New Toyota-Lexus GT3 is Coming and More Motorsport Series News

The new Toyota-Lexus GT3 is coming soon which is just one of the highlights on this week’s Motorsport Series News Roundup.

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America kicks of their 2023 schedule with a new title sponsor and new race venues, the GRIDLIFE Touring Cup will support NASCAR and TCR UK introduces a new prize fund.

All this plus ice racing, new track limits rules in the UK and much more in this week’s Motorsport Series News Roundup on Motorsport Prospects.

Sportscars

New Toyota-Lexus GT3 is Coming and More Motorsport Series News

The Porsche Carrera Cup North America enters 2023 with a new title sponsor, Deluxe, and a diverse season that will see the one-make series partner with IMSA, IndyCar, Formula 1, NASCAR and highlight the Porsche Rennsport Reunion VII. Each of the eight weekends will be a doubleheader with a pair of 40-minute races. All rounds of the series will again be found on a wide range of streaming options as the NBC Peacock streaming app, IMSA.tv and PorscheCarreraCup.us will all provide live coverage of each 40-minute race. Additionally, all rounds will be archived on the series YouTube channel. IMSA Radio will again provide commentary and color for the 16-race championship’s race calls.


The ADAC GT Masters lines up in the 2023 season with confirmation that the organizing body has cancelled the previously announced plan to merge the Series with Prototype Cup Germany – The proposed ‘DTM Endurance’ series will no longer take place. “We will not be pursuing the plans presented in December, which included joint races with the ADAC GT Masters and prototypes. This is in line with the desire of many teams for the ADAC GT Masters to continue unchanged in its current form. However, from a sporting perspective we are sharpening the profile of the series, by making it mandatory to have a Silver or Bronze driver in every car. In doing so, we are ensuring that the ADAC GT Masters remains an attractive platform for ambitious and talented drivers.”


Morgan Performance Group (MPG) will offer a variety of opportunities to Porsche owners and drivers in its 14-race Cup Celebration sports car campaign with four separate classes at the seven road racing circuits in 2023. The Cup Celebration (CC) series, bridging the gap between Porsche Owners Club (POC) and Porsche Club of America (PCA) to the Porsche Sprint Challenge series, is specifically designed for Porsche GT3 Cup cars to have a competitive, fun and safe experience to race. Cup Celebration will feature four classes based on the generation of Porsche GT3 Cup car – Platinum (992), Gold (991.2), Silver (991.1) and Bronze (997.2). Pirelli is the official tire for the CC series.


GRIDLIFE’s Touring Cup (GLTC) racing series and a select group of TrackBattle Time Attack cars will join the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Road America, July 27-29. “While GRIDLIFE, which is known for its grassroots racing community and festival-style music events popular with young motorsport fans, has hosted its own weekends at Road America in the past, this will be the series’ first time in a support role for a major North American racing event.”


Motorsport Series & Track Day News

Work on Toyota/Lexus’ new GT3 car is “well underway” according to Toyota Racing Development President David Wilson, who stated that branding for the next-generation model has not yet been finalized. The car, based on the GR GT3 concept unveiled at the Tokyo Auto Salon last year, has continued development in Japan although a timeline for its race debut has not been confirmed.


Ford Performance will launch a single-make series with the new Ford Mustang Dark Horse R, which could debut as early as next year. While unconfirmed, Sportscar365 believes that the yet-to-be-named series could be sanctioned by IMSA, with further details to be released in the coming months.


2023 SCCA Team Enduro rules are now ready for racing. “For the past year, we’ve been working on what this program looks like in the hands of the Regions, and we’ve created a document that reads more like our traditional rulebooks,” explained Jon Krolewicz, Senior Manager of Regional Track Program Development and chairman of the SCCA Enduro Racing Board. “For drivers and teams, the information is organized into driver eligibility, vehicle eligibility/requirements, sporting regulations and, if the event is running them, the National classing.”


Single-Seaters

MONOPOSTO RACING CLUB

Entries are now open for the 2023 season for both the Monoposto Championship and the Reprise IT Tiedeman Trophy. You can enter either via a PDF entry form or online using their PurpleLap online entry system. Please find the links to the PDF entry forms below.


Feeder Series has learnt details of six of the seven rounds that will make up F1 Academy’s inaugural season. “As the details of the brand-new championship begin to fall into place, here are the wider implications of recent news and driver announcements.”


The big news that emerged from last week’s first ever Formula E race in India was the launch of the Ace Championship, projected to be a development feeder series for Formula E. The series, unveiled at the Hyderabad E-Prix, has pledged to provide an affordable championship for junior drivers, while also providing opportunities for new talent to get into motorsport. It is expected that the ACE car will have similar performance points to Formula E’s Gen2 machinery. The release states that the series will run on “a regional format and on regional circuits across continents”, which effectively renders the cast of circuits to be used as a complete unknown, or if it will run on the Formula E undercard. “We are looking at the ACE Championship to provide representation to people who are interested in driving, and engineers, around the world who have not had the opportunity to date and giving them a chance to level up.”

The series will be going up against the BRSCC’s Formula Foundation-E series in Great Britain which is being launched this year and the Europe-based ERA championship that has been several years in the making but has so far only held one race.


Touring Cars

Motorsport Series & Track Day News

Organizers of the TCR UK series have announced the introduction of a new £75,000 prize fund that will be available to drivers over the course of the 2023 season. Cash prizes will be handed out at each of the seven planned race meetings, as well as at the end of the season to drivers in both the overall championship and the Goodyear Diamond Trophy for drivers aged over 40. A prize will also be available to the winner of the Tom Walker Memorial Trophy, named after the late Volkswagen Cup racer.


Uruguay and Argentina will both feature on the inaugural TCR World Tour schedule after the two South American events on the 2023 calendar were officially confirmed. After the four European race weekends that open the season, the World Tour will hold its South American races on consecutive weekends in August, with the Autódromo Víctor Borrat Fabini in El Pinar scheduled for 18-20 August before races at San Luis a week later. Both meetings will see TCR World Tour competitors race alongside regulars in the TCR South America series.


Miscellaneous Racing Series

New Toyota-Lexus GT3 is Coming and More Motorsport Series News

Welcome to ice racing: The accessible and unpredictable motorsport putting women in the driver’s seat. “You want to go out there and slide around because it’s fun,” Gray said last weekend. “But if you want to win and you want to get ahead of everyone, you have to drive really calm, be really patient. You want to keep putting your foot down on the throttle, but you’re just going to spin your tires. Probably my greatest skill in ice racing is that I’m willing to wait patiently for the car to come to me.”


Motorsport Rules & Regulations

Stephen Lickorish in Autosport argues why Motorsport UK’s national motorsport’s track limits shakeup is deeply flawed. “The plans to not only tighten the rules of what is permitted but also introduce penalties for the very first offence and ban drivers from protesting others over missed track-limits abuses have proven highly controversial. Quite understandably, there have been furious reactions from everyone from organising clubs to clerks of the course and, of course, racers.”


Team News

Motorsport Series & Track Day News
Mark Boudreau
Author: Mark Boudreau

Mark is the publisher of Motorsport Prospects. As a former lawyer, he applies his legal background and research skills to assist race drivers by showcasing the resources they need to make their motorsport careers happen.