RNW Staff

While the Grand Prix of Long Beach is the third round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the 100-minute event is the first “sprint” race of the season. It is also the first of the year outside of the state of Florida, beginning a two-race swing on the West Coast for North America’s top sports car racing series. The shortest event of the season, the April 9 race on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary course laid out on the streets of Long Beach, California, features four Porsche customer teams campaigning the 911 GT3 R race car. Porsche is tied for most sports car wins by a manufacturer on the Southern California circuit with nine victories, the most recent in 2019.

The Aston Martin Vantage GT3 will make its ADAC TotalEnergies 24H Nürburging debut this year, when AMR partner team TF Sport takes on the famous race for the first time on 28-29 May.

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) will return to North America’s longest-running street race this weekend, when it takes both its NTT INDYCAR SERIES and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship programs to the coast of Southern California for the 47th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

British-Korean driver Jack Aitken overcame a challenging start to his GT World Challenge Europe campaign to record a top 15 finish in the opening Endurance Cup race of the 2022 season.

Round one of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS Endurance Cup at Imola in Italy over the weekend, 2nd/3rd April, produced a challenging start to the 2022 season for Gold Cup competitor Alex MacDowall and Barwell Motorsport team-mates Sandy Mitchell and Rob Collard.

Daniel Harper showcased his impressive speed and racecraft during a hugely promising debut in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at Imola this past weekend (02/03 April).

With the largest field of participants in over two decades, drivers from 15 nations and GT race cars from six brands, DTM is getting its 36th season underway. On Tuesday and Wednesday this week already, the official test days at Hockenheimring are the first encounter. Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-AMG and, for the first time, Porsche have been entered for the new season in the long-standing race series with a total of 29 GT race cars. The drivers’ field assembles 15 nations and 36 high-class championship titles. This Monday morning, DTM surprised with the announcement that nine-time rally world champion Sébastian Loeb will be making his debut in the internationally acknowledged race series. The Frenchman will be participating in at least two races with the Ferrari of the Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse team as a replacement driver for New Zealander Nick Cassidy.

For Mercedes-AMG Motorsport, the first season round of the Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola ended with a double podium, a PRO-AM class victory and another class podium. After an action-packed race with numerous safety car interventions and full-course yellows, the #88 Mercedes-AMG GT3 of the Mercedes-AMG Team AKKODIS ASP ended up in second place overall while the #2 Mercedes-AMG Team GetSpeed entry also made it onto the podium by finishing third. At the same time, the #20 SPS automotive performance car got the new year off to an optimal start with its PRO-AM success. The #5 Haupt Racing Team Mercedes-AMG GT3 secured another podium result during the premiere of the newly introduced Gold Cup as it finished third in this category.

Gus Bowers and Konstantin Lachenauer completed a dream double at Imola, converting race two pole position into a comfortable victory in their Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin on Sunday. Right behind, the Centri Porsche Ticino Cayman of Alex Fontana/Ivan Jacoma took the Pro-Am laurels in second overall, with the AGS Events Aston Martin of Wilfried Cazalbon/Julien Lambert coming out on top of a tight Am class battle.

Loris Spinelli and Max Weering completed back-to-back Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe victories for Bonaldi Motorsport in a second race which was punctuated by three full course yellow periods. The #61 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2 started second on the grid and maintained that position until the final stages when Spinelli passed race-leader Dmitry Gvazava (#9 Target Racing).

Team WRT struck the first blow in the battle for the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe Powered by AWS title with victory in today’s Endurance Cup opener at Imola, ensuring that the new Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3 enjoyed a perfect competitive debut.

Stienes Longin and Nicolas Saelens clinched their maiden Fanatec GT2 European Series outright and Pro-Am victory on their series debut on Sunday, converting their first pole position into the first win of the season for the PK Carsport Audi at Imola.  

Bonaldi Motorsport’s Loris Spinelli and Max Weering kicked off the 2022 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season in the best possible way as they strolled to victory in the first 50-minute encounter of the weekend at Imola. The Italian/Dutch combination, at the wheel of the #61 Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2, held the advantage either side of the mandatory pit-stop to beat Jean-Luc D’Auria and Stéphane Tribaudini (VS Racing) by 17.981s.

Henry Hassid put in a blistering debut Fanatec GT2 European Series performance to seize the first race honours of the 2022 season at Imola, claiming both the outright and Am class honours for LP Racing.

Racing Spirit of Léman made a flying start to the GT4 European Series season with Konstantin Lachenauer and Gus Bowers taking a controlled victory in the opening race at Imola. Allied Racing defied the odds to finish second and win Pro-Am, while Team Fullmotorsport kick-started its Am class title defence with another win.

Three years DTM Trophy, three years Ring-Racing, three years with Toyota: the team from Boxberg near the Nürburgring will also be participating in the 2022 DTM Trophy and is again relying on Toyota for its campaign. New in the team, however, is the driver. Tim Heinemann, who concluded the inaugural season in the talent pool on the DTM platform by winning the title after a commanding performance in 2020, will be driving the Toyota Supra in the 14 sprint races of the 2022 season. The DTM Trophy gets its third season underway at DEKRA Lausitzring Turn 1 from 20 till 22 May.

The Audi R8 LMS GT2s of LP Racing and PK Carsport were the stars of the opening Fanatec GT2 European Series qualifying sessions of the season this afternoon at Imola in Italy, with both Elia Erhart and Nicolas Saelens coming out on top of the first and second sessions respectively.

The Fanatec GT2 European Series launches into its second season of competition at Imola, Italy, this weekend (1-3 April).

British-Korean racer Jack Aitken will begin his quest for a first GT3 title this weekend in the opening GT World Challenge Europe round of the season at Imola.

For its mission title defence in DTM, Mercedes-AMG Motorsport can build on a first-class line-up again in 2022. Together with the teams, Mercedes-AMG has completed the last details and has finalised a powerful line-up for the upcoming season: in the 16 races of the renowned sprint series, four customer teams are participating with eight Mercedes-AMG GT3s. In the process, the driver line-up is like a “who is who” of GT3 racing: next to reigning champion Maximilian Götz, brand ambassador Maro Engel (both GER) will be behind the wheel as well. Moreover, like last year, Mercedes-AMG Drivers Lucas Auer (AUT), Maximilian Buhk (GER) and Arjun Maini (IND) will be on the grid again. With Mikaël Grenier (CAN), David Schumacher and Luca Stolz (both GER), three well-known names will be taking on their first full DTM season. The opening round of the eight scheduled events will be held at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimão/Portugal from 29th April until 1st May.