Motorsport Media Hub

Author: Motorsport Media Hub

  • Laurens Vanthoor On “Overdramatized” Petit Le Mans Madness: ‘That’s what we’re here for…to win these races with everybody going all out’

    Laurens Vanthoor On “Overdramatized” Petit Le Mans Madness: ‘That’s what we’re here for…to win these races with everybody going all out’

    The 2026 IMSA WeatherTech Championship season finale concluded at Petit Le Mans, and boy was it a doozy.

    Credit to one a Reddit user in particular for labeling it ‘Petit Le Manslaugher 2026’ – a record-breaking yellow-flag count, over 15 cars officially retired and some straight-up wild crash outs such as the one provided to us by Felipe Nasr when he figured he could split the gap between the RS1 Porsche 911 and the sister car No. 6.

    He definitely could not.

    @motorsportmediahub Felipe Nasr goes for a NARROW gap between the RS1 Porsche and his teammate Laurens Vanthoor and goes AIRBORNE #imsa #wec #racing #motorsports #porsche ♬ original sound – Motorsport Media Hub

    A huge talking point amongst fans this season has been the quality and driving standards beginning in Daytona all the way through Road Atlanta. There were examples time and again of drivers making aggressive moves on the track that sometimes spilled into recklessness across all four classes and essentially every track on the 11-race calendar.

    In the Rolex 24, it was Winward Racing and Magnus Racing banging doors in the final 30 minutes of the race, something that some felt was too close to flirting with disaster; we had Parker Thompson clipping the DragonSpeed Corvette at Sebring; we had basically every lap of the Detroit street circuit; and maybe the two most inflammatory incidents of all were Nicky Catsburg wiping out the No. 64 Mustang at Watkins Glen and the calamity we saw between Kevin Estre and Jack Aitken at Road America, which saw Estre put on probation by IMSA for the final two races of the season.

    For the takedown by Catsburg on Christopher Mies at the Glen, Multimatic cleared the air on their Instagram page in a rather humorous way, declaring that the two drivers made up via an apology from Catsburg.

    Earl Bamber, another world champion that knows a thing or two about competing at the highest levels, took to Instagram after the Road America madness to voice his thoughts on what happened between his teammate in Aitken and Estre in the No. 6 Porsche 963, taking the sentiment of ‘shit happens’ when so much is on the line in an inherently dangerous sport –

    “Mistakes happen, accidents happen, it’s all part of what makes this sport so brutal and so beautiful at the same time” – Bamber

    We could go on and on, and let’s throw one more in there for good measure – the No. 27 Heart of Racing vs. Winward at VIR; a coming together that resulted in a drive through penalty for Tom Gamble.

    The debate will always rage among fans over what constitutes racing hard and tough and what crosses the line, yet we have multiple instances where the drivers actually in the middle of these battles don’t mind the fallout. Following Petit Le Mans, it was Laurens Vanthoor with a great quote and perspective regarding the aftermath of an absolute war of attrition after 10 hours of racing (also a ton of time behind the safety car).

    Vanthoor told reporters after the event that he took no issues with how the race played out, in that the world champion driver understands that when you combine a track like Road Atlanta with 50+ cars and dozens of teams and drivers fighting for championships, stuff ultimately happens.

    From Vanthoor through SportsCar365.com:

    “Honestly, I think it was a bit overdramatized by people. Go and try to drive the last two hours in the dark at Atlanta with so many cars and such a short track with championships and big victories on the line, the pressure of winning races, speed differences between professional drivers, amateur drivers, change of conditions, smoke, rain, whatever. Yes, there’s hard racing. Sometimes it goes over the line. But that’s what we’re here for, to win these races, everybody going all out.”

    Where do we settle on it? Absolutely closer to Vanthoor and Bamber’s view points rather than commenting on ‘driving standards’ for the hundredth time in the chat or on social channels. We of course don’t want to have these races remain perpetually stuck behind safety car procedures for 25+ minutes at a time.

    Howevah….

    We want the driving in IMSA to be fast and constantly flirting with disaster – that’s just the nature of the beast when it comes to the massive grid sizes we see in the series, as well as the mix of driver talent that’s present. Vanthoor makes a great point in the sense that every driver on the track knows the deal – it’s going to be intense, it’s going to be brutal and the pressure to perform and survive is what makes the dramatic moments so enthralling.

    When you have championships on the line and these cars roaring past each other at 150+ MPH, things are sometimes going to go sideways. Petit Le Mans this year was dealt an extra batch of lunacy with the spotty rain periods that popped up, as well as the lightning delay which red-flagged the event and really bogged things down.

    But Petit Le Mans turning into the chaotic spectacle that it did is more of an isolated event rather than a capstone example of the state of IMSA heading into the offseason and, soon, the 2027 season. Nobody wants to see drivers get taken out, cars demolished or championships decided by someone else’s mistake. But nobody wants to watch overly sanitized racing, either. IMSA is at its best when the drivers are pushing each other to the absolute limits — and sometimes things will spill over. It comes with the territory, and at the end of the day the drivers would rather have it that way over the other.

  • Thank the Racing Gods We Have So Much On the Line In This Year’s Finale At Petit Le Mans

    Thank the Racing Gods We Have So Much On the Line In This Year’s Finale At Petit Le Mans

    Well, we’ve finally made it to the end – the finale of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech Championship season has (unfortunately) arrived.

    How fast can an 11-race, 9-month season go by? Plenty fast as it turns out, and we have just the 10 hour enduro of Petit Le Mans remaining before we close things down and enter the racing off-season.

    With all practice sessions and qualifying completed, there is the unfortunate reality that Jack Aitken in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac has the GTP Drivers’ title 99.9% wrapped up following the qualifying results from Friday afternoon.

    Aitken put the Cadillac fourth on the starting grid, while Laurin Heinrich finished seventh in the order, just two-tenths of a second behind. The points awarded from the session left a 151-point gap between the two drivers, and once the No. 31 takes the green flag just after noon, the minimum number of points that can be won in the race for all 11 GTP entries is 200; even if Cadillac finished last, Heinrich cannot close the gap.

    So although the top prize in the series has essentially already been clinched before the race even begins, we’ll still have literally every other championship on the line in the other three classes, nevermind the results of the Michelin Endurance Cup battles as well.

    The gap for LMP2 between the No. 43 Inter Europol and No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing By APR is four points. Four!

    Behind those top two are the No. 22 United Autosports with Dan Goldburg P3 in the standings solo, while even the No. 99 AO Racing duo of PJ Hyett and Dane Cameron have a real shot in their own right, sitting just 108 points back and looking to go back-to-back in the class.”

    The madness is highlighted in the GT ranks, as the title races have been thin for the entire season, especially in these last few rounds. No one team was able to completely pull away from the rest of the closest competitors, setting up a scenario where six teams are still mathematically eligible to pull off the championship victory.

    The No. 4 Pratt Miller Corvette of Nicky Catsburg and Tommy Milner will take the points lead into the day (2729) while starting third on the grid, while the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW of Connor De Phillippi and Neil Verhagen will start from pole and 47 points behind the No. 4.

    Can Paul Miller Racing end their season the way it began?

    Behind them in the standings is the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Temerario, and in what will be Pfaff’s last race as an IMSA outfit, Andrea Caldarelli qualified the car 8th in class.

    Next up are the two Ford Racing Mustangs with the No. 65 of Christopher Mies and Frédéric Vervisch leading just barely ahead of the sister car No. 64 of Dennis Olsen and Ben Barker.

    Lastly – the No. 77 Skeleton Rexy of Harry King and Nick Tandy will go into the 10 hours of madness with the longest odds heading into the race, but racing is a funny sport and anything can happen, just as long as you’re putting yourself in the right spot to take advantage of the breaks that may come your way.

