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There has been some positive comments from Toyota Gazoo Racing's boss, Shigeki Tomoyama where he indicated that the brand will continue in the LMP1 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. Speaking in the build-up to the Tokyo motor show, Tomoyama suggested that the new regulations being drawn up to reduce costs and encourage closer competition in the WEC's top division were looking increasingly appealing to Toyota. “Once things have calmed down, we will make a decis

What a race of mixed fortunes at Fuji 🇯🇵 We started from Pole Position in GTE AM, beautifully won by Matt Griffin but especially by Team Principal Weng Sun Mok who gave us the P1 with a superb lap in terrible conditions. Race day weather was predictably foul and Sawa San started the race for us under the Safety Car. Once the race proper started, the amazing Keita got the #61 Ferrari as high up as 20th overall, ahead of 3 cars in the GTE PRO class!!! But, an untimely Safe

The 2018 Fuji 6 Hours was moist… the race started under safety car as Patrick Dempsey waved the green flag. As the field went green the LMP2 pole sitter spun at T1. Image from the FIA Toyota and Porsche fought throughout the race, Toyota seeming to cope better in the wet and eventually the number 8 of Nakajima, Davidson and Buemi took the win in class and overall. In 2nd was the number 7 Toyota and 3rd was taken by the number 1 Porsche. The first red flag arrived just be

The outlook for the Six Hours of Fuji hasn't changed much in the past few days. It still looks like a very wet weekend as a front is expected to stall near the southern coastline of Japan. The one bright spot in this forecast update is that the impact of the rain on Saturday looks less than it did before. Today, radar shows that a solid line of showers will move across Fuji Speedway, associated with a cold front. As the front moves southeast, it will stall near the southern

Porsche LMP Team's Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley combined to take a second pole position of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship season at a wet Fuji Speedway this afternoon. The Kiwi duo set an average of 1m35.160s in the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid to head the sister No.1 car by just 0.071s in a thrilling session. The extra point achieved by the No.2 crew for pole today sees them extend their title lead to 52pts with just a maximum of 77 now to play for. This means th

Porsche GT Team's Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz claimed a first pole position of the season at Fuji today after making the most of their mid-engined No.91 Porsche 911 RSR. Makowiecki set the outright quickest time of 1m47.573s before Lietz lapped a shade quicker to ensure an average of 1m47.577s. The French/Austrian alliance headed the GT points leading No.67 Ford Chip Ganassi pairing of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell by 0.441s. While it was Makowiecki and Lietz

In 2016 we launched our first motorsport calendar in aid of Mission Motorsport - we to this day continue to support them with their great charity work. This year we have been closely involved with Clearwater Racing and their efforts in the FIA World Endurance Championship. We have met many people involved with the team and have taken an interest in their associations - in particular Smile Asia. Smile Asia is a global alliance of independent charities working together to t

Racing Ace Matt Griffin heads to Japan this week for the 7th round of the FIA World Endurance Championship being held at Fuji circuit. Griffin rejoins Clearwater Racing along with teammates Mok Weng Sun and Keita Sawa in their number 61 Ferrari 488 GTE. This is somewhat of a home race with the team being based in Asia and while it will be Griffins 4th time racing at Fuji, Mok Weng Sun and Keita Sawa are very experienced at the iconic circuit. “It is great to be back in Ja

UK based Ginetta Cars announced today that they have taken formal orders and deposits for the first three sales of their new for 2018 LMP1 endurance racing car. The cars, purchased by an as yet un-named single customer team, are bound for a proposed two car 2018/19 FIA WEC effort (including both the 2018 and 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours) with the third car intended as a spare. Lawrence Tomlinson, Ginetta Cars Chairman: “This is a big step forward for the programme, and will be g

Today saw the launch of the FIA World Endurance Championship "Global Fan Survey". Fans are invited to take part in the survey and contribute to the shape of the FIA WEC in years to come. “We want to hear from the fans,” said FIA World Endurance Championship CEO, Gérard Neveu. “Echoing the values and attitudes led by Jean Todt, President of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile), and Pierre Fillon, President of the ACO (Automobile Club de l’Ouest), this has alw

The FIA World Motorsport Council have confirmed the dates for the FIA World Endurance Championship "Super Season" 2018/19 at their meeting today in Paris. Jean Todt, offered the FIA's full support to the FIA Endurance Commission in its efforts to further strengthen and promote the FIA WEC, saying that it is one of the FIA's most important assets. The Paul Riccard test day is scheduled to be run over the 6th and 7th April and will offer teams 36 hours of continuous running.

