Endurance Weekly: 9th - 15th October

This week on Endurance Weekly, the DIVEBOMB endurance team looks ahead to the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) finale at Portimão and looks back at the IMSA Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) 10 and the GT World Challenge Europe (GTWC EU) Endurance Cup at Barcelona. The team also recaps all of the news stories you may have missed during the week.

ELMS Preview - Portimão

The No.34 Inter Europol Competition's Oreca 07 during the 2024 4 Hours of Portimão | Credit: Jan Patrick Wagner / FocusPackMedia

The European Le Mans Series (ELMS) returns one last time in 2025 for the 4 Hours of Portimão. The race will be held in Portugal's Algarve International Circuit on Saturday, 18 October at 15:30 local time. The qualifying session starts on Friday at 16:15.

It is all to play for with the champions of LMP2, LMP2 Pro-Am and LMGT3 yet to be crowned. The LMP3 champions are already decided, however: CLX Motorsport's No.17 car and its drivers secured the title in the previous round at Silverstone, having won all but one race (Spa-Francorchamps, where the car retired).

No.18 IDEC Sport will be looking to build on the momentum gained from winning Silverstone, as the GMR-branded car was only six points behind the LMP2 championship-leading No.48 VDS Panis Racing car with 81 points.

The competition is equally heated in the LMP2 Pro-Am category, with the No.20 Algarve Pro Racing (APR) leading the 'Spike the Dragon' No. 99 AO by TF by nine points. In LMGT3, the No.50 AF Corse currently leads the championship with 66 points, but the No.59 Racing Spirit of Léman and the No.82 TF Sport are close behind.

Be sure to tune into the action across the weekend, as it will be streamed live on YouTube for free.

IMSA Review - Petit Le Mans

Credit: Dominic Loyer

The final race of the 2025 IMSA season happened this past weekend at the 10 Hours of Petit Le Mans. The race began at 12:10 pm EST on Saturday, led by the polesitting No. 60 Meyer Shank Acura with the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac not far behind.

Just under a minute into Petit Le Mans, a disastrous pileup in the GTD field caused the first Full Course Yellow (FCY) of the day. The No. 70 Inception Racing Ferrari, the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin, and the No. 66 Gradient Racing Ford were in particularly rough shape after the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari caught too much kerb and spun in turn four, causing a multi-car collision. 

Just as the green flag was brought back out, there was another FCY just three minutes later. The No. 21 Af Corse lost a passenger side mirror on the racing line in a scuffle with another GT car. The No. 31 Cadillac ran it over just as the caution was put out, but no significant damage was sustained.

After forty minutes of nose racing, the two leading GTPs of the No. 60 Acura and the No.31 Cadillac held a healthy lead over the rest of the field. The battle for P1 only intensified from that point. Tom Blomqvist in the Acura and Jack Aitken in the Cadillac were nose to tail for two whole stints before a FCY was brought out by the No. 80 Lone Star Mercedes, losing a wheel and stopping on track.

Shortly after the restart, Aitken pulled off a fantastic move, benefiting from a well-timed bout of traffic down into turn one to take the lead with seven hours and 40 minutes left.

A dramatic accident occurred between the No. 8 Tower Motorsports LMP2 and the No. 021 Triarsi Competizione not long after. The Triarsi had spun and were dead-stick when the No. 8 came through unsighted and clipped the entire length of the Ferrari. Neither driver was at fault, and luckily, both walked away from the incident, but it was game over for both teams.

In GTP, the No. 6 Porsche Penske held the lead after a key pit stop where they were the first of the field back out on track. The championship-leading No. 99 AO Racing Spike the Dragon LMP2 had a tough bit of luck when they suffered from a suspension/puncture issue after colliding with the No. 88 AF Corse LMP2. They later recovered well from the incident and were back in contention for the win.

The sun began to set on the 10 Hours of Petit. The contending No. 11 TDS Racing car was given a mechanical black flag due to a rear headlight issue. The Lamborghini GTP similarly had an issue with a front-left headlight that was mysteriously dislodged a few minutes prior. 

The No. 22 United Autosport car, which had been fighting for the win, suffered a suspension failure, forcing it to go behind the wall. They returned from the pits back on track, 14 laps down. In GTP, the Aston Martin Valkyrie was having a quietly successful race, finding a good amount of pace as the temperatures began to drop. The No. 60 Acura dropped back dramatically in the later stages, citing a mystery mechanical issue as a hindrance to the pace it had displayed at the beginning of the race.

There was a brutally nerve-wracking fuel save duel to end the race, with four different teams battling for the overall win in GTP. The Nos. 31, 6, 23 and 63 all looked as though they could have taken home P1 at different points of the last 20 minutes of racing. A truly monumental finish to the season.

There was a long-term scrap for the lead of GTD PRO between the No. 48 BMW and the No. 4 Corvette, which ended with the No. 48 coming out on top and holding on to their position to bring the win home. In GTD, the No. 21 AF Corse, which dominated the entire race, won over their fellow Ferrari, the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione, which put pressure on in the late stages.