    GTD will come down to either Winward Racing, Turner Motorsports or The Heart of Racing. Philip Ellis and Russell Ward are shooting for their three-peat, while Turner is aiming to end a title drought that spans a decade-plus in the top series.

    Dudu Barrichello in the No. 27 Aston Martin will have his say in the discussion as well. However, for him and other cars starting the day lower in the standings, finishing as high in the running order as possible isn’t the only thing they’ll need to become champions. They’ll also need the teams ahead of them to falter and finish lower in the running order by the time the checkered flag waves.

    With so much still on the line and all of these teams mired in seriously tight fights, it’s going to be straight up bananas as the championship standings update in real time as cars rise and fall through the order. Every lap that turns and every overtake that goes down will continuously reshuffle the standings and it’ll be amazing to see the drama play out across the day and into the nighttime hours.

    Of course, if you work or root for Team XYZ and will be directly involved in these battles throughout the 10 hours, it will absolutely not be fun for essentially most of the day as the pressure and anguish builds with each successive hour that comes off the clock.

    It’s the biggest cliché in sports, but it holds true no matter what: don’t make stupid mistakes. Avoid the drive-through penalties, don’t have too many guys over the wall working on the car, and definitely don’t speed coming down pit lane. The margins will be so tight you won’t be able to slide a flash card through them, and no car or driver wants to be the one that sees an IMSA championship slip away because of something so minuscule yet damning.

    We say that, of course, knowing those errors will absolutely still happen because that’s just how it goes in the racing game. Just don’t be one of the title contenders that sees it happen to them.

    It’s not every year that we can have these kinds of battles going into the season finale with so much on the line and so many top-tier teams in the hunt. So, thank the Racing Gods for the absolute treat that Petit Le Mans will prove to be, no matter how it plays out by the time 10:00 PM arrives.

    Peace out 2026, it’s been real
  • GTD Pro Gets A Boost with Confirmed Endurance Cup Entry From Bartone Bros. with GetSpeed

    GTD Pro Gets A Boost with Confirmed Endurance Cup Entry From Bartone Bros. with GetSpeed

    We’re getting more of the No. 69 AMG Pirate Ship in IMSA in 2027.

    Confirmed on Wednesday, Bartone Bros. and GetSpeed Performance will be expanding their WeatherTech Championship efforts next season with an entry in the Michelin Endurance Cup.

    The No. 69 will contest all five rounds of the MEC at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Road America and Petit Le Mans.

    Anthony Bartone (Silver) and Fabian Schiller (Gold) have been confirmed as the full-season drivers, while the remainder of the driver lineup will be announced at a later date.

    The news marks the fourth confirmed entry for the 2027 season, following CarBahn, Winward Racing and Ford Racing.

    The No. 69 has run the last two editions of the Rolex 24 in the Pro class, with the 2025 entry seeing Bartone, Schiller, Maxime Martin and Luca Stolz nearly pull off the shock victory, ultimately finishing P5 and on the lead lap in the Pro class. The revamped quartet of Bartone, Schiller, Maximilian Götz and Jules Gounon finished 11th in the Rolex 24 back in January.

    The partnership between Bartone Bros. and GetSpeed, and more specifically between Bartone and Schiller, has blossomed over the last three seasons and is paying dividends in GT World Challenge Europe this season, with the duo competing in the Silver Cup class.

    Bartone and Schiller claimed a class victory in Race 2 at Misano and are currently in contention to finish inside the top three in the final-season standings for both the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships.

    Bartone and Schiller have also competed in the Asian Le Mans Series in recent seasons. Now, the duo are spearheading a new challenge for both Bartone Bros. and GetSpeed individually, as this venture into the 2027 Michelin Endurance Cup season will serve as the first extended commitment for either entity in their racing history.

    The news is a major shot in the arm for IMSA fans, as we’ve eagerly awaited how the future of the series will look with some veteran teams and brands set to leave the grid at the conclusion of this season. The addition of a team like GetSpeed runs parallel to Manthey Racing’s decision as a major German-based force in GT racing to run the Endurance Cup schedule this season — hopefully, those guys confirm their return soon.

    Although it’s only the Endurance Cup rounds, we will absolutely take the No. 69’s expanded attendance next season. IMSA President John Doonan recently claimed that the waiting list for entries into the Rolex 24 exceeds 80 cars, which can also be seen as an indication that there are plenty of teams that could aim to participate in expanded roles beyond just the opening race.

    If that’s the case, the No. 69 serves as the first car from that expanded pool to receive its ticket for next season’s competition.

  • Winward Racing Confirm Return To GTD Ranks In 2027

    Winward Racing Confirm Return To GTD Ranks In 2027

    The second team to confirm its 2027 plans for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is none other than Winward Racing in GTD.

    Both Philip Ellis and Russell Ward will be back in the fold for the No. 57, with next season’s venture marking the sixth straight season the duo will have competed together in the WeatherTech Championship.

    WWR becomes the second team in IMSA to submit its battle plans for next season, joining Car Blanche in GTD Pro.

    IMSA and Winward announced the confirmation of their plans Wednesday across their social channels.

    The two-time defending champions in the class are primed to pull off a historic three-peat, with just the season finale at Petit Le Mans remaining next week.

    A four-race stretch since Watkins Glen has produced three straight wins and a recent P2 finish at the Battle on the Bricks at Indy. With Turner Motorsports’ victory at Indy, the GTD standings remain incredibly tight, with Winward entering the weekend in first place (2,373 points). However, they sit just six points ahead of the Turner duo of Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher (2,367).

    Duddo Barrichello and the No. 27 Heart of Racing entry are not far behind, currently sitting P3 in the standings with 2,317 points.

    With Winward’s dominance in the class over the last three seasons, there have been discussions among fans about whether the team should consider — or be moved into — the GTD Pro ranks.

    Since Ellis and Ward began racing together full-time starting in 2022, the No. 57 has accumulated 14 race wins, 20 total podium finishes and two Drivers’ championships, with a third-straight potentially yet to be won.

    With this confirmation, that discussion can be put to bed for now.

  • Team RLL Back With McLaren For 2027, Eyeing Expanded GT Effort By 2028

    Team RLL Back With McLaren For 2027, Eyeing Expanded GT Effort By 2028

    Through the maze of uncertainty that some teams are going through before this offseason arrives, we have confirmation from at least one team on the GTD Pro grid that will be sticking around for 2027 and beyond.

    Speaking to DailySportsCar.com before the Battle on the Bricks this weekend, Team RLL VP of IMSA Operations Ricardo Nault laid out the Indiana-based team’s current ambitions for its IMSA future, confirming that they’ll be back with their McLaren 720S Evo GT3 for 2027, while they have aspirations of expanding their operation in 2028.

    With the next iteration of McLaren’s GT3 machine expected to be developed in time for a competitive debut in 2028, Team RLL are keen on being the team that brings that car to the grid.

    Nault confirmed that Team RLL will have a single-car entry in next season’s Pro field, while adding that an expanded two-car effort is in the plans once the new GT3 machine ultimately arrives.

    Not only that, the team isn’t giving up hopes of potentially being selected to run the McLaren MCL-HY should McLaren choose to bring the car to the States in 2028 at the earliest.

    As Nault put it, Team RLL are keen on representing in the highest levels of endurance and sportscar racing, and if presented the opportunity they would jump at the chance to take on the MCL-HY in North America.

    With the already-confirmed departures of Pfaff Motorsports and DragonSpeed from the GT side, along with the unconfirmed-yet-still-likely departure of Paul Miller Racing looming, and Acura taking their ARX-06 and going home, there has been a real downturn in the vibes heading into next season.

    RLL was certainly one of those teams that hasn’t had it easy recently, having been punted from the BMW M Hybrid V8 GTP program after three seasons and switching brands from BMW to McLaren after a decade-plus-long relationship with the German manufacturer.

