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Source: Sports Car 365
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Balogh, Grist Claim Win in Airbnb Endurance Challenge at VIR
Photo: IMSA As Ari Balogh slid off course in Turn 3 following contact from Farhan Siddiqi in the No. 87 FastMD with Remstar Duqueine D08 Nissan on the first lap of Sunday’s two-hour IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge race at Virginia International Raceway, he likely didn’t expect to find himself standing in victory lane two hours later. But that’s exactly where he wound up alongside his No. 30 Toney Driver Development Ligier JS P325 Toyota co-driver Garett Grist thanks to heady strategy from Toney Driver Development Owner Nathan Toney and a well-timed full-course caution period. The first-lap incident put Balogh at the rear of the field, but the first of the race’s three full-course cautions for debris just four minutes into the race enabled him to catch back up to the rest of the field. Shortly after achieving minimum drive-time, Balogh made the first of the team’s two required pit stops to turn the car over to Grist for the remainder of the race. The tur...
Kaminskey Extends Points Lead With Saturday Win at Laguna
Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO Championship leaders continued to show their strength during Ferrari Challenge North America’s fourth event of the season. Laguna Seca welcomed more than 50 Ferrari 296 Challenge race cars for Saturday’s opening pair of races, and they will return on Sunday to close out the weekend. Trofeo Pirelli Johnny Kaminskey (Ferrari of Long Island) added to his tally of victories on Saturday afternoon, while starting first and finishing first in Trofeo Pirelli Race 1. The teenage driver has now clinched five wins in the last seven races of Ferrari Challenge, and further extends his championship lead. He has yet to finish off the podium this season. A pair of local entries from Ferrari of San Francisco completed the Trofeo Pirelli podium. George Grinzewitsch III and Brad Fauvre, finished second and third, respectively. In Trofeo Pirelli Am, Michael Mathes (Ferrari of Central New Jersey) scored his second win of the season by more than three seconds. It was a strai...
Catalano Scores First Pole of Season at VIR
Photo: IMSA Valentino Catalano already had fond memories from his first visit to Virginia International Raceway when he swept all three races of an IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge triple-header last August. He added another one in Saturday’s 15-minute qualifying session by securing the pole position for Sunday’s two-hour IMSA Airbnb Endurance Challenge race at the 3.4-mile circuit on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Driving the No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport USA, Duqueine D09 Toyota, Catalano claimed his first pole position of the season with a best lap of 1:42.626 in the car he shares with co-driver Oscar Tunjo. It should be noted that this also was the first qualifying session of the season for Catalano, the 2025 VP Racing Challenge LMP3 champion who is only competing in the Airbnb Endurance Challenge races this season. Tunjo qualified the car on pole for the first two endurance races of the season to go with three additional poles from the sprint race portion of the...
SRO Hoping for “Novelties” to Rejuvenate, Diversify GT4 Grids
Photo: Fred Hardy/SRO SRO Motorsports Group founder and CEO Stephane Ratel has expressed desire for new brands and/or car models to enter the GT4 ranks, which has largely been stagnant in recent years. The latest-generation Ford Mustang GT4, launched in 2024, has been the newest GT4 model to join the platform. There are at least 13 GT4 models that are currently eligible, although a number of cars, such as the Alpine A110 GT4, Audi R8 LMS GT4, Lotus Emira GT4, Nissan Z NISMO GT4 and Ginetta G56 GT4 are competing in only selected markets around the world and in low numbers. While not lacking grid numbers, particularly in its flagship GT4 European Series or Pirelli GT4 America and Michelin Pilot Challenge in North America, which all routinely feature 30-plus fields, Ratel said he’s hopeful of new blood being injected into the SRO-controlled platform. “GT4, I would say, is [doing] fine, but we need novelties,” he told Sportscar365. “We need more cars to bring us...
BMW M2 Cup Launches This Weekend as DTM Support Series
Photo: BMW The BMW M2 Cup launches this weekend at the Lausitzring, as part of a new support series for DTM aimed at up-and-coming drivers seeking to advance their careers through the sports car racing ranks. A total of 11 cars are on the entry list for the pair of races, with cars entered by established teams such as Hofor Racing by Bonk Motorsport, FK Performance Motorsport and ME Motorsport. Drivers 15 and older are eligible to race. Participants in the M2 Cup will receive “extensive support” including ADAC’s “Road to DTM” package, which assists the Cup winner in moving up to ADAC GT4 Germany, as well as broad support from BMW M Motorsport. The support includes driver coaching with factory drivers, media training, test drives in the BMW M4 GT4 EVO for the top three finishers in the championship, as well as the participation in the selection process for the BMW M Racing Academy. In total, the BMW M2 Cup prize pool totals €170,000. “We are very...