In LMP2, the No. 11 TDS Racing found themselves with some good luck for once in the last hour of the race, winning by over 50 seconds. 

In the GTP class, a brilliant fuel-saving strategy effort, combined with pure pace all day long, won Petit Le Mans for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac crew. The No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie took home P2 in a nail-biter of a first podium for the crew in their debut season.

NLS 10 Review

Credit: Luna Maas

Although Ford were able to mount a challenge to the Porsches in the first half of the race, the Falken Motorsport Porsches took a commanding win as rain affected the final round of the NLS season.

While the Porsches do tend to go well in the wet, the predominant reason for their superior pace was that the Falken tyres (used by the Falken Porsches) work far better in the rain than the Yokohamas (used by the HRT Fords).

By the time the chequered flag fell on the Nürburgring, the No.4 Porsche - driven by Dorian Boccolacci and Nico Menzel - had a 20 second advantage over the No.3 car driven by Joel Sturm and Menzel (who competed in both cars). Staggeringly, the No.6 HRT Ford which finished 3rd was five and a half minutes back from the winner.

It would be understandable to think the race was boring having seen the result, however it was anything but. The No.4 Porsche had to pit on the first lap, having hit the No.9 Ford. The No.3 inherited the lead from this collision, however lost the lead a lap later to the Cup 2 No.948 Porsche.

The No.3 Porsche and the Fords eventually managed to hustle past the No.948, and a tight battle ensued for the next two hours between the Porsche and Fords. At one point, Nico Menzel went wheel-to-wheel with Frank Stippler for the majority of the GP Circuit.

The Falken Motorsport Porsches started to pull away from their competitors as rain started to fall mid way through the race.

While the Cup 2 No.948 Porsche could not hold the overall lead the whole race, it lead its class comfortably until the final lap when it slid off the track and hit the barrier.

GTWC Review - Barcelona

Credit: SRO/JEP

The No.58 Garage 59 McLaren won the GTWC EU 3 Hours of Barcelona in dominant fashion, with impeccable stints from Dean MacDonald, Adam Smalley and Louis Prette. They started the race on pole, and never really looked like they were going to lose it.

However, everyone was focused on the championship fight between the No.48 Winward Mercedes and the No.96 Rutronik Porsche. Heading into the finale, the Porsche crew trailed by five points and they started 10th, whereas their rivals were sixth.

But a brilliant getaway pushed them up the order, but still not into a position where they could win the title. As the race played out, they were stuck behind the No.69 Aston Martin in the fight for seventh. With their championship rivals just out of the points, P7 and P8 was the difference between first and second in the championship.

Patric Niederhauser eventually did squeeze by Harry King with just 10 minutes to go in the race, and was able to hold on to the position to secure the title for himself and teammates Alessio Picariello and Sven Müller

In the overall championship (Sprint Cup + Endurance Cup), the No.32 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts (with Ugo de Wilde for the Endurance rounds) secured the title with a sixth place finish, with the No.48 Mercedes being second there too.

In the Gold Cup the No.69 Verstappen dot com racing machine dominated all three championship battles, King, Theirry Vermuelen and Chris Lulham becoming champions.

In the Silver Cup the No.42 BMW took Endurance honors while in Bronze it was the No.74 Ferrari.

That is all for the GTWC this season, but it will certainly be back next year with more scintillating GT3 action.

News Recap

ELMS

CLX Motorsport announce LMP2 lineup

Credit: Hallam Voice

After sealing the LMP3 championship at the 4 Hours of Silverstone, CLX Motorsport has announced the drivers that will form their LMP2 roster for next year.

The Annecy-based team has promoted their LMP3 champions Adrien Closmenil and Théodor Jensen to drive their Oreca 07 car in 2026, pending final confirmation. The duo will be joined by former LMP3 rival Ian Aguilera, who switched from Eurointernational.

Campos Racing and Brutal Fish Racing to partner on LMP3 project

Traditionally known for featuring in junior single seater series, Campos Racing have announced they are forming a "strategic alliance" with Brutal Fish Racing to race an LMP3 car in 2026.

Campos Racing have called this a "solid first step into this motorsport discipline" suggesting they do not want to stop at LMP3, and we may see a Campos LMP2 car, or privately run Campos Hypercar further along the timeline.

Team Principal of Campos Racing, Adrián Campos, has said this is motivated by the "golden era" endurance racing is experiencing.

Neither Campos nor Brutal Fish have confirmed where they will be racing the LMP3 car.

FIA GT World Cup

Entry List released for famous Macau race

Credit: Macau GP

The entry list to the FIA GT World Cup has been released, with six manufacturers competing with their GT3 cars. Surprisingly, Mercedes do not feature on the entry list, despite winning in 2024 with Maro Engel.

Five Porsches will compete against three Audis, three Ferraris, two BMW's, two Lamborghinis and one McLaren. Of the 16 car grid, exactly half are FIA Platinum drivers, including the likes of Antonio Fuoco, Laurens Vanthoor and previously crowned DTM Champion, Ayhancan Güven.

The race will take place on the 16th November, with a qualifying race on Saturday followed by the main race on Sunday.