    After losing out on a litany of BMW factory talent and shifting to the 720S GT3 Evo, RLL opted to put together what is easily the youngest driver pairing on the entire WeatherTech grid, with 23-year-old Max Esterson and 18-year-old Nikita Johnson.

    The idea behind the move was intentional, as RLL essentially reset their program top-to-bottom and wanted to begin again with younger, moldable driver talent while also keeping a pipeline relation to their IndyCar endeavors.

    Their workings could prove to pay dividends in the future as Johnson just recently wrapped up the Indy NXT championship, and the pair have competed together in each race thus far in the 2026 IMSA season.

    Battling against some of the most experienced GT drivers on any grid in the world, Esterson and Johnson have held their own against the likes of AO Racing, Ford Racing, and the Pratt Miller Corvettes. With two races to go, the No. 59 currently sits ninth in the Pro standings, making them the last-place team among all full-season entries to this point.

    Their best finish thus far in the campaign was a P6 result at Mosport.

  • IMSA Battle on the Bricks – Title Fights As Close As They Could Be

    IMSA Battle on the Bricks – Title Fights As Close As They Could Be

    The penultimate round of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech Championship season goes down this weekend at the Battle on the Bricks on the Indy road course.

    In what is a major win for race fans this season, and at least again for 2027, IMSA took the route of moving this round from a six-hour endurance race back to a 2:40 sprint, giving the enduro time instead to Road America.

    The opinions on the Indy road course vary wildly across the fanosphere, with many straight-up disliking the track layout altogether. There’s always been this sort of bizarre love-hate relationship with Indy, where the teams and drivers claim to absolutely love racing at such a historic location, while fans straight-up cannot stand the relatively simple sports car track design.

    The event also suffers from the optics of seeing the stands empty across the venue, but that would still be the case even if 75K fans packed the building on race day because of just how massive IMS truly is.

    We fall somewhere in the middle of the conversation. Indy remains on the schedule consistently due to the racing heritage it carries, but also because of the business relationship and status that ol’ Roger P. flexes to have a headline event at his venue.

    We’re not saying it’s bad one way or the other; it is what it is when it comes to racing and the business side of the sport. However, that compromise of moving the race back to a 2:40 length is the middle ground that we can settle on.

    No matter where you stand on it, we’re going to enjoy the somber fact that after the Battle on the Bricks, we have just Petit Le Mans remaining on the calendar. Seemingly out of nowhere, we’ve reached the twilight of this 2026 season — enjoy every lap remaining!

    With all that being said, let’s get into the quick race preview.

    What’s At Stake For GTP –

    The fallout from Kevin Estre vs. Jack Aitken at the end of Road America lingers going into Indy. Estre is on probation for these last two races of the season while Aitken and Whelen’s path to the Driver’s and Teams’ championships is no longer as much of a moonwalk as it was before. By suffering that retirement and an ultimate 8th place finish in class, Aitken’s lead is now just 118 points over Laurin Heinrich in the Drivers’ fight, while the No. 31 is a bit farther ahead – 185 points – in front of the No. 93 Meyer Shank Acura for the Teams’ championship.

    Heinrich is jumping back into the fold with Porsche Penske Motorsport in the No. 6 car, paired up with Estre funny enough, as they attempt to snatch away the Drivers’ title from underneath Aitken.

    Another DNF or some unlucky fate for the No. 31 at Indy would throw this thing even further into question with just the season finale remaining, and if we’re going for maximum drama here, the No. 6 would have to finish far ahead and clear of the No. 31 to set up a winner-take-all Petit Le Mans.

    Things got chippy at Road Atlanta (photo via Motorsport.com)

    What’s At Stake For LMP2 –

    As things currently stand, the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry of George Kurtz and Alex Quinn (1701) have a slim 36 point lead over the dynamic duo of Jeremy Clarke and Tim Dillmann of the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition machine (1665). Back-to-back wins for the No. 43 has served to keep pace at the top of the standings against the No. 04, who are currently carrying a three-race streak of P2 finishes.

    The No. 99 AO Racing of Dane Cameron and P.J. Hyett are also in contention to go back-to-back, as Spike currently rests in third place in the standings, 119 points behind the No. 04.

    The driver standings start to get fractured behind the current top three, with Dan Goldburg (No. 22 United Autosports, 1517 pts) and Misha Goikberg (No. 52 Bryan Herta Autosport with PR1/Mathiasen, 1413 pts) both within shouting distance of the championship fight but in need of some things breaking their way to open a legit shot of stealing championship hardware come Petit Le Mans.

    Those top three in LMP2 have been consistent all season long having won four out of five races to this point. Naturally, all three are also leaders in the Michelin Endurance Cup chase.

    What’s At Stake For GTD Pro –

    In one of the tightest title fights we’ve probably ever seen in sportscar history, the GTD Pro championship fights will go down to the wire at Road Atlanta no matter how things play out at The Brickyard. Five teams have a legitimate shot at winning the Drivers’ and Teams’ championships and are separated by a pedestrian 67 points combined: Paul Miller Racing, Pratt Miller Corvette, AO Racing, Pfaff Motorsports and Ford Racing.

    Back-to-back wins has catapulted Pfaff into the conversation, while finishes outside the podium for PMR, Pratt Miller and AO the last two times out has created a scenario where these top five teams are separated in the standings by just 67 points total.

    In one key element to highlight – the driver pairings have not been altered at any point in the season for this top grouping of Pro cars, creating a scenario where the final results of the Driver’s and Teams’ titles will match exactly assuming nothing insanely out of the realm takes place between now and October 3.

    What’s At Stake For GTD –

    Winward Racing have vaulted themselves back to the top of the leaderboard by way of three-straight GTD victories at CTMP, Road America and VIR. The two-time defending champs are aiming to pull off the historic three-peat, however Turner Motorsports, The Heart of Racing and Vasser Sullivan will all play a part in trying to knock them off the perch before it’s too late.

    The margins are not as razor thin as GTD Pro, but we still have four teams separated by just 156 points. And due to the bigger field that GTD sees in the endurance rounds, these teams will have to cover themselves here in the final sprint race of the season in a 13-car field before seeing a potentially cataclysmic scenario play out where finishing lower in the standings in a 20-car field could take you clean out of championship contention at any point during 10 hours of racing.

    The money bet would be on Winward due to their amazing consistency and the insane skill level of Philip ‘The Closer’ Ellis in particular. Turner has a long title drought that they’re carrying, and breaking through would be an amazing achievement for the longest-tenured BMW customer team on planet earth.

    (feature photo via https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/events/imsa/plan-ahead)

  • Report: No. 33 TF Sport Corvette Carried 80-Pound Success Ballast At Lone Star Le Mans

    Report: No. 33 TF Sport Corvette Carried 80-Pound Success Ballast At Lone Star Le Mans

    Back before the 2026 World Endurance Championship season began it was announced that the FIA and ACO would make substantial changes to how they handle their Balance of Performance matters.

    First, they revealed that they would no longer disclose the per-race updates to the BOP tables leading into each race weekend. Second, they barred any driver, team or manufacturer from speaking publicly about the ratings between or during race weekends, and finally that they were also introducing a Success Ballast adjustment to Hypercars from race to race as well.

    What they created was a transparency blackout, opting to pigeonhole the entire BOP conversation primarily because in their view “it’s super confusing,” while also attempting to eliminate teams and drivers (and fans for that matter) from making snide, sniping comments to the media in hopes of influencing ratings one way or the other.

    The new approach has been successful in regards to the FIA’s goals, and as such, there’s been very little information regarding the ratings that each car on the grid is receiving on a race-to-race basis.

