This weekend sees the final round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance with the 6 Hours of Bahrain.
The annual visit to Bahrain will be tinged with sadness as the Championship says farewell to Porsche LMP Team after it announced its departure from the prototype stage at the end of the 2017 season. This will also be the last round of what many would regard as a standard (i.e. summer) season for the World Endurance Championship before it moves to the interim ‘Super Season’ ahead of a full Winter championship.
The Super Season will include two visits to the Circuit de la Sarthe and two to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and will conclude with the 2019 24 Hours of Le Mans. Although a fascinating prospect, the season will be a huge commitment for teams spanning, as it does, two annual budget periods for many of their sponsors and partners.
There is much to contest in the final round and you can read a preview of the 6 Hours of Bahrain here.
As this edition of the ‘EGT Friday Sportscar Round-Up’ is being published post-qualifying, you can read a summary of the sessions here. The #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Nick Tandy, André Lotterer and Neel Jani will be on pole.
The inaugural Hankook 24H CoTA USA was held on November 11-12 at the Circuit of the Americas and was huge success, combining a healthy grid with some great racing. The #911 Herberth Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R, piloted by Daniel Allemann, Ralf Bohn, Robert Renauer and Alfred Renauer took the overall victory, two laps ahead of the #3 Black Falcon Mercedes AMG GT3 driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Abdulaziz Al Faisal and Luca Stolz.
You can read a summary of the Hankook 24H COTA USA here.
Shinyo Sano has announced that TKS will return to the Asian Le Mans Series for the second round at Fuji International Speedway. The current Asian Le Mans Series GT Cup champion is excited at the prospect of returning to the series that gave him the opportunity to compete at the Circuit de la Sarthe in 2017.
“The reason I made the team is my dreaming of going to Le Mans,” said Sano. “For me, the Asian Le Mans Series is a necessary race. I want to share the pleasure with my team, chasing our dream”.
In addition to the final round of the FIA World Endurance Championship we also have the FIA GT World Cup in Macau, regarded by many as the Blue Riband event for GT3-class machinery. The qualification race will be held on Saturday November 18 with the main race on Sunday November 19.
