Trending Sports Updates

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Danny Hansen/IMSA IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge will expand from six to ten total race weekends in 2026, covering both sprint and endurance racing formats. The series will continue to run two 45-minute races on sprint weekends, while the four new weekends will include a two-hour endurance race component for LMP3 cars only. The LMP3 class, which will see the introduction of a new car specification in 2026, will compete on nine of the ten total weekends for the VP Racing Challenge. Those will be split between five sprint weekends and four two-hour endurance races sanctioned by IMSA that will take place on four USAC event weekends. Both sprint and endurance race components will count towards the overall VP Racing Challenge LMP3 championship, with the endurance events comprising an additional championship akin to the Michelin Endurance Cup’s relationship to the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. GTDX and GSX classes will compete only on the six sprint weekends, includin...

Photo: Porsche The Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama and Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West seasons concluded at Road Atlanta with the Final Prost, presented by Good Boy Vodka, bringing together more than 250 drivers, crew members, sponsors and families for the traditional year-end celebration. The event recognized the achievements of competitors across both series, with championship hardware awarded in Cayman and GT3 Cup categories.  The evening reflected not only the results on track but also the growth of the Porsche Sprint Challenge platform, which continues to serve as a key stepping stone in the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid. “This is now our fifth season, and I still remember in 2020 when Sprint Challenge didn’t exist,” said Volker Holzmyer, President and CEO of Porsche Motorsport North America. “We created the joint venture with USAC to get Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama started, and it has been quite a transformation. “Over the las...

Photo: Porsche JTR Motorsports Engineering capped off the Porsche Endurance Challenge North America four-hour finale with a statement-making 1-2 finish in the final race of the season at Road Atlanta. The invitational class entry of Carrera Cup North America standout Ryan Yardley and teammate Dave Musial Jr. delivered the overall victory. New Zealander Yardley’s outright pace — including the fastest lap in class — and Musial’s steady stints gave JTR the top step and an emphatic showcase of the team’s strength. Right behind them, JTR’s duo of Chris Hutter and team boss Jared Thomas secured second overall and the Pro-Am class victory.  Adding even more drama to the weekend, Scott Blind — the Am category ace — sealed the overall championship title by delivering a stunning class win with co-driver Alan Metni.  Metni was able to cross the line third after a dramatic chase of championship rival, and COTA winner Charlie Hayes (again teamed with Reinhold Krahn). Their dramatic ...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO ***The 49th running of the Suzuka 1000km ran to 170 laps over the six-and-a-half hour duration, falling three laps shy of the distance required to reach 1000km. The actual distance covered by the lead lap cars was 987.19km. ***Both Kelvin van der Linde and Raffaele Marciello won at Suzuka for the second time aboard the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO while Weerts won for the first time. WRT meanwhile made it back-to-back wins after its 2019 triumph with an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo, when van der Linde was also part of the lineup. ***Augusto Farfus says he has no real explanation for why the sixth-placed No. 31 WRT BMW, which he shared with Suzuka debutants Max Hesse and Dan Harper, couldn’t match the pace of the winning sister car. ***Farfus told Sportscar365: “It was a difficult weekend. We were down on top speed and we struggled a lot with the balance. The team made a massive effort to understand, but being so far from home, we don’t have the resources...

Photo: NLS Max Verstappen successfully obtained his Nordschleife A-Permit after competing in last weekend’s ADAC ACAS Cup, clearing the way for the four-time Formula 1 world champion to race GT3 machinery at the Green Hell in the future. The Dutchman joined GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS regulars Lionspeed GP for Saturday’s seventh round of the NLS season and teamed up with Verstappen dot Com Racing driver Chris Lulham for the four-hour race. Verstappen completed the necessary fourteen laps aboard the No. 980 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 CS, finishing 27th overall and seventh in the CUP3 category. “I’m happy it all went smooth, and I got my DMSB Permit Nordschleife, Verstappen said. “I really enjoyed myself, but that’s always the case around here. It was good to drive stints in the race with traffic, both with faster and slower cars. “There was also a ‘code 60’ race neutralisation, double waved yellows and a standard yellow flag. I drove in the wet, the dry and in mixed con...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography Porsche drivers Laurens Vanthoor and Alessio Picariello have shared their views on the instances of contact between their cars in the Suzuka 1000km, with both drivers accusing the other of being overly aggressive towards a member of the same brand. Absolute Racing’s Vanthoor and Picariello, driving for Origine Motorsport, came to blows as early as the very first lap of Sunday’s revived Intercontinental GT Challenge fixture as they battled for third in their Porsche 911 GT3 Rs. Having gone either side of the fast-starting Audi of Franky Cheng that made a poor exit out of Turn 2, the two Belgian drivers ran side-by-side towards Turn 3, with Picariello on the inside and Vanthoor on the outside. However, Vanthoor ran wide into Turn 3 and went over the grass as he attacked into Turn 4, pushing Picariello off line to grab the position. Later in the race, there was another episode once both Vanthoor and Picariello had returned for their second stints, as Pi...