    Not only that, things have been relatively positive for the 2027 season in the sense that we’re seeing razor-thin times submitted for Hyperpole sessions between both classes, and that there isn’t one car or team pulling away from the rest of the field and building insurmountable points leads in the standings.

    Yet even still, there have been instances were you catch yourself looking sideways at a Hypercar or GT car struggling on the track and wondering if it’s because the tires aren’t quite warmed up yet, or if it’s because the car had 15% of it’s maximum energy output cut out from underneath it going into the weekend.

    Coming out of the Lone Star Le Mans, we have maybe our first insight all season long as to how the FIA are handling matters, as John Dagys of SportsCar365.com reported that the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette of Jonny Edgar, Nicky Catsburg and Ben Keating carried a massive 36-kilogram Success Ballast addition for the six hour race.

    For those residing Stateside, that is an 79.4-pound weight increase dumped onto their Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

    Dagys did not disclose if the sister team No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF also carried the same Success Ballast for the weekend, but in reviewing the practice, qualifying and race performance of both cars we’re going to assume that it also suffered from the same weight increase.

    For the No. 33, their best-finishing time for either of the three free practice sessions was P12 (FP2) while they finished P17 in the first qualifying session and missed out on advancing to Hyperpole.

    After six hours of racing the No. 33 eventually finished P12 and outside of the points.

    The No. 34 didn’t fare any better, actually even worse. They finished either dead last or second-to-last in all three free practice sessions, and although they fared better in qualifying by finishing P12, their race was one to forget with an eventual P14 finish, 3 laps down from the class-winning No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin, although the car did suffer from some slight steering damage that affected their day.

    As we will remember, the No. 33 yellow-liveried Corvette conquered Le Mans back in June, while the red and black No. 34 of Peter Dempsey, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluç won the following race on the schedule at Interlagos in July.

    The entire conversation and digestion of the BOP format really took a nose dive last year when Ferrari and their 499P put in a dominate performance throughout the season, highlighted by a third-straight Le Mans victory, the Drivers’ title for the No. 51, an end-of-season podium sweep for all three entries on the grid and a Manufacturers’  championship 74 points clear of Toyota.

    Instead of opting for more transparency in their decision-making process, the FIA and ACO chose to keep all of their adjustments in-house, and if we’re being honest the entire BOP discussion blows no matter how you slice it, and there will never be a perfect formula to appease everyone involved in any sport on the planet. It’s over-talked about and too easy to point at if trying to explain a lack of results for any team on the grid that doesn’t win the race.

    At the same time, these kinds of massive swings back and forth where a podium finish or win means you’re going to get absolutely tanked with an insane weight increase the next time out is also not how we want this thing to go. Specific to the Success Ballast, it goes beyond a simple adjustment of power output in the Stage 1 or Stage 2 segments by a couple of percentage points here or there. A ballast increase of 80 pounds is absurd. Why not make it 50 pounds? Or 35?

    There is no graph or data chart on the planet that you could show us to make the argument that an 80-pound weight increase is going to give any team a good shot at competing.

    Overall, we understand the need for BOP and the fact that this series wouldn’t be what it is if it weren’t there in the first place. The current brands competing in the WEC all know the deal when it comes to being on the potential receiving end of a difficult power or weight adjustment.

    The problem we have is with these sort of instances where there are massive pendulum swings that seemingly go way too far and hamstring teams from having a shot at racing for a good result.

    If you’re the Heart of Racing right about now you better hope and pray the FIA goes easy on you for Fuji.

    (photos via FIAWEC.com and DailySportsCar.com)

  • Holding Pattern For WEC Title Contenders Following Lone Star Le Mans, Fuji Next Up

    Holding Pattern For WEC Title Contenders Following Lone Star Le Mans, Fuji Next Up

    The Lone Star Le Mans was overall a very solid race by any motorsport standard, an almost business-as-usual event for the majority of the six hours of action, with the occasional super-annoying safety car procedure to bog things down at times.

    The race was unique in the sense that the finishing order for both Hypercar and LMGT3 was such that essentially all of the major players for the championship titles were left stuck in a Mexican standoff, with dry powder locked in their guns, ready to aim and fire again next time out at Fuji in two weeks’ time.

    For Hypercar, the dramatic late-game hydraulics failure of the No. 7 Toyota TR010 with Nyck de Vries behind the wheel was truly a shocking moment that seemingly only the WEC can manage to produce at this kind of gut-wrenching level. There’s just something about racing for hours on end, seeing the checkered flag in your sights, and then suffering a cataclysmic breakdown that snatches defeat from the jaws of victory and is so amazingly painful to see happen, especially if you’re a fan for that team.

    With the No. 7 biting the dust and dropping from P1 all the way down to the basement and a quick race retirement, coupled with the No. 20 BMW of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde being left to struggle all weekend to run at the front of the pack, a P12 finish for the Belgian outfit meant that there was no change at the top of the Hypercar points standings once all was said and done.

    For the Drivers’ title, it’s still Frijns and Rast in first with 75 points, tied with de Vries, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi at 75 – count ’em – 75 points.

    The sister car No. 8 TR010 did make up some ground with their P6 result, as the trio of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa now sit fourth in the standings with 64 points, one point behind Sheldon van der Linde by himself for third (thanks to the rescheduled Long Beach/Imola clash back in April).

    A P11 finish came with a pretty massive pit lane blunder for the No. 51 Ferrari of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, which saw them squander their pole-winning pace and overall ability to challenge for the win, leaving them to settle in fifth in the standings. Meanwhile the No. 20 BMW of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor followed up their maiden victory at Interlagos with a P8 finish, giving them and the brand four points on the scorecard to help their efforts slightly.

    The race-winning No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen got a major boost to their own championship aspirations and now sit seventh in the standings with 54 points to their efforts…

    And in an illustration of just how damaging race retirements can be in a championship like this, the P2 finish from the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Norman Nato earned 18 points from their result and more than doubled their points total thus far in the season.

    The No. 38 suffered major punches-in-the-nuts at Spa and Le Mans, and damn would things be looking quite different if those breaks hadn’t gone against them in those instances.

    That half of the Jota operation now sit P11 in the Drivers’ standings with 34 points (Aitken also missed the round at Imola for IMSA duties, giving him 30 points).

    The way the results settled, there was more movement in the Manufacturers’ title fight with Toyota now holding a nine point lead over BMW, followed by Ferrari to round out the top before a larger drop down to Cadillac in fourth.

    For LMGT3, the scene was nearly identical to Hypercar in the sense that the podium finishers had a great day to write home about, but the top two title contenders in the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette (P12) and the No. 92 Bend Manthey Porsche (P15) both were unable to build on their totals, finishing outside of the top 10.

    According to SportsCar365.com, the Corvette’s received a 36kg Success Ballast adjustment following the last race out at Interlagos; the sister car No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF finished P14 at COTA (perhaps carrying around those extra 80 POUNDS!!!!!!! had something to do with it?).

    The top of the standings is still occupied by all three TF Sport Corvette drivers separately, as the jumbled bits see of Jonny Edgar (P1, 76 points) Nicky Catsburg (P2, 72 points) and Ben Keating (P3, 54 points) settling in at first, second and third individually.

    The big winners were of course Aston Martin and the dual-car Heart of Racing effort in bagging a double-podium result from the race-winning No. 27 (Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon) and the third-place finisher No. 23 (Jonny Adam, Kobe Pauwels and Gray Newell).

    In another noticeable, almost under-the-radar type move of the day, it was the No. 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari of François Hériau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera that finished fourth and managed to leap up the standings and now currently occupy the space behind the Fractured TF Sport Contingent.

    Their Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo has finished inside the top 10 for all five races thus far in the season, and although it wasn’t a podium result, this stretch of consistency has brought 54 points to their scorecard and absolutely brings them into the championship fight.

