Weekly Racing Roundup (12.23.19)

Photo: RAM Racing

***Mercedes-AMG factory driver Yelmer Buurman will drive one of RAM Racing’s Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos in the British GT Championship alongside series regular Ian Loggie. The team’s second Mercedes will be shared by Sam de Haan and Patrick Kujala, who move from Barwell Motorsport. De Haan won the GT3 Pro-Am title this year.

***Japanese squad ARN Racing will return to GT World Challenge Asia for a third year, running a Porsche 911 GT3 R for Hiroaki Nagai and Yuta Kamimura. The pair claimed two Pro-Am wins in 2019 along with one overall podium.

***Graham Johnson and Michael O’Brien will once again drive one of Balfe Motorsport’s McLaren 570S GT4s in British GT, along with the previously announced GT3 McLaren pairing of Rob Bell and Shaun Balfe. The team plans to add a second GT4 car to the program.

***Moorespeed has signed 17-year-old Riley Dickinson for a second season in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama, following up a successful debut campaign. Dickinson will drive a Platinum cup car for the Austin, TX-based team.

***Gradient Racing will build the new Honda Civic Type R TC model, which will be eligible for SRO Motorsports America’s TC America class, as well as the SCCA T2 category and NASA’s ST3 and E0 classes. The car is priced at $89,900 and is more powerful than the Civic Si TCA.

***Chip Ganassi has been honored with his own exhibition at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. A number of cars from Ganassi’s history are open for viewing at the Chip Ganassi Racing: Fast Tracks to Success exhibit.

***Goodyear will expand into top-level touring car racing, having been named as the official tire supplier for FIA WTCR beginning in 2020 for three years. It will supply its Eagle F1 SuperSport tires in slick and wet specifications alongside its existing sports car programs in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series.

***The Honda Civic Type R TCR has been named 2019 TCR Model of the Year, following on from the SEAT Leon and Audi RS 3 LMS that were given the same awards in 2017 and 2018. The award is given by global TCR organizer WSC Group Ltd., taking into account results achieved by every TCR-certified car in every TCR-sanctioned race during the year. A total of 313 races counted towards the standings, which went down to the final WTCR race of the year at Sepang.

Jake Kilshaw

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