Endurance Weekly: 24th - 30th July
- Aaron Carroll
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Written by the DIVEBOMB Endurance Team
This week on Endurance Weekly, the DIVEBOMB endurance team looks ahead to the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) Sprint Cup at Magny-Cours and the next IMSA event in Road America, as well as reporting on all of the breaking news stories you may have missed.
Don't forget to check out the Endurance Weekly podcast too! Listen to episode 2 here.
IMSA Preview - Road America
The IMSA grid arrives in Wisconsin this weekend for the Road America Sportscar Grand Prix. Qualifying starts at 4:40 pm track time (CST) on Saturday, and the race begins at 1:10 pm track time on Sunday.
We have a full-class entry at Road America. There are 49 entries total this weekend. 11 in GTP, 14 in LMP2, 10 in GTD Pro, and 14 in GTD.
After a mixed result race in Watkins Glen and an exciting sprint at Mosport, it’s anyone’s race this weekend.
In GTD, the No.57 Winward Racing has looked wickedly fast. They have a slight margin on the second place No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and the third place No.12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. The second and third place cars are only separated by 16 points.
In GTD Pro, a tight title fight between the No.3 Pratt Miller Corvette, the No.77 AO Racing Porsche, and the No.81 Dragonspeed Ferrari is still going strong.
In LMP2 the championship leader is the No.22 United Autosport USA car. Only 136 points separate the field from 4th to 11th place. With how close the racing has been at Mosport and Watkins Glen, every car in the class still has a fighting chance to be at the top.
The title fight in GTP remains between the No.6 and the No.7 Porsche Penske cars, the No.7 trailing by just 12 points. The gap to the rest of the field is a whopping 250 points, but we cannot discount the pace that the rest of the GTP manufacturers have shown in the past three races.
The Acuras looked very strong their last time out at the Six hours of the Glen. They have received a five MJ stint energy increase, but were penalized eight kilos of minimum weight allowance in their Balance of Performance this weekend. The Cadillacs were quick as well, with two of them on the podium at the Glen. They gained nine MJ stint energy, but have been hit with a massive +20kg minimum allowance. This may hurt their chances this weekend.
Porsche gained a huge +17 MJ leap and a sweet nine kilo reduction. This may bring them back into the fight for the win.
Road America is commonly named as driver’s favourite track on the calendar, and with tight championship battles throughout the field, the Sportscar Grand Prix will be a must-watch.
GTWC Preview - Magny-Cours
The next round of the GTWC series will take place in the famous Magny-Cours, as two sprint races. Like all GTWC Sprint races, each will last one hour, with a mandatory driver change. The driver who starts the race on Saturday must be the one to finish it on Sunday.
The first race will take place at 20:45 local time (18:45 GMT) on Saturday so the GT3 cars will race into the night. The second race will be earlier on Sunday, at 15:00 local time (13:00 GMT). Qualifying will take place a few hours before each race.
While conditions will vary on Saturday as the race runs through sunset, the weather should not cause any problems as it will be sunny all weekend with no chance of rain. During the Saturday race, there may be a swing in pace from one car to another as the sun disappears and track temperatures drop.
Last year’s race one winner, Charles Weerts, is driving the No.32 Team WRT BMW is a favourite to achieve a repeat win as he is leading the drivers championship with his teammate Kelvin van der Linde.
This being said, it is impossible to predict which car will win as there have been six different winners in the six races so far this year. This has led to a situation where the second and third place cars in the Championship (the No.48 Winward Racing Mercedes and No.59 Garage 59 McLaren) are joint, one point behind the No.32.
The fourth place car in the Championship is the No.96 Rutronik Porsche, only six-and-a-half points further back.
Contrary to the Overall Championship, the No.69 Verstappen.com Emil Frey Ferrari has won three races and taken two second places (in class). This has given Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham a 14 point lead in the Gold class.
The race can be streamed free from YouTube on Saturday and Sunday.
In other GT news, Mercedes have teased their new AMG GT3 car this week. German media has reported this car’s official release will be soon, with a 4.4 litre V8 engine.
The car will likely be rolled out in 2026, competing in all major championships including the GTWC EU.
Breaking News
WEC
GMR-001 has first engine fire-up
A landmark for every car during its production is the first startup. The Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar reached this landmark last week, when the team started up the engine while it was fit into a chassis at its local track, Paul Ricard.
The startup allows the team to test their engines characteristics in real life for the first time, rather than using computer simulations. The importance of this is to confirm their predictions from the simulations match the data they received in Paul Ricard.
While this is the first time the engine has been fired up while in a chassis, it will also have been started in their factories for testing on the dynamometers. The car will first be driven in August.
Rovera / Ferrari partnership renewed
Every Italian driver dreams of driving for Ferrari, and in Alessio Rovera’s case his dreams are reality. Rovera is currently competing in his third year with Ferrari, having joined them in 2022 as a factory driver.
Ferrari have renewed their factory contract with Rovera on a multi-year agreement. The Italian has been racing Ferrari’s GTE and GT3 cars since 2022, taking multiple wins and a championship in the GTWC EU Endurance Cup last year.
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