Weekly Racing Roundup (1.23.23)

***BMW factory drivers Bruno Spengler and Jens Klingmann will team up in the Italian GT Championship this year, sharing a Ceccato Racing BMW M4 GT3 in the Sprint series. Klingmann shared a car with former works driver Timo Glock last year. Carlo Tamburini and Francesco Massimo De Luca form the other Sprint pairing.

***Ceccato, racing under the BMW Italia Ceccato Racing banner, is also entering a pair of BMWs in the affiliated Italian GT Endurance series. Tamburini, Marco Cassara, Stefano Comandini, Alfred Nilsson and Salvatore Tavano will all be part of that program.

***FIST-Team AAI has committed to a full-season Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS program with a pair of BMW M4 GT3s. Factory drivers Jesse Krohn and Jens Klingmann have been assigned to the Pro-Am entries, teaming up with Betty Chen and Kevin Chen respectively. The Taiwanese squad last entered GTWC Asia back in 2017.

***Commenting on the entry, Kevin Chen said: “COVID-19 has restricted mine and the team’s race program since the end of 2019 but we’ve remained sharp by making the most of our opportunities closer to home. Now, with the world opening up again, it’s the perfect time to join Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia with FIST-Team AAI. We watched from the sidelines last season, liked what we saw and now cannot wait to join the grid at Buriram.”

***Before sharing a Ferrari 499P in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina will race against each other in the Asian Le Mans Series. Nielsen will team up with Johnny and Conrad Laursen in one AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, while Molina has been placed with Stefano Costantini and Simon Mann in another.

***Former ByKolles LMP1 driver Oliver Webb is set for an Intelligent Money British GT Championship program with Greystone GT, sharing a Mclaren 720S GT3 with Andrey Borodin. Both drivers appeared in the series last year, albeit in different Greystone cars.

***Another recently announced British GT entry is the championship debut of Toro Verde GT, which has raced in Porsche Carrera Cup. James Townsend and Ian Duggan will share the team’s Ginetta G56 GT4 after competing against each other in Ginetta GT4 Supercup last year.

***Inter Europol Competition has named the driver lineups for its expansion into full-time Michelin Le Mans Cup racing with two Ligier JS P320 Nissans. One car will be shared by the Anglo-American pairing of Radical racer Chris Short and Bryson Morris, who drove an ST Racing BMW M4 GT3 in the 24H Series. Daniel Ali and James Dayson form the second crew.

***Last year’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour runner-up Kevin Tse is returning to event next month as part of the Harrolds Volante Rosso Motorsport crew. Macanese driver Tse will share the team’s Am class Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with Jonathan Hui and Ross Poulakis.

***Nova Race has signed 20-year-old Swiss prospect Axel Gnos to its Italian GT Sprint Championship program with a Honda NSX GT3 Evo22. Gnos is set for his sports car racing debut after contesting the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine.

***Jan Magnussen is set to return to the Michelin Le Mans Cup with Honda squad GMB Motorsport, Sportscar365 understands. The former Corvette Racing factory driver joined GMB for its three-car program last year, when it won the title and secured a 24 Hours of Le Mans entry.

On this weekend: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (Daytona)