RNW Staff

POMONA, CA – January 9, 2020 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) –  The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series starts its 2020 season in memorable fashion, as the annual iconic opener, the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com, will celebrate its 60th rendition Feb. 6-9 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The tradition-rich event is […]

Tristan Vautier will complete JDC-Miller MotorSports lineup in the No. 85 Cadillac DPi-V.R for this month’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona.

German Maro Engel, a former winner of the FIA GT World Cup, hadn’t raced at Dubai Autodrome since 2017, but that didn’t prevent him from claiming the outright pole position for this week’s 15th running of the Hankook 24H DUBAI. A lap time of 1m57.490s at the 5.390km long Dubai Autodrome was enough for Engel to secure pole position with the Toksport WRT Mercedes-AMG GT3 (#777, Maro Engel / Luca Stolz / Philip Ellis / Patrick Assenheimer / Martin Konrad). It was also the first pole position for Mercedes-AMG in the Hankook 24H DUBAI since 2017.

K-PAX Racing has announced Thursday its continued presence in the GT World Challenge America series, fielding one of its second-generation Bentley Continental GT3s in the series’ featured Pro-Am division.

The legendary BMW Junior Team celebrates its comeback after more than 40 years. Eddie Cheever (USA), Manfred Winkelhock (GER) and Marc Surer (SUI) caused a stir in the world of motorsport in 1977, and 2020 will see a new generation of promising talents contest races under the name BMW Junior Team. Dan Harper (GBR), Max Hesse (GER) and Neil Verhagen (USA) will complete a holistic, first-class, intensive training programme designed to cover two seasons that will set new standards in the promotion of young talented drivers. One of their mentors will be the man who founded the first BMW Junior Team in 1977: Jochen Neerpasch.

Bentley Motorsport’s 2020 programme is set to be its largest yet, with elite customer teams competing in the world’s leading GT3 championships and its works-supported Bentley Team M-Sport outfit entering the highest level of GT3 competition in the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC).

K-PAX Racing announced Wednesday its entry in the 2020 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, which marks the perennial title contender’s first full-season stint outside of the United States. The team’s participation in the series’ five-round Endurance Cup features a two-car effort with the second-generation Bentley Continental GT3.

The Customer Racing programme having been founded in 2010, the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach is meanwhile taking on its tenth season of GT racing. The legendary gullwing, the SLS AMG GT3, already enjoyed early maiden success in its debut season and enthused teams, drivers and fans with its unmistakable design and sound in equal measure. From 2016 and 2018 onwards, the respective successors with the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and the Mercedes-AMG GT4 raised the bar for success even higher. In 2019, the Customer Racing teams seamlessly continued from the record season 2018 and celebrated over 40 championship wins. In the process, titles in renowned race series such as the Blancpain GT Series, VLN Langstreckenmeisterschaft Nürburgring and not least victory in the FIA GT World Cup at Macau once again underlined Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing’s ambition to dominate in the GT segment.

Lamborghini Squadra Corse presented the Factory Drivers for the 2020 season, including reconfirmed members and two new arrivals. Giacomo Altoé and Albert Costa have been inducted into the ranks of official drivers, joining Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli (2019 Blancpain GT Series champions), Dennis Lind, Franck Perera, and Giovanni Venturini.

Aston Martin Racing will attack the GTE classes of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2020 with three ultra-competitive line-ups, after announcing British endurance aces Harry Tincknell and Richard Westbrook will complete its GTE Pro roster for this year’s French classic.

Absolute Racing have confirmed Yuan Bo and Leo Ye Hongli as their first GT World Challenge Asia driver pairing for 2020.

Lamborghini will contest the Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli full-time in 2020 after confirming a five-round programme spearheaded by ORANGE1 FFF Racing Team by ACM.

New IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship team Era Motorsport has just completed the first full-series test of the season, the Roar Before the 24. With eight sessions over the course of the three days, the team made massive strides with their new Oreca LMP2 07 with drivers Kyle Tilley, Dwight Merriman, Ryan Lewis, and Nicolas Minassian.

The 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season got off to a successful start for Porsche Motorsport factory and customer programs with the annual ROAR Before the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway, January 3 – 5. At the end of three days of testing and qualifying sessions for both the factory-entered Porsche 911 RSR-19 and customer-prepared Porsche 911 GT3 R race cars, all left the Florida test with a positive outlook for the upcoming Rolex 24 At Daytona on January 25 – 26.

Paul Miller Racing has completed it’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pre-season preparation with an impressive test at the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

The 2020 season started off strong for Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing at the Roar Before the 24. The annual test weekend at Daytona International Speedway saw the combination of Misha Goikhberg, Alvaro Parente, Trent Hindman and AJ Allmendinger on track for three days in preparation for this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Cadillac’s four DPi-V.R prototype race cars kicked-off the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season by running laps at the Roar Before the 24 at Daytona International Speedway this weekend.

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) finished three days of testing at Daytona International Speedway during the annual Roar Before the 24 this weekend. The test lays the groundwork for the IMSA season opener, the Rolex 24 At Daytona later this month (January 24-26) as the team prepares for a successful defense of its 2019 GTD Championship.

WeatherTech Racing had a successful Roar Before the 24 test weekend in preparation for the start of the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Chammpionship and the season opening Rolex 24 At Daytona to run January 25-26.

Gradually, it has become a tradition like the New Year’s Concert in Vienna or the ski jumping in Garmisch-Partenkirchen: for the 15th consecutive year, Dubai Autodrome will be hosting the Hankook 24H DUBAI, the opening round of the 2020 24H SERIES Continents powered by Hankook. From 7 until 11 January, the state-of-the-art circuit in the United Arab Emirates will be a heave of motor racing activity with a packed grid of GTs and touring cars for the 24-hour race, a six-hour race on Tuesday evening as a flyaway round of the Dutch Winter Endurance Kampioenschap (WEK) and thrilling single-seater action with the F3 Asian Championship and FIA F4 UAE. The 15th running of the event will be celebrated in style.