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Photo: CSM Czabok-Simpson Motorsport has made the switch from Porsche to Aston Martin GT4 machinery for the remainder of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season, while adding a second GS class entry in the process. The Indianapolis-based team, which has long been affiliated with running Porsches, will field two Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evos beginning with next weekend’s round at Virginia International Raceway. While Gordon Scully and Morgan Burkhard will remain together in the No. 2 entry, Ayrton Houk as Ismaeel Ellahi will team up in the No. 3 Aston Martin for a three-race Pilot Challenge program. The shift to the British manufacturer is being billed as a “strategic move” according to a team statement, in order to get a jump start on the 2027 season. Sportscar365 understands CSM acquired one of Rebel Rock Racing’s Astons that it previously ran in the series. “Moving both cars to the Aston Martin now is an important step in our preparation for 2027,...

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA A total of 23 entries are set for next weekend’s Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway, in the one-and-only GTD Pro and GTD headline race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Released on Wednesday , the list is comprised of ten GTD Pro entries and 13 GTD cars, marking the third consecutive year the race is set to feature 23 cars. The most notable change since the last round at Road America comes with YRB Racing returning to the top production-based ranks, after most recently running in the GTD class in the six-hour Michelin Endurance Cup race. Aston Martin factory driver Marco Sorensen will make his debut with the ‘Car Blanche’ squad, joining Valentin Hasse-Clot in the No. 68 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. It is the only notable change to the lineups across both classes since the last sprint round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, a race that did see Tom Gamble replaced by Roman De Angelis in the GTD...

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI Porsche factory driver Julien Andlauer will make a second LMP2 appearance of the year after being announced as joining DKR Engineering’s lineup for the European Le Mans Series’ 4 Hours of Spa event later this month. Andlauer made a return to the LMP2 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans earlier this year when he tackled the race aboard a Duqueine Team Oreca 07 Gibson and looked on course for victory until a late brake failure. Now the Porsche Penske Motorsport regular is due to become the third different driver to partner Jean Glorieux and Marlon Hernandez this year in the No. 3 DKR Pro-Am class Oreca for the Spa contest on Aug. 23. The Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo is another car featuring a refreshed lineup for the Belgian event with WRT BMW FIA World Endurance Championship drivers Parker Thompson and Anthony McIntosh taking the place of Clement Mateu and Valentin Haase-Clot in the No. 59 machine. While Mateu has suffere...

Photo: Porsche Motorsport Asia Pacific DTM champion and FIA World Endurance Championship racer Ayhancan Guven will make his debut in the Suzuka 1000km for the Absolute Racing Porsche team. Guven will share Absolute’s No. 7 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo with Dorian Boccolacci and Alessandro Ghiretti for the Intercontinental GT Challenge fixture on Sept. 11-13 in what will mark the Turkish driver’s first race outing in Japan. He is familiar to the team, having been part of its Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour assault last year alongside Matt Campbell and Alessio Picariello. Boccolacci meanwhile was part of the Porsche stable for last year’s Suzuka 1000km, finishing seventh for Phantom Global Racing, while Ghiretti is returning to a circuit where he won twice en route to the 2024 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia title. “I’m very happy to be joining Absolute Racing for this year’s Suzuka 1000km,” commented Guven. “Racing there has always been a dream of mine, so I’m in...

Photo: Honda Honda believes the three-month gap between SUPER GT races was critical in allowing it to ‘course correct’ after a difficult start to life with its new Prelude GT500 challenger, after picking up its first win of the season this month at Fuji Speedway. Team Kunimitsu pair Naoki Yamamoto and Tadasuke Makino delivered the new Honda HRC Prelude-GT’s first win after coming out on top in a close battle with another of the Honda crews, Kaku Ohta and Hiroki Otsu in the No. 8 ARTA car. The milestone win came in the car’s third race, and followed best results of sixth in each of the first two rounds at Okayama in April and then at Fuji in early May. Honda GT500 project leader Tomohiro Onishi said that the extended break since the previous round at Fuji in May, owing to the cancellation of the Sepang race in June, provided the marque with a golden opportunity to figure out what had gone wrong. “After the first two races, I spent some time thinking, ‘Why ha...

Photo: JEP/SRO Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach has voiced similar concerns over the future of the GT3 platform to that of Stephane Ratel, stating he “fully agrees” with the SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO, who was one of the original architects of the formula and that organizers must “take action” not to prevent the category turning into prototype-based GT cars. The concerns not only come amid rising costs in GT3 but also several upcoming models, including the GR GT3 and new Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, that have been first developed on the race track and then re-engineered to be low-volume production cars to meet current GT3 regulations. The similar philosophy had been used in the GT1 era, as well as more recently with selected brands in GTE, most notably with the Ford GT, which was never essentially given to customer teams, aside from a one-off run at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2019. “I was on the phone with Stephane for a long time and I ful...

Photo: Mercedes-AMG 75 Express will return to the Suzuka 1000km with a Pro class Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to be shared by Kenny Habul, Philip Ellis and Mikael Grenier. The Sept. 11-13 event will mark the team’s first Intercontinental GT Challenge appearance since the season-opening Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour back in February, when team owner Habul was partnered by Jules Gounon and Luca Stolz. 75 Express contested the Bronze division at Suzuka last year with Habul flanked by Yannick Mettler and Dominik Baumann, finishing fourth in class. In the team’s SunEnergy1 guise it contested the Suzuka 10 Hours in 2018-19, winning the Pro-Am class in 2018 with Habul, Grenier and Luca Stolz, and then the Silver class in the latter year with Habul, Grenier and Nico Bastian. “I’m really looking forward to returning to Suzuka,” said Grenier. “The Suzuka Circuit is one of the best race tracks in the world. Having competed there every year since 2018 will certainly h...