RNW Staff

The new flagship from BMW M Motorsport has passed the endurance test in the desert. Following test races last season and successful FIA homologation, the 24H Dubai (UAE) from Friday to Saturday marked the first race appearance for the new BMW M4 GT3 in the hands of BMW M Motorsport teams. ST Racing and Schubert Motorsport competed with a total of three BMW M4 GT3s at the season-opener in the 24H Series. After 24 hours of racing featuring numerous Code 60 periods and a sandstorm on Saturday morning, all three cars reached the finish line on their racing debut.

For the third time after 2016 and 2019, an Audi customer team has won the traditional opener of the endurance season in Dubai. Team WRT from Belgium, which claimed its first success six years ago, celebrated a convincing one-two. Mohammed Saud Fahad Al Saud/Axcil Jefferies/Christopher Mies/Dries Vanthoor/Thomas Neubauer won ahead of their teammates Benjamin Goethe/Arnold Robin/Maxime Robin/Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer/Frédéric Vervisch. For the GT3 version of the Audi R8 LMS, this was already the fifteenth overall victory in a 24-hour race worldwide since the start of the program in 2009.

United Autosports are pleased to confirm that Jim McGuire, Duncan Tappy and Andrew Bentley will return to their European Le Mans Series LMP3 team for the 2022 season.

Speculations were going on for a long time, but now, the ABT Sportsline team from Kempten has officially confirmed its second driver for the 2022 DTM season. It is three-time DTM champion René Rast, who already won the drivers‘ title in the long-standing series in 2017, 2019 and 2020. The 35-year-old will be driving the second Audi-Cockpit of the team with ABT CEO and team principal Thomas Biermaier at the helm, becoming the new teammate to South-African Kelvin van der Linde, who already raced for ABT Sportsline in DTM last year and finished the drivers championship in third place.

Italian racer Will Aspin is set to join Team Parker Racing for his maiden season in the ever-competitive Porsche Carrera Cup GB, setting his sights on success in the series’ Pro-Am championship.

Known for its long-running history and resume of success racing Porsche machinery, sports car racing champions Flying Lizard Motorsport will continue their legacy with the German manufacturer this season, entering three cars into the USAC Porsche Sprint Challenge North America. Longtime Lizard racers Chris Bellomo, Paul Bonderson, and Mike Gaulke, who raced previously in the Yokohama Drivers Cup USA will represent the team in both the North America and West championships.

The BMW M Team RLL line-up for the season opener of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2022 has been decided. At the new BMW M4 GT3’s debut in the also-new GTD PRO category, two strong quartets of BMW M works drivers will be doing battle for the podium. In the #25 MOTUL BMW M4 GT3, Connor De Phillippi, John Edwards (both USA), Augusto Farfus (BRA) and Jesse Krohn (FIN) will take turns at the wheel; in the #24 car, Philipp Eng (AUT), Sheldon van der Linde (RSA), Marco Wittmann (GER) and Nick Yelloly (GBR) will be in action. Turner Motorsport is fielding a BMW M4 GT3 with the drivers Bill Auberlen, Robby Foley, Michael Dinan (all USA) and Jens Klingmann (GER) in the GTD class.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team NTE Sport is starting the 2022 race season off in style, switching to a new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo for a full season in the GTD class. The team’s new car will make its debut in the Roar Before the 24–the first test and qualifying event of the season–with a familiar lineup, bringing back Don Yount, Benjamin Hites, Jaden Conwright, and Markus Palttala as drivers of the No. 42 entry. The team will announce its full-season plans and lineup at a later date.

The Wright Motorsports roster for the prestigious Rolex 24 At Daytona at the end of this month is complete, following the addition of Porsche Factory Driver Richard Lietz to the No. 16 Porsche 911 GT3 R. Lietz will join full-season drivers and 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge Champions Ryan Hardwick and Jan Heylen, and endurance addition Zacharie Robichon. 

Sean Creech Motorsport (SCM) returns to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship action in 2022 for a full-season campaign in the quickly-growing LMP3 class. The team will field the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Exelixis Ligier JS P320 and will open the 2022 season with an outing in the 60th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona January 29-30. 

Finlay Hutchison is celebrating the start of 2022 with a return to top endurance racing team Attempto Racing, the 21-year-old Scottish driver having signed a deal to race with the German squad in this month’s Hankook Dubai 24H and to also debut in February’s Asian Le Mans Series.

KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) is set to kick off the new year with an entry in the 2022 Rolex 24 at Daytona on January 27 – 30, the first time the team has competed at the famous American endurance race. Taking part in the GTD Pro class, KCMG will compete in the factory-supported #2 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Fresh off of their second-place finish in the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Paul Miller Racing team is shaking things up—moving to the all-new BMW M4 GT3 for the 2022 season. 

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) will make its 19th entry in the coveted Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona at the end of the month, and the Ohio-based team is coming in with a strong stable of talent for the 60th running of the annual event. 

WeatherTech Racing will be competing with two cars in the new IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD Pro Class in next month’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, Jan. 27-30.

Lamborghini GT3 Junior Driver Mateo Llarena is once more making history as he heads to Daytona International Speedway for his second Rolex 24 at Daytona, having been named as an official Junior for the Italian marque back in June.

A long, hot action packed Christmas weekend at Chang International Circuit has just finished, the final round of Thailand Super Series 2021 is a wrap and it’s been quite a weekend for B-Quik Absolute Racing. We end the year as vice champions in the Super Car GT3 Drivers’ and Teams’ championship!

PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports is pleased to announce that the team will expand to two LMP2 full time entries in the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The #52 lineup of Ben Keating, Mikkel Jensen and Scott Huffaker will return to defend their Michelin Endurance Cup championship, along with two additional drivers to be named in 2022 that will take over the wheel of the #52 for the sprint races. The lineup for the team’s brand new #11 entry will be announced shortly.

A little less than one hundred days prior to the first test session at Hockenheim, the DTM schedule for the year 2022 has been finalised. The event so far listed as ‘TBA’ on the calendar for 3-5 June 2022 will not be held. As a result, the 2022 DTM season will run from May until October in five different countries and at eight different race tracks in Germany and other European countries, including six Formula 1 tracks.

The pressure was felt in the Thunderhill Raceway Park paddock for K-PAX Racing, but it was not crushing as some would expect under similar conditions. K-PAX Racing had two weeks to prepare its newly assembled program with Lamborghini Squadra Corse, ahead of its full-time return to the Fanatec GT World Challenge America Powered by AWS Championship. Time was ticking.