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Van der Zande Paces Field at Three-Hour Mark

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Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA Meyer Shank Racing ran 1-2, led by the No. 93 of Renger van der Zande with three hours in the books at Motul Petit Le Mans. The Dutchman led his teammate Colin Braun in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06. Action Express Racing used a fast pit stop under caution to move into third place with Frederik Vesti now in for Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R. The MSR duo pitted in reaction just before pit lane closed for the caution to retake the lead. The second full course yellow of the ten-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale occurred in the second hour. Phil Fayer locked up the No. 2 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson and spun into the Turn 10 gravel. Parker Thompson led the LMP2 field by over 27 seconds in the No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen before the yellow. Starting driver Mishka Goikhberg utilized traffic to take first. Rasmus Lindh sat in second after taking off for Daniel Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports US...

Heavy Rain Alert Forces Major Barcelona Timetable Changes

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Photo: SRO/JEP An extreme weather alert issued by the local government has forced SRO Motorsports Group to issue a revised timetable for Sunday at Barcelona, with no qualifying session for the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup season finale. The government directive prohibits any outdoor activity from taking place between 8 p.m. CEST on Saturday and 2 p.m. CEST on Sunday due to heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds expected in the Catalunya region. Saturday’s first GTWC Europe contest was rain-affected and had to be briefly red-flagged after 30 minutes. The subsequent GT3 Revival Series race was also halted halfway through, but this was not restarted, while the planned Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe encounter — which was due to conclude the day’s racing — was axed altogether. SRO said in a statement that it still plans to run races on Sunday for all four championships in attendance at Barcelona, which also includes McLaren Trophy Europe,...

Circle H Wins, AutoTechnic Takes GS Title at Road Atlanta

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Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA Thomas Merrill and Martin Sarukhanyan claimed Circle H Racing’s first IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge victory in Friday’s Fox Factory 120, while AutoTechnic Racing’s Austin Krainz and Steven McAleer secured the GS class championship at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The No. 33 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai Elantra N TCR of Bryson Morris and Mason Filippi secured the TCR class title by starting the race. Pole-sitter Jaxon Bell stretched his overall to over seven seconds before their first pit stop handed the No. 23 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2 to Ford Koch. The race ran green to the end of the first stint.  The No. 66 YRB Aston Martin Vantage GT4 Evo received a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility with the title-contending No. 27 AutoTechnic Racing BMW M4. YRB had another drive-through for contact with the No. 61 McCumbee McAleer Racing Ford Mustang GT4 of Jenson Altzman in the Esses. Debris in Turn 7 brought out the first full course ye...

Caranta, Workman Double Up to Conclude VPRC Season

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Photo: Jake Galstad/IMSA The final sprint race for the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge before the championship moves to an endurance format in 2027, featured a 45-minute barnburner at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Friday morning. Both Jules Caranta (LMP3) and Westin Workman (GSX) completed weekend sweeps, although both drivers had to work a little harder to get there. Season champions Oscar Tunjo (LMP3) and Workman (GSX) had clinched their respective titles in Thursday’s first race of the weekend, so they raced in a pressure-free environment. Afew key moments led up to the final restart with less than five minutes to go. For the overall lead, Caranta in his No. 18 Forbush Performance Duqueine D09 Toyota paced the field from pole but withstood multiple close passing attempts from Tunjo in his No. 1 Gebhardt Motorsport Duqueine D09. After the restart, Caranta was able to extend his gap over Tunjo to a final margin of victory of 2.031 seconds, with Tunjo’s teammate Danny Soufi...

Finalized Indy 8H Entry List Released; DragonSpeed Out

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Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO SRO Motorsports Group has released the finalized entry list for next weekend’s Desder Indianapolis 8 Hour, which has seen DragonSpeed’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R drop out. The Elton Julian-owned team, which originally signaled intentions of fielding its Corvette in the Pro class for factory ace Alexander Sims along with Ben Green and Casper Stevenson, has been withdrawn. A team spokesperson told Sportscar365 that that the “conditions were not perfect” for the program to move ahead as planned, while declining any further comment. It has resulted in a 28-car entry, which still marks a GT3 event record. A number of high-profile drivers have been added to the the season-long GT World Challenge America powered by AWS lineups, in addition to the previously announced NTT IndyCar Series stars Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson at Lone Star Racing and Random Vandals Racing, respectively. Ford Racing factory ace Chris Mies will complete...

Bourdais, DragonSpeed Looking to ‘Enjoy the Moment’ in GTD Pro

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Photo: Tower Motorpsorts Sebastien Bourdais said he and DragonSpeed are hoping to “enjoy the moment” in the GTD Pro class at this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans amid an open future. DragonSpeed has returned to the top production-based ranks for the first time since contending for the GTD Pro title last year in a Ferrari 296 GT3, prior to its switch to GTD and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Bourdais, whose primary program has been with Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA in the FIA World Endurance Championship, received the call-up from the Elton Julian-led squad to join the team’s season-long lineup of Giacomo Altoe and Casper Stevenson. “For us, it’s to enjoy the moment and try and have as solid a result as possible,” Bourdais told Sportscar365. “Keep an eye on who’s around you and what’s happening because you just don’t want to be that guy. “There’s a bit of help from Pratt Miller, so we’ll see. We don...

Roos: WRT’s First IMSA GTP Win Was “Always on the Plate”

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Photo: Sam Cobb/BMW Team WRT’s first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship victory was a testament to the work put in by the Belgian squad in a short period of time according to BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos, who never second-questioned the team’s ability. Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor came out on top in last month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, roughly one year after the Vincent Vosse-led WRT squad was given the green light to take over the German manufacturer’s factory GTP operation and build up a new dedicated team. While having started its U.S. campaign with a podium finish in the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona, Team WRT’s foray into WeatherTech Championship competition had its ups and downs, but Roos stressed he never gave up faith. “I have to say from the beginning when we started the program with WRT, when we made the switch from RLL to WRT, the decision was taken quite late because because...