Six Points Separate the Top Two PRO Crews After Nürburgring Race 1
Loris Spinelli and Mikaël Grenier now own four victories in the 2017 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season, and the latest could not have arrived at a more consequential moment. Driving for Antonelli Motorsport, Spinelli qualified on pole at the Nürburgring penultimate round and controlled the opening stint before handing the car to Grenier, who held off a hard-charging Vito Postiglione through the final laps to take the win.
The result reshuffles the PRO championship in a way that guarantees drama for the finale. Jonathan Cecotto and Postiglione, who finished second for Imperiale Racing, still lead the standings, but Spinelli and Grenier now sit just 6 points behind. With only Race 2 at the Nürburgring and the season closer remaining, the margin is thin enough that a single bad pit stop or contact incident could decide the title.
Jan Kisiel and Morgan Haber rounded out the podium for Leipert Motorsport, benefiting from a 10-second penalty handed to Rik Breukers and Axcil Jefferies of GDL Racing for contact with Raphael Abbate at the final corner. That penalty dropped Breukers and Jefferies to sixth, though they remain in mathematical contention for the championship. Four crews within realistic striking distance of the title heading into the final races is exactly the competitive density a one-make series needs to justify its existence.
Why the Super Trofeo Matters More Than Its Grid Size Suggests
Launched in 2009, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo now spans three continental championships across Europe, Asia, and North America, all culminating in an annual World Final. Lamborghini serves as the sole constructor, meaning every car on the grid runs identical Huracán Super Trofeo hardware. The playing field is level by design. What separates drivers is racecraft, tire management, and the ability to extract performance from a rear-wheel-drive platform that punishes sloppy inputs.
For the factory, the series performs a function that no amount of press photography or social content can replicate: it puts the Huracán under sustained competitive stress in front of paying customers who also happen to be potential road-car buyers. The grid is a mix of professional racers chasing GT3 seats, gentleman drivers sharpening their skills, and brand loyalists who want to experience Squadra Corse from the inside. That blend of ambition levels, visible in the PRO, PRO-AM, AM, and Lamborghini Cup class structure, keeps the paddock commercially healthy while giving the factory a live laboratory for parts durability and driver feedback.
Ferrari runs the Challenge series on a similar philosophy, and Porsche operates the Carrera Cup as its own one-make ladder. What distinguishes Lamborghini’s approach is the deliberate choice of rear-wheel drive for the Super Trofeo car, a configuration that forces drivers to develop throttle discipline and oversteer management skills directly transferable to GT3 machinery. The road-going Huracán sends power to all four wheels. The race car strips that safety net away.
620 Horsepower, Rear-Wheel Drive, and a Chassis Built to Teach
The Huracán Super Trofeo is powered by a naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 producing 620 horsepower, managed by a Motec M182 engine management system. One source reports a dry weight of 1,270 kg, yielding a weight-to-power ratio of 2.05 kg per horsepower. The frame is a hybrid carbon and aluminum construction with modified suspension geometries, and braking comes from Brembo/PFC steel discs (380x35mm front, 355x32mm rear) with six-pot front and four-pot rear monoblock calipers.
Electronic aids are adjustable rather than absent: a 12-position racing ABS and 9-position traction control system let drivers dial in their preferred level of intervention, while brake bias remains manually adjustable. The reported weight distribution sits at 42 percent front, 58 percent rear, a deliberately tail-heavy setup that rewards smooth driving and punishes anyone who gets greedy with the throttle on corner exit.
For aspiring GT3 drivers, this combination of raw power, limited electronic assistance, and rear-drive dynamics functions as a structured curriculum. The car teaches you to manage a V10’s power delivery through the rear axle alone, a skill set that translates directly when a driver graduates to endurance racing or international GT competition. Lamborghini positions the Super Trofeo as a deliberate step on that ladder, and the engineering choices reflect the intent.
Class Winners and Birthday Celebrations: The Rest of the Nürburgring Grid
Beyond the PRO battle, the Nürburgring delivered strong storylines across every class. Liang Jiatong and Christopher Dreyspring finished fourth overall and first in PRO-AM for VS Racing, extending their category lead. Dreyspring, racing the Nürburgring for the first time, acknowledged his unfamiliarity with the circuit but credited his co-driver’s opening stint for putting them in position to win.
Raffaele Giannoni of Automobile Tricolore celebrated his birthday with a dominant AM class victory, his third of the season. Giannoni swept both qualifying sessions and controlled the race from pole, keeping his championship hopes alive against the Polish pairing of Lewandowski and Teodor Myszkowski, who lead the AM standings but could only manage second on the day.
Juan Perez delivered perhaps the most consistent performance on the entire grid: four consecutive Lamborghini Cup victories, all with Antonelli Motorsport, all at circuits he visited for the first time this season. Paul Ricard, Spa, and now the Nürburgring, each one a new track, each one a win. That kind of adaptability in the entry-level cup category is precisely what the Super Trofeo pipeline is designed to identify and nurture.
What the Super Trofeo Feeds Next, and What Race 2 Demands
The Super Trofeo’s long-term value to Lamborghini extends beyond trophies and championship points. Every season of competitive data, every driver development success story, and every engineering lesson learned under race conditions feeds back into Squadra Corse’s broader program. The Huracán GT3, which competes in international endurance racing, shares DNA with the Super Trofeo car, and many of its factory-supported drivers cut their teeth in the one-make series before stepping up.
Lamborghini’s next chapter in customer racing centers on the Temerario GT3, which according to Autoblog represents the brand’s first competition car fully designed, developed, and built in-house. The transition from a naturally aspirated V10 platform to the Temerario’s twin-turbo V8 hybrid architecture will reshape how Super Trofeo drivers learn their craft. For teams and drivers who built their programs around the Huracán’s characteristics, adapting to an entirely new powerband, different weight distribution, and the complexities of turbo management in wheel-to-wheel racing will define the next era. Lamborghini has not confirmed when the Super Trofeo series itself will transition to a Temerario-based car, or what that machine’s specifications would look like. What the current season does confirm is that the infrastructure, the team relationships, the driver pipeline, and the global calendar all remain healthy and competitive enough to support whatever platform comes next.
Race 2 at the Nürburgring is scheduled for fifty minutes with a rolling start and mandatory pit stop. With the PRO title separated by single digits, the mathematics favor aggression. Expect Spinelli and Grenier to push for the lead from the opening lap, and expect Cecotto and Postiglione to respond in kind.
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