Weekly Racing Roundup (12.2.19)

Photo: Porsche Carrera Cup Brazil

***Filipe Albuquerque won a 500-kilometer Porsche Carrera Cup Brazil endurance race at Interlagos alongside Vitor Baptista on Saturday. It was Albuquerque’s first time driving a Porsche, and the win came after losing a wheel on the formation lap which dropped them to 30th place.

***Academy Motorsport has become an agent for the Ford Mustang GT4 in Europe and will run two cars in the British GT Championship and GT4 European Series next year. The team previously ran Aston Martin Vantage GT4s in both series.

***Entries are open for GT4 European Series earlier than the usual mid-January date due to increased interest in the SRO Motorsports Group-run series. The full-season grid size has increased due to Silverstone replacing Brands Hatch, meanwhile. The Northamptonshire circuit will open the schedule on May 8-10 before rounds at Paul Ricard, Zandvoort, Spa, Nürburgring and Hungaroring.

***Gibson Technology celebrated a milestone last month when its LMP2 engines achieved one million miles of track use since their debut in 2016. Gibson is the sole engine supplier for all current-gen LMP2 cars with its 4.2-liter V8 engine.

***United Autosports announced Gerry Kraut and Scott Andrews as its first Michelin Le Mans Cup pairing for the coming season. The pair will drive one of the team’s Ligier JS P3 Nissans in the European series, moving over from the IMSA Prototype Challenge, where they shared one of JDC Motorsports’ Norma M30 Nissans this year.

***A prize fund of €150,000 has been announced for the inaugural season of DTM Trophy, the DTM support series aimed at GT4-level cars. The money will be divided between the top three drivers, while the highest-placed junior driver (aged under 22) will be given a DTM test at the end of the year.

***Hankook will serve as DTM Trophy’s tire supplier, extending its relationship with DTM for which it has supplied tires since 2011. It also equipped all teams at the recent Super GT x DTM Dream Race at Fuji.

***Barwell Motorsport will contest the Gulf 12 Hours and Hankook 24 Hours of Dubai in the coming weeks with one of its Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evos. Adrian Amstutz, Jordan Witt and Patrick Kujala will contest both races. They’ll be joined by Miguel Ramos for the Gulf 12H (Dec. 13-14) and Lamborghini works driver Dennis Lind at Dubai (Jan. 9-11).

***A number of sports car drivers and other high-profile names will take part in the e-Trophee Andros championship over the coming weeks, beginning with its opening round at Val Thorens this weekend. The French ice racing championship has made the switch to fully electric grids this season and will include the likes of Nico Prost, Nathanael Berthon and Olivier Panis, as well as Sebastien Loeb and Andreas Bakkerud. GT teams Sainteloc Racing and CMR will field cars.

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.