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Superstars: Chevy Camaro impresses, McLaren hits top in GTSPRINT

The SUPERSTARSWORLD was back roaring today at Monza as the venue hosted the official SUPERSTARS INTERNATIONAL SERIES and GTSPRINT preseason test. The session gave Teams and Drivers a chance to sample their machinery ahead of the 2013 opener scheduled at the historical northern Italian racetrack.

A lot of top names lined-up throughout the day, and it's been a warm welcome for the Chevrolet Camaro, fielded by Solaris Motorsport for Francesco Sini. The all-American muscle car hit the track for the first time but left the paddock impressed by clocking the fastest lap of the day in 1'55"624 to top Andrea Larini. The Tuscany-based racer has moved from Mercedes to Jaguar for 2013 and made a positive rollout behind the wheel of the Ferlito Motorsport-developed XFR racecar. The win scored by Max Pigoli in 2012 will be a great motivation for them as they will try to do it all again this season. Luigi Ferrara also met his new team today, driving the RRT Mercedes C63 AMG Coupé and ending up not too far from the leader.

The top offseason news came from Team Petri Corse. The team finally brought the Porsche brand back to SUPERSTARS and lined-up reigning champion Johan Kristoffersson. The young Swede will rely on a Porsche Panamera for his title defense and will be partnered by Massimiliano Fantini throughout the season. The RC Motorsport Cadillac CTS-V also showed up in a revamped form in the hands of Roberto Benedetti, eager to tame the American-powered racer's power on a track where it really matters.

The GTSPRINT INTERNATIONAL SERIES pack featured the two Bhaitec McLaren MP4-12C machines driven by former F.1 star Giorgio Pantano and Brazilian-Japanese racer Rafael Suzuki. They topped the Ferrari Ukraine car (fielded with technical support from AF Corse) of Andrii Kruglyk and Ruslan Tsyplakov, joined by their Driver Coach, Raffaele Giammaria. Mario Cordoni, the reigning GTS3 Champion, also left a strong impression together with team-mate Massimo Mantovani as they drove two Ombra Racing-prepared Ferrari 458 Italia racers, while the Porsche 997 GTS3 of Glauco Solieri was forced to stop early by mechanical woes.

Two more 997s were brought on-track by Petri Corse with the Gianluca Carboni/Marco Cassarà combo together with Thomas Schöffler, who raced for Audi in SUPERSTARS last season. Another new team joined the action with reigning GTS Cup Trophy champion Steven Goldstein, from Colombia, and Spaniard Antonio De La Reina behind. Their Porsche 997 is set to run under the Heaven Motorsport banner.