This week the Motorsport Series News Roundup is dominated by sportscar racing. It includes testing news of the new BMW Hypercar and Porsche 963, a change of direction for IMSA, a new sportscar series in the USA and much more.
Sports Cars
- Professional Motorsport World Magazine reports that the BMW Hypercar is set to test in the United States. Having completed a multitude of test programs at racetracks in Europe where important data was obtained to iron out any initial problems, the BMW M Hybrid V8 will now undergo testing in the USA, beginning in September 2022. The car will continue to be prepped ahead of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starting in Daytona, Florida, in January 2023. “The first weeks of testing with the BMW M Hybrid V8 went well,” said Andreas Roos, head of BMW M Motorsport. “We have completed a lot of kilometers, during which we uncovered the first weaknesses, which are totally normal with a new car, and we have solved some of them already.
- Porsche has decided that it will not contest November’s FIA World Endurance Championship season finale with its LMDh car, electing instead to focus on an increased U.S.-based testing program. “Our testing plans are changing,” said Porsche LMDh factory motorsport director Urs Kuratle. “We were evaluating — as we’ve always said we’d see what makes the most sense for us — and we’ve decided it doesn’t make the most sense or the biggest sense to go to Bahrain. That’s why we decided not to go.”
- IMSA has reinstated the WeatherTech Sprint Cup after initially declaring plans to discontinue the series-within-a-series for GTD class competitors next year as reported in Sportscar 365. They also revealed details of the Bob Akin Bronze Cup championship, which will honor the top Bronze-rated drivers in GTD at each race, along with end-of-season recognition as part of the annual WeatherTech Night of Champions celebration and entry into the 2024 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
- Grassroots Motorsports reports that Gridlife is introducing a new endurance racing series, the SuperGrid Grand Prix. “Building upon the successful GRIDLIFE Touring Cup series, GRIDLIFE introduces SuperGrid Grand Prix! This multi-race, uniquely formatted team event includes several different experiences throughout a race weekend. The series also introduces multi-class racing to GRIDLIFE’s wheel-to-wheel racing lineup, with direct cross-series rulesets for GRIDLIFE Touring Cup, Sundae Cup TrackBattle cars (with safety additions) and a new class, GRIDLIFE ClubSport, aimed at 18:1 power-to-weight ratio cars.” Full details on SuperGrid Grand Prix can be found at grid.life.
- The new for 2023 Master Class of Racing series has revealed their draft competition rules. You can read them here.
- The Radical World Finals 2022 in Las Vegas have been confirmed. “The five-day World Finals program will guarantee an unforgettable formula for Radical owners and enthusiasts with four days of racing on track at Spring Mountain, off-track activities including celebrations and banquet dinners, and of course awards for those with a competitive streak.” Further detail and the booking process can be found here.
- RACER has a great article on the Mazda MX-5 Cup called All Things Being Equal. “Since the series’ debut in 2016, more than 260 Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup by BFGoodrich race cars have been sold. And still they continue to arrive at Mazda’s handpicked build partner, Flis Performance, as production MX-5s ready to be converted into race-spec MX-5 Cup machines. With so many cars already built and fields regularly topping 30 entries, how does the racing remain so close?“
Single-Seaters
- The promoter of Brazil F4 has changed the car allocation system due to the fear of an unfair advantage for the series leader according to F1 Feeder Series. “After the second round, a couple of days before the round three track activities began, it was decided there was going to be a car draw in Brazilian F4. Even though it might sound sort of never-seen-before type of situation, the reasoning behind it is somewhat logical.”