    The rest of the top 10 in the LMGT3 fight are as shown –

    (featured photo via DailySportsCar.com)

  • Report: Cadillac Pushing To Field Same IMSA/WEC Driver Lineups In 2027

    Report: Cadillac Pushing To Field Same IMSA/WEC Driver Lineups In 2027

    As we enter what could be labeled the “second half” of this heavily modified 2026 WEC season with the Lone Star Le Mans in Austin, there is still the opportunity to look ahead to next season and forecast some of the potential changes that could be coming for teams across the grid.

    The rumors have continued to grow this weekend down at COTA, and a new report indicates that through the initiation of Cadillac Racing, both Wayne Taylor Racing and Hertz Team Jota are prepping for a reworking of their driver lineups for 2027, with the focus being a unified roster between the two teams in both IMSA and the WEC

    As Stephen Lickorish of SportsCar365.com put it pretty clearly, Cadillac’s aim for the V-Series.R is to “field the same drivers in both the WEC and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship,” which came in response to the news of Sebastian Bourdais’ coming exit from Team Jota.

    Bourdais himself confirmed the news, remarking that Cadillac’s push to unify their lineups in a ‘One Cadillac’ approach across both competitions starting next season “kind of puts me out of a job.”

    The Frenchman has been quite frank about his future in the last two weeks or so in speaking to multiple media outlets and getting it on the record that although he is set to exit the Hypercar ranks at the end of the year, he has no plans of retiring or moving on from the highest levels of sportscar racing.

    So, we know that Bourdais is already departing from the frame, and it appears that another Jota driver will be moving on as well – Alex Lynn.

    SC365.com added that in addition to Bourdais, the 32-year-old Lynn is prepared to move on from HTJ at the end of the season with a move to McLaren understood to have been agreed to in principle at this time.

    Current Peugeot driver Malthe Jakobsen is also believed to be going with Lynn to McLaren, giving the British marquee four drivers out of six needed for their debut of the MCL-HY, with the original confirmations of Mikkel Jensen and Laurens Vanthoor already previously revealed by the brand.

    A lingering neck injury and the lengthy recovery process has forced Lynn to miss what will be the first six rounds of the WEC season, with his projected return for the final two rounds at Monza and Barcelona set to come.

    Due to Lynn’s injury and the revised schedule from the conflict in the Middle East, we’ve seen Cadillac and HTJ look to the services of Louis Deletraz for the rounds at Spa and Le Mans, while Ricky Taylor is set for his Jota debut this weekend. It appears that the presence of Ricky Taylor, and for that matter Deletraz, could be more than just guest appearances.

    SC365.com reported that Taylor is “likely” to race with Jota full-time in 2027, and due to the fact that although there are some close calls with races being held on consecutive weekends next season, as far as GTP/Hypercar clashes are concerned, there is currently no race weekend in 2027 where prototypes in IMSA will race on the same weekend as any WEC round.

    If WTR and Jota were to unify their driver lineups, it would be a repeat of what BMW and Team WRT opted for in 2026 when they implemented a much more synchronized effort between their entries in both series as WRT took over the GTP program from Team RLL.

    And just like how BMW dealt with a lack of results from previous seasons, the synergized effort would come after a period of missed chances for both Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA and Jota in the WEC, most recently the missed opportunities at Spa, Le Mans and Interlagos to bring home landmark victories due to errors suffered via driver penalties, hiccups during pit stop sequences or misjudgments on race strategy.

    Is a combined effort in the cards for Cadillac, WTR and Team Jota? (photo via Motorsport Media Hub)

    If it’s (at least) Bourdais and Lynn out and Ricky Taylor in, the next question to ask is who else will remain on the roster between the teams, and who else could see themselves dropped?

    For the Lone Star Le Mans, the No. 12 car will see Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Ricky Taylor group up, while the No. 38 will have their usual trio of Earl Bamber, Sebastian Bourdais and Jack Aitken.

    Perhaps the No. 12 car would remain the same, leaving the machinations of the No. 38 to be fully reworked considering that Action Express Racing are returning to Le Mans next season in the place of Wayne Taylor’s entry, and with Bamber and Aitken serving as the dynamic duo of the No. 31 in IMSA maybe they would pass on racing for both Cadillac teams in 2027.

    The drawback in that scenario however is seeing arguably two of the best prototype drivers going right now in Aitken and Bamber depart their driver stables to be replaced, so would the alterations be worth it at that point?

    Overall, who knows how it’ll ultimately play out, but either way it seems the ball is already rolling downhill for Cadillac to revamp their assault on both the WEC and IMSA, and for starters Bourdais and Lynn have been the casualties in their overhauling.

    (photo via GMnews.com)

  • Loek Hartog Is An Honest To Goodness Hero For Quick-Acting Rescue of Ollie Millroy

    Loek Hartog Is An Honest To Goodness Hero For Quick-Acting Rescue of Ollie Millroy

    An absolutely wild scene played out during Round 1 of the China GT Championship at Shanghai when a three-car pileup produced an exploding Ferrari and the subsequent heroic actions of a driver not originally involved in the tangle.

    For those that have or haven’t seen the clips already, things went south after David Chen in the No. 37 Harmony Racing Ferrari defended down the straight against Neil Verhagen. The two cars clipped each other and began sliding out of control through the grass and then back onto the track, where they then both collected Ollie Millroy and upon impact saw Millroy’s Ferrari 296 explode in a fireball.

    @motorsportmediahub A WILD accident played out in Race 1 of the China GT Championship at Shanghai International Circuit. Chen Weian of the No. 37 Harmony Ferrari defended the straight from Neil Verhagen in the No. 33 TBC by 610 Racing BMW, as both cars spun out of control and back onto the track they collided with Ollie Millroy 🤯 All three drivers made it out of their cars and were transported to the medical center #racing #motorsports #chinagt #gt3 #ferrari ♬ original sound – Motorsport Media Hub

    In the initial aftermath, drivers were seen out of the vehicles and resting up against the barrier before the safety crews had arrived on scene.

    As it turns out, the response from the safety crew at the Shanghai Circuit was nothing short of a complete and utter clown show, and it was fellow driver Loek Hartog who made the split-second decision to stop his Porsche right on the track and make a beeline over to Millroy’s Ferrari, which was still on fire.

    The onboard camera from Hartog’s 911 GT3 Evo is simply amazing – especially considering it was Hartog who used the fire extinguisher on Millroy’s car to quell the flames before he dragged him out of the burning wreck.

    Now, why did Hartog have the fire extinguisher? More on that in a second.

    Millroy is making his recovery but suffered a litany of injuries including five broken bones and a broken collarbone. He took to Instagram himself to post about the amazing act of selflessness from Hartog, and to highlight that things likely would have gone way worse if the Ducthman did not react in the way that he did.

    Even Hartog’s response to the post was all class –

    Back to how poorly the safety team responded to the massive wreck – it was nothing short of an unorganized disaster, so much so that we had drivers and teams removing themselves from the race or maybe the entire China GT series all together.

    Verhagen’s teammate in the 610Racing BMW, Yang Baije, revealed that race control, the stewards and pretty much everyone else associated with the Shanghai circuit gave absolutely zero fucks in the aftermath of the wreck, which red flagged the race and was ultimately called off after just about 15 minutes of action.

    Baije’s quotes are some all-time stuff, with him claiming the safety crew that first arrived on the scene were so goddamn scared of the situation that THEY HANDED THE FIRE EXTINGUSHER TO HARTOG!

    Never mind that – the ambulance was LATE to arriving at the wreck because the goddamn driver was ASLEEP at the wheel, and he couldn’t be woken up even as someone was knocking at the window.

    Talk about incompetency of the highest degree.

    Hopefully more teams stick it to China GT for their utterly embarrassing display, yet either way thank the Lord that every driver involved made it out alive.

