RECORD BREAKING DEBUT GT WIN FOR LE BROCQ

Erebus Motorsport  continued their domination of the Australian GT Championship at Phillip Island with 20-year old Jack Le Brocq destroying the opposition to win race one. Starting from pole position, the reigning national Formula Ford champion held a narrow early lead over veteran John Bowe, before charging away from the field as the fuel load lightened, [...]

MERCEDES WINS DUBAI 24 HOURS

The Black Falcon team Mercedes SLS of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Sean Edwards, Bernd Schneider and Khaled Al Qubaisi have won the 2013 Dubai 24 Hour race. It was a dominant performance by the team finishing the race two laps ahead of the AF-Corse Ferrari of Lorenzo Carvalho, Lorenzo Case. Marco Cioci and Mika Salo. The winners completed a total of 600 laps of the 5.390 kilometres long Dubai Autodrome, a distance of 3,234.000 kilometres, the equivalent of almost three and a quarter Bathurst 1000 races. The win was all the more impressive after a tough week when their original Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG cars was damaged beyond repair due to a crash in testing. The team bought a spare car from the British Preci Spark outfit and converted that to endurance racing specifications, but that meant the mechanics had already worked two nights before the race even got underway. In the race, the car was in the top five for almost all of the 24 hours and as various other contenders either lost time or retired with numerous incidents and accidents, the SLS AMG gradually moved up through the ranks and went on to an impressive win. It was a great debut for the Hong Kong based Craft Racing AMR Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Darren Turner, Stefan Mucke, Darryl O’Young, Frank Yu and Tomonobu Fuijii who finished in third place.

LOWNDES STEPS UP AT PHILLIP ISLAND THIS WEEKEND

Craig Lowndes will take his Sandown winning form into racing of a different kind this weekend at Phillip Island. Lowndes will drive an Audi R8 LMS in the Australian GT Championship. In spite of a small field, the quality of both cars and drivers is extremely high. International drivers include regular Australian visitor and the nations second favourite Dane, Allan Simmonsen and 26-year-old Maro Engel. Engel has been racing a Mercedes-Benz in the DTM series for the last four seasons, will drive the second Erubus Mercedes SLS, formally driven by James Brock. Victorian Sportscar Championship contender Tony DeFelice will make his National Championship debut in his Ferrari 458 Italia. V8 Supercar and Australian motorsport legend John Bowe will also take part in the two one hour races, also in a Ferrari. Also o the card this weekend will be rounds of the Australian Formula Three Championship, and the V8 Touring car series for classic V8 Supercars, The Australiab Radical Cup and Saloon Cars. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A GREAT PLACE TO STAY AT THE ISLAND CALL OUR FRIENDS AT THE RAMADA PHILLIP ISLAND RESORT AND TELL'EM IN PIT LANE SENT YOU.

PEACE IN OUR TIME OR DEATH OF A SOLDIER: US SPORTSCAR RACING TO ‘MERGE”

The Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO), organisers of the Le Mans 24 Hour classic and the World Endurance Championship, have welcomed the planned "merger" between American sportscar groups GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series. In a statement issued today The Automobile Club said that the merger, "will increase the already large audience for endurance racing in North America and at the same time boost its international impact." In its role as creator and organiser of the Le Mans 24 Hours since 1923 and promoter of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the ACO will play an active role in the development of this new championship. The ACO has been a major player in endurance on the North-American continent and it launched the ALMS with its partner Don Panoz in 1999, after the creation of the Petite Le Mans race in 1998 on the Road Atlanta circuit in Georgia. In 2013, the American Le Mans Series and GRAND-AM will continue to run separately like in previous seasons. The details of this unified series under the same banner will be announced later on by the promoters of this new championship. It will begin with the 52nd Rolex Daytona 24 Hours in 2014.

MEANWHILE IN A LAND FAR, FAR AWAY

Asia’s newest international championship, the Audi R8 LMS Cup, heads to the desert plains of Inner Mongolia for two races this weekend at the unforgiving Ordos International Circuit. With a mix of experienced professionals and fledging talent, the Audi R8 LMS Cup has attracted attention far beyond China and Asia. As the brand’s first-ever one-make series, [...]

GT1 (well GT3 actually) FROM SENSATIONAL PORTIMAO

SILVERSTONE BLANCPAIN ENDURANCE RACE: LIVE

The Blancpain Endurance Series has become one of the most successful GT series in the World. The latest round of the series is at the famous Silverstone circuit in the UK and once again the series has attracted a stellar field of some of the world's most exotic GT machines. The 11 brands assembled are Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Dodge, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes, Nissan and Porsche with teams and drivers representing more than 20 nations.

ENTRIES OPEN FOR 2013 BATHURST 12 HOUR

<strong>Entries are now open for the 2013 Bathurst 12 hour race at Mount Panorama, The race will be held on February 8-10</strong> To try and sure up numbers nice and early, promoters of the event are offering half price entry to competitors who enter prior to August 31st. Bathurst 12 Hour Category Administrator Alexandra Zylstra said she expected several teams to confirm their plans this Friday. “Early interest is very positive and we hope that this ‘early bird’ special entry fee will encourage people to get in early and enter the race,” she said. “We received more expression of interest forms than anticipated and offering this discounted fee is a way to give these people showing interest in the race an opportunity to save some money by locking their place in early.

BMW ON POLE AS ALZEN MASTERS THE RING

Uwe Alzen in a BMW Z4 GT3  will start from pole for the 2012 Nurburgring 24 hour race. Alzen lapped the spectacular 25.378-kilometre combination of GP circuit and Nordschleife in 8:18.382 minutes. Second position on the grid was clinched by Chris Mamerow (Audi R8 LMS ultra, while the second row on the grid for the 40th edition of ADAC Zurich 24h Race will be shared by the Black Falcon Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 #15 and the car #65 of its fellow Mercedes-Benz squad, the Hankook-Team Heico.

AUDI RULE THE ROOST IN GT1 OPENER

The Audi team of Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor secured a double victory with a win in both races for the opening round of the new look 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship at Nogaro. “I never expected, even in my best dreams, that we would achieve this result at the first race." said Vanthor after the race. "I am still quite speechless, but I think it is because we did a great job, we worked hard together, and we did a lot of testing. Audi have put a lot of effort into it, as well as Belgian Audi Club WRT, and then the co-operation with Stephane (Ortelli), everything is going the perfect way at the moment. I am really happy, this is one of the most beautiful victories I have had, so I hope we can continue in this direction.” The second WRT car, the No.33 of Frank Stippler and Oliver Jarvis finished second as they had done on Sunday to round out a perfect Easter weekend for the German manufactuer. Third was the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Mercedes SLS of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock, from sixth on the grid, just ahead of their team-mates Nicky Pastorelli and Thomas Jager.