Luís Calheiros and Paulo Macedo will make their Iberian Supercars Endurance debut in the GT4 class this season
In their first season in the Iberian Supercars Endurance, the Portuguese duo will be driving the Mercedes-AMG GT4 of the Lema Racing team in the GT4 Bronze category. The Slovenian team is well known to the Iberian Supercars Endurance and the Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade by Hankook audiences, having won the GT4 Pro category in both series last season.
Although this will be their first full season in the GT4 category, it will not be the first time that Paulo Macedo and Luís Calheiros will team up at the wheel of a GT4 car, as in 2021 they shared the wheel of a BMW M4 GT4 in the Dubai 24 Hours.
"I had been following this championship closely for some time and now all the conditions have been met to participate," says Paulo Macedo who made his debut in cars in the Campeonato Nacional de Velocidade de Sport-Protótipos in 2014, before heading to the Super 7 one-make cup, where he has been one of the top contenders.
"After seven years of running in the Super 7s it was time to take the next step. Paulo presented me his project and I was thrilled. The AMG GT4 is a competitive car and Lema Racing is a team with proven results," explained Luís Calheiros, the 2016 Single Seater Series rookie of the year and winner of his class in the Super 7 one-make cup.
"We are eager to begin our new adventure and we already have tests planned to start to understand the behaviour of the car that is naturally different from the one with which we have been competing in recent seasons.," added Luís Calheiros. "It will be our first season in the GT4 class, but we know very well the four tracks of the series, and we'll aim for a strong showing with podium finishes."
Without wanting to create false expectations, Paulo Macedo shares the same confidence as his teammate: “Our experience offer us the confidence to be in the top places. Everything will depend on the work that we will do together with the team and on our adaptation to a car that has proven itself. I believe we can fight for the top three places in our category.”
For Jaka Marinsek, Lema Racing's Team Manager, "it's a great pleasure to be back in the Iberian Supercars in 2023. I believe that with Paulo and Luís we have a duo capable of winning races in their category. We not only want to keep winning races, but this year we also want to compete for the championship crown since every year the level of the championship grows. We will put on track a second Mercedes-AMG GT4 whose driver line-up we will announce later."
2023 Iberian Supercars Endurance season will have eight races divided into four events and kicks off together with Campeonato de Portugal de Velocidade by Hankook on the weekend of May 6 and 7 at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (Portugal).
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