Weekly Racing Roundup (2.15.21)

***Grasser Racing Team has confirmed three of its four Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo driver pairings for ADAC GT Masters. Factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Albert Costa will team up in one car while Franck Perera/Rolf Ineichen and Steijn Schothorst/Tim Zimmermann form the other unveiled crews.

***Elia Erhart and Pierre Kaffer will continue to share an Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo in GT Masters, but their program will now be run by 2019 series champion Rutronik Racing. Erhart and Kaffer previously worked with Car Collection Motorsport for three seasons.

***The latest addition to the Fanatec GT World Challenge Australia powered by AWS grid is a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 to be driven by Brett Hobson, who is poised for his first season-long racing campaign since the 2008 second-tier V8 Supercar series. Hobson, who drove a Nissan in last year’s Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, recently shook the car down at Sydney Motorsports Park.

***World Cup-winning goalkeeper Fabien Barthez will tackle the new SRO-run GT Rebellion Series, sharing driving duties with Eric Debard in AKKA-ASP’s No. 81 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The pair tested their 2021 machine at Albi last Thursday.

***Mercedes-AMG teams Haupt Racing Team and GetSpeed Performance ran multiple GT3 cars in a shared two-day test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya last week. Both outfits are yet to confirm their respective programs for the coming season.

***Adam Carroll and Oliver Webb have been named as the lead drivers for a new British sports car team racing in the national GT Cup series. The experienced sports car duo will represent Greystone GT, piloting the team’s McLaren 570S GT4s with Mark Hopton and Iain Campbell. Greystone GT has run track day events since 2016 and is now expanding into race team operations. Le Mans class podium finisher Tim Mullen is team manager.

***The first of two RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG driver lineups for the Intelligent Money British GT Championship has been announced. Yelmer Buurman and Ian Loggie will team up for a second campaign together. Their No. 6 car is sporting a Core Leukaemia livery, with mention of the charity’s ‘Tour 21’ fundraising event in which Loggie will attempt to complete the full Tour de France course one week prior to the professional cycling event.

***Team Parker Racing will remain in GT3 competition following the end of its five-year Bentley Continental GT3 program, Sportscar365 has learned. The British squad is expected to announce its new project this month.

***2019 GT Sports Club champion Jens Reno Moller has committed to an International GT Open entry. The Danish driver will share his Reno Racing Honda NSX GT3 Evo with JAS Motorsport junior Reece Barr. The duo made a cameo appearance in last season’s Barcelona finale.

***Sebring has been added to the Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires schedule. The IMSA-sanctioned one-make series will feature on the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring support bill with a pair of races during the Mar. 17-21 event.

***Alpine’s Nordschleife racing debut has been booked courtesy of Waldow Performance entering the French brand’s A110 GT4 car into the NLS. Max Lamesch, Andreas Patzelt and Janis Waldow form the core driver lineup, while Steve Jans will join for select events. Waldow is also running Renault Meganes in the VT2 category.

***Additionally, W&S Motorsport will run four Porsche Cayman models at the Nürburgring split between two entries in Cup 3 and V5 respectively.

***Goodyear has been named as the exclusive tire supplier for the new BMW M2 Cup that will support the DTM this year. The grid will be supplied with single slick and wet tire specifications.

***Goodyear has also extended its status as the ‘official tire partner’ of the Nürburgring. All cars working at the facility, including those in the Nürburgring Driving Academy, karting center and off-road track, will be equipped with Goodyear tires.

***24H Series TCR champion Miklas Born has signed with SPS Automotive Performance for the coming Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Endurance Cup season. The 18-year-old GT3 rookie will drive the team’s Silver Cup Mercedes-AMG.

***Two-time IMSA GT champion Leh Keen recently broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest speed by a vehicle indoors, driving an electric Porsche Taycan Turbo S. Keen clocked 102.65 mph (165.20 km/h) on a run through the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The previous record of 86.99 mph was set by rally driver Mikko Hirvonen in a Speed Car XTRM Crosskart.

***Keen used stock street tires for the challenge. He said afterward: “I didn’t really appreciate the scale of the record attempt until my first exploratory run. The surface is so unpredictable, so slick, that you have to have complete trust in your car. It truly was like ice – and you’re accelerating flat out, facing a really hard wall at the end. Suddenly, even in a massive space like the one we had, it seems very small.”

***Quadruple Super GT champion Masataka Yanagida, who holds two titles apiece in GT500 and GT300, has joined Arnage Racing for the 2021 season. Yanagida will share the team’s Yokohama-clad Mercedes-AMG with Masaki Kanou.

***Tomei Sports is set to campaign a Yokohama-shod Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 in Super GT for Takayuki Aoki and Atsushi Tanaka, who drove for the team last year.

***Drago Corse will continue running its Honda NSX GT3 Evo in GT300. Ryo Michigami and Shogo Mitsuyama, who replaces Jake Parsons in the lineup, will drive.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing is again forgoing the Nürburgring 24 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Japanese manufacturer withdrew its planned Lexus SP-Pro entry for the same reason last year.

On this Weekend: Asian Le Mans Series (Yas Marina)