Weekly Racing Roundup (12.19.22)

***Porsche has signed Bastian Buus as a Junior driver after the 19-year-old Dane impressed during a selection process that included a shootout at Jerez. Buus, who competed in Porsche Carrera Cup Germany and Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup this year, was selected from a pool of eight candidates by Porsche’s specialist panel.

***Former Porsche Junior Laurin Heinrich has been promoted to contracted Porsche Driver status for the 2023 season. The 21-year-old from Germany finished third in this year’s Supercup standings.

***Ralf Bohn is the 2022 recipient of the Porsche Cup, which recognizes the German manufacturer’s standout amateur driver each year. Bohn finished second in the Asian Le Mans Series and third in the Gold Cup class of Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup, driving for Herberth Motorsport in both series. He also won £150,000 to spend on a new Porsche vehicle of his choice.

***Porsche’s all-electric Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 e-Performance will race at the GP Ice Race at Zell am See in Austria next month, as part of a global tour that started at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July. The car is a demonstrator for sustainable motorsport technologies and has a top output of 800 kW, or 450 kW over a 30-minute race duration.

***The first two entry commitments for next year’s Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS campaign have been announced. Porsche Carrera Cup champion NK Racing will step up to the GT3 ranks with a new Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 R that will be driven by Kiyoshi Uchiyama and Tsubasa Kondo at all six events. Additionally, Aston Martin squad D’station Racing will continue in the four-round Japan Cup with Tomonobu Fujii and Satoshi Hoshino.

***Newly-crowned China GT champion Chris Chia was awarded the Audi Sport Asia Trophy after accumulating the most points in the manufacturer’s regional competition involving drivers from different series. Chia won a trophy plus €50,000 ($53,172 USD) in spare parts credits.

***British team Greystone GT has committed to a full season of International GT Open with a McLaren 720S GT3. The Silverstone-based team sampled the series this year at the Red Bull Ring and Barcelona. Andrew Gilbert and Fran Rueda will share the wheel in 2023.

***The ACO last week outlined the event schedule for next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. There are no changes to the session days, with Free Practice and qualifying taking place on Wednesday, June 7 followed by more Free Practice and Hyperpole qualifying on Thursday. The race will take place on Saturday and Sunday, as usual. But there will also be other activities being held to commemorate 100 years since the first Le Mans edition in 1923.

***Road America has added IMSA and IndyCar team owner Michael Shank to the directorial board of the Wisconsin circuit. Shank commented: “I’m honored to be selected to be on the Board of Directors for Road America. This is something new for me, but I am looking forward to working with the rest of the team on initiatives for the future.”

***Michael Joos won both sprint races as the GT Winter Series kicked off at Portimao. However, the Team Joos Sportwagentechnik driver encountered trouble in the 60-minute ‘endurance’ contest, as he and co-driver Klaus Horn started from the pit lane and gained a penalty for missing the pit window. Victory went instead to Piotr Wira and Daan Pijl for Good Speed Racing.