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Image: GT World Challenge Asia SUPER GT champion and Toyota factory driver Kenta Yamashita will be part of an assault on this year’s SRO Japan Cup with a McLaren 720S GT3. Yamashita will team up with three-time Am class champion Tadao Uematsu as the 58-year-old tackles the Pro-Am class for the first time with a car entered under his own ‘Team Uematsu’ banner, run by Osaka-based maintenance garage Auto Labo. It will mark a first foray into GT3 competition for three-time GT500 champion Yamashita in more than a decade, with his last experience being his maiden SUPER GT campaign for the KTR Porsche GT300 squad back in 2015. Since a brief spell in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2019-20, the 30-year-old has focused exclusively on SUPER GT, Super Taikyu and Super Formula. Yamashita said that an approach from TOM’S SUPER GT team director Daisuke Ito, who will perform the same role for Team Uematsu, led to the opportunity to join the team. “I think that Uematsu-san is one of th...

Photo: Honda/Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Six of the Team Honda athletes who competed in the recent Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Milano and Cortina will bring their championship spirit to Southern California as grand marshals for next weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. As the proud Automotive Partner of Team USA and the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Team Honda athlete ambassadors serving as Grand Marshals for the Grand Prix of Long Beach will include: Audrey Crowley (Para Alpine Skiing), Brenna Huckaby (2026 Bronze Medalist – Para Snowboarding), Brody Roybal (2026 Gold Medalist – Sled Hockey), Declan Farmer (2026 Gold Medalist – Sled Hockey), Jordan Stolz (2026 two-time Gold and Silver Medalist – Speedskating), and Kaysha Love (Bobsled). Team Honda athletes are coming off impressive performances on the world stage at the recent Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. As grand marshals, they will spark the performances of some of the world’s best race car dri...

Photo: Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Academy graduate Kobe Pauwels will make his FIA World Endurance Championship debut in the opening round at Imola in place of Eduardo Barrichello, who has a clashing IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship commitment. Former rallycross champion Pauwels had an impressive second season in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS last year and won the Sprint Cup Silver title with Comtoyou Racing. The 21-year-old has now been rewarded with his WEC debut at Imola on April 19 alongside Jonny Adam and Gray Newell in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, with Barrichello instead competing with the team at Long Beach. The Brazilian is sharing with Heart of Racing returnee Spencer Pumpelly in the third round of the WeatherTech Championship season. There is another WEC/IMSA clash later in the year but there has been no announcement yet on whether Pauwels will again deputize for Barrichello at Interlagos in July. “The ...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Jan Patrick Wagner/European Le Mans Series Single-seater convert Jake Hughes began his sports car career in rapid fashion as he set the pace for Algarve Pro Racing on the first day of the European Le Mans Series Prologue in Barcelona after four-time category champion Louis Deletraz had headed the leaderboard for the majority of the day. Two four-hour test sessions were held in Spain on Monday as the record 47-strong ELMS entry took to the track together for the first time, while there were also two separate 30-minute sessions at the end of the day, one for LMP2 machinery and one for the LMP3 and LMGT3 crews. Deletraz set a 1:29.120 in the first hour of the morning session and that lap was good enough to stay at the top of the times throughout the first two main sessions in the TF-run No. 99 AO Oreca 07 Gibson. However, his time was finally bettered after roughly 10 minutes of the final half-hour session by former Formula E driver Hughes, who posted a 1:28.667 in the No. 2...

Photo: Toyota Racing Ryo Hirakawa believes that Toyota has produced a more well-balanced and predictable car for the upcoming FIA World Endurance Championship season as it prepares to give the upgraded TR010 Hybrid its race debut at Imola next weekend. Toyota took the covers off the renamed TR010 in January , the Japanese marque having deployed a single Evo joker to embark on a radical overhaul of the two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning machine’s aerodynamics after a tough 2025 season. The revamped car has embarked on an extensive test program over the winter, most recently completing two days of running at Motorland Aragon in late February. Hirakawa, who once again shares Toyota’s No. 8 car with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley as part of an unchanged driver roster for the new season, believes the update has not only improved the car’s top speed, which was highlighted by Toyota Racing technical director David Floury as a key weakness last year, but also its handling. “I w...

Photo: SUPER GT SUPER GT looks set to call off its planned visit to Sepang in June owing to a request from the Malaysian government, Sportscar365 has learned. The Japanese championship was due to hold its third round of the season at the Malaysian circuit on June 19-21 following a successful return to the venue last year. However, it’s understood that teams were informed last week that the event will not go ahead as the government, which was a major backer of last year’s race through its Visit Malaysia initiative, has requested that large-scale events that are not of national significance are curtailed amid concerns of potential fuel shortages. It comes amid the ongoing U.S./Israel-Iran conflict, which is showing no signs of stopping and has already led to many motorsport events in the region being cancelled or postponed, including the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Qatar 1812km . Additionally, the inflated costs of transporting freight and personnel from Japan to Malaysia a...