Conquest Racing with Ferrari is gearing up for another action-packed round in the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Championship, with Manny Franco and Alessandro Balzan returning to commandeer the #21 Corsa Horizon Ferrari 296 GT3 in the Pro Class. The American-Italian duo saw great success in the opening round at Sonoma, scoring a 5th place finish in the first race before climbing to greater heights in the second race to bring home a second-place trophy in the world professional racing debut of the Ferrari 296 GT3. 

This will be Balzan and Franco’s first time co-driving the Ferrari 296 GT3 around NOLA Motorsports Park for a race weekend. The two previously completed test sessions at the track a couple of weeks prior to get up to speed and familiarize themselves with the layout of the Avondale circuit. The 17-turn, 2.74 mile course will present a very different challenge, with high-speed straightaways and narrow corners requiring a new approach. 

“I’m very excited to jump back in #21 Conquest Racing Corsa Horizon Ferrari 296 GT3, especially for my first time racing at NOLA,” said Alessandro Balzan. “We had two good days of testing where we were able to learn more about the car and make improvements to this new platform. The team has worked really hard and we were satisfied with the balance of the car over the course of our time on track. It’s also great to see how much Manny loves this track and he performed really well in the test sessions. We can’t wait to get the weekend started!”

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the car with Alessandro and seeing what we can accomplish together this weekend,” added Manny Franco. “I’m happy our testing days went well, I think it brought us a lot of confidence as drivers ahead of this round. The team did a fantastic job and we’re very proud of the progress we made in such a short time. Every lap in this car is so valuable and we’re feeling very solid going into NOLA!” 

​​The track was only introduced to the SRO calendar last season, meaning that the entire field is still relatively inexperienced at this location. Taking all this into account, combined with the unpredictable Louisiana weather, this second round is already shaping up to be a very exciting one. 

The first race of the weekend will kick off Saturday, April 29th, at 3:10 PM CT, while Race 2 will take place Sunday, April 30th, at 1:45 PM CT. Both races will be broadcast live on GT World’s YouTube channel.