News & Notes Roundup: 9.30

Photo: Alexis Goure/Porsche

***Joules Gounon sustained fractured C4 and C5 vertebrae following last weekend’s highly publicized Porsche Carrera Cup France accident at Navarra, when Gounon’s car ended up on top of the Porsche of Joffrey De Narda.

***Alex Zanardi completed the Berlin Marathon last weekend in less than 2 hours, despite tearing the chain with less than 9 kms to go. Rather than retiring, the Italian driver pushed the rear wheels with his hands to the finish line. Next up for Zanardi is the Hawaii Triathlon next month.

***James Tucker has sold Britcar to Claire Hedley for 2016. The 24 Hours of Silverstone, which had been part of the championship, was sold to Ivo Breukers the promoter of Creventic’s 24H Series earlier this month.

***Race Performance has unveiled the livery of its Oreca 03R for the 2015/2016 Asian Le Mans Series season. Niki Leutwiler and Shinji Nakano will pilot the LMP2 entry, with the aim of securing an automatic invite to next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Several Ligier JS P3s tested earlier this week at Paul Ricard, with David Hallyday and Inès Taittinger among the drivers taking part.

***Car Collection Motorsport will run a yellow and green livery for VLN 8 this weekend. Kenneth Heyer, Lance David Arnold and Tim Scheerbarth will share the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 on Saturday.

***Former open-wheel ace Kenny Brack has been appointed McLaren Automotive’s development driver. The 49-year-old Swede retired from full-time IndyCar competition following a serious crash at Texas Motor Speedway in 2003.

***AF Corse will enter Formula Renault 3.5 next year under the Spirit of Race banner. It marks the Amato Ferrari-led team’s first venture into the open-wheel ranks after considerable success campaigning Ferraris and other sports cars around the globe.

***Callaway Competition will unveil its Corvette C7 GT3-R this weekend during the ADAC GT Masters event at Hockenheim. A number of spy and teaser shots have surfaced in recent weeks of the GT3-spec Vette, which recently completed the Balance of Performance test at Ladoux.

Laurent Mercier contributed to this report

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John