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WEC LMGT3 Grades - penultimate report card before season finale

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We know you've already caught our WEC grading recap on the Hypercar class from earlier this week, now it's time to cover the LMGT3 class and hand out grades for the teams that have put in work for the inaugural season of this new WEC GT structure.  The drivers' title is already wrapped up courtesy of Manthey PureRxcing, but there's still plenty to fight for with Bahrain left to go come November 2, never mind the other batch of teams that'll be looking to put a challenging season behind them and finish 2024 on a high note before turning the page to 2025.

No. 6 Porsche, No. 40 Acura penalized following Indy enduro

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IMSA finally got around to announcing their findings from a seven-car GTP impound following the Battle on the Bricks back on Sunday, and two cars felt the wrath of post-race technical violations. Both the No. 6 Porsche 963 and the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 were stripped of their original placement finishes from Sunday, with the No. 6 getting the boot off the podium and going from P3 back to 10th, and the Acura getting bumped from P5 to 11th place. The reasoning IMSA provided was as followed:  - The No. 6 had modifications to its wiring harness/loom that were outside of homologation. The car will be moved to 10th place in the final GTP race standings (second-from-last) and the manufacturer – Porsche – receives a financial penalty of $10,000. - The No. 40 had modified components of its brake ducting system that were outside of homologation. The car will be moved to 11th place in the final GTP race standings (last place) and the manufacturer – Acura – receives a financial penalty of $10,000. Th

WEC Hypercar Grades - Who has earned passing marks with one race to go?

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Unfortunately there's only one race remaining in the 2024 WEC season, it's crazy how quickly time flies when you're having a shit ton of fun. After the checker flag waves in the desert on November 2 it'll mark the conclusion of arguably the best WEC season since this new iteration of the championship was introduced back in 2012 when factoring in the health and size of the grid, the level of competition between manufactures and record attendance numbers across the globe.  Following the 6 Hours of Fuji, it's time to hand out the penultimum report card for each Hypercar team, and remember, we're tough graders here so sit back and let the hot takes singe your eyebrows. A - Porsche Penske Motorsport, Toyota Gazoo Racing  The only two manufacturers that still have a realistic shot at winning the constructors' title (sorry Ferrari). It'll be a dogfight between these two legendary racing programs, and one of two things will happen once the dust (sand?) settles i

Indy Car Champ Alex Palou joins Lone Star Racing for ICGT Indy 8 Hours

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Reigning Indy Car champion Alex Palou is getting behind the wheel of a GT machine. The announcement, made this morning by SRO , will see the three-time champ link up with Lone Star Racing for the season finale of the Intercontinental GT Challenge at the Indianapolis 8 Hours, which goes down next weekend on Saturday October 5. And, because SRO are the balls and make all of their content super easy to watch, the race will be streamed live for free on their YouTube channel.  Palou will join the Mercedes factory duo of Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz as they look to sneak past a few other teams ahead of them and secure a world title with just the one race remaining.  Palou ins't a total stranger to GT racing as he last took a spin in the Super GT circuit in Japan back in 2019, logging seven total races behind the wheel. He's also joined forces with Cadillac the last two times out at the Rolex 24 at Daytona and joined Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn as the third man in for in Le Mans back

Battle on the Bricks - 3 Up, 3 Down for GTP and GTD

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Mother Nature tried her best to ruin the 2024 Battle on the Bricks, but once the wet stuff was truly gone and passed we were treated to four long hours of pure adrenaline and top notch motor racing drama. Said rain made things extraordinarily complicated for the first two hours of the event, as heavy downpours flooded parts of the track and resulted in lengthy yellow flag intervals. There were honestly too many spin outs, beached cars and close calls to even try to cover them all but we'll touch on some of them below.  In the aftermath, I have mixed feelings about the race, I think? 56 cars on track between all four classes was just straight up insanity, to the point where it's hard to understand how more of these cars didn't completely wipe out through the constant action, especially in the wet stuff early. Watching a dozen-plus prototype and GT machines all screw down the main straight or seeing them barrel through turns eight, nine and ten was truly remarkable to witness

6 Hours of Fuji - Porsche plant their Hypercar flag, Manthey claim their LMGT3 title

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The WEC is so on fire this season you wonder how things can get better. For those of us in the States that were able to power through the 10PM start and eventual 4AM finish, we were treated to yet another banger of a race in the 6 Hours of Fuji that saw more of the same drama and cinema that would make Mr. Scorsese stand up and clap for minutes on end. Let's get into the racing recap with our 3 Up and 3 Down for both classes. And...ACTION! Hypercar 3 Up - PPM, BMW, Alpine/Peugeot  No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport -  It's one hand (and just about four fingers) on the trophy for the trio of   Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor. The No. 6 became the first Hypercar team to repeat as winners this season, and in doing so they firmly planted themselves on the brink of securing the Hypercar championship heading into the final round in Bahrain, which puts Toyota's years-long dominance at the top on life support (we'll get to them soon). The usual and expected chaos

IT'S HAPPENING - Hyundai latest to jump into the endurance racing fire

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You just gotta love rumors in the racing game - they have roughly a 95% hit rate (not scientifically proven) and this latest one carries a ton of firepower behind it. The months and years of scuttlebutt is now reality - Hyundai will enter the endurance racing game with a Genesis-badged LMDh prototype. The initial news release came with very little information from the manufacturer (go figure) and fans and outlets are trying to piece together the rest of the puzzle and answer some of the burning questions in the immediate aftermath. Hyundai kept it generic, saying that they will "add endurance racing to the disciplines of its motorsport activities." It's also important to note that they aren't brooming away their current racing divisions - WRC and TCR - rather they're adding the LMDh program to their existing foundation.  Now that another major brand has committed to building a super-tuned high speed racing machine, we'll do our best to answer some of those gia