RNW Staff

Reigning Rolex 24 At Daytona champions Ford Performance and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing will compete with two special liveries on their Ford GTs at the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway Jan. 26-27, 2019.

While the GRT Grasser Racing headquarters in Austria are currently buried under snow, the team’s first major outing of the 2019 season is about to get underway some 5,000 kilometres to the south-east. On the weekend of 10th – 12th January, GRT will be competing in the top A6-PRO classification of the prestigious 24 Hours of Dubai. At the wheel of the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 will be Lamborghini works driver Mirko Bortolotti ably assisted by Christian Engelhart, Rolf Ineichen and Mark Ineichen.

For the second year running and for the third time in the event’s 14-year history, a Lamborghini will be on pole position for the Hankook 24H DUBAI. On his 29th birthday, Mirko Bortolotti gave himself and his teammates the best present by posting the fastest outright qualifying lap time of 1m57.446s in the GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracán GT3 (#63, Mirko Bortolotti / Christian Engelhart / Rolf Ineichen / Mark Ineichen). Bortolotti repeated his qualifying result at Dubai Autodrome from last year. “Again, it was hard work, but it shows that there is still plenty of speed in the old lady,” he laughed. The race in Dubai marks the final outing for the team’s current Lamborghini Huracán GT3, the new Evo version making its competition debut at the next event. Lamborghini enjoyed a clean sweep of the A6 class as Danish driver Dennis Lind put the Target Racing Huracán GT3 (#12, Dennis Lind / Giacomo Altoé / Timur Boguslavskiy / Stefano Constantini / Alex Autumn) on pole position in the A6-Am class.

After his successful DTM guest appearance at Misano (ITA), the next highlight will soon be upon Alessandro Zanardi (ITA). In just over two weeks (26th/27th January), the BMW works driver will contest the 24-hours of Daytona (USA) in the BMW Team RLL BMW M8 GTE. For Zanardi this means the transition between totally different challenges: from sprint to endurance races, from the BMW M4 DTM to the BMW M8 GTE and from racing alone to a shared start with team-mates. Nevertheless, the DTM guest appearance in the BMW M4 DTM was the perfect test run for the “Road to Daytona”.

Phil Hanson will race a United Autosports LMP2 Ligier in the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship. He looks ahead, and back, on his short but already highly-successful sports-prototype career.

Dakar 2019Stage03 Highlights  Video Stream №1Video Stream №2Video Stream №3Video Stream №4

Brabham Automotive is delighted to confirm the brand will return to international sports car racing and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After a great start to the 2018/2019 ABB FIA Formula E season where the newly formed DS TECHEETAH team left the first round with both drivers in the Top 5 and leading the Team’s Championship, the team has had a good rest over the holidays and is now fully charged and ready to hit the streets of Marrakesh, Morocco, on 12 January 2019.

Dakar 2019Stage02 Highlights  Video Stream №1Video Stream №2Video Stream №3Video Stream №4

In the Dubai 24-hour race, Mercedes-AMG is aiming at its fifth victory in the desert metropolis. The BLACK FALCON team already secured the overall win for the performance and sports car brand from Affalterbach in the years 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2018. This year, the team is running the Mercedes-AMG GT3 with starting number 2 with last year’s race winners Abdulaziz Al Faisal (KSA), Hubert Haupt (GER) and Yelmer Buurman (NED), paired with their new teammate Saud Al Faisal (KSA). The sister car with starting number 3 that retired while on course for victory last year will have Khaled Al Qubaisi (KSA), Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED), Ben Keating (USA), Manuel Metzger (GER) and Luca Stolz (GER) as its drivers. Four additional Mercedes-AMG GT3s will be run by CP Racing, Hofor Racing, HTP Motorsport and MP Motorsport, among others with support from Mercedes-AMG Driver Bernd Schneider (GER).

United Autosports have confirmed that they will enter the 2019/2020 FIA World Endurance Championship.

For the upcoming European Le Mans Series season and the Le Mans 24 Hours (subject to ACO approval), the Ligier JS P217 # 23 line-up is now officially fully staffed. Julien Canal, with an impressive track record (3 wins at 24H of Le Mans , GTE AM and LMP2 World Champion in WEC…) joins his last year’s teammate, the Englishman Will Stevens, and the Austrian newcomer Rene Binder.

The team will field one of the cars in the fiercely contested Blancpain Endurance Series, which has its season-opener at Monza in Italy one week earlier (April 12-14).

Having claimed second position outright in the GT4 category in his maiden season of the CAMS Australian GT Championship, David Crampton is looking to take the striking bright orange Vantage Freight KTM X-Bow one better this year, the Sydney-sider admitting that 2018 was a real baptism of fire.

The 60th anniversary of the extraordinary Mini Minor will be celebrated with two record breaking races at this summer’s Silverstone Classic (26-28 July).

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports had an impressive first outing in the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship posting the fastest lap time of the LMP2 class with a 1:35.930 (133.591 mph) in the #52 ORECA.

New year, new challenge: After victory on its debut in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship in December, the BMW i Andretti Motorsport Team is now focussing on the second race of the season in Marrakesh (MAR) this Saturday. António Félix da Costa (POR) leads the Drivers’ Championship with 28 points ahead of the Marrakesh E-Prix following his victory and pole position in Ad Diriyah (KSA). Alexander Sims (GBR), in the second BMW iFE.18, is out to pick up his first Formula E points in his second race in the series. The team and drivers have used the time since the successful season-opener to prepare meticulously for the coming races, as they set their sights on more top results.

KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) gets its 2019 season underway this weekend with the Dubai 24 Hour (11-12 January), in which it will field a pair of Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars and a Honda Civic Type R TCR (FK7), as the Hong Kong squad aim for overall and class victories.

Caterham Motorsport will host its first ever multi-class endurance race, Caterham Motorsport Team Enduro, on Saturday 16th March at iconic British circuit, Silverstone, to act as the curtain raiser for the 2019 motorsport season.

Ferrari have officially confirmed that Mattia Binotto has replaced Maurizio Arrivabene as team principal.