Triple Honda NSX GT3 Evo for Nova Race in the tricolour Gran Turismo, thanks to the arrival of Filippo Berto and Felice Jelmini

The team from Jerago con Orago could hardly have hoped for a better mix for the crews that will tackle the Italian GT3 Sprint 2024 Championship. Having already defined the very young crew formed by Vincenzo Scarpetta and Mattia Simonini and that of the ‘AM’ category that will see Massimo Ciglia together with team owner Luca Magnoni, Team Manager Christian Pescatori is able to reveal the third crew that is preparing to make its debut with the Honda NSX GT3 Evo: ‘I am very proud to present the new pair of drivers Filippo Berto and Felice Jelmini, two guys that I have known for a long time and have also had the opportunity to follow during their race weekends. Berto already has very good experience with GT having taken part in the Lamborghini one-make series for two years. He has already tested with us and did really, really well. Felice I have followed him through all the steps he has taken in the TCR touring car category. He has already had experience with GT3 and GT in general, so I am looking forward to putting him in our Honda in just over two weeks’ time.

The new crew destined to be protagonists with the Varese-based team boasts an appropriate wealth of experience and youth, considering that Jelmini will be 29 years old during the season-opening weekend at Misano Adriatico, while Berto turned 25 last February. With the arrival of Jelmini, the paths of a driver and a team from Varese cross, although so far in the fruitful years of activity in the TCR category the driver from Gallarate has seen the Hondas as adversaries in his usual pursuit of prestigious results. Jelmini and Berto were also adversaries when they both competed in the lively Clio Cup single-make series, which for the Lombardy driver was the scene of resounding successes and for the Venetian the season of transition from karting to motor racing. Over the past two seasons the driver from the Marca has raced in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo, a category in which he has been included in the list of ‘Junior Drivers 2023’ by the House of the Bull.

NOVA RACE DRIVERS’ COMMENTS

FILIPPO BERTO (driver Honda NSX GT3 Evo): ‘For me it will be a good step because I’m coming from a single-make series like the Super Trofeo Lamborghini, which I think is a competitive series and also a championship with a lot of numbers and therefore formative, but going into GT3 is something else and I’m really happy about that, as well as the team I’ve joined. In this, the presence as Team Manager of Christian Pescatori reinforces my opinion: last year he gave me a big hand in the environment I was in. Nova Race has given me this chance in the Sprint, a category for which I’ve been pushing for months with sponsors and those who support me to be able to enter: now finally we have succeeded’.

FELICE JELMINI (driver Honda NSX GT3 Evo): ‘After years spent in touring car racing the time has come for me to make the jump in the queen category of production derived racing that is GT3 and in my opinion there is no better way than to do it with Nova Race and Honda. I want to thank Christian Pescatori in this regard, because between us there was a mutual esteem since a long time that this season has turned into a close collaboration. I’m very motivated and the car looks very competitive, the team needs no introduction, so I’ll have to prove myself in a new category like this one where there are very strong drivers’.

Jerago con Orago (VA), Wednesday, 16 March 2024

[Photo credit: ©Nova Race; copyright-free images for press use]

TEAM CONTACT: Christian Pescatori | +39 329 4334594