    For Millroy and Hartog, this is absolutely the start of a bromance that will last for decades to come, and you just can’t say it enough – what Loek Hartog did in that moment is nothing short of heroic.

  • Lone Star Le Mans Preview: WEC IS BACK – and It’s Going To Be STEAMY

    Lone Star Le Mans Preview: WEC IS BACK – and It’s Going To Be STEAMY

    After a month-plus away from the game, the World Endurance Championship gets back underway with the Lone Star Le Mans this weekend at Circuit of the Americas.

    As is seemingly always the concern with racing at COTA, let’s get this out of the way now and say that the weekend forecast currently calls for only some rain on Friday, while Saturday and Sunday are both projected to be partly cloudy and REAL warm with temps in the mid-90s (we all remember how last year played out in the first hour of the race when torrential rain saw the entire field plod around behind the safety car before a red flag shut things down for a bit before conditions ultimately improved).

    So as we substitute rain for insane heat, it will bring about plenty of debate for how each team will approach the race come Sunday in regards to tire wear. We’ve already seen some teams comment on their potential strategies regarding pit stop cycles of both tire changes and driver changes, because it ain’t just the tires that are going to be burning on Sunday, it’ll be the drivers, too.

    We last saw the WEC in action all the way back on July 12 down at Interlagos, with the race being conquered by the No. 15 BMW M Team WRT of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor.

    Through four races thus far in the very rearranged 2026 season, we’ve seen four different Hypercar prototypes from two teams cross the finish line first — both the No. 7 and No. 8 Toyota Racing cars at Imola and Le Mans, and the No. 20 and No. 15 Team WRT cars at Spa and São Paulo.

    The Drivers’ point totals going into the race see the No. 20 BMW (Robin Frijns, Rene Rast) and the No. 7 Toyota (Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries) tied on points at 75, with Team WRT taking the tiebreaker due to better podium finishes.

    Sheldon van der Linde currently holds P3 alone to himself with 65 points as a result of missing the opening round at Imola, and close behind them is the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse of James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi at 57 points.

    The No. 8 Toyota (Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryō Hirakawa) is P5 with 56 points, and the No. 15 BMW (Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor) is P6 with 50 points.

    A quick sidebar to point out – the retirement of the No. 15 from Le Mans may prove to be a championship-deciding result because things would look way different right now if Dries Vanthoor didn’t suffer that tire puncture after clipping the DKR LMP2, especially after having won pole position previously.

    For the LMGT3 side of the coin, we’ve seen a near-identical pattern play out, as four different cars have claimed class victory – the No. 69 Team WRT BMW, No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren, the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette at Le Mans, and the sister car No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Sport in Brasil.

    Speaking previously of that rearranged schedule, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East resulted in the opening round in Qatar initially being rescheduled to October. Yet, as the conflict continued through the summer, we’ve now ultimately seen both the Qatar and Bahrain rounds canceled and replaced with trips to Monza and Barcelona. So, we definitely don’t blame you if you feel like this WEC season has been start-and-stop a couple of times over already.

    With four races remaining between this weekend and the finale at Barcelona on November 8, this stretch might just feel like a separate season altogether once it’s all said and done.

    An important distinction to highlight with the revised 2026 schedule is the pretty substantial decision that the FIA and ACO made in making both replacement rounds at Monza and Barcelona only six hours long, meaning the standard amount of points will be issued for each race.

    It’s a huge swing of available points in the title fights for both classes. A six-hour round awards 25 points for winning the race, 18 for finishing second, 15 for finishing third, etc. For the Qatar 1812km or the 8 Hours of Bahrain, points awarded started at 38 for the winners, 27 for second place, 23 for third, and so on.

    The decision not to extend the rounds beyond six hours was made for logistical reasons regarding the tracks themselves, other racing series that will be taking place around those times, and the weather forecast for mid-autumn in Europe.

    With fewer points now remaining on the table to be won, the importance and drama will increase exponentially for the teams in the championship hunt, never mind the teams that are currently outside looking in from a numbers standpoint. Every lap survived will be absolutely crucial, and finishing outside of the points or suffering a DNF would essentially be the end of the road for some of teams currently on the fringe of the Drivers’ championship fight, such as the No. 12 Jota Cadillac (P8/42 points) or the No. 007 THOR Aston Martin (P10/30 points).

    Free Practice 1 (12:30PM EST) and FP2 (5:00PM EST) will go down Friday, followed by FP3 (12:00PM EST) and Qualifying/Hyperpole (4:00PM EST) on Saturday.

    Green flag is set for Sunday at 2:00PM (EST)

  • Winward Racing Add To Their Stellar Resume With GTWC Endurance Cup Title

    Winward Racing Add To Their Stellar Resume With GTWC Endurance Cup Title

    The stellar trio of Lucas Auer, Maro Engel and Luca Stolz pushed the No. 48 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG Team MANN-FILTER to the Endurance Cup championship in the 2026 GT World Challenge Europe season with one race to spare on the calendar.

    The No. 48’s fourth-place finish at the Nürburgring this past weekend was enough to mathematically clinch the title for Winward, giving the German-based squad another trophy that can be added to their very crowded cabinet.

    A very late shuffling of the order of cars inside the top five of resulted in the Mann Filter Mercedes moving up a handful of spots in the final results of the three-hour endurance race, as their P4 finish was just what they needed to claim the title with only the season finale at Portimão remaining in mid-October.

    This Endurance Cup title builds on the amazing 2026 season that the worldwide WWR brand has had to this point, as well as the seasons all three drivers have put together. Auer was present as the fourth man for Winward’s GTD triumph at the Rolex 24 back in January, while Engel and Stolz were two of the four drivers behind the wheel of the No. 80 Winward-Ravenol AMG that won the Nürburgring 24 in May.

    Stretching things back to last year, the No. 48 finished one single point behind Rutronik Racing in the Endurance Cup battle to finish second, while they also finished second in the overall title fight to Team WRT, missing out by just three points after their season finale at Barcelona saw them finish outside the points in P13.

    For Auer, this Endurance Cup championship is the first of his GT World career, while both Engel and Stolz have one previous to their name when they were also teammates back in 2018 for Mercedes-AMG Team Black Falcon in the Blancpain days.

    Also, if it seems strange for a team to clinch the Endurance Cup championship in GT World with still a race to spare you’re definitely not alone in thinking it. However, what Auer, Stotz and Engel managed to do this season was put together one of the most amazing runs in the history of GT racing, not just in the history of SRO competition.

    Starting with the six-hour season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard, the No. 48 finished P2 in each of the first three endurance rounds of the year, while also managing to finish no lower than 19th overall in any of the sprint race rounds as well. To reiterate – in a season with nearly 60 entries in the Endurance Cup rounds, their fourth-place finish at The Ring serves as their worst result of the season (what bums!).

    So, although the team has yet to claim an overall victory of any kind to this point in GTWCE, this amazing display of consistency put them in position to clinch the endurance championship early, while the full-season duo of Auer and Engel are in great shape to add to their trophy haul through via the overall Pro championship, as well as drivers’ title races.

    For both the teams’ and drivers’ overall championship fight, Winward leads the way ahead of the Team WRT duo of Kelvin van der Linde and Charles Weerts; Auer and Engel hold a slim lead in the teams’ title fight with 128 points with KVDL and Weerts close behind at 123.5 points, while the gap in the drivers’ title fight is further apart with Auer and Engel holding a points advantage of 126.5 to 92.

    To further illustrate the skill, consistency and to be honest, sometimes the sheer luck that goes into motorsports, it’s amazing that the No. 48 has navigated through all of the chaos and the insanity that can play out in the course of a racing season, not just in the realm of SRO and GT World Challenge Europe, which is sometimes the most chaotic on the planet.

