trofeo now shares paddock space, broadcast windows, and spectator attention with the world’s premier endurance championship. For a customer series built around identical Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 cars, that visibility upgrade is substantial, and it reframes the entire series as the bottom rung of a coherent motorsport ladder rather than a standalone regional championship.
Why the WEC Connection Matters More Than Prestige
One-make series live and die by their ability to attract paying drivers, sponsor-backed teams, and eventually, talent good enough to graduate upward. Running alongside regional GT weekends accomplished the first two goals well enough for 15 seasons. The WEC alignment changes the third.
Giorgio Sanna, Lamborghini’s head of motorsport, has described the arrangement as creating “good synergy” across the manufacturer’s racing programs. The logic is straightforward: at a WEC round, Lamborghini can present its GT3 cars competing in the LMGT3 class, the SC63 running in Hypercar, and Super Trofeo filling the support card. A young driver racing a Huracán EVO2 on Saturday morning can watch the factory prototype contest the main event that afternoon. The pathway from customer series to professional endurance seat becomes visible, not theoretical.
Ferrari runs a similar playbook with its Challenge series, and Porsche does the same with the Carrera Cup. What Lamborghini lacked until now was a top-tier factory prototype program to anchor the upper end of that ladder. The SC63 changes the equation. Whether Squadra Corse can convert Super Trofeo alumni into LMDh or GT3 factory drivers remains to be seen, but the infrastructure to do so now exists in a way it simply did not two years ago.
Two Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 race cars battle for position on the track, with one spitting flames from its exhaust.
The SC63’s European Debut Adds Weight to the Weekend
Lamborghini says the Imola round coincides with the European competition debut of the SC63, the brand’s LMDh prototype built in partnership with Ligier and running a twin-turbo V8 derived from road-car architecture. For LamboCars readers who have followed the SC63’s development, the significance is context: Imola is where European audiences will see Lamborghini’s top-level endurance car race for the first time, with a grid full of customer Huracans warming up the crowd beforehand.
The convergence only intensifies as the season progresses. The 200th Super Trofeo Europe race is scheduled for round three, which falls on the support bill of the Le Mans 24 Hours, the single most watched endurance event on the calendar, with the SC63 competing in the main race. Lamborghini could not have scripted a better stage for the convergence of its customer and factory programs. And to be clear, it almost certainly did script it.
For buyers and collectors who view motorsport involvement as part of the ownership experience, this kind of strategic alignment matters. Lamborghini is building a narrative where the brand’s racing identity extends from gentleman drivers in matching EVO2s all the way to professional factory efforts at Le Mans. Whether that narrative translates into faster lap times for the SC63 is a separate question, but as a brand positioning exercise, it is coherent and ambitious.
The Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 as a Talent Filter
The beauty of a one-make series is also its constraint: every car on the grid is mechanically identical. The Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 is a track-only, naturally aspirated V10 race car stripped of road-car compromises, running on Hankook control tires. Carbon fiber bodywork, full roll cage, aggressive aerodynamics with prominent rear wings and front splitters, all visible on the grid at Imola, and all identical from car to car. That uniformity puts the emphasis squarely on driver skill, racecraft, and team setup. If you are fast in an EVO2, you are fast, full stop. The car is not hiding your weaknesses behind a horsepower advantage or a trick differential your rival does not have.
Inaugurated in 2009, the series has now completed 195 European races and served as a stepping stone for drivers who moved on to GT3 competition and beyond. The question LamboCars readers should be asking is what happens to this ladder when the Huracán platform eventually gives way to the Temerario. According to Autoblog, the Temerario GT3 debuted at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed as Lamborghini’s first competition car fully designed and built in-house. A future Super Trofeo built around the Temerario’s twin-turbo V8 would represent a fundamental shift in what drivers learn on the way up: turbo management, hybrid energy deployment, and an entirely different powerband. Lamborghini has not confirmed that transition for the one-make series, but the direction seems clear, and it would bring the customer ladder into closer technical alignment with the SC63 sitting at its top.
The striking blue and red Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 car leans into a sharp turn on the circuit.
Drivers and Teams to Watch in 2024
The Pro class is headlined by last season’s championship runners-up, Mattia Michelotto and Gilles Stadsbader, racing with VS Racing. The Italo-Belgian pairing won five races in 2023 and lost the title to Leipert Motorsport’s Brendon Leitch only at the final round. Leipert returns with Sebastian Balthasar and Jacob Riegel, while DL Racing fields Riccardo Ianniello and Rodrigo Testa de Sousa, the latter having taken his maiden victory at Vallelunga late last season.
One entry worth noting: Hampus Ericsson, brother of Indy 500 winner and former Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson, makes his Super Trofeo debut as a solo entry. That kind of crossover name recognition is exactly the sort of attention the WEC support role is designed to attract.
In Pro-Am, five-time champion Andrzej Lewandowski teams up with his son Adrian at ASR for their first full season together, adding a human dimension to a class that often serves as a bridge between gentleman racing and professional ambition. The Am category, historically one of the most competitive in the series, welcomes North American champions Anthony McIntosh and Glenn McGee, who will run both the European and North American campaigns simultaneously with Leipert Motorsport. Reigning LB Cup champions Donovan and Luciano Privitelio return to defend their title, this time with Rexal Villorba Corse. The class also features stalwarts like Alfredo Hernandez Ortega and Jason Keats, ensuring the lower-profile categories deliver genuine competition rather than processional laps.
Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 cars navigate a challenging turn during a race, showcasing their vibrant liveries.
A Calendar Built to Prove the Ladder Works
The six-round calendar reads like a deliberate statement. Three rounds support the FIA WEC (Imola, Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans), two run alongside GT World Challenge Europe (Nurburgring, Barcelona), and the season finale at Jerez de la Frontera hosts the Lamborghini World Finals. Spa-Francorchamps, according to available reporting, holds the distinction of being the only circuit to appear on every Super Trofeo Europe calendar since the series began.
For teams and drivers considering a Super Trofeo commitment, the practical takeaway is that 2024 offers the highest-profile calendar the series has ever assembled. Racing at Le Mans, even on the support bill, carries a prestige that no amount of marketing spend can replicate. The qualifying format at Imola reflects the grid’s density: sessions will be split by class, with Pro and Pro-Am cars running separately from Am and LB Cup entries, each group getting 10 minutes of track time.
Lamborghini has not disclosed what a full-season Super Trofeo budget looks like for a privateer team, and the company is unlikely to volunteer that figure publicly. What the 2024 calendar does confirm is that the investment now buys access to the biggest stages in sports car racing. For a customer series that began 15 years ago as a regional one-make championship, that is a meaningful evolution, and a clear signal of where Squadra Corse intends to take the program next. Every round reinforces the same thesis: Super Trofeo is no longer just a race series. It is the entry point to a motorsport ladder that now reaches all the way to Le Mans Hypercar.
A trio of Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 cars navigates a turn with precision and speed.
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