Now that the European stages have been run, the next two rounds in the Maserati Trofeo World Series will be held in North America. First up is the race that marks the season’s halfway point: the meet at Road America on 28 June. Later, in August, comes the Virginia International Raceway weekend.
For the first time ever comes a new challenge for the drivers: the Trofeo Maserati North America (MNA). Only drivers who sign up for both stages, at Road America and Virginia International Raceway, can compete in this third extra event. It will be run on 13 September at Laguna Seca during the Pirelli World Challenge weekend. The Maseratis will be in the GTS class and the drivers competing to see who is crowned the Maserati North America Champion 2015. The eventual winner will earn a spot at the last round in the Maserati Trofeo World Series, scheduled for Abu Dhabi, UAE, on 11 December. The first two US events will feature the usual format of two 42-minute sprints while the Laguna Seca meet will adopt the Pirelli World Challenge model of two 50-minute races.
The first date for the diary is Round three on 28 June at Road America. The circuit is found close to Elkhart Lake, between Milwaukee and Green Bay, in Wisconsin. This stage in the Maserati Trofeo World Series will be held on the same weekend as the Pirelli World Challenge. For Maserati it will mark a return to the track where, in the 1960s, it secured two straight victories in the Road America 500: in 1960 with a Maserati Tipo 61 driven by Dave Causey and, in 1961, courtesy of Briggs Cunningham’s Maserati Tipo 63. August 2007 witnessed another first when the Maserati MC12 made its debut in the American Le Mans Series when Fredy Lienhard and Didier Theys closed out third in GT1.
The Virginia International Raceway is back on the calendar after its August 2014 Trofeo Maserati appearance. Last season saw German Michael Bartels take two wins and Mauro Calamia, from Switzerland, the other. Once again, the Maserati series will be disputed on a Tudor Uscc weekend.
At the opening two Trofeo Maserati rounds, at Paul Ricard and at Spielberg, GT4-spec cars also took to the track. The preparation is for international dates in 2015 and for a possible entry in various championships in 2016, including international endurance events.
