For Italian Luca Magnoni, Norwegian Aleksander Schjerpen, Italian GT Endurance title bid hopes boosted by brand-new, powerful German sportscar

"Save the best for last": Nova Race definitely is set to walk the talk at the forthcoming Italian GT Championship finale scheduled on Sunday, October 6 at Mugello. The Varese, Italy-based outfit will take the unique opportunity of being bidding for the Italian Endurance Series Drivers' title at the Tuscan venue to introduce its new weapon: the Mercedes AMG GT4. Albeit Mercedeses have been winning several times over decades at Italian circuits, this will be the first time the awesome GT4 car from Stuttgart will be starring in this sportscar class in the domestic series. The Nova Race staff has just brought home the first batch made of two silver-shiny specimen collected at Customer Racing department in Affalterbach, and now the crew is undergoing a crash course to learn all the secrets of the new German hardware.

The Mercedes AMG GT4, developed from the production Mercedes-AMG GT R car, boasts a beefy four-liter V8 engine with 510 horsepower and 600 Nm torque, combined with a six-speed sequential gearbox. The drivers who already drive it in GT4 championships scattered at the four corners of the globe report extraordinary chassis driveability and dynamic balance courtesy of double-wishbone suspensions and transaxle layout, assets boosted by excellent aerodynamic research. The result of the work carried out under the principle of AMG Lightweight Performance Strategy is a jewel made of carbon, aluminum and steel starting from a weight of 1,390 kilos, a bulk which when needed powerful brakes with a disc diameter of 390 front and 355 behind are able to tame.

Therefore, in Tuscany drivers Luca Magnoni and Aleksander Schjerpen will be on a level playing field, tech-wise, with the competition that will bid for the Italian GT4 crown. However, the Italian-Norwegian duo will have to make up quickly the gap in mileage in their sportscar compared to the rivals. Magnoni and Schjerpen, two-time winners at Monza and Vallelunga, have previously proved exceptionally good at beating unfavorable odds, and are now tied second in the GT4 championship just 2 points behind Porsche drivers Giuseppe Ghezzi and Riccardo Chiesa and 7 points ahead of the BMW lineup made up of Giuseppe Fascicolo, Francesco Guerra and Andrea Fontana.

LUCA MAGNONI: "We have been GT4 mainstays since the class has been allowed on to Italian tracks. This year the level of our domestic series has improved hugely. In order to continue to have our say both for the 2019 championship and for the future we decided to turn the page. Now we'll start working alongside such an iconic brand as Mercedes AMG, with whom we want to collaborate closely to achieve those outstanding results that have been a good habit for Nova Race in GT4.

ALEKSANDER SCHJERPEN: "My Italian GT season with Nova Race is proving full of satisfactions for me and on top of that also a source of nice surprises. After the two Endurance wins at Monza and Vallelunga, I can't wait to be at Mugello to come to grips with Nova Race Mercedes AMG GT4 and give my best to fight for the drivers' title alongside my team mate Luca".