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Source: Sports Car 365

Image: HMI Hanley Motorsports Incorporated will launch a dual-series IMSA campaign next year, utilizing race and championship-winning resources and experience for its multi-faceted BMW program. Announced on Wednesday, HMI, which has joined forces with DXDT Racing and will also work with ex-Paul Miller Racing staff, including its longtime team boss Mitchell Simmons, who will serve as team principal. Additionally, DXDT program manager Bryan Sellers has been named competition director for the program, which will see BMW M4 GT3 EVOs entered in both the GTD Pro and GTD classes of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as GS class effort with at least one BMW M4 GT4 EVO in Michelin Pilot Challenge. Drivers for the programs have yet to be announced. The GTD Pro effort effectively takes over from Paul Miller Racing’s championship-winning campaign from this year, and the team will be initially based out of the former PMR shop in Buford, Ga., before moving to a new ground-up ...

Photo: Ford Mustang Cup USA will feature a new race format next year as part of its 2027 calendar, which was released on Wednesday. The USAC-sanctioned single-make series, featuring the Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, will now have four races per weekend, with 30-minute contests for each pair of Miles Cup and Parnelli Cup championships. The idea for the revised format was suggested by Ford Racing’s global customer racing manager Chris Ward to Sportscar365 in August . In addition to the four 30-minute races, each weekend will also feature two 40-minute practice sessions and a pair of 15-minute qualifying sessions. “There are a few reasons for these changes,” said Ward. “The first is that this new format allows for more racing, which means more fun. “Additionally, for racers getting their start, it allows them to gain more competitive racing experience, which will only help them as they move up our Ford Racing Sports Car Pyramid. “Having more, shorte...

Photo: SUPER GT Three-time GT300 class champion Morio Nitta has announced he will conclude a three-decade stint as a SUPER GT driver at end of the season. Nitta, 59, revealed the news on Wednesday ahead of this weekend’s season-closing double-header at Motegi, coming not long after he scored his first victory for seven years in last month’s Autopolis round alongside K-tunes Racing co-driver Shinichi Takagi. It brings to a close an unbroken tenure in the Japanese sports car racing series that stretches back to 1996, the year in which he won the first of his three titles. Notably, Nitta has spent his entire 30-year career in SUPER GT in the GT300 division, winning further championships in 1999 and 2002. “At the end of this season, I, Morio Nitta, will be drawing a line under my journey as a SUPER GT driver,” wrote Nitta in a brief statement on social media. “‘Persistence pays off” are words that have always been close to my heart since I was...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA Lone Star Racing will make the step up to a full-season IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship entry, with Lin Hodenius and James Roe as drivers in the team’s GTD class Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Announced on Tuesday, the Texas-based squad is set to embark on its first full-time WeatherTech Championship effort, having contested the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds for the last three years. “We’re super excited to jump off our first full season in the WeatherTech Championship,” said team manager and technical director AJ Petersen. “We started in 2016 doing GTD sprint rounds in IMSA and continued in ’17 and ‘19. We came back in ’24 with endurance in ’24, ’25 and ’26. “To put it together for a full season effort is what we’ve been working towards for years. Working to do with proper partners, and we’re looking forward for years to come. It’s a solid foundation we’ve assembled.” The Dan Knox-owned team recorded top-ten class f...

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix Staff Sgt. Nathan Munnings, of Jacksonville, N.C., will officially retire from the U.S. Marine Corps after 13 years of service during the second-annual CrowdStrike Veterans Race of Remembrance powered by AWS on Sunday at Virginia International Raceway. Munnings was looking for a way to transition back into civilian life when he found Operation Motorsport, a non-profit that offers motorsports programming for veterans with a disability rating in the U.S. and Canada. He applied for their Motorsport Immersion program and spent the season working side-by-side with the crew while embedded with Random Vandals Racing in the GT World Challenge America Series. “Operation Motorsport has given me a renewed sense of purpose and a team to belong to as I transition out of the Marine Corps,” Munnings said. “Being welcomed into Random Vandals Racing has given me camaraderie, mentorship, and the opportunity to keep learning and contributing.” The sec...