RNW Staff

The Wright Motorsports Porsches dominated the race weekend at Circuit of the Americas, sweeping both GT World Challenge America powered by AWS victories, and earning an additional three podium finishes at the Austin, Texas- area track. Drivers Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer won the two headlining races of the weekend, followed by second and third-place finishes by Charlie Luck and Jan Heylen in the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Porsche Sports Cup China got its fifth season underway last weekend at Ningbo International Circuit, with Porsche enthusiasts from all over China gathering for the first event of the campaign.

The stage is set for a new era: This weekend (26th to 28th May), the DTM kicks off its 39th year with not one but two firsts at Motorsport Arena Oschersleben. The popular racing series will kick off the season in the Magdeburger Börde region for the first time, and is also organised by the ADAC for the first time. After an absence of eight years, Motorsport Arena Oschersleben returns to the DTM calendar. With its winding layout, the circuit demands the upmost concentration from the drivers, as they battle for the first two wins of the new campaign. A total of 14 teams, with drivers from eleven countries and cars from six premium manufacturers – Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche – will go head to head in the new season.

A Respectable 235,000 spectators and excellent conditions throughout the event provided an ideal situation for a spectacular 51st running of the ADAC TotalEnergies 24h-Rennen at the Nürburgring in the past four days. 135 cars across 20 classes and drivers from 36 different countries also delivered an attractive and varied field of participants. With a total of 162 laps, this year’s marathon in the Eifel goes down in history as the fastest to date. The endurance racing classic at the 25.378 kilometres long traditional track, marked by numerous incidents, didn’t bring the desired victory for Mercedes-AMG, but still ended in a successful way. In the fastest 24-hour race, the three customer sport teams were able to celebrate third place, a fourth place and success in the SP9 Pro-Am and SP-X classes.

Audi Sport customer racing achieved sixth place in the 2023 Nürburgring 24 Hours. Audi Sport Team Land achieved this result after a flawless drive by the three Audi Sport drivers Christopher Haase/Christopher Mies/Patric Niederhauser in the number 39 Audi R8 LMS. The brand also thrilled the 235,000 fans off the track throughout the weekend with many activities surrounding the birthday of its subsidiary Audi Sport GmbH.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by the Rutronik Racing customer team has wrapped up the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring in fifth place. In an intense competition with many incidents and collisions, Julien Andlauer from France, Dennis Olsen from Denmark and Matteo Cairoli from Italy gave a flawless performance at the wheel of the best-placed 911. The identical model campaigned by Falken Motorsports with the starting number 44 achieved tenth place after suffering several setbacks. At the 51st running of the endurance classic in Germany’s Eifel region, a total of 32 GT3 cars headed into the battle for overall victory on Saturday afternoon.

The ROWE Racing team finished on the podium at the 51st staging of the Nürburgring 24 Hours (GER). Dries Vanthoor (BEL) crossed the line in second place in the number 98 BMW M4 GT3, 26.911 seconds behind the winning Ferrari. Vanthoor had alternated at the wheel with Maxime Martin (BEL), Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) and Marco Wittmann (GER) on their way to completing 162 laps. For BMW M Motorsport, this was the first podium with the BMW M4 GT3 at the endurance classic in the Eifel Mountains.

In an exceptional setting with 235,000 spectators in the stands, Ferrari wrote a page in motorsport history by winning its first 24 Hours of Nürburgring, one of the world’s most prestigious endurance races, now in its fifty-first year. The Frikadelli team’s 296 GT3, crewed by David Pittard, Felipe Laser, Nick Catsburg and Earl Bamber took the chequered flag in triumph after 162 laps, the longest distance ever completed at the German event.

In Friday’s Top Qualifying for the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring (GER), Augusto Farfus (BRA) was the best-placed BMW M4 GT3 driver for ROWE Racing. The Brazilian set a personal best of 8:11.921 minutes in car #99

The fastest Porsche 911 GT3 R heads into this year’s 24-hour race on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife from position six. In the individual time trial of the final top qualifying session, Nico Menzel set a lap time of 8:11.211 minutes at the wheel of Falken Motorsports’ GT3 car. The German shares the customer racer from Weissach with his fellow countryman Tim Heinemann, Joel Eriksson from Sweden and Martin Ragginger from Austria. Positions twelve and 14 were claimed by Lionspeed by Car Collection Motorsport and the second car fielded by Falken Motorsports.

The Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Teams got themselves into an ideal initial position in Top Qualifying for the ADAC TotalEnergies 24h Nürburgring. With a faultless opening lap and a time of 8m 09.058s, Raffaele Marciello (SUI) emerged as the fastest driver with the #4 Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN entry and secured pole position as a result. This time was also the best Top Qualifying lap ever for the Nürburgring 24-hour race. Tomorrow at the start of the race, the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed car will be alongside him. Maro Engel (GER) came within around four tenth of a second of his fellow Mercedes-AMG driver. With the #6 Mercedes-AMG Team BILSTEIN car driven by Arjun Maini (IND) and the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed car with Maximilian Götz (GER) behind the wheel, two further Mercedes-AMG GT3s made it into the top 10. Earlier on, the Mercedes-AMG GT3s had shown a convincing performance with all six cars having advanced into the decisive Top Qualifying 2.

Porsche Sports Cup China (PSCC) returns this weekend for its first event of the 2023 season at the Ningbo International Circuit, with road and race car activities set to be combined once again for drivers of all skill levels.

A new Japanese team, Maezawa Racing, will contest this year’s four Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS rounds in Japan with drivers Piti Bhirombhakdi and Naoki Yokomizo.

Hot on the heels of a successful weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, the team at Flying Lizard Motorsports switches gears to head to Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas for an action-filled weekend, adding a second car in the team’s Pirelli GT4 America to join the team’s three full-season entries in GT America powered by AWS.

From a rainy weekend in New Orleans to the sunny heat of Texas, the SRO America group travels to Austin for the next rounds of the sports car racing season, and Wright Motorsports rides in with the championship points lead. The two-car Porsche racing team has garnered two wins and four podiums to date so far in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS, creating an eight-point lead over CrowdStrike by Riley. Meanwhile in GT America Powered by AWS, the team sits in sixth place after completing four of the six rounds to date. Circuit of the Americas (COTA) will host the next two rounds of each championship, with four races between Saturday, May 20th and Sunday, May 21st.

Seven Porsche 911 GT3 R fielded by six customer teams will fight for overall victory at this year’s 24-hour race on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife (20/21 May). The up to 416 kW (565 PS) GT3 cars from Weissach go up against 27 vehicles from six rival manufacturers in the top SP9 class. Of the expected 136 entries, the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer campaigns by far the largest contingent. A total of 44 racing vehicles from Zuffenhausen will compete in twelve different categories.

KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) is looking to continue the strong form it has shown in the opening rounds of the Nürburgring Langstrecken Serie (NLS) as the team finishes its preparation for this weekend’s ADAC TotalEnergies 24h Nürburgring.

The Heart of Racing (HOR) will head to the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) May 19-21 for the next round of SRO Pirelli GT4 America and GT America powered by AWS competition. The series returns to the Texas track for the first time since 2021, as Gray Newell and the No. 25 Aston Martin team are chasing the championship lead and enter the weekend third in GT America championship points. 

The brand-new Porsche 911 GT3 R (Type 992) made an excellent racing debut in the Asia-Pacific region in the opening round of the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia Powered by AWS at Chang International Circuit in Thailand.

The 2023 Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America season began this weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and California team Flying Lizard Motorsports kicked off the new year with great success, scoring one pole position, one win, and a third-place finish with the newly expanded four-car team.