RNW Staff

Renamed Panis Racing team, led by Olivier Panis and still managed by Sarah and Simon Abadie, was back on track last week for a fifth season in the European Le Mans Series. Newcomer Nico Jamin has joined the well-established Will Stevens and Julien Canal, in the tricolour team for a third season.

Endurance racer Finlay Hutchison got his European Le Mans Series career off to a strong start during the first round of the delayed 2020 season at Paul Ricard in France on Sunday, 19th July, with an impressive top four finish in the LMGTE class.

Era Motorsport is two for two in their debut IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. The LMP2 racing team earned a second podium finish of the year at the Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring with drivers Kyle Tilley and Dwight Merriman in the No. 18 Oreca.

ELMS rookies Malthe Jakobsen and Ryan Harper-Ellam, and rapid Canadian Am James Dayson proved to be a potent trio, each contributing quick, yet controlled stints to take RLR MSport to third in the LMP3 order at Circuit Paul Ricard.

The 2020 ADAC GT Masters is good to go. The teams who will contest this year’s Super Sports Car League have completed the official preseason tests at the Lausitzring. Fastest over the weekend was Mercedes-AMG driver Raffaele Marciello (25, ITA, HTP-Winward Motorsport). Not all that far behind was reigning champion Kelvin van der Linde (24, ZA, Rutronik Racing) in an Audi, ahead of third-placed Porsche man Sven Müller (28, GER, Precote Herberth Motorsport). The ADAC GT Masters curtain-raiser is due to take place in just under two weeks’ time (30th July – 2nd August) at the same venue 100km south of Berlin.

BMW Team RLL finished fourth and fifth in today’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring. Connor De Phillippi and Bruno Spengler equaled their fourth-place finish two weeks ago at Daytona in the No. 25 BMW M8 GTE, finishing just over one minute behind the winning No. 4 Corvette C8.R. John Edwards and Jesse Krohn finished fifth in the No. 24 BMW M8 GTE.

United Autosports scored two wins at Paul Ricard today as the #32 crew of Alex Brundle, Will Owen and Job van Uitert won the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, while the #2 crew of Wayne Boyd, Tom Gamble and Rob Wheldon also took home the LMP3 class win. A late puncture for the #22 Oreca of Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque took them out of the lead and subsequently ruined a potential race win, while the #3 Ligier JS P320 of Jim McGuire, Andrew Bentley and Duncan Tappy had a tough opening race after an early drive through penalty. A post-race penalty for the second-place finishers ultimately promoted the #22 crew to third place at the end of the weekend.

In the 4 Hours of Le Castellet, COOL Racing got its 2020 European Le Mans Series campaign underway with a fourth-place finish, bringing home a strong haul of points. After French driver Nicolas Lapierre put the #37 Oreca 07 sixth on the grid, he and team-mates Antonin Borga and Alexandre Coigny ran a smooth and error-free race to secure its third top-five finish since making its debut in the LMP2 class last year. Coigny also picked up a trophy for the top bronze-graded driver. The Swiss team will now look ahead to Spa-Francorchamps on 9 August.

The Takanokono Hotel FUJI GT 300km RACE, round 1 of the 2020 AUTOBACS SUPER GT series was held on the afternoon of July 19 at Fuji Speedway (one lap 4,563m × 66 laps). That rain that had been reared never fell and the opening round of the 2020 season was held under fair skies. In the GT500 class, the No. 37 KeePer TOM’S GR Supra (Ryo Hirakawa/Nick Cassidy) started from pole position and ran on to win unchallenged. This was a victory for the GR Supra GT500 in its debut race. In the GT300 class as well, victory went to the GR Supra-based car No. 52 SAITAMATOYOPETGB GR Supra GT (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai) for the team’s first win ever.

Porsche continues its streak of podium results at round three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Factory drivers Laurens Vanthoor from Belgium and New Zealander Earl Bamber achieved third place with the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR at the Sebring International Raceway. The No. 911 sister car driven by Britain’s Nick Tandy and Frenchman Frédéric Makowiecki took the flag in the fiercely-contested GTLM class in sixth place. Porsche has advanced up the manufacturers’ rankings to second place.

WeatherTech Racing drivers Cooper MacNeil (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Toni Vilander (Kankaanpää, Finland) finished second in today’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring.

The Whelen Engineering Cadillac team won today’s running of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway. The Konica Minolta Cadillac was second with the Mustang Sampling Cadillac coming third completing the podium sweep.

The first Michelin Le Mans Cup round proved to be a challenge for Nielsen Racing team. The team made significant strides over the week in developing the new Duqueine M30-D08 at Paul Ricard, ultimately unlocking race pace following a disappointing qualifying.

Pipo Derani put the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R on pole for the Cadillac Grand Prix of Sebring to run this evening.

Ferrari dominated at the Paul Ricard circuit at Le Castellet in the first round of the Le Mans Cup championship, with the 488 GT3s occupying the top five positions. Victory went to Iron Lynx no. 8 with Giacomo Piccini and Rino Mastronardi which made the best possible start to its title defence.

United Autosports’ Michelin Le Mans Cup team scored a top-seven finish after their first race of the 2020 season at Paul Ricard this afternoon, along with a 12th place finish after a three-minute penalty during the second half of the race.

The ADAC GT Masters got its two-day round of pre-season testing under way with a one-hour session at the Lausitzring. Former champion Christopher Mies (31, GER, Montaplast by Land-Motorsport) set the first best time of the year in the Audi R8 LMS. He was followed on the timesheets by fellow Audi driver, Frank Stippler (45, GER, Team ISR) and Sven Müller (28, GER, Precote Herberth Motorsport) in the Porsche. Starting at 6:30 pm on Saturday, fans have a special treat in store when the online magazine, PS on Air – The Ravenol ADAC GT Masters Talk Show, reports live from the Lausitzring during the second session of the day, bringing all the latest news from pre-season testing.

After six long months, Era Motorsport will return to action this weekend at Sebring International Raceway for the Grand Prix of Sebring. The COVID-19 era of racing began earlier this month for three of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes, and now the LMP2 class will join the others for an exciting return to racing. Kyle Tilley and Dwight Merriman will return in the No. 18 Oreca 07, for their first sprint race in the IMSA series.

The long wait is over, as the official ADAC GT Masters preseason tests at the Lausitzring take to the track next weekend (18th – 19th July). During the first real test of strength of 2020, the teams will be giving the eight different brands of super sports car an extensive run-out ahead of the new season, which opens two weeks later (31st July – 2nd August) at this same circuit south of Berlin. On Saturday evening, ADAC GT Masters fans can look forward to live coverage from the Lausitzring. Starting at 18:30 CEST, Patrick Simon will be presenting the Ravenol ADAC GT Masters talk show ‘PS on Air’ directly from the pit lane, with all the latest news from the first day of testing. The show can be watched on the ADAC YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/adac.

GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS will roar back to life at Imola next weekend (25/26 July) when a three-hour Endurance Cup contest launches the eagerly awaited 2020 campaign.