Weekly Racing Roundup (10.31.22)

***Thomas Neubauer won the Ferrari Challenge world title at the Italian manufacturer’s Finali Mondiali event at Imola. The Frenchman, who started from pole position, beat John Wartique by two seconds in the deciding 30-minute race, while Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Europe champion Doriane Pin completed the podium. Results

***Jacopo Guidetti and Andrea Gagliardini bounced back from heartbreak in the opening Thailand Super Series race at Buriram to win the second contest in their Vattana Motorsport Honda NSX GT3 Evo22. The Italian pairing’s car ground to a halt on the final lap after running out of fuel, handing the win to the B-Quik Absolute Racing Audi duo of Sandy Stuvik and Akash Nandy. Guidetti and Gagliardini were untroubled in Race 2, beating Stuvik and Nandy by 12 seconds. Race 1 / Race 2

***Sam Fillmore and Jonny Reid won the combined New Zealand Endurance Championship, adding to their South Island Endurance Series title. The Team International Motorsport pair won the wet three-hour race at Highlands despite battling against a faulty windshield wiper on their Audi.

***Italy topped the overall medal table at the second edition of the FIA Motorsport Games, courtesy of its three gold medals in Rally4, Historic Rally and KCMG Formula 4, plus a silver for Mirko Bortolotti in GT Sprint. Host nation France finished second in the table with three golds and no other medals, while Australia and Peru were the best non-European countries in joint sixth.

***The Intercontinental GT Challenge Esports powered by Mobileye concluded with the virtual 24 Hours of Spa. Mercedes-AMG E-Sports Team Unicorns of Love dominated the race with James Baldwin — who also competed in the real-world edition this year — as well as Eamonn Murphy and George Boothby. McLaren Veloce GT sealed the IGTC Esports title.

***Supercars driver Tim Slade will team up with Bathurst local Brad Schumacher for the three-hour Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS round at Mount Panorama on Nov. 11-13. The duo will share a newly updated Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II.

***Middle Eastern racing promoter Driving Force Events last week announced that its new four-hour endurance race at Dubai Autodrome will be known as the City of Gold 4 Hours, which is due to take place on Dec. 17-18.

***The Ferrari Challenge Japan series has been resurrected with a four-round calendar next year. It becomes the second active national Ferrari Challenge series after the U.K. championship which launched in 2019. A Japanese competition was previously held in the early 2000s. The calendar consists of Fuji (April 8-9), Autopolis (May 6-7), Fuji (July 1-2) and Sugo (Aug. 5-6).

***The Finali Mondiali at Imola included demonstration laps of Ferrari’s new 499P LMH prototype and the new 296 GT3, as well as current 488 racing models including both FIA World Endurance Championship GTE-Pro cars and GT3s from IMSA competitors Risi Competizione and Cetilar Racing. Other demo runs involved Formula 1 cars and Ferrari Challenge machinery through the years for the platform’s 30th season.

***Ferrari also used the Finali Mondiali to announce that its 2023 world final will take place at Mugello on Oct. 24-30. The Italian venue held the annual company celebration last year.

On this weekend: Lamborghini Grand Final (Portimao), Super GT (Motegi), NLS (Round 2, rescheduled from April)