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Photo: JRP Kamui Kobayashi will make his top-class debut on the Nurburgring Nordschleife in this weekend’s NLS3 as part of the KCMG Mercedes-AMG team. The Toyota FIA World Endurance Championship driver/team principal will share the No. 47 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with team regulars David Pittard, Jesse Krohn and Edoardo Liberati for Saturday’s four-hour enduro. Kobayashi’s first appearance at the Nordschleife came two years ago, when he drove a Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo prepared by KCMG to obtain his Grade A license. The 39-year-old was a long-time member of KCMG’s Super Formula program, but left the team at the end of last year in favor of a move to the KDDI TGMGP TGR-DC team. “NLS3 will be my very first time to take on the historical Nordschleife in a GT3 car and I’m excited and looking forward to the week with KCMG,” said Kobayashi. “There is a lot of work to do but I’ll build myself up step by step, and hopefully we learn a lot by the end of the weekend, to help us be prepared f...

Photo: SUPER GT Sacha Fenestraz believes the SARD Toyota team has “more potential” in SUPER GT this year following a positive off-season, and hopes that a tire selection “gamble” for this weekend’s Okayama opener pays off. The Argentine driver is going into his second season in the Japanese championship pairing up with Yuhi Sekiguchi aboard the No. 39 Toyota GR Supra, which has figured towards the top of the timesheets for much of winter testing. Fenestraz set the fourth-fastest time in last month’s first official test at Okayama, and was the nearest rival to the all-conquering No. 36 TOM’S Toyota in the second and final official test at Fuji Speedway. Looking ahead to this weekend’s 300km curtain-raiser, Fenestraz believes that SARD has made a step forward compared to last year in terms of performance having made an important discovery regarding certain parts that weren’t working as expected. “I do think we have good potential this year, more than last year,” Fenestraz told Spo...

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...