RNW Staff

DTM is facing a heart-stopping finale on Sunday: with his victory in the Saturday race, Austrian Lucas Auer has reduced the gap to championship leader Sheldon van der Linde to only two points. With the WINWARD Mercedes-AMG, Auer claimed pole position and went on to score his second race win of the season. South African Sheldon van der Linde saw his chances in danger of being reduced after he was dropped from sixth to 16th place in qualifying following a rule infringement by his team Schubert Motorsport. However, in an action-packed race, the 23-year-old BMW works driver charged all the way up to second place. Third place on the podium in DTM Hockenheimring powered by AUDI went to two-time DTM champion Marco Wittmann (GER) with the Walkenhorst BMW.

Mercedes-AMG starts this year’s Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS from prime position after Winward Racing’s Jules Gounon beat the Conquest Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan to Pole Shootout’s fastest time by just 0.052s.

During a media forum ahead of this weekend’s finale of the DTM season in Hockenheim (GER), BMW M Motorsport unveiled initial details of the future race programme for BMW M works drivers Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) and Marco Wittmann (GER). Both drivers will be involved when the BMW M Hybrid V8 makes its debut in the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the 24 Hours of Daytona (USA) in January and will also compete at the 12 Hours of Sebring (USA) in March 2023. This means that all three of the BMW M works drivers currently racing in the DTM will be incorporated in the new LMDh programme. Philipp Eng (AUT) had previously been announced as one of the four regular drivers who will contest the full IMSA season. 

AARON LOVE has stormed to his sixth win from the last seven races in a wet and wild Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Round 7 opener at Mount Panorama on Friday.

Tom Blomqvist has joined multi-series winning United Autosports for an assault on the 2023 FIA World Endurance LMP2 Championship title while Oliver Jarvis has re-signed to race once again with previously announced Josh Pierson in the #23 Oreca-07.

The Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship celebrates its milestone 400th championship race as part of a massive Repco Bathurst 1000 event at Mount Panorama this weekend.

The final fight for top honours in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS takes place this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and though not in the championship fight, DXDT Racing will contest for the overall and am-class wins with a pair of revised lineups. The No. 08 and No. 63 Mercedes AMG GT3 will participate in the eight-hour endurance event, racing against 24 other entries in four classes.

THE quickest lap in one-make Porsche history at Mount Panorama has delivered Aaron Love pole position for the seventh round of the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship, at the Repco Bathurst 1000. 

This weekend (7th to 9th October), the DTM season 2022 will draw to a close with the traditional finale at the Hockenheimring (GER). BMW M works driver Sheldon van der Linde (RSA) and the BMW M Motorsport Team Schubert Motorsport are battling for the title in the DTM drivers’ and team championships. They are heading to the finale at the top of the standings in both competitions. The CO2-reducing RoL E20 fuel from BMW M Motorsport Partner Shell will be used for the first time in the BMW M2 Cup. In the DTM Classic Cup, BMW M works driver Bruno Spengler (CAN) will again be competing in a historic BMW race car for the Schnitzer Classic team.

14 Intercontinental GT Challenge Powered by Pirelli entries are set to contest the Indianapolis 8 Hour Presented by AWS this weekend when SRO Motorsports Group’s globe-trotting GT3 series joins Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS at the Brickyard.

 

The 2022 season for the Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama concluded last weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and professional sports car racing team Flying Lizard Motorsports finished the year proudly adding two more driver and two more team championship titles to the team’s illustrious resume. Drivers Mike Gaulke and Chris Bellomo defended their 2021 titles in their one-make series, earning back-to-back championships in their respective classes. 

Ten drivers can still become DTM champion at the Hockenheimring this weekend. Never before in the long history of this race series, there were so many title candidates prior to the finale. At the top of the points’ table, it is super close: only 16 points separate the first five, the circle of the hot title candidates, five works drivers spread out across five manufacturers. During DTM Hockenheimring powered by AUDI from 7 till 9 October, there are still 58 points to be won. The races on Saturday and Sunday start at 1.30pm CEST.

K-PAX Racing enters the 2022 Indianapolis 8 Hour having secured multiple titles in the Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS (GTWCA) Championship, but it will be “business as usual” for the multi-year winners. In fact, this year’s edition October 7-9 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is motivated mostly by “unfinished business.” 

The collaboration between BMW M Motorsport and BMW M Team WRT on the racetrack has kicked off with a day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona (ESP). The team and some of its drivers used the day after the season finale in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe for a first chance to gain experience with the BMW M4 GT3 that the team is going to be racing in the upcoming season, parallel to testing with the BMW M Hybrid V8. One of the drivers at the wheel of the BMW M4 GT3 was MotoGP star Valentino Rossi (ITA). BMW M works driver Philipp Eng (AUT) supported the Belgian team, his experience helping the team to quickly get used to the new car.

A superb weekend for the eight strong lineup in Singapore entered under the B-Quik Absolute Racing umbrella with podiums in both TSS The Super Series races capped by a stunning victory for Andrew Haryanto in Race 1.

What was a three-way championship battle has become a fight between five as the Porsche Paynter Dixon Carrera Cup Australia Championship reaches what is set to be a hugely competitive end to the season. Meanwhile, the ever-fluctuating Morris Pro-Am championship remains on a knife’s edge with a key contender yet to stamp their authority on a pulsating championship battle across the first six rounds this year.

TSS The Super Series made a step forward for Thai motorsport over the weekend as it joined the Singapore Grand Prix support race programme with two races, one in the wet the other in the dry that showcased the series, cars and drivers in front of an international audience.

Daniel Harper has brought his impressive maiden campaign in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup to a close with a strong performance on his first visit to Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this past weekend (01-02 October).

Akkodis ASP has clinched a Fanatec GT Endurance title double after a dramatic race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya saw the Mercedes-AMG squad narrowly beat Iron Lynx to the big prize.