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Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI Action Express Racing elected not to pursue an entry request for the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year in order to focus on its its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program according to team manager Gary Nelson. The five-time WeatherTech Championship title-winning squad, which has contested the French endurance classic since the debut of the LMDh platform in 2023, elected to stand down from this year’s race, as Nelson believes its previous participation in the twice-around-the-clock enduro compromised its GTP efforts Stateside. “We’ve gone three years in a row,” Nelson told Sportscar365. “You may say some of our toughest IMSA seasons have been those three years. “I think it makes sense to us to try and concentrate on our IMSA program and see if we could build it up. “After that conversation last summer, then we went on to win the last couple of races and then ran good in Daytona this year. “I think the focus is already showing that we’re focused...

Photo: Toyota Toyota teams locked out the top three spots across two days of GT500 manufacturer testing at Fuji Speedway, as 11 cars took to the track in the final group running before SUPER GT’s first official pre-season test early next month. Sho Tsuboi set the fastest time of the test on Friday morning, a 1:25.814, aboard the title-winning No. 36 TOM’S Toyota GR Supra to top the test by a margin of almost seven tenths of a second from Rookie Racing driver Nirei Fukuzumi. The opening day of action had seen Fukuzumi set the pace on a 1:26.518 in the afternoon session at the wheel of the No. 14 GR Supra, but somewhat cooler conditions at Fuji on Friday resulted in the majority of cars improving their best lap times. That time however was still good enough for second overall, marginally ahead of Toshiki Oyu in the Cerumo Toyota, who was second-fastest on Friday with a 1:26.596. Best of the non-Toyotas was the Team Kunimitsu Honda HRC Prelude-GT with a time of 1:26.637 set by Naok...

Photo: Ralf Aron Instagram Ralf Aron has been released from the hospital following his back-breaking accident in last weekend’s Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour. The Mercedes-AMG factory driver sustained two fractured vertebrae in a massive crash when his then-leading Craft-Bamboo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo slammed into the spun Tsunami RT Porsche 911 GT3 R of Johannes Zelger in the second half of the Intercontinental GT Challenge season opener, that resulted in a near one-hour red flag. Aron was transported to Orange Hospital by ambulance and revealed on Monday the severity of his injuries . The 27-year-old Estonian wrote on social media that he’s able to “stand up and walk a little” although will remain in Sydney for the time being due to not yet being medically cleared to fly. He is pictured wearing a brace. Aron also wrote that both of his parents also arrived in Australia, ahead of the start of his recovery process in Australia. The accident has come under significant scrutiny...

Photo: Walkenhorst Motorsport A BMW Z4 GT3 will come out of retirement for this year’s Nürburgring 24, with the 2010s-era GT3 car set to contest the German endurance classic. It was confirmed on Thursday that the car, nicknamed “Zetti” will be entered in the Intercontinental GT Challenge round for drivers Ralf Schall, Christian Scherer and Henry Walkenhorst, the latter whose team last ran the car in modern-day competition. With Walkenhorst Motorsport having since switched alliances to Aston Martin, the car will be run by a team mainly consisting of “family and friends” according to a statement on Instagram . While the Z4 GT3, which debuted in 2010, has never won the race outright, it last contested the N24 with Walkenhorst in 2018. The car is expected to compete in the SP9 class for GT3 machinery, the same category as modern-day GT3 cars, though it’s unclear how the Balance of Performance will be established given its age. Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI The entry list for this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans been revealed, confirming that Wayne Taylor Racing will be part of an 18-strong grid in the top Hypercar category. Released on Thursday, the grid for the FIA World Endurance Championship blue riband event on June 13-14 is set to feature a capacity field of 62 cars, with 19 in LMP2 and 25 in LMGT3. The number of Hypercars is down by three from last year’s race, reflecting the loss of four Porsche 963s — the three factory Porsche Penske Motorsport cars and the single customer Proton Competition entry — and one Cadillac V-Series.R, offset by the arrival of two cars from new full-time WEC participant Genesis Magma Racing. It marks the smallest top-class field at Le Mans since 2023, when there were 16 cars in Hypercar. WTR, which has been handed the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s ‘at-large’ invitation in the wake of Porsche’s withdrawal from the top class, will make its second consecutive La Sart...

Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI Ferrari will need a “perfect season” to defend its FIA World Endurance Championship title as the Italian manufacturer goes into the new season against numerous competitors that have made Evo joker upgrades, according to Alessandro Pier Guidi. The Prancing Horse will be aiming to defend both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles with its 499P, which hasn’t been upgraded since Ferrari invoked the car’s first and so far only Evo joker for the second half of the 2024 season. By contrast, Toyota, Cadillac, Alpine and BMW have all taken Evo jokers to coincide with every car being rehomologated over the winter in the Windshear wind tunnel. Pier Guidi, who once again shares the No. 51 Ferrari 499P with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi this season, says Ferrari will need to maximize its scoring in races where it struggled last year to be in with a chance of back-to-back titles. “Of course, it won’t be easy to win the championship again; we know how difficult...

Photo: Alpine Endurance Team Alpine has revealed the livery for its revised A424 Hypercar ahead of its final FIA World Endurance Championship season this year, and also confirmed Jules Gounon and Charles Milesi as part of its driver lineup. The French manufacturer announced last week that it will be quitting the WEC at the end of the season , but had already committed to making aero changes to the A424 for the new campaign. These tweaks focus around an aerodynamic overhaul of the car to take away the negative consequences of the low-drag concept it had originally adopted. Alpine completed the first test with its updated machine at the end of last month at Portimao and reported that the two days of track action passed “without incident.” Images of the new A424 have now been publicly released for the first time and they show the car sporting a slight variation of its traditional blue colors. As well as the car, Alpine also revealed – as predicted – that Gounon and Miles...