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Photo: Heart of Racing Team Spencer Pumpelly will rejoin Heart of Racing Team for the upcoming Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, filling in for Tom Gamble in the team’s No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Pumpelly, a FIA Silver-rated driver, will share the wheel of the GTD contender with full season driver Eduardo Barrichello, as regular pilot Tom Gamble will be on FIA World Endurance Championship duty at Imola at the wheel of the team’s No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie. He will be making his first start with the Ian James-led team since 2024, after last year’s two IMSA WetherTech SportsCar Championship clashing race which Gamble missed were filled by Darren Turner and Roman De Angelis, respectively. Barrichello and the No. 27 crew currently lead the GTD points standings following third and second place class finishes this season. The replacement for Barrichello for the WEC season-opening 6 Hours of Imola, meanwhile, has not yet been announced, as the Brazilian was announced as a s...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Brandon Badraoui/IMSA AO Racing will once again return to the GTD class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, albeit with a revised lineup from its class-winning effort last year. Confirmed on Thursday, the No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, known as ‘Roxy’ will contest the 100-minute GTP/GTD-only race with its new-for-2026 full season driver Harry King and newcomer Mikkel Pederson, who fulfills the class requirements of a having a FIA Silver or Bronze-rated driver. Last year, the team claimed class honors with Laurens Vanthoor and Jonny Edgar. Vanthoor will be racing in the GTP class with Porsche Penske Motorsport, while Edgar will be on FIA World Endurance Championship duty at Imola that weekend. “It’s great to be bringing Roxy to Long Beach this year after Rexy’s win in 2025,” said team principal Gunnar Jeannette. “Harry is no stranger to the team, but it will be Mikkel’s first time driving our dino-Porsche. “We were impress...

Photo: SRO Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll will make a surprise debut in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS season-opener at Paul Ricard after the official entry list was released showing the Canadian at the wheel of a Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The 27-year-old did make occasional sports car outings earlier in his career, twice contesting the Rolex 24 at Daytona in both DPi and LMP2 machinery. But he will now make his GT3 bow in an additional fourth Comtoyou entry in France alongside former F1 driver Roberto Merhi, who has been a SUPER GT regular in recent years, and single-seater convert Mari Boya – who is also part of the Aston Martin Academy. Stroll’s appearance is one of the surprises upon publication of the 59-strong entry for the Paul Ricard event and he is the latest F1 driver to sample GT3 machinery after four-time champion Max Verstappen’s entry into the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie. More to follow Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: SUPER GT Ryuichiro Tomita has expressed his excitement at the potential of Gainer’s revamped Nissan Z GT300 challenger for the upcoming SUPER GT season after an encouraging showing for the new car in last month’s official Fuji pre-season test. The Dunlop-clad No. 11 machine shared by Tomita and co-driver Kazuki Oki achieved the fourth-fastest lap time in class at Fuji, with a best effort of 1:36.198 putting it around four tenths slower than the pace-setting Subaru BRZ. That was despite preparations for the car, an improved version of the Z introduced in 2024 , not being completed in time for the previous test at Okayama. Evaluating the Fuji test, Tomita admitted uncertainty as to Gainer’s real place in the GT300 pecking order but said that the lap time he achieved, and the car’s overall reliability, gives him confidence that a strong showing this year is possible. “As we didn’t run at Okayama and the Fuji test was the first time for us to even turn a wheel, I was expectin...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: SUPER GT Nissan driver Bertrand Baguette has described the looming end of SUPER GT’s tire war as “quite sad” and a “big blow” for the Japanese series as he prepares to commence what will be his 13th season in the GT500 class next week at Okayama. It was announced last year that the upcoming season will be SUPER GT’s last with multi-make tire competition, as the series prepares to introduce one-make tires in 2027. Since joining the series in 2014, Baguette spent five years on Dunlop tires with the Nakajima Racing Honda team — earning the Sumitomo Rubber brand its most recent GT500 win at the Suzuka 1000km with Kosuke Matsuura in 2017 — before switching to Bridgestone rubber in 2019 upon his switch to Real Racing. The 40-year-old, now the eldest driver in the upper category, feels SUPER GT’s appeal will be reduced as a result of adopting single tire suppliers for each class. “It’s quite sad it’s the last year of the tire war,” Baguette told Sportscar365. “It’s a big blow f...