FFSA GT Championship – Season Entries
The opening round of the FFSA GT Championship will be run at Nogaro this coming weekend, April where the well supported GT1 Championship and the GT2 Trophy will be supported by a new GT3 category championship.

GT1 Oreca the 2006 FFSA GT champions with Soheil Ayari/Bruno Hernandez will return with the Champions back to defend their crown but for 2007 they will be racing in different cars – Ayari will share one of a pair of MATMUT-backed Oreca Saleens with 2006 GT2 Trophy winner Raymond Narac whilst Bruno Hernandez will be partnered by Laurent Groppi, 2006 Formula Renault champion.

And Two more Saleens will race in 2007: The first for Tarrès Team, with Olivier Thévenin, 2005 champion with VBM, and Eric Debard, whilst the Protek Saleen will be driven once again in 2007 by Dominique Dupuy and François Fiat

Four Corvettes will join the Four S7-Rs on the grid:

PSI Experience will field the Championship’s only C6.R for Christophe Bouchut and Yvan Lebon and will also enter their C5-R for Mathieu Zangarelli/Jean-Claude Police. Also running C5-Rs will be SRT with (Laurent Cazenave/ Eric Cayrolle) and Luc Alphand Aventures, (Jérôme Policand/ Gabriel Balthazard.)

Larbre Compétition re another team fielding a two car entry but only one will be their evergreen Ferrari 550 Maranello, this car featuring two newcomers in FFSA’s GT1 category, Steve Zacchia and Jean-Yves Adam.

The second car meanwhile is a first for the FFSA Series, backed by ANAVEO Sport, previously associated with Oreca and now with a partnership with Larbre Compétiion, the Aston Martin DBR9 will be driven by Patrick Bornhauser, 2004 and 2005 champion with the VBM Viper, and Frédéric Makowiecki, the car being sponsored by ANAVEO and DEMECO, Patrick Bornhauser's removals company.

After years of dominating the FFSA grids in numerical terms, 2007 sees ‘just’ four Chrysler Vipers with single car entries for Tarrès Team (Didier Cormerèche/Olivier Porta), MTO Mirabeau (Gael Lesoudier/Anthony Beltoise), Red Racing and Espace Racing.

Finally, Red Racing will enter their Lister Storm GT in some selected races.

GT2 Trophy
With GT1 the undoubted main event the GT2 runners tend to be overshadowed in the French Championship but that hasn’t stopped the IMSA Performance MATMUT team, winner in 2005 and 2006 trying once more to claim the Trophy. Michel Lecourt, (2006 co-winner alongside Raymond Narac) and Richard Balandras will be at the wheel of a brand new Porsche 997 RSR.

They will have to face the 996s of Estoril Racing (Monteiro brothers),Nourry Compétition (Mouez/Dhouailly) and Red Racing (Brandela/Stepec).

GT3 Championship
In common with much of the rest of the European National GT racing scene the GT3 market, and the grids, are booming. With some details still to be confirmed the GT3 grid looks something like:

5 x Dodge Vipers: 1 for Pilotage Passion, 2 for GCR and 2 for Ruffier Racing), 2 x Porsche 996 Cup, 4 x Ferrari 430 (3 for Sport Garage, including Jean-Christophe Belloc/Michael Petit and Dany Snobeck/Christopher Campbell) and 1 for Thierry Boutsen Energy Racing, 3 Lamborghini Gallardos entered by First Racing with a strong line-up : Dubreuil/Amado, Leclerc/Tuchbant and Giroix/Hélias, and two Aston Martin DBRS9 entered by Hexis Racing.

All in all the usual FFSA fare of big grids with large numbers of GT1 cars continues to buck the

European trend – But how much longer will the GT3s stay in the relative shade?