TOYOTA RETURN TO TESTING AS AUDI DEBUT AT SPA

Although they won't be at Spa for round two of the World Endurance Championship the Toyota TS030 hybrid will be a the track this weekend. The team will complete a functionality test of its new chassis at the Magny-Cours circuit in France. Following the accident at Paul Ricard on 4 April, which damaged the monocoque of the first TS030, the team has worked hard to accelerate production of a second car. This will be completed directly before transportation to the one-day functionality test. A total of seven test days were cancelled in April as a result of the testing accident, giving the team no opportunity to validate the aerodynamic and hybrid system specifications intended for its first race. So the team had no choice but to miss the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps event, which takes place on 3-5 May. Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “I would like to express my thanks to the staff members at Toyota Motorsport GmbH who have worked so hard to deliver our second monocoque ahead of schedule. Now we have a very intense testing programme to prepare for Le Mans, beginning with an initial functionality test to shakedown our systems.”

FERRARI ON POLE FOR GT1 OPENER

Ferrari is on pole for the opening round of the new look GT1 World Championship at Nagaro in France. Finnish driver Toni Vilander put the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia grabbed pole early ahead of the WRT Audis of Stephane Ortelli/Laurens Vanthoor and Frank Stippler/Oliver Jarvis. “First of all it is good to be in the championship,” Vilander said. “Even in the testing I found many very good drivers, great cars and great teams so I think it’s going to be a very tight year. I only got to know Filip (Salaquarda) on Monday and we started to build our confidence together. “These cars are a bit special to drive, ABS and stuff like that is completely new to me. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we have the pace to get a good result.” Mercedes will start out of fourth place with the Munnich Mercedes of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock just ahead of the second AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci and Enzo Ide.

QUIET START FOR EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES

A new era for European endurance racing kicks off this weekend as the European Le Mans Series gets underway at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. The new series will feature LMP2 as it's premier category leaving the faster (and more expensive) LMP 1 machines to the new World Championship which got underway last month at Sebring. Five separate chassis will be represented including Lola, Oreca and the revived Morgan brand. There are at this stage only two engines being used. Nissan and well know endurance race engine specialists Judd. Attracting the most attention will be the new team of eight time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb. The last minute deal to put the team together has left then short of testing time but there's plenty of driving experience to overcome any shortfall.

ALL THE GT1 ACTION FROM BEIJING

FIA GT FROM SILVERSTONE

GT1 Championship Race from Silverstone Watch Again by GT1

FIA GT From Portugal

GT1 Championship Race from Portimao, Watch Again by GT1

FIA GT1 2011 Round One from Abu Dhabi

GT1 Abu Dhabi Championship Race by GT1

ASTON MARTIN BUCK THE LE MANS COUPE TREND

Aston Martin Racing announces today its plans for the new season including the unveiling of a new ground-up developed LMP1 race car, the AMR-One, as well as confirming the driver line-up and planned race programme. The Gulf Liveried Aston Martin AMR-One is a new open-top LMP1 race car featuring a 2.0 litre [...]

FORTITUDE VALLEY GETS SPEED, STYLE & BEAUTY

Some of the world’s most fascinating and desirable cars, from a 1909 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost to a 2003 model Ford GT will come together in Brisbane for the third annual SPEED+STYLE+BEAUTY staged from 12-16 January in the old Metro Ford complex in Fortitude Valley. The 40 special vehicles in the show represent “a celebration of wheels” [...]

ASTON MARTIN ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

Tony Quinn in an Aston Martin DBRS9 has claimed pole position for Race 1 of the Vodka O Australian GT Championship Round 5 to be held at the Mount Panorama Bathurst circuit tomorrow. Quinn pitted the Aston late in Friday's 20 minute qualifying session to put on new tyres and returned to the circuit to post a lap time of 2:11.6688 putting him on pole ahead of the second fastest man David Wall in a Porsche Cup S. Third on the grid went to the second of the VIP Petfoods cars - the Mosler of Klark Quinn with a best time of 2:12.4392. The Cup S Porsches of James Koundouris (2:12.5467) and Max Twigg (2:12.7413) filled slots four and five with the sixth fastest time in the qualifying session being claimed by the Lamborghini Gallardo of Peter Hackett (2:12.7911) ahead of the Dodge Viper of Greg Crick (2:14.6662).