    The best example of this is twofold – one, it’s not just the fact that Auer, Engel and Stolz have dodged every single bullet and pitfall on the track lap after lap, it’s also looking at what ills have befell their strongest competitors to their championship run.

    Case in point – the No. 007 Comtoyou Racing Aston Martin of Nicki Thiim, Mattia Drudi Marco Sørensen have won a pair of races – the opener at Paul Ricard and just recently at The Ring – however they also suffered retirements at Monza and Spa, which in the stretch of just a five-race calendar is a massive blow to any team’s title hopes.

    Lionspeed GP, the winners of the 24 Hours of Spa, had a brutal start to their season by crashing out basically about five seconds into both rounds at Paul Ricard and Monza.

    Remember what happened at Monza at the beginning and of the race? Yeah exactly, the No. 48 missed out on all of that mayhem.

    There are five races total remaining in the season – two sprint rounds each at Zandvoort and Barcelona before the season finale at the Algarve International Circuit – and it’ll be quite amazing to watch the No. 48 continue to perform at a high level, and to see if the stable of drivers can continue this insane run of finishing inside the top five of essentially every race they compete in.

    (feature photo via y7_photography)

  • Report: IMSA Looking Into Adding VSC/Code 60 ‘Short Yellow’ Flag Procedures

    Report: IMSA Looking Into Adding VSC/Code 60 ‘Short Yellow’ Flag Procedures

    We’d first like to start this off by giving IMSA President John Doonan and IMSA their due credit because on the whole, a lot of the decisions and progress that has been made in the WeatherTech Championship series recently have largely been home runs.

    We’re talking the decision to make Road America an endurance round, to the overall flow and handling of the fan experience at the track, to promoting and enhancing the content put out by IMSA on their social channels, highlighted by the amazing Win the Weekend series.

    With all that said, there have been some hiccups recently – the feelings and grumbles about BOP always – and a few more that have dampened the immediate future of the grid, namely the either confirmed or expected departures of certain brands and teams, and the lack of commitment from the likes of Ford, McLaren and Genesis to submitting GTP entries at this point in time (even if blame can’t fall entirely on Doonan or IMSA’s shoulders for those specific happenings).

    Enhancing the race-day experience by way of improving the oftentimes brutal yellow flag procedures is one of the last major bugaboos plaguing the flow of action for any given IMSA race. For both the fan at the venue and the fan that watches at home, when those double yellows come out, things can grind to an absolute halt and kill all the momentum of the cars battling on track, and it’s especially frustrating when the 20-minute procedure came about due to a tiny piece of carbon fiber that was detached from a bumper and is sitting in the racing line.

    In the spirit of IMSA contiuinually looking to improve their product in any way they can, there may be hope after all for all of us.

    According to a recent report from SportsCar365.com, IMSA are evaluating the implementation of a virtual safety car procedure or a ‘Code 60’ for local yellows for the WeatherTech series when potential short-period interventions arise, as was detailed by senior VP of competition Simon Hodgson.

    Per SC365.com –

    …One of the possible measures being explored is a virtual safety car, where competitors reduce speeds for short interventions, typically lasting one lap or less, which would allow for quick actions from corner workers, such as the cleanup of debris…It’s activated by the race director, with the specific timing transmitted to each car through radio and an on-board marshaling system, with cars’ speeds tracked by GPS monitors. Hodgson, however, wouldn’t confirm that any specific measure is under consideration at this time.

    We’re talking those situations exactly – some debris on the racing line, a car that spun out that’s just waiting to fire back up and get rolling again, or anything else that could be considered small enough where a full course yellow + safety car intervention can be avoided.

    SC365.com added that the new systems have already been tested by a select number of teams currently on the IMSA grid.

    If the goal here is to the action on race-day, then there is very little drawback to introducing this system—or something like it—to the WeatherTech series. Just this season IMSA implemented a short-yellow variation for the beginning of races where if a flag comes out inside the first 30 minutes of the start of a race, or within 15 minutes of a restart, pit lane stays closed.

    It’s way less painful when you’re at the track watching in person, as yellow-flag periods give you a chance to chillax, catch your breath, grab a drink, or even walk around to a new vantage point for the restart. But when you’re watching from your couch at home, it can be absolutely brutal to wait 15–20 minutes watching nothing happen as the entire 50-plus-car field goes through a wave-around process because the No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari lost a side mirror going into Turn 3 almost a half hour previous.

    IMSA, and Doonan, have claimed in the past that the delay of introducing this sort of tech to the series has been because of safety measures, namely how the AMR safety crews and track officials need to be protected during on-track cleanups. We’re not going to say that doesn’t need to be considered, but it’s maybe a bit disingenuous on IMSA’s part to make that claim when we know how much they and their parent owner NASCAR not-so-secretly love the presence of yellow flags in order to keep races tighter and – let’s be real – manufacture some more drama for instances where cars either get back on the lead lap or seeing a 40 second lead be wiped out back to a green flag restart.

    We can also understand the difficulty of installing the technology at every track on the calendar, from Daytona to Long Beach to VIR, and to be sure that it works the way it should. You also have to consider that whatever it would be – new radios, new receivers, new transmitters, XYZ – that the teams may be responsible for the upgrade costs. To Doonan’s credit, he has always been conscious of budgets and financial costs for all teams before introducing any major changes to operations.

    Either way – if IMSA can get this locked in starting as early as 2027 the overall benefits would be immense. Let’s make it happen.

  • Frankie Muniz Sweeps Pirelli GT4 America Am Class For First-Ever Pro/Sportscar Wins

    Frankie Muniz Sweeps Pirelli GT4 America Am Class For First-Ever Pro/Sportscar Wins

    In quite an amazing story coming out of the GT World America round at Road America this weekend, Frankie Muniz – yes that Frankie Muniz – pulled off a two-race sweep of the Am class in Pirelli GT4 America alongside co-driver Tyler Stone in the No. 30 TechSport Mustang GT4.

    The wins serve as Muniz’s first and second victories in sportscar racing, and as far as we can tell the first professional victories of any kind for the 40-year-old former actor.

    After securing the first win on Friday, the team and Muniz didn’t have to wait very long to bag their second with their triumph in a rain-soaked, accident-plagued race on Saturday at America’s National Park of Speed.

    Muniz, most famously known for his role in the hit TV show ‘Malcolm In the Middle’ back in the early 2000s, has been hard at task developing his craft in motorsports the last handful of years. His initial forays into racing came and went through the mid 2000s and participation in the Atlantic Championship for a handful of seasons. He then took an extended break from the sport before returning in 2023 to take on the various steps of the NASCAR development ladder, having raced in the ARCA Menards Series, the XFINITY Series and Craftsman Trucks from ’23 to 2026.

    In this 2026 season, Muniz has balanced a dual campaign in NASCAR trucks as well as an elevation to SRO America and the GT4 scene with TechSport Racing. Things have actually gone quite well for Muniz in 2026 with the TechSport operation having scored podium finishes at both Sonoma Raceway and Road Atlanta. The dual victories at Road America however serve as a milestone moment for someone who genuinely seems like a great dude and clearly has a passion for motorsports and the aspect of competition that comes with it.

    It was obvious to see just how much the breakthrough wins meant to Muniz as he navigates some real life issues, with his post-race quotes confirming that his current divorce proceedings from his wife Paige Price are essentially a direct result of the time and attention he’s paid to racing in recent years.

    My family sacrificed a ton for me to go racing. I’m currently going through a divorce, which I don’t want, but a lot of it is just because I’m on the road 42 weekends a year racing…Not that this makes it feel better, getting [this] win, there’s times where you’re finishing 30th and [you’re thinking] ‘What am I doing? This makes you feel like the effort was at least worth it a little bit.”

