Weekly Racing Roundup (2.22.21)

***Team Parker Racing has introduced a Porsche 911 GT3 R after the recent end of its five-season spell with Bentley machinery. The team has announced a Porsche entry into the Intelligent Money British GT Championship, with Scott Malvern and Nick Jones returning as drivers. The pair won at Donington last year in a Bentley Continental GT3.

***British Touring Car outfit Ciceley Motorsport is embarking on a British GT program with a Mercedes-AMG GT4. Jake Giddings, the 2014 British GT4 champion, and former Century Motorsport BMW driver Dave Whitmore will share the wheel.

***Dinamic Motorsport will make its full-season debut in Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS Sprint Cup with a Porsche for Adrien de Leener and reigning ADAC GT Masters champion Christian Engelhart. Dinamic recently announced its plans for a third season in Endurance Cup, with Klaus Bachler re-joining the Italian squad.

***Super GT has published a 44-car entry list for 2021. The GT500 category features six Toyotas, five Hondas and four Nissans. A total of 29 cars are listed in GT300 including teams running Lotus, Mercedes-AMG, Toyota, Lexus, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Nissan, Honda, Porsche and Subaru machinery.

***Audi factory driver Dennis Marschall and Kim Luis Schramm have been confirmed at Rutronik Racing in GT Masters. Marschall drove for the team last year, while Schramm joins from Land-Motorsport. Rutronik is running two Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos next season and has already named Elia Erhart and Pierre Kaffer as its other duo.

***Doerr Motorsport will compete in ADAC GT4 Germany with cars from two different British manufacturers. The team has confirmed an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Andreas Wirth and Phil Doerr. The team’s McLaren 570S GT4, which it ran in 2020, will be driven by 16-year-olds Ben Doerr and Nico Hantke.

***FFF Racing Team is entering Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe with the father-son pairing of Donovan and Luciano Privitelio. Their entry will compete under the Rexal FFF Racing Team banner, following a campaign last year as Rexal Racing Team with support from the 2019 GT World Challenge Europe overall title-winning squad.

***Experienced Porsche GT3 competitor Frikadelli Racing Team has announced its debut in the Michelin Le Mans Cup with a Ligier JS P320 Nissan. Reigning 24 Hours of Dubai winner Axcil Jefferies and team co-owner Klaus Abbelen will drive.

***CD Sport will campaign two Mercedes-AMG GT4s in the GT4 European Series and four in FFSA French GT. Ligier European Series champion Sebastien Baud will share a Silver Cup car with Enzo Joulie in both competitions. Hugo Chevalier, who drove a CMR Bentley in GTWC Europe last year, is teamed up with Jean-Ludovic Foubert in GT4 Europe. For the French campaign, Foubert will drive with LMP3 ace Edouard Cauhaupe. CD Sport has also confirmed two Am Cup entries in the domestic series.

***Reigning GT4 Europe teams’ champion AGS Events will run four Aston Martin Vantage GT4s in FFSA GT. European title-winner Valentin Hasse-Clot and Formula 4 graduate Romain Leroux form the Silver Cup pairing. Mike Parisy and Nicolas Gomar return in Pro-Am, while the other entries are in Am Cup. 

***Lotus has revealed its vision for the future of endurance racing, in the form of a “pure electric” prototype concept. The ER-9 design study has been developed by Lotus Engineering, the consultancy division of the British car manufacturer. It is intended to be a vision of what endurance racing cars might look like in 2030. Among its features are ‘morphing’ body panels that can change their shape to match the surrounding aerodynamic conditions and downforce requirements.

***Subaru Motorsport USA driver Damon Surzyshyn is the subject of a new reality series airing on CBS Sports Net. ‘Going Pro SRO America’ follows Surzyshyn’s journey from amateur to professional racing in the TC America series.

***The new XTM X-Bow GTX has been made eligible for the German GTC Race series. The Reiter Engineering-developed car appeared in one of last season’s races, prior to its acceptance as an allowed vehicle in the Class 6 category.

***The GT Winter Series held its penultimate round of the season at Portimao last week. Javier Ibran Pardo won both 25-minute races in a Ligier LMP3 and was the only competitor in the 11-car field driving a prototype. Black Falcon duo Axel Sartingen and Daniel Schwerfeld finished second on both occasions, with their Mercedes-AMG GT3 ending up six seconds off the Ligier in race two. Results

***Recently-confirmed Asian Le Mans Series champion Yifei Ye has been named in Absolute Racing’s lineup for the new RCCO World eX Championship esports series. Ye joins sim racer Michi Hoyer in Absolute’s lineup for the 10-round inaugural season.

***Just over 40 cars are on the provisional entry list for the 12H Mugello on Mar. 26-27. A dozen are entered in the top GT3 category for the second points-paying round of the 24H Series.