Neumann signs off as champion with his first overall win, and Huteau wins in the rain

Heiko Neumann did not need to win the last race of the GT3 Revival Series season. By the time Race 2 started at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday afternoon, the Am Gen II title was already his. He won it anyway, passing Mark Cole with six minutes left for the first overall victory of his season in the Team Motopark Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

It ended a weekend that delivered two very different races. Saturday’s was cut short by a storm, Sunday’s ran on a dry track under clear skies, and the title fight between Neumann and Benjamin Ricci was settled before the second one began.

Nine points, and a Ferrari that never made the grid

Neumann arrived in Barcelona with a nine-point lead over Ricci, who shares a Storic and Race Cars Ferrari 458 with his father Mauro. In our preview the Ricci car looked the narrow favourite on form.

Race 1 tipped the balance. Mauro Ricci spun while running wheel to wheel with the Classic & Speed BMW Z4 of Christoph von Oeynhausen, rejoined, and the Ferrari was classified ninth in class. Neumann was third in Am Gen II, sixth overall.

Then the timetable did the rest. The heavy rain that wiped out the rest of Saturday’s programme forced organisers to rework Sunday, and according to the series some drivers could no longer take part, the Storic and Race Cars Ferraris among them. With the Ricci car out, Neumann was confirmed as Am Gen II champion before the start.

Seven laps of racing in the rain

Race 1 began behind the safety car on a drenched track. When the field was released after seven minutes, poleman Pascal Huteau led in his Fanta Racing Legend by Code Classic Aston Martin V12 Vantage, but Am Gen I champion Eric Debard went up the inside to take the lead in his Ford GT.

Huteau took it back and pulled away, before Debard closed in again. The two were side by side at the start of lap eight when the Ford slowed with a puncture. Not long after, the rain came back so hard that the race was stopped with a little over 20 minutes left, and there was no more track action at the circuit that day.

The result was taken at the end of lap seven, with half points. Huteau won overall and in Am Gen II, 0.755 seconds clear of Debard, who took the Am Gen I win. Mark Cole and Alvaro Parente were third overall in the Quinntec Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra, Cole’s first Pro-Am win. Mario Cordoni was second in Am Gen II in the SRO Race Center Ferrari 458.

Ortelli back in his old Audi

Parente started Race 2 from pole, but Neumann’s SLS jumped him before Turn 1. Parente fought off Stéphane Ortelli for second, then slipped up the inside of Neumann a few corners later to retake the lead.

Ortelli was the story of the opening stint. The Monegasque was racing the same Audi R8 LMS with which he won top-level races more than a decade ago, a car he bought when it came up for sale. He spent several laps in Neumann’s mirrors and finally completed the pass at Turn 1. A problem at the pit stop cost him and co-driver David Hallyday on their series debut, and the Ortelli Racing Audi finished seventh, a lap down.

Six minutes from the end, the champion takes the lead

After the stops, Cole led overall from Neumann and Von Oeynhausen with 20 minutes left. Neumann reeled in the Audi and passed it with six minutes on the clock, then won by 4.527 seconds.

The last Pro-Am win of the year went down to the final lap. Von Oeynhausen closed on Cole and passed him through the opening sweep, finishing second overall and 2.557 seconds ahead of the Audi. It was his third class win in the last three races, after his double at the Nürburgring, and it secured second in the Pro-Am standings.

Jean-Luc Beaubelique had already wrapped up the Pro-Am title at the Nürburgring and finishes on 159 points, ahead of Von Oeynhausen on 132 and Cole and Parente on 108.5 each.

Our regret

A title fight that ends because one of the two contenders cannot reach the grid is an unsatisfying way to close a first season. The storm made Saturday impossible and Sunday’s timetable had to change. But a championship that runs on gentleman drivers and privately owned cars is always going to be more fragile in a rescheduled weekend than one built on factory teams. When a title is still open, we think the series should treat getting both contenders onto the final grid as a priority in any rescheduled timetable.

On the track, the season delivered what it promised: machinery from 11 brands, a Monaco GT legend chasing a champion in the car he once won with, and a final-lap pass for the last class win of the year.

Barcelona again in April

The series, run by SRO Motorsports Group and Peter Auto for GT3 cars homologated between 2006 and 2013, raced at Paul Ricard, Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans, the Nürburgring and Barcelona in 2026. The second season starts where this one finished, at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as part of Espiritu de Montjuic on 2 to 4 April, followed by Dijon, Spa, Paul Ricard and the Hungaroring. The full 2027 calendar is here.

For the headline race of the same weekend, read how Vermeulen and Green won the GT World Challenge finale.

Should a title still be decided when one of the contenders cannot start the last race, or should the series have found a way to get the Ricci Ferrari on the grid? Tell us in the comments.