    In comments provided to SportsCar365.com, Muniz hinted at a continued partnership with Ford Racing into the 2027 season, saying that he plans to continue his current trajectory in GT4 competition, while adding that he has aspirations to take on GT3 machinery in the future.

    Without giving too much away, I’ll definitely be back in this garage next year with Ford in the Mustang GT4 and hopefully keep building up…I’d love to drive a GT3 car one day. Ford is putting so much into their sports car program with the Hypercar coming out, the GT3 car, the GT4 program. They’ve got a ladder, which I think is really amazing. It just makes sense.

  • Winward’s Three-Peat Charge Begs the Question – Is It Time To Go Pro?

    Winward’s Three-Peat Charge Begs the Question – Is It Time To Go Pro?

    Dread it. Run from it. Winward Racing arrives all the same.

    That’s how the rest of the GTD field in IMSA are probably feeling right about now after Philip Ellis and Russell Ward extended their class winning streak to three straight races with a win at the Michelin GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway.

    After only one caution flag flew the entire day, Ellis and Ward ran at the front of the field next to the Heart of Racing No. 27 and Turner Motorsports No. 96 for a large portion of the race. The decisive moment came late in the action when a borderline move from Tom Gamble on Ellis resulted in contact with the No. 57 that was deemed to be over the line by the stewards, resulting in a drive through penalty and another brutal break for Gamble and THOR.

    The trip down pit lane took Gamble out of the fight and gave Ellis all the space he needed to drive the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG home to the finish line, and controversial or not, the victory went to Winward all the same.

    With what is now their third-straight win and fourth overall on the season following their win at the Rolex 24, Ellis and Ward vaulted to the top of the standings and currently hold a 36-point lead over Turner in second place with just Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans remaining on the calendar.

    Being in first place is an all-too-familiar spot for Ellis, Ward and the Winward team as they zero in on what would be a historic championship three-peat. The tandem have been a constant together since Winward’s full-season IMSA debut came back in 2022 and have steadily built themselves into one of the most consistent performers in the entire IMSA paddock. The 33-year-old Ellis is a FIA Gold-rated driver, while Ward is currently rated as a Silver. In the time that the two have been together, the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG have won 14 races, finished on the podium 19 times and have won the Rolex 24 and 12 Hours of Sebring twice – with Ellis and Ward being together for every single one of those achievements. They’ve also claimed a Michelin Endurance Cup title in 2024.

    For obvious reasons, it’s difficult to pull off a championship three-peat in any sport, never mind one that can have as much turnover and as many shifting chairs as motorsports. Yet Ellis and Ward are in position to do just that, which would be especially rare with the same team, the same car and the same driver lineup winning three straight years in both the drivers’ and teams’ championships.

    If Winward are to pull off this feat, or even if they don’t, a question can be posed to the collective powers that be – would it finally be time for either Winward themselves or for IMSA to elevate them to the GTD Pro ranks starting next season?

    There was a recent trend of teams finding championship success in GTD getting their call-up to the Pro ranks, with Paul Miller Racing, AO Racing and Pfaff Motorsports all jumping from GTD to GTD Pro as recent examples in years past. If Winward finish out the season with more wins or just consistent results to claim that third-straight championship, would it be time to bump them up into the Pro ranks and level out the two GT fields just a bit?

    Lord knows the Pro class could use the company with the already-confirmed departure of Pfaff from the grid, while the future of Paul Miller appears sealed just not yet revealed at this time. There are reports that Wayne Taylor Racing could be in line to take over the Pro-entry Temerario, but the shoes of the BMW M4 GT3 would have to be filled, and giving the Pro class a Mercedes-AMG would certainly boost the competitive ranks.

    Typically, we aren’t big on the idea of ‘punishing’ teams for winning consistently, and some could say that ‘forcing’ a move from GTD to GTD Pro isn’t relatively fair on the surface of things. However, for the sake of the GTD class and to recognize that perhaps this one team has outgrown the pond it swims in, it could just be a perfect segue into the 2027 season to add an operation like Winward Racing into the mix. They’ve won basically everything there is to win in their current class, and Winward could certainly handle the extra responsibility of taking on that particular new challenge.

    Again, even if it’s simply for the sake of pumping up the Pro ranks next season, the move should happen for the good of the realm. Let’s see if Winward, or IMSA, are thinking the same way.

  • Report: RAFA Racing ‘evaluating future GT3 expansion’

    Report: RAFA Racing ‘evaluating future GT3 expansion’

    Of all the new cars set to hit racetracks around the world in 2027 and 2028, it’s easy to argue that the born-for-the-track Toyota GR GT3 carries more hype than any of them.

    With the Lexus RC F finally being sunset into racing history at the end of the 2026 season, Toyota have been hard at work developing the beastly tandem of its new road-going GR GT and its GT3 counterpart since their official worldwide announcement in December 2025.

    It’s been a slow trickle of news from Toyota since the car was officially revealed to the world, to the point that even today, we still have no official confirmation of which series the car will race in or who will be behind the wheel. We’ve seen guerilla footage of the car testing at the Nürburgring in recent weeks, but as far as concrete plans go, it’s still anyone’s guess who will be tapped to run the car when it hits the track in 2027.

    The current and obvious expectation is that Vasser Sullivan will continue its partnership with Lexus/Toyota and make the seamless transition from the RC F to the GR GT3 in the IMSA WeatherTech Championship, following an impressive run with the RC F dating back to 2019. But beyond Vasser Sullivan, could another team be looking to take on the challenge of bringing the GR GT3 to the grid? There appears to be at least one with its eyes on the prize: RAFA Racing.

    According to John Dagys of SportsCar365.com, team owner Rafael Martinez and team principal Kevin Conway were both on-site during the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca last week, which served as the GR GT3’s North American track debut. Vasser Sullivan’s Jack Hawksworth took the car for a few laps around Laguna Seca during the event, and according to Dagys, RAFA Racing is “understood to be evaluating a future expansion into the GT3 ranks.”

    As for what timeline constitutes “the future,” that could be 2027, 2028, or who knows. In running the Supra GT4 Evo2 in the GS class of Michelin Pilot Challenge and the GSX class of VP Racing Sportscar Challenge, it gives RAFA an inside track to continuing that partnership should Toyota look to add more teams to the fold for the rollout of the GR GT3. And if Vasser Sullivan were to continue their presence in GTD Pro, RAFA could easily slide into the GTD ranks right behind them, especially if IMSA’s manufacturer mandate comes into place for the 2027 season.

    Since merging with Conway’s previous team, Smooge Racing, RAFA Racing have built an impressive, fan-friendly, competitive, and fun brand over the past year-plus. They’re one of the fastest-growing teams in North American racing, continuing to expand their presence across multiple IMSA and SRO America support series with the Supra. The organization also fields a strong two-car effort in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, while extending its reach into the ARCA Menards Series.

    RAFA in Lamborghini Super Trofeo (photo via Motorsport Media Hub)

    Driver talent has continued to expand under their team structure, as their No. 12 Michelin Pilot Challenge entry of Varun Choksey and Kiko Porto recently secured its first victory at Mosport, while Westin Workman has utterly dominated his rookie season in VP Racing Sportscar Challenge after making the jump from Mazda MX-5 Cup. The 21-year-old opened his sportscar career with seven consecutive GSX-class wins and, with four races remaining, holds a commanding 400-point championship lead over Courtney Crone.

    RAFA Racing owner Rafael Martinez is also competing in VP Racing Sportscar Challenge, where he currently sits third in the championship standings.

    With how RAFA have continued to build their operation through these while attracting more talent to their driver stable, a move into GT3 would make plenty of sense. The GR GT3 could represent the next major step in RAFA Racing’s rise, and if Toyota are looking for a healthy one-two punch for the launch of their new machine alongside Vasser Sullivan, RAFA may have one foot in the door to making it happen.