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Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO Maxi Goetz led the opening hour of the Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, which largely ran behind the safety car after Chris Mies’ Ford Mustang GT3 struck a kangaroo. Goetz, who started second in the No. 77 Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, got around the pole-sitting No. 222 Scott Taylor Motorsport entry of Thomas Randle in a three-wide battle for the lead on the first green flag lap after the 5:45 a.m. start. The German driver held the lead until the safety car was deployed when Mies’ No. 64 HRT Ford Racing entry, which was running inside the top-ten in the car’s highly anticipated race debut, pulled off on the left-side of Conrod Straight with heavy front-end damage, including to its windshield on the left-hand side. Mies climbed from the wrecked car under his own power, although appeared to be covered with dark fluids on his face and firesuit. Race control confirmed that Mies hit a kangaroo. A second car was taken out of the race while under t...

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/SRO The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Ferrari 296 GT3 are among the cars that have received pre-race Balance of Performance breaks ahead of today’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour. Confirmed by SRO Motorsports Group in an updated BoP table on Sunday morning, the Corvette, which is making its debut at Mount Panorama, has received a 10 kg weight break, along with a reduction in minimum rear wing angle from 6.5 degrees to 6.2 degrees. It comes after the pair of JMR Johor Racing Corvettes qualified 25th and 26th out of the 31-car GT3 field. While the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and McLaren 720S GT3 Evo has also been given 10 kg weight reductions, the Ferrari will be 15 kg lighter, and with a significant five degree reduction in rear wing angle. Additionally, the Prancing Horses will have a slight increase in turbo boost pressures in the mid range, with a similar boost also given to the McLaren. The only GT3 car to be hit negatively has been the Mercedes-AMG ...

Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI Testing at the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue will be limited to a chosen single day per team, amid the event’s clash with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, it has been revealed. Sportscar365 has learned that the two-day test, scheduled for Sun. March 22 and Mon. March 23 at Lusail International Circuit, has been adjusted in the wake of the overlap with the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship enduro occurring the day prior in Florida. A significant number of drivers and team personnel are due to travel directly from Sebring to Qatar but are unable to make it for the opening day of the official pre-season test, which is mandatory for all WEC teams. Instead, it’s understood teams will choose which day to run, instead of being eligible to test for the full duration. It comes as a welcome development from competitors, particularly those who were severely impacted by the clash. Four of BMW M Team WRT’s six Hypercar drivers, for instanc...

Third Hypercar OEM to depart WEC shouldn't raise alarm bells, writes Gary Watkins... Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA Tristan Vautier will replace Sebastien Bourdais at Tower Motorsports for the remainder of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. It was revealed that four-time Indycar champion Bourdais would step down from driving the Tower Oreca 07 Gibson in the wake of the Rolex 24 at Daytona season opener to focus on his commitments in the FIA World Endurance Championship with the JOTA-run Cadillac Racing squad. Now it has been announced that Vautier, who has been a regular in the WeatherTech championship’s top class but has not contested the LMP2 division, will take Bourdais’ place alongside Sebastian Alvarez and John Farano in the Tower entry. While Vautier has no IMSA LMP2 experience, he has been a fixture in the LMP2 ranks in both the European and Asian Le Mans Series for the past three campaigns, including finishing as runner-up in the 2024-25 Asian LMS season. “With Tristan’s experience and leadership, we are confident this is exactly ...

Photo: BSI Racing BSI Racing will field six Toyota GR 86 Cup cars in Toyota GR Cup North America competition this year, following the team’s championship winning season with Westin Workman. While Workman has graduated to IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge competition, the Florida-based team will continue with a mix of returning and new drivers to the organization in the competitive single-make series. It includes Ethan Goulart, who will return for his second year under the BSI banner and will pilot the No. 72 Endava-liveried GR Cup car. Goulart was recently announced into Toyota Racing’s driver development program. Massimo Sunseri will also return behind the wheel of a BSI-entered car, along with Ethan Ayars. Newcomers to the Shea Holbrook-owned team are Amilio DiLauro, Alcyr Araujo and Ryan Power. “With the momentum from our 2025 driver and team championships, we’re raising the bar again in 2026,” said Holbrook. “This lineup reflects exactly what BSI is built on. “Developing ...

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI Alpine has announced that it will shutter its Hypercar program at the end of this season, following weeks of speculation that the French brand would exit the FIA World Endurance Championship. Confirmed on Thursday, it will mark the end of Alpine’s involvement in WEC competition, which dates back to 2013 in the LMP2 ranks in partnership with Signatech prior to graduating to the Hypercar ranks in 2021 with a grandfathered ORECA-chassied LMP1 car. Alpine created its own LMDh car, the A424, based around an ORECA spine, which launched in 2024, with its highlight to date coming with a maiden win last year’s 6 Hours of Fuji with Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin. Its withdrawal comes amid a change of leadership in parent company Renault, which saw Francois Provost take over a CEO from Luca de Meo last summer, and follows decreased sales, particularly with its initial EV-only strategy, which has since been reversed. The decision to exit...