RNW Staff

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s off-season is officially over this week as all teams begin to set up at Daytona International Speedway for the Roar Before the 24, the first on-track event of the 2022 season. After winning the 2021 Michelin Pilot Challenge team and driver championships in addition to the IMSA WeatherTech Michelin Endurance Cup team and driver championships, Porsche customer racing program Wright Motorsports has great momentum heading into the season start.

BMW M Motorsport is counting on continuity in the driver line-up for the 2022 season. In the coming months, 19 BMW M works drivers will be competing around the world in the new BMW M4 GT3 for a range of BMW M Motorsport teams, and will also play a key role in the testing phase for the new BMW M LMDh. All 19 drivers are already familiar faces from previous years in the BMW M Motorsport family. Their experience and class are particularly crucial for the many new challenges that BMW M Motorsport is facing.

ABT Sportsline will again be running three Audis in the DTM races. Next to three-time DTM champion René Rast and Kelvin van der Linde, third in the championship last year, the successful outfit from Kempten has signed 21-year-old Ricardo Feller for the third seat. The Swiss, who already competed in races with a GT3 race car at the age of 16, is considered as a great talent and a driver with huge potential.

Cetilar Racing 2022 season in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup with the #47 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 is set to kick-off this coming weekend. 24 Hours of Daytona – scheduled on 29/30 January – will be the first out of four prestigious rounds, with Roar before the Rolex 24 to start the action seven days before to define the starting grid of the Florida race.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team Era Motorsport captured hearts around the globe last year when the team secured their first series victory at the iconic Rolex 24 At Daytona. Sporting a livery designed by a six-year-old Canadian race fan, the LMP2 team proudly demonstrated they were a force to be reckoned with. The time has come for Era Motorsport to defend their unforgettable win. This week, the team arrives at Daytona International Speedway for a two-week stay to conduct the first series-wide test of the season, the Roar Before the 24, followed by the first race of 2022, the 60th Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Ten years after scoring a stunning victory in the 50th Rolex 24 At Daytona, Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) with Curb-Agajanian will be looking to bookend that achievement in the 60th Rolex 24, set for January 29-30.

Audi R8 LMS GT3 EVO racer Finlay Hutchison made a highly competitive start to his 2022 motorsport season in the Middle East over the weekend, with a strong and very impressive seventh place finish in the Hankook Dubai 24H.

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.