RNW Staff

On Thursday 25 April 2019, twenty clients took delivery of their Ferrari Challenge UK 2019 race cars at the Prologue test event at Brands Hatch. Using the Indy circuit, the drivers had two, ninety minute sessions on the iconic track to familiarise themselves with their cars before they return to Brands Hatch for the opening rounds of the 2019 season on 18 and 19 May.

Porsche reaches a match point at round seven of the FIA Sports Car World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium). The factory squad from Weissach could take home the manufacturers’ title at the penultimate round of the 2018/2019 WEC Super Season. Two of the ca. 510 hp Porsche 911 RSR will go up against vehicles from Aston Martin, BMW, Ford and Ferrari. The six-hour race on May 4th marks the second visit to the Belgian venue in the current WEC season. It was here that the Super Season took off last year. At that event, the two works cars finished on positions two and four.

With the overseas races now over, REBELLION Racing is back in Europe to end the FIA WEC Super Season. Considered by many drivers as the most beautiful circuit in the world, the Team will be on the legendary Belgian track from May 2nd to 4th.

The team, based just 120km away in Cologne, Germany, leads the World Championship by 53 points and will secure the title with one race remaining by scoring 12 points at Spa, or if nearest challengers Rebellion Racing fail to finish on the podium.

For Mercedes-AMG, last year’s ADAC GT Masters season could hardly have been more thrilling: while MANN-FILTER Team HTP Motorsport sealed the teams’ title in the penultimate race of the season, the drivers’ title was lost due to innocently becoming involved in a collision in the final race. This year, the motivation to achieve the double with drivers’ and teams’ title is all the bigger. The last time this could be achieved was in 2012 and Maximilian Götz was already involved at the time. The Mercedes-AMG Driver, who came close to winning the drivers’ title last year, will be racing together with a new partner behind the wheel this year: Indy Dontje will be alternating with Götz in the #47 MANN-FILTER Team HTP Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT3. In 2018, Dontje ended up fifth in the ADAC GT Masters.

GT racing will finally get under way again at the weekend in the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben when the ADAC GT Masters starts its new season. We take a look at a whole range of impressive numbers, dates and statistics for the Super Sports Car League. Racing can also be watched online as livestream at youtube.com/adac.

Henrique Chaves will start next weekend his International GT Open’s campaign, at the Circuit de Paul Ricard, France, where he will debut in the GT world.

Following Thursday’s two practice sessions at Donington Park, 18-year-old Porsche GB 2018 / 2019 Junior Dan Harper (JTR) ended the day with the fastest overall lap time. Recording the second quickest lap in the day’s combined times was Lewis Plato (Motorbase Performance) who in FP1 circulated just 0.234s slower than Harper. Remarkably in FP2 George Gamble (Amigos Redline Racing) matched Plato’s time of 1:06.684 exactly to take P3 – Plato ranked ahead having set the time first.

Aston Martin Racing Academy driver, Ollie Wilkinson will begin his first full-season International GT Open campaign in the opening round at Paul Ricard, France, this weekend, aboard the Optimum Motorsport-run Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT3 with teammate Bradley Ellis.

KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) returns to the Nordschleife with two Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars for its final VLN Endurance Championship event ahead of the qualifying race for the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

Melbourne teenager Ryan How was a sensation during the opening round of the 2019 CAMS Australian GT Championship at Albert Park, the 17-year old Audi driver mixing it in amongst the outright cars in his 2011 model R8 LMS GT3 – despite the fact that he was contesting the Trophy Series division – on a weekend where he dominated the class, winning all four races.

Team Antonelli Motorsport is ready to kick the season off in France, as the first out of seven events of the International GT Open calendar will be held this coming weekend (April 27th and 28th) at the Paul Ricard track.

Volkswagen has presented the continuously developed version of the ID. R, the fully electric race car. The racing flagship of the future fully electric product family from Volkswagen is to set a new lap record for electric vehicles on the 20.832-kilometre-long Nordschleife. In order for driver Romain Dumas to undercut the until-now best time of 6:45.90 minutes, Volkswagen Motorsport has consistently and continuously developed the ID. R. On 25 April, the ID. R is to complete its first test on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. Virtually speaking, the ID. R will already drive its first laps from today; for the first time, a race car will also be presented at the same time in a near-reality computer simulation that can be downloaded free of charge.

Suzuka 10 Hours organisers, Mobilityland, have announced a 37-strong provisional entry list for round four of this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge on August 23-25.

Ferrari and Mercedes-AMG have each revealed an impressive selection of drivers for the inaugural season of Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe, which is set to launch its five-round campaign at Brands Hatch on 4/5 May.

The podium of the Italian GT opener in Monza, showed the great strength of the Riccardo Agostini and Alessio Rovera pair.

The cards in the ADAC GT Masters are being shuffled afresh as the search for the 2019 champion gets under way after the most exciting year ever in series history. This weekend’s season opener at Oschersleben (26th – 28th April) will soon show who has made the most of the winter break and who can get the new season off to a flying start. There are plenty of contenders in the frame for victory, as 19 teams with supercars from Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes AMG and Porsche will challenge for the win in the first two opening rounds of the season.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads into Round Three of competition for the Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio next weekend. Katherine Legge and Christina Nielsen will combine to drive the No. 57 Caterpillar Acura NSX GT3 of Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing.

Raton Racing by Target is set for the first out of seven rounds of the 2019 International GT Open that starts this coming weekend at the Paul Ricard Circuit, in France.

The new Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe will make its debut over the first weekend of May, with Brands Hatch launching a five-round calendar that will take the sprint racing series to venues across the continent.