Leitch Experiences Highs And Lows Of Italy's Temple Of Speed

It was a bitter sweet weekend for Brendon Leitch in the sixth round of the International GT Open championship at Monza in Italy over the weekend, but the Kiwi sports car ace still took some positives away from a topsy turvy weekend.

Two races over the weekend at the iconic venue - known as the Temple of Speed - saw the Invercargill racer and his co-driver American Tyler Cooke grab second in their ProAm class and seventh overall for Leipert Motorsport in their Dayle ITM backed Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo in Race 1.

On Sunday, however, a rain soaked circuit punished Leitch on the fifteenth lap and he aquaplaned off into Monza's unforgiving gravel traps as he was fighting his way through the field and heading for another good result.

"The first race was great for us overall," said the 25 year-old. "We're a ProAm team in a series with full Pro driving combinations and at one stage we even led the race outright for a couple of laps before it settled down again during pit stops. After that I was able to hold an easy fourth overall and first in class. We were right in it for the class win until the last couple of laps too but I'm pretty stoked with second in class.

"I did what I could to try and get us into a stronger position in the second race but unfortunately a very slippery track and standing water gave us no chance and the car aquaplaned off and there was no way out of the gravel. I was pretty certain we could move forward but that's racing I'm afraid.

"It's a very competitive field and it was my first time at Monza so overall I'm pretty pleased with the pace we showed. We demonstrated that we can be competitive with the very best drivers and cars in the field so we just have to move on from one bad day and keep producing good days and good results as we did on Saturday."

Saturday's race at Monza was won by Martin Kodric and Ethan Simioni in their Seas Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3, while it was the turn of Rinaldi Racing's Benjamin Hites and Fabrizio Crestani on Sunday as they took a popular 'home' win in their Ferrari 488 GT3.

Leitch and Cooke will be back in action in the next round of the Creventic 24 Hour Series, which takes place at another of motorsport’s iconic race tracks – Sebring – over the weekend of November 18-20.

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