Apologies, our race report is later than usual… we actually spent a few days ‘post race’ enjoying the sights and sounds of Austin… what a great place… as they say… ‘Keep Austin Weird’! So you all know the result by now, under the scorching Texan sun the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid took the chequered flag at the 6 Hours of Circuit of the Americas. Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber gave the German marque their third in a row of 1-2 finishes with the #1 of Neel Jani, A

Aston Martin Racing has triumphed in Texas, as Paul Dalla Lana (C), Pedro Lamy (P) and Mathias Lauda (A) took GTE Am victory in the Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas. After taking pole position yesterday, their second win of the 2017 season ensured the trio both maximised their points haul for the weekend and regained the lead in both the team and drivers GT Am championships. After an early spin following contact from a rival cost Dalla Lana the lead early on, the trio

Porsche once again locked out the front row of the grid for this weekends Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas in a very hot and steamy Austin, Texas. The #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Jani, Lotterer and Tandy will start from pole position after Britain's Nick Tandy put in a last minute dash to the line, after a previous lap was deleted due to exceeding track limits, to snatch pole away from the sister car, with a time of 1:44.741 around

Before this afternoon’s qualifying for the 6h of COTA, Prescott Motorsport grabbed a few words with Clearwater Racing’s Arj Pillay Kulasegaram. The team's hopes for qualifying: "With the speed of the Aston and Spirit of Race, we are hoping, and would be very happy with, third place in this afternoon’s qualifying." When asked about tyres: "Out of the two tyre choices available to us one is completely unuseable! Had we have known now what we knew when we made our choice w

Irish racing driver Matt Griffin, has arrived in America for the 6th round of the FIA World Endurance Championship taking place at Circuit of Americas, Austin, Texas this coming weekend. Just two weeks after racing the in Mexico City, Griffin returns to the west with teammates Mok Weng Sun and Kieta Sawa in their number 61 Clearwater Racing, Ferrari 488 GTe competing in LMGTE AM. Having only ever raced at Circuit of Americas once, back in 2013, Griffin is looking forward t

The main weather story for the Six Hours of COTA late this week will be the heat. A large high pressure ridge through the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere will be sitting over Texas, resulting in mostly sunny skies each day and high temperatures reaching well into the 90s (mid 30s C). These temperatures are 3-5 degrees warmer than normal for Austin this time of year. Everyone at the track will need to take precautions to beat the heat - drink plenty of water, take freq

BMW Motorsport presented its new top-of-the-range model for the international GT racing scene at the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt am Main: the BMW M8 GTE. Before the BMW 8 Series Coupé goes on sale, the race car will compete on the track next season, including in the FIA World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC). It is with this series that BMW Motorsport will also make its return to the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans (FRA). Technology meets tradition: BMW Motorspor

The news emanating from the press conference in Mexico City was hardly unexpected. The announcement in July that Porsche would leave the WEC at the end of the season caused huge waves in the upper levels of the FIA and ACO, especially as the Stuttgart team had earlier said they were committed up to the end of 2018. Coming less than a year after Audi’s departure, the organisers were facing a barren season with just one manufacturer hybrid programme, which might not even cover

We take a look at the new proposals from the FIA WEC for the upcoming season changes from the end of the 2017 season. The organisers have been speaking about making the Le Mans 24 hour race the season closer for some time now, so no surprise that this will be the case going forward – the surprise being that in the 2018/19 season WEC will race 4 times around the clock at Le Sarthe. We have to remind ourselves that this is a transitional period and going forward the 48 hours

‘In any job, there's always going to come a day that can only be described as ‘a bad day at the office’… well today was a very bad day at the office for us at Clearwater Racing’ team Managing Director Arj Pillay Kulasegaram said after the 6 Hours of Mexico. The 61 Ferrari 488 GTE started from 4th in class with Weng Sun Mok holding on to that 4th place in GTE AM until 32 minutes into his stint when there was contact at Turn One with the 92 Porsche GTE PRO causing damage to

The Porsche LMP1 Team put on a commanding display today during the 6 Hours of Mexico Presented by AT&T, with the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber taking their third win of the season after a textbook race. The victory, which was Bernhard and Hartley’s second win in a row in Mexico, saw the trio extend their points lead to 41, with four races remaining in the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign. In second place at the Aut

Both Porsche 919 Hybrids will start from the front row of the grid in Sunday’s six-hour race at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City. The championship leading Le Mans winners, Earl Bamber (NZ), Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ) took pole position on a dry track. Grid position two for the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) went to the crew of the reigning world champion Neel Jani (CH), André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB) in the s

Aston Martin Racing are poised to fight for GTE Pro and Am victory, after the team qualified on the front row in each class for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Mexico. The #95 V8 Vantage GTE Pro of Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorensen will begin the fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in second, after the pair found themselves battling throughout the session with the #71 Ferrari for qualifying honours. With the pair setting a combined average lap time of 1m39.534 – just 0.1