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Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI Alpine has confirmed it will go into this weekend’s Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji Speedway with two-driver lineups for each of its A424 Hypercars, benching Antonio Felix da Costa and Frederic Makowiecki. The French manufacturer announced the move via a press release on Tuesday evening, stating that Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg will race the No. 35 car as a duo in Japan while Jules Gounon and Victor Martins share the sister No. 36 entry. Although no mention of Alpine’s driver plans for the remaining rounds of the year at Barcelona and Monza was mentioned, Sportscar365 understands that neither da Costa nor Makowiecki will return for the two season-closing European races. It comes as the Renault-owned brand prepares to withdraw from the WEC at the end of the year, with Chinese auto giant Geely having been strongly linked to a takeover of the Signatech operation that runs the outfit in recent months. However...

Photo: Mustang Cup Australia The battle for the inaugural Motorcraft Mustang Cup Australia series title will go down to the wire at Sandown Raceway in November after a tense penultimate round at Sydney Motorsport Park last weekend. Young Triple Eight protege Oli Wickham and series leader Josh Anderson claimed the two race wins, but there were plenty of stories up and down the field as the pressure mounts toward crowning the inaugural champions at Sandown in November. Title protagonists Anderson and Joe Fawcett were rarely far from each other on the track, and the pair will enter the final round separated by just 44 points. While some Sydney focus was on the title chase, Wickham was setting the pace — the 17-year-old secured the Ford Insure Pole Award for both races, earning a bonus $2000 incentive from Driving Solutions for achieving the feat. Wickham capitalized on his front row slot in Saturday’s Johnson Cup race, claiming a lights-to-flag victory, resisting the cons...

When the Battle on the Bricks came down to its final laps, there was still plenty of fight left. Across Indianapolis Motor Speedway, battles for position continued to the checkered flag. None was bigger than the fight for the overall victory, where Sheldon van der Linde chased down Earl Bamber before making the winning move with less than six minutes remaining. For the BMW M Team WRT driver, having consistent performance from his Michelin tires gave him something he could rely on when it mattered most. “The tire deg this weekend was generally low because we were on the hard compound tires, so I didn’t really feel any degradation,” said van der Linde. “Super reliable tire, no issues throughout. We were able to rely on it.” That consistency helped set up a dramatic finish. Van der Linde closed on Bamber’s No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R through GT traffic before taking the lead entering Turn 12. He went on to deliver the Belgian squad its fi...

Photo: Porsche JDC-Miller Motorsports is working to have its second Porsche 963 on the grid in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year according to team advisor Richard Westbrook, who is hoping to attract up-and-coming talent to make an expanded program a reality. The Minnesota-based team, which became the first privateer to win in the GTP era of the championship, has made significant gains this year with its 2025-spec Porsche and has arguably played a key role in Laurin Heinrich’s title chances. Former driver Westbrook, who looks after the John Church-led squad’s drivers as well as serving in a sporting capacity, said the only way for the team to continue its upward trajectory would be to add a second 963. It already has a second chassis in its possession, having purchased a complete second car in late 2023, initially to have a complete set of spares. “The goal is for us to make another big step, which we feel like we’ve made this year. The n...

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA IMSA is facing a possible capacity grid for Michelin Pilot Challenge according to series president John Doonan, who indicated they may have to put a limit on full season entries for next year. The GT4 and TCR-based championship, which sits on the run below the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, featured a 44-car grid last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With the return of Lime Rock Park as a headline event next September, Doonan indicated that decisions will have to be made based on pit lane and paddock capacity at tracks such as the 1.5-mile Connecticut circuit that could end up being the limiting factor. “We’re seeing it as a place where we may have to be looking at capping entries,” he told Sportscar365. “We’re space limited, for sure on pit lane. [Lime Rock’s] pit lane for sure and then of course the logistics team, I don’t know what the numbers were [at Indianapolis] but at a place like Sebring, I thi...

Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA Sheldon van der Linde gave Team WRT a breakthrough first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory following a late-race pass on Earl Bamber in Sunday’s TireRack Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Van der Linde capitalized on traffic to get around the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R of Bamber with less than six minutes to go in the two-hour an 40-minute contest, after briefly passing the Kiwi on at least two occasions in a hard-fought battle. The South African then cruised to a 2.926-second win in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 that he shared with Dries Vanthoor. It marked the first WeatherTech Championship win for the Belgian squad, in its first season of operating BMW’s factory GTP operation. BMW, meanwhile, hadn’t visited victory lane in the top class since Road America last year, a race that was also won by Vanthoor. Bamber’s runner-up finish was enough for co-driver Jack Aitken to extend his points lead over Laur...