Samwise Sportscar & Endurance Newsletter
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Toyota Wins WEC Season Opener at Imola in Historic 50th Victory
The No. 8 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryō Hirakawa won the 2026 WEC season opener at Imola on April 19, marking Toyota Racing’s 100th WEC race start and 50th overall victory. The car finished 13 seconds clear of the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Pier Guidi, Calado, and Giovinazzi, while the No. 7 Toyota of Conway, Kobayashi, and de Vries took third. A full course yellow allowed the leading car to complete a tyre change without losing position, proving decisive. A record 92,175 spectators attended over the weekend, 17,000 more than the previous Imola record for a WEC event.
Sources: FIA WEC
Acura Meyer Shank Racing Ends Long Beach GTP Drought
Nick Yelloly and Renger van der Zande won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for Meyer Shank Racing with Curb Agajanian, ending Acura’s wait for an IMSA GTP victory at the Long Beach street circuit since the manufacturer took over race title sponsorship in 2019. The No. 93 Acura ARX-06 beat a Porsche 963 by just 0.818 seconds after a close final stint. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 of Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor took third, one position ahead of teammates Julien Andlauer and Felipe Nasr. The victory came just four days before Acura’s factory racing body confirmed it would pause its GTP programme at the end of 2026.
Sources: IMSA
Honda to Pause Acura Factory GTP Programme After 2026 Season
Honda Racing Corporation USA has confirmed it will pause its factory Acura GTP programme in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the end of 2026, redirecting resources toward an expanded IndyCar effort. HRC USA President David Salters cited 25 wins, 34 poles, and 10 championships during the programme’s tenure. Acura branding will appear on Meyer Shank Racing Honda-powered IndyCar entries at select 2026 events, including Marcus Armstrong’s entry at the Indianapolis 500. HRC plans a full factory IndyCar programme from 2028 in partnership with Meyer Shank Racing. No replacement manufacturer for the factory GTP slots has been announced.
Sources: Motorsport.com
McLaren Names Its WEC Hypercar the MCL-HY Ahead of 2027 Debut
McLaren Racing confirmed on April 24 that its forthcoming WEC Hypercar will be named the MCL-HY, combining the brand’s Formula 1 naming convention with a Hypercar designation. The LMDh car uses a Dallara chassis — the same platform as the Cadillac V-Series.R and BMW M Hybrid V8 — powered by a purpose-built V6 twin-turbo engine that completed its initial dyno phase in January 2026. A full reveal of the race car and its track companion, the MCL-HY GTR, is scheduled for May 4. McLaren enters the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2027, with Garage 59 set to manage its LMGT3 programme ahead of the Hypercar debut.
Sources: Dailysportscar
Porsche Penske Holds IMSA GTP Points Lead After Long Beach
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 7 Porsche 963 of Julien Andlauer and Felipe Nasr retained the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP points lead following the Long Beach round, despite finishing fourth overall. Andlauer and Nasr lead with 1,061 points — 35 clear of the No. 24 BMW of Laurin Heinrich and 38 ahead of the No. 31 Action Express Cadillac of Jack Aitken and Frederik Vesti. Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor’s third-place finish in the No. 6 Porsche kept them at 977 points. Porsche Penske holds the teams’ championship lead. The next IMSA round is the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 3.
Sources: Porsche Racing
Genesis Magma Racing Completes Encouraging WEC Debut at Imola
Genesis Magma Racing brought both GMR-001 Hypercars to the finish line on its FIA World Endurance Championship debut at the 6 Hours of Imola. The No. 17 of Pipo Derani, Mathys Jaubert, and André Lotterer finished 15th; Jaubert ran in the top ten early before a tyre strategy miscalculation cost pace in the second half. The No. 19 recovered from a 30-minute garage stop caused by a sensor failure to finish 17th. The team built its entire programme in 499 days from inception to race debut and called its first WEC event encouraging, having targeted reliability and execution rather than outright pace as its primary objectives at Imola.
Sources: Hyundai Motorsport
34-Car Field Confirmed for IMSA Laguna Seca Throwback Weekend
A 34-car entry has been confirmed for the StubHub Monterey SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca on May 3, the fourth round of the 2026 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The field includes 11 GTP cars, nine GTD Pro entries, and 14 GTD cars, with GTD Pro returning to the grid after sitting out the Long Beach street circuit round. Earl Bamber is back with Action Express Racing in the No. 31 Cadillac alongside Jack Aitken after missing Long Beach due to WEC commitments at Imola. The event is a throwback weekend with teams encouraged to run retro and historically inspired liveries honouring North American sports car racing.
Sources: IMSA
Ferrari Strategy Analysis: How Toyota Pipped the 499P at WEC Imola
Ferrari AF Corse finished second and sixth at the WEC season opener at Imola but left raising strategic questions after the pole-sitting No. 51 499P of Pier Guidi, Calado, and Giovinazzi failed to convert strong pace into victory. Toyota capitalised on a full course yellow to complete a free tyre change without losing position — a benefit Ferrari did not receive equally. The No. 51 crew enters the season second with 19 points, six behind the championship-leading No. 8 Toyota on 25. All four Ferrari Hypercar entries showed competitive pace at Imola, establishing Maranello as Toyota’s primary title rival heading to Spa on May 9.
Sources: Autosport
WEC Hypercar — Drivers
1. Buemi / Hartley / Hirakawa — 25 pts
2. Calado / Giovinazzi / Pier Guidi — 19 pts
3. Conway / Kobayashi / de Vries — 15 pts
4. F. da Costa / Habsburg / Milesi — 12 pts
5. Frijns / Rast — 10 pts
6. Fuoco / Molina / Nielsen — 8 pts
7. Magnussen / Marciello — 6 pts
8. Bamber / Bourdais — 4 pts
9. Gamble / Tincknell — 2 pts
10. Hanson / Kubica / Ye — 1 pt
11. Gounon / Makowiecki / V. Martins — 0 pts
12. Duval / Jakobsen / Pourchaire — 0 pts
13. Nato / Stevens — 0 pts
14. Riberas / Sorensen — 0 pts
15. Derani / Jaubert / Lotterer — 0 pts
16. Cassidy / di Resta / Vandoorne — 0 pts
17. Chatin / Jaminet / Juncadella — 0 pts
WEC Hypercar — Manufacturers
1. Toyota — 40 pts
2. Ferrari — 27 pts
3. BMW — 16 pts
4. Alpine — 13 pts
5. Cadillac — 4 pts
6. Aston Martin — 2 pts
7. Peugeot — 0 pts
8. Genesis — 0 pts
IMSA GTP — Drivers
1. Andlauer / Nasr — 1,061 pts
2. Heinrich — 1,026 pts
3. Aitken / Vesti — 1,023 pts
4. Estre / L. Vanthoor — 977 pts
5. Yelloly / van der Zande — 952 pts
6. S. van der Linde / D. Vanthoor — 891 pts
7. Blomqvist / Braun — 820 pts
8. Delétraz / J. Taylor — 808 pts
9. van der Helm — 789 pts
10. De Angelis / Gunn — 716 pts
IMSA GTP — Teams
1. Team Penske #7 — 1,061 pts
2. Action Express Racing #31 — 1,023 pts
3. Team Penske #6 — 977 pts
4. Meyer Shank Racing #93 — 952 pts
5. W Racing Team #24 — 891 pts
6. Meyer Shank Racing #60 — 820 pts
7. Wayne Taylor Racing #40 — 808 pts
8. JDC-Miller MotorSports — 789 pts
Curated by JD · samwise.agency