The new McLaren 720S GT3 EVO headlines the Motorsport Series News Roundup this week as details and photos have been released by McLaren Motorsport.

In addition to the McLaren GT3 race car, Mercedes have been out testing their new AMG GT2, Renault is considering going back to Dakar and more details of the TCR World Tour have been released.

I also have news on racing from South Africa to Thailand and all points in between, an amazing opportunity for first time endurance racers and a new off-road championship in the United States.

All this and much more in this week’s edition of the Motorsport Series News Roundup on Motorsport Prospects.

Sportscars

Motorsport Series & Track Day News — McLaren 720S GT3 EVO

McLaren recently launched the McLaren 720S GT3 EVO and it is homologated for the 2023 season. The new EVO version of McLaren’s offering is available as a new-build race car or as an update package to an existing car, over 40 of which have been built to date. Daily Sportscar goes into detail about the changes to the race car.

Meanwhile, the new Mercedes AMG GT2 has been testing at Monza. The new car, set for customer deliveries later this year, joins GT2 offerings from Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, KTM, and Brabham, while the Maserati MC20 GT2 is also set to join in 2023. With 707bhp from its four-litre Biturbo V8 AMG engine, the Mercedes-AMG GT2 will be quicker in a straight-line than its phenomenally successful AMG GT3 sister.

Porsche Sprint Challenge North America returns with its duo of championships – Porsche Sprint Challenge North America by Yokohama (PSCNA) in its third season of competition and Porsche Sprint Challenge USA West by Yokohama (PSCUW) in its second season for teams preferring a West Coast race schedule. While the series maintains much of its structure going into 2023, Sportscar 365 explains that it also introduces a handful of new elements to both championships.

A total of 13 cars are entered for the Kyalami 9 Hour, including ten GT3 cars that will go the full distance in the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli enduro.

The B-Quik Thailand Super Series has announced its 2023 calendar. There will be five championship-counting rounds, including Round 4 at Sepang International Circuit, the home of the former Malaysian Grand Prix. For the second year in a row, a non-championship round will feature as a support for the Singapore Grand Prix, which will be invitational only due to high demand.

FEL Motorsports has announced the 2023 schedule for the Radical Cup Canada (RCC) presented by Michelin. The 2023 RCC schedule will follow the format change of sister-series, Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin. Both will run as a 12-race championship, now condensed into four weekends, each featuring three races. The new format is designed to save all teams money and allow for personal time and travel, while delivering the same great competition experience. Registration is now open. Visit www.felmotorsports.com for more details about the series.

Speaking of Radicals, Radical Motorsport has confirmed competitors of its Blue Marble Radical Cup North America series will take on a street circuit for the very first time in 2023, at the famed Honda Indy Toronto, July 14-16. In a twist, the Blue Marble Radical Cup will join its Canadian counterpart, the Emzone Radical Cup Canada for a ‘race within a race’ format, which will see both series take to the track.

The Robb Report joined Lamborghini at Daytona for the recent Rolex 24 and explain everything to know about its new race cars. “Lamborghini plans to join the LMDh field next year. For the 2023 competition, though, the marque brought a quintet of GT3 EVO2 racers to run in two classes: GTD Pro and GTD. As the latest—and perhaps last—full-race Huracán variant, the EVO2 builds on the proven performance of the road-going Huracán STO’s naturally aspirated 640 hp V-10 power train and rear-wheel-drive configuration. New aerodynamic components include a functional roof-mounted snorkel air intake that replaces previous side scoops to feed 10 electronically controlled individual throttle bodies, which bolt atop the 10-cylinder engine with only four screws to allow for quicker service. Additionally, this year’s regulations stipulated safety improvements to the roll cage, and Lambo also added carbon-Kevlar honeycomb side panels and new brakes.”

A record number of entries has been locked in for the 2023 Hi-Tec Oils Bathurst 6 Hour. The entry list for the Easter production car endurance event features 66 cars after 85 entries were submitted to organisers. As it stands, that figure is two more than the current record of 64, which was achieved at the 2017 edition of the event, which was won by Paul Morris and Luke Searle in a BMW M135i.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and Nissan Motorsports & Customizing Co., Ltd. have announced the outline of their motorsports activities for 2023. “At Nissan, we challenge ourselves and dare to do what others don’t,” said Ashwani Gupta, Nissan COO. “We are proud of our achievements on the track last year in the Super GT series. This season, in Formula E, Nissan will compete with a newly developed Gen3 powertrain, which we are also supplying to McLaren. Also, the newly developed Z GT4 will race in the US and Japan. Motorsport is a test bed that pushes our engineering and manufacturing expertise to the next level of excellence. But it also is our passion, and we want to share this passion and excitement with more fans around the world”.

In addition to ABB FIA Formula E World Championship and Super GT GT500 class, which are the two pillars of Nissan’s motorsports activities, NMC’s NISMO Racing Division (NISMO) will start their customer racing programs for the Nissan Z GT4 and provide technical support. NISMO will also continue to provide support for teams using the Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3, other Nissan vehicles, and engines in their motorsport activities.

All 13 recipients of automatic invitations to this year’s centennial 24 Hours of Le Mans have been confirmed after the conclusion of the Asian Le Mans Series last weekend and Sportscar365 have all the details.

