Charles Côté

Rounds one and two of the Pirelli World Challenge SprintX Championship dealt Flying Lizard Motorsports a challenging hand, but the Audi R8 LMS GT4 team persisted to close out the weekend with two strong finishes at Circuit of the Americas.

The 2018 ADAC GT Masters’ field of drivers is absolutely fabulous, featuring world champions, Le Mans winners, an ex-F1 driver, DTM title winners, ALMS title holders and seven former champions. The Super Sports Car League presented this season’s new entrants at the Media Day during official pre-season testing in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. For the first time, there will be eight different makes in the field in 2018 with Audi, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG, Porsche and now Honda. The ADAC GT Masters will stage its opening race of the season on the weekend of 13th – 15th April at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.

GMG Racing celebrates first American success for Audi R8 LMS GT4: James Sofronas and Alex Welch stood on the top step of the podium in the SprintX season opener of the Pirelli World Challenge. The two Americans from Team GMG Racing won the second single race of the opening event on the circuit of Austin, Texas, achieving the first victory for the new customer sport race car in North America. After the one-hour race, the advantage of their Audi R8 LMS GT4 was 3.3 seconds. With 37 entrants the GT4 category in the Pirelli World Challenge is one of the best-filled GT4 classes worldwide. Sofronas, who is both the team’s owner and a driver, is ranked in third place of the standings after two of a total of eight individual races in the GTS class of the SprintX classification.

Despite changeable weather at the Australian Grand Prix which had a big affect on the outright results for Trofeo Motorsport during the opening four races of the CAMS Australian GT season, Jim Manolios and Dean Canto showed impressive pace across the event, finishing all four races with the immaculate #29 Huracan right in the thick of the action.

An off-season change from the mighty Reiter Engineering built Gallardo R-EX GT3 to the giant-killing KTM X-Bow GT4 saw Interlloy M-Motorsport team leader Justin McMillan line up for the opening round of the 2018 Australian GT Championship in Melbourne ready to battle against a string of new GT4 machines across four races at the Australian Grand Prix.

The second race weekend in the Pirelli World Challenge brought two podium finishes for the BMW M4 GT4 at the “Circuit of The Americas” (USA).

The test and set-up sessions fell victim to the weather conditions, but the 64th ADAC Westfalenfahrt on Saturday marked the official start of the 2018 VLN Endurance Championship Nürburgring. The best-placed BMW drivers were Nick Catsburg (NED), John Edwards (USA) and Richard Westbrook (GBR) in the ROWE Racing number 98 BMW M6 GT3.

Williams Lance Stroll finished 14th in the Australian Grand Prix, with Sergey Sirotkin retiring on his Formula One race debut Both cars started on the supersoft Pirelli tyre, with Lance starting in 13th and Sergey 19th Lance lost a place to the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas early on whilst Sergey retired on lap four with a rear brake failure.

United Autosports have confirmed that Christian England will return to the team for the 2018 Michelin Le Mans Cup.

Honda are about to make their debut in the ADAC GT Masters. For this first season in the series, the Japanese manufacturer has secured the services of Honda Team Schubert Motorsport. The NSX GT3 will be driven by two youngsters, Christopher Dreyspring (19, GER) and Giorgio Maggi (20, CH). The season opener of the Super Sports Car League will take place on the weekend of 13th – 15th April at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben.

B-Quik Co. Ltd. (“B-Quik”) has just completed the first stage of its ambitious “Driver Selection Programme 2018” which saw 83 employees taking part in an intensive tuition process that, over the duration of three days, was narrowed down to twelve finalists to go forward to a second and final stage that will produce two winners.

BMW Motorsport heads into the coming ADAC GT Masters season with a strong mixture of experience and talented youngsters. BMW Motorsport Juniors Mikkel Jensen (DEN) and Dennis Marschall (GER) are given the opportunity to prove themselves at the wheel of the BMW M6 GT3 in which they will race alongside and learn from a two-time DTM champion.

United Autosports have confirmed that Wayne Boyd will join their LMP2 team for the 2018 European Le Mans Series.

Jason Bell and M1 GT Racing started their 2018 season in the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) program at the Streets of St. Petersburg two weekends ago. Standing on the podium in his first event behind the wheel of the sleek-looking Audi R8 LMS GT4, Bell is determined to improve to the top step of the podium this coming weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Jason Bell and M1 GT Racing started their 2018 season in the Pirelli World Challenge (PWC) program at the Streets of St. Petersburg two weekends ago. Standing on the podium in his first event behind the wheel of the sleek-looking Audi R8 LMS GT4, Bell is determined to improve to the top step of the podium this coming weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

The 2018 Pirelli World Challenge resumes this weekend at Circuit of the Americas with a record setting field of 38 cars in the GTS class. The Grand Prix of Texas stands as the second race weekend of the year, but the first for the SprintX championship: a new championship placed within the existing championship. Located just south of Austin, Texas, the world class facility of Circuit of the Americas will host four days of on track action, and Flying Lizard Motorsports will compete with Audi R8 LMS GT4s, driven by Mike Hedlund, Adam Merzon, and Ryan Eversley.

Punta del Este victor Jean-Eric Vergne writes about his triumphant weekend in Uruguay.

A new Formula One season is just around the corner. With the Australian Grand Prix just a few days away, no one can predict how the 2018 season will turn out. Following all the new car launches and the Barcelona pre-season tests, we have gained insight on how the new season may play out.

After kicking off the 2018 season at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with a podium result including the ‘Hard Charger’ and ‘Start of the Race’ awards, TruSpeed AutoSport driver Parker Chase will look to better those results this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). With the pristine facility located less than an hour from his home, the 17-year-old will look to build off his first weekend behind the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS GT3 as he returns to the site of a double podium result last season.

BE Motorsport will contest the 2018 Supercar Challenge as the Dutch series were announced its main program for the upcoming season. BE Motorsport will enter a Ligier-Nissan JSP3 LMP3 for Javier Ibrán and Mathijs Bakker. The Spanish-based team will reach another milestone competing in another top tier European series with the Ligier LMP3, which already achieved great success in championships such as the V de V and the Michelin Le Mans Cup.