Weekly Racing Roundup (1.18.21)

***Rinaldi Racing has named the drivers of both of its Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020s for the Asian Le Mans Series. Ferrari factory FIA World Endurance Championship driver Davide Rigon will team up with David Perel and Rino Mastronardi in the No. 55 machine, while the No. 66 Am-class entry features Manuel Lauck, Christian Hook and Patrick Kujala.

***Henry Walkenhorst and Joerg Breuer will pilot Walkenhorst Motorsport’s No. 35 BMW M6 GT3 in Asian LMS. The pairing’s co-driver has yet to be confirmed. As previously announced, Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli drivers’ champion Nicky Catsburg will partner SRO America regulars Chandler Hull and Jon Miller in the No. 34.

***United Autosports has signed Michelin Le Mans Cup ace Edouard Cauhaupe for its LMP3 title defense in the European Le Mans Series. Cauhaupe won two Le Mans Cup races last year for Cool Racing and finished second in the standings. He will remain in Ligier machinery for his ELMS debut with United. Cauhaupe’s co-drivers in the No. 2 Ligier JS P320 Nissan have yet to be confirmed.

***Matthieu Vaxiviere and Aurelien Panis have founded their own race team. VPS Racing will run four cars in the Mitjet International series, which includes support slots at the Magny-Cours and Misano GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS rounds. The ‘S’ part of the VPS Racing name refers to engineer Raphael Serrano who is co-running the team with Vaxiviere and Panis.

***Konrad Motorsport’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo will return to the NLS next year, while the team also plans to field two entries in Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe.

***Toyota will be represented on next season’s Italian GT Championship grid in the form of two GR Supra GT4 entries for Duell Team-MGM Management. The team plans to contest both the Sprint and Endurance series.

***Duell Team owner Alan Gomboso said: “Toyota’s programs are very ambitious. Our team will be the only Italian dealer and this is a very important starting point for our collaboration with such a high-level manufacturer. We are also working on a possible collaboration with Toyota Italia but it is still early days to make this official.”

***Double 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Romain Dumas finished 43rd in the Dakar Rally driving for Rebellion Motors in the car division. Le Mans class winner Tomas Enge placed 34th in light prototypes, six positions behind former ELMS racer Liam Griffin.

***A total of 15 cars are signed up for this weekend’s 6H Abu Dhabi, which is being organized by 24H Series promoter Creventic. The grid for the non-championship race is headed up by a five-car GT class entry that includes four GT3 machines.

***Three of those are Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos – two for Car Collection Motorsport and one for Attempto Racing – while the fourth is a McLaren 720S GT3 for Inception Racing by Optimum. The entries are coming directly from last weekend’s 24H Dubai. View the entry list here.

***The race is due to start on Saturday, Jan. 23 at 12 p.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

***IMSA’s sanctioning of the Mazda MX-5 Global Cup is providing the single-make series with a larger TV package for next season. All 14 Mazda races will be streamed live on IMSA.tv and TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold. NBCSN will also produce a one-hour recap show covering each meeting.

***Japanese teenager Ren Sato has joined Team Aguri for the outfit’s GT300 program in Super GT. Sato, who won the 2019 Japanese F4 title and finished second in French F4 last year, will partner the returning Shinichi Takagi in Aguri’s Honda NSX GT3 Evo.

***Sato replaces Toshiki Oyu, who has been promoted to Honda’s GT500 squad for the coming season.

***2 Seas Motorsport has put its Gulf 12 Hours-winning GT3 McLaren up for sale, along with its sister 720S that also ran in British GT last season. The team hasn’t disclosed how this will affect its 2021 sporting program, which includes a two-car DTM entry.

***The DTM has firmed up its 2021 calendar and confirmed that the championship’s GT3 era will begin with a round at Monza on June 18-20. Igora Drive in Russia was originally put forward as the venue for the season-opener, but that meeting is not going ahead. The eight fixtures from Monza through to the Hockenheim finale on Oct. 1-3 are unchanged from the provisional schedule.

2021 DTM Schedule
June 18-20 – Monza
July 2-4 – Norisring
July 23-25 – Lausitzring
Aug. 6-8 – Zolder
Aug. 20-22 – Nürburgring
Sept. 3-5 – Red Bull Ring
Sept. 17-19 – Assen
Oct. 1-3 – Hockenheim

On this weekend: 6H Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina), Roar Before the Rolex 24, IMSA Prototype Challenge (Daytona)