Single-Seaters

The New McLaren 720S GT3 EVO Headlines the Series News Roundup

Formula 1’s popularity is growing worldwide, and in its wake, the supporting classes are trying to get a piece of the pie. Interest in Formula 2 and Formula 3 is also growing, but series CEO Bruno Michel is cautious about the increased interest. “It can be a cycle. We have some absolutely fantastic years then some more years that are difficult. We have to be careful to try to keep the costs as low as possible. For the teams, finding drivers with proper budgets or finding sponsors it’s easier than in the past but let’s still be cautious.”

“Little is known about the exact cost of running a Formula 2 team. Around four to five million dollars a year is a common estimate. Much of the budget is raised by the drivers and their sponsors. Indeed, the ‘pay driver’ phenomenon is still completely normal in the junior classes. The money earned by the F2 and F3 as a series through their alliance with Formula 1 is mostly used for logistics.”

Touring Cars

WSC has revealed further details on how the inaugural season for the new TCR World Tour will play out. A maximum of 16 full-season entries will be accepted for the nine events that make up the schedule, with an entry deadline of 28 February in place. Additional entries on a race-by-race basis will be considered, but will compete in the local series that is hosting the event. Full details can be found here.

South Africa’s Global Touring Cars embarks on its seventh season of racing at the Kyalami 9 Hour over the weekend of 24-25 February. “If anything, this should be a watershed season for GTC, following two seasons of rebuilding and reconciliation. South Africa’s premier circuit racing formula is moving forward into a thrilling new era. Gone are the brittle early chassis, the dodgy wiring looms and other components that caused so many issues over the first seven years. They make place for a fast and thrilling series that in now poised to march into the future.”

The calendar of the 2023 season for TCR South America and TCR Brazil has been finalized with the naming of the ten circuits that will host the two series and two TCR World Tour events. Full details can be found here.

Rally, Raid & Off-Road

Credit: International Off-Road Drivers Association

Disagreements in the Short-course Off-road Drivers Association (SODA) leadership resulted in some leaving to start their own series, the International Off-Road Drivers Association (IODA), which will run five rounds in 2023 all at Gravity Park USA. IODA was formed in November by Kelly Kuether, Alexander Mackowski, and Milan Mazanec, all of whom were involved with the fledgling SODA series. Kuether had been named SODA’s Vice President just two months prior to the breakaway while Mazanec had been the technical inspection director since the inaugural SODA season in 2021. Mackowski passed away in early February in a truck accident. Citing unhappiness with SODA, Kuether elected to form his own championship. Various drivers from SODA have also committed to IODA.

The Checkered Flag are reporting that Renault appears to be looking to get back into rally raid. On Friday, a report from France Info revealed the company is planning to enter the 2025 Dakar Rally under its Dacia brand, likely a prototype hybrid version of the Dacia Duster.

Hosted by SCCA Regions, Divisional and National RoadRallies are a spectacular day of driving and fellowship tuned with local flavor. This also means anyone can step from Regional participation into these competitions with little fear. Some people even start at the USRRC and work their way down – that’s the beauty of RoadRally! Check Out RoadRally’s 2023 Divisional & National Tour.

Miscellaneous Racing Series

The 750 Motor Club have announced their Croft Test Days 2023 (see graphic above). These are always extremely popular and sell out quickly – note the dates of the 2023 test days going on sale for the two respective events this season. These test days will become available to book via the Race Entry Portal (NOT website) on the dates above at approximately 9am, but will appear ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY PLACED THEIR RACE ENTRY FOR CROFT.

2023 marks 50 years since the inception of Caterham Cars and they are celebrating by hosting their our very own Caterham 50th Anniversary Festival on the 2nd-3rd of September at Donington Park. The on-track action sees all five of their Official Championships being joined by the Classic Sports Car Club (CSCC) with their ‘Magnificient Sevens’, which feature some fantastic high-power Seven CSRs. Also joining them and organized by the British Automobile Racing Club (BARC), will be the Caterham Graduates Racing Club. If you own a Caterham that is of historical significance, run a Caterham related club, or offer products relevant to our brand, then they want to hear from you at marketing@caterham.com.

American Endurance Racing has announced widely that if you’ve never raced with them before, they’ll waive the entry fee for first-timers. Road & Track asked John Kolesa, the series founder and president, why they’re doing this: “It can be hard to get racers to try something new, especially when it comes to grassroots racers. We’re so confident that once they try AER, they will be back. We started this program last year and it was hugely successful. Everyone who took us up on it has returned and become a part of our community.”

With the newly formed STARS National Series kicking off its inaugural season, and the expansion of A SouthwestERN Tour ACROSS THE COUNTRY into Florida, PRI explains how Super Late Model competitors now have more options about where to compete as rules parity comes into focus.

Track Days

Hype Motorsport have announced their first Hype Drive circuit experience of 2023 on March 20th at the Donington Park racetrack. A firm favourite of many racing drivers, Donington provides the thrill and excitement of flowing corners, undulating sections and fast straights, perfect for you to drive in the Hype fleet of track cars. Get more information on what the day includes and how you can get involved here.

Team News

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.