Misano Beckons: A 50th Anniversary Weekend Loaded with Storylines
Misano Adriatico celebrates its 50th anniversary as a racing venue this weekend, and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe could hardly have picked a better moment to return. The coastal Italian circuit first appeared on the Super Trofeo calendar in 2013 and has held a round for the last four consecutive years, including twice in 2021 as part of the regular schedule and the season-ending World Finals. That kind of repeat booking tells you something about how well the Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2‘s naturally aspirated V10 suits this place.
What makes this third round of the 2022 season unusual is the sheer density of converging storylines. Championship leaders Max Weering and Loris Spinelli arrive with a perfect four-from-four record. Former MotoGP star Dani Pedrosa returns for only his second car race. The classes below Pro, where the margins are razor-thin, promise the kind of unpredictable racing that headline acts sometimes overshadow. And Saturday’s Race 1 carries an added wrinkle: a 20:00 CEST start time, meaning the field will race into the Italian evening light. Taken together, these threads point to a weekend that could define the shape of the entire 2022 championship.
Dani Pedrosa’s Second Act in a Lamborghini Cockpit
Pedrosa made his car racing debut at Imola in April, piloting a Rexal FFF Racing Team Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 alongside co-driver Antonin Borga, a Swiss racer with endurance experience. He competes in the Pro-Am class, which pairs professional and gentleman drivers in shared stints, giving the Spaniard structured seat time alongside a seasoned four-wheel competitor.
The crossover from two wheels to four is more disorienting than casual fans might assume. A MotoGP rider’s instincts are built around lean angle, body position, and braking markers calibrated for a machine weighing roughly 160 kilograms. The Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 weighs many times that, demands trust in aerodynamic grip the rider cannot physically feel through body lean, and requires an entirely different spatial awareness in traffic. Some commentators describe Pedrosa as one of the best riders never to win a premier-class MotoGP title, so the competitive instinct is clearly present. The question at Misano is how quickly that instinct translates into lap time in a car he barely knows.
For Lamborghini’s Squadra Corse operation, Pedrosa’s involvement reaches beyond a single Pro-Am result. Attracting a globally recognized name from another discipline raises the Super Trofeo’s profile in markets and media circles that customer racing series typically struggle to reach. The Super Trofeo Europe championship, established in 2009, remains the longest-running of Lamborghini’s three continental series, and high-profile crossover entries reinforce the message that this grid is worth watching.
A driver smiles from the cockpit of a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 before the race.
Weering and Spinelli: Four Wins, Zero Losses, One Score to Settle
The Bonaldi Motorsport pairing of Max Weering and Loris Spinelli won all four races at Imola and Paul Ricard, making them strong favorites for maximum points again. A perfect start like that tends to create psychological separation as much as a points gap: rivals begin racing for second, and the frontrunners get to manage risk rather than manufacture heroics.
Misano carries specific motivation for this crew, though. Weering and Spinelli missed out on the 2021 European title in the final race at this very circuit. That kind of memory sharpens a driver’s approach to a venue. Imperiale Racing’s Manuel Bejarano sits second in the standings and remains the most consistent challenger, with three Pro class podiums already this season, though he still searches for a first win. Behind him, Target Racing’s Milan Teekens and Marzio Moretti need a clean weekend after a run of misfortune, and BDR Competition’s Amaury Bonduel showed strong pace at Paul Ricard before a drive-through penalty spoiled his second race. If anyone is going to break the Weering-Spinelli streak, Misano’s anniversary weekend feels like the moment.
The lime green Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 leads the pack through a challenging turn.
Tight Fights Across Pro-Am, Am, and Lamborghini Cup
The real entertainment in any one-make series often lives below the headline class, and the 2022 Super Trofeo Europe proves the point. In Pro-Am, Oregon Team’s Massimo Ciglia and Lewis Williamson lead with 51 points, just three clear of Oscar Lee and Dan Wells at Rexal FFF Racing Team. Target Racing’s Milan Petelet and Dmitry Gvazava sit third with 36, only two ahead of Imperiale Racing’s Emanuel Colombini and Emanuele Zonzini. Four crews within 15 points means a single bad qualifying session can reshuffle the entire order.
The Am category looks more settled on paper, with Leipert Motorsport’s Gabriel Rindone holding an 11-point advantage over Andrzej Lewandowski of VSR. Lamborghini Cup, though, is the tightest fight on the grid. Just 13 points separate the top four, led by triple class champion Gerard van der Horst with 47 points. The Privitelio father-and-son duo at Rexal FFF Racing Team trail by five after a double win at Paul Ricard, while Imperiale Racing’s Hans Fabri and Boutsen Racing’s François Grimm lurk within striking distance. These are the battles where the Super Trofeo’s accessibility and competitive depth actually prove themselves, and where a weekend at Misano can rewrite the championship picture overnight.
The blue Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 leads a close pursuit on the racetrack.
Why Misano Matters for Lamborghini’s Racing Legacy and Future
One-make series serve a dual purpose that casual observers sometimes miss. They sell race cars, obviously. But they also build the ecosystem of teams, mechanics, engineers, and drivers that feeds a manufacturer’s broader motorsport ambitions. The Super Trofeo functions as the entry point for customer teams who may eventually campaign GT3 machinery, and the health of that pipeline matters.
The Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 retains Lamborghini’s naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10, a powertrain philosophy that competitor series increasingly cannot match as turbocharging dominates the broader GT landscape. That V10 character is part of what attracts gentleman drivers and crossover talents like Pedrosa: the car sounds and feels unmistakably like a Lamborghini, not a homologated appliance. Misano’s mix of medium-speed corners and a long back straight should reward the cars that balance aerodynamic stability with mechanical grip, a combination the EVO2’s aggressive bodywork and wide track are designed to exploit. On a weekend celebrating half a century of racing at this circuit, the Super Trofeo has a chance to remind everyone why its particular brand of customer motorsport still resonates.
The vibrant lime green Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo EVO2 blurs past on the racetrack.
How to Watch the Misano Action
Free practice opens on Friday, July 1, with sessions at 12:50 and 20:10 CEST. Qualifying follows on Saturday at 12:20 CEST. Race 1 starts Saturday evening at 20:00 CEST, and the second 50-minute race runs Sunday morning at 09:50 CEST. Both races will be live streamed on the Lamborghini Squadra Corse YouTube channel, which remains the simplest way to follow the action without a subscription or geo-restriction headache.
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