British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin will make its debut in the Grand-Am series on January 27th, as it prepares to take part in the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC), which will be held at the Daytona International Speedway.

For its return to North American racing, Aston Martin has teamed up with Multimatic Motorsports, which are based in Toronto, Canada. The lead car in this endurance race will be driven by Scott Maxwell and Joe Foster, while the second car will be piloted by Hollywood star Patrick Dempsey, who has proven over the years that he is a very accomplished racing driver. For this inaugural event, Dempsey will be teamed-up with Chriss Porritt, Aston Martin’s chief engineer, who is very experienced with the Vantage GT4.

The first round of the CTSCC will be run in support of the 50th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and this support race will run for two and a half hours, with a mandatory driver change. The Aston Martin team will be competiting in the Grand Sport Category, which features six and eight cylinder cars. Aston’s main rival will most certainly be the Audi R8 LMS, which is in the same class.

With experienced drivers and the combined talents of Aston Martin and Multimatic Motorsports, this team will certainly be among the favorites to take the race win. We only have to wait a few days to find out.

Porsche has put to motion an international Youth Development Programme to foster young drivers as the German automaker prepares an expansion of its racing involvement and its entry into the LMP1 class at Le Mans for 2014.

Beginning with the coming 2012 racing season, two young drivers will receive the title “Porsche Juniors” and will receive Porsche support in the Carrera Cup Deutschland series. Porsche will provide these young talents with a large portion of the season’s budget and will allow them to choose a team to work with. In addition, a Junior Coach will assist the two drivers with their physical training outside the circuit as well as mentoring within.

If the young drivers deliver results, they will advance to the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup series, the fastest international one-make series, for their second year. On top of financial support, the sophomores will receive fitness testing with constantly adapting training plans plus media training to fulfill sponsor obligations. Also, Porsche will select new Porsche Junior prospectives to fill in the newly vacated spot in the Carrera Cup Deutschland.

According to Hartmut Kristen, the Head of Porsche Motorsport, “With our long term Youth Development Programme, we continue the extremely successful tradition of the Porsche Junior Team. For us, supporting talented youngsters is an investment in the future. In line with our LMP1 project, we want to expand our driver lineup. After all, aside from our works commitment in prototype racing, we don’t want to neglect our GT racing activities and we also want to support our customer teams with works drivers in the future.”

Heavily involved with supporting young drivers since 1997, Porsche Junior alums include Timo Bernhard, Marc Lieb and Patrick Long. Time will tell whether Porsche will find its Le Mans winning driver for its 2014 return.

Porsche is determined to improve their hybrid technologies and the best place to do that is on the race track. For the 2012 race season, Porsche has further developed its 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car, and will be putting it to the test once again. Exactly where or when, however, has not been revealed.

The 911 GT3 R Hybrid is still considered a rolling race lab to Porsche, but the practical experience it gains under racing conditions has become worth it in Porsche’s goal of making hybrid drive more efficient.

Wolfgang Hatz, Board Member for Research and Development, believes that the GT3 R Hybrid project shows how important it is to test future technologies on the race track. Meanwhile, Hatz believes that there’s no way around the hybrid technology in motorsport and Porsche will “determinedly blaze this trail and further develop the hybrid technology.”

Porsche has announced it will enter an LMP1 prototype race car in the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans, and it is believed that car will be a hybrid.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid

Audi‘s LMP team is coming back to the United States, debuting the R18 TDI in American soil for the first time and challenging for victory at the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta.

Earlier this year, the Audi R18 TDI already won at the 24 hours of Le Mans in dramatic style, so the team looks forward to ending the racing season in dominant form. Driving the R18 will be Rinaldo “Dindo” Capello, the winningest racing driving at Road Atlanta, along with the duo that earned many podiums for Audi, Timo Berhand and Marcel Fässler.

During last year’s race at Road Atlanta, Capello had to make an unscheduled pitstop when an insert in his helmet came unfastened and dangled over his eyes, obstructing his view. Were it not for that wardrobe malfunction that cost Capello the race, Audi would have won at Road Atlanta for the tenth time.

If you won’t be able to travel, catch the race on Eurosport or ESPN. Qualifying begins Friday, September 30th and the race will start on 11:30am on Saturday, October 1.

GALLERY: Audi R18

Porsche‘s updated GT3 R Hybrid made its North American debut this weekend at the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca and the folks at Porsche couldn’t be happier. Well, that’s not exactly true. They’d be a lot happier if the car had been racing for points.

Driven by Porsche works drivers Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz the hybrid not only posted the fastest lap time of all the GT competitors, but it completed the 6 hour endurance race with just three pit stops, compared to five for its rivals. And to make the victory even more impressive, because the car wasn’t competing for points it wasn’t eligible to qualify and so it started at the back of the grid.

“The start phase was huge fun, because it was relatively easy to overtake the slower competitors,” said Romain Dumas. “But it’s even more fun because we can apply superior tactics thanks to the lower fuel consumption. We are much more flexible and we made the most of this today.”

“We had the least pit stops of all the teams and showed clearly what the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid can do,” said Lietz. “We didn’t experience one technical problem and left all the other GT vehicles behind us. Our expectations have been far exceeded.”

And with that excellent news, there was added celebration as it was also a Porsche that managed to take the first place spot in the race, with Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long finishing just ahead of one of the BMWs to lock down the team’s third victory this season.

The GT3 R Hybrid mates a 470-hp naturally aspirated six-cylinder boxer engine powering the rear wheels with an additional 200-hp of electric boost available on demand to the front wheels thanks to Porsche’s innovative flywheel hybrid technology.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid at Laguna Seca

Any Lotus enthusiast will tell you that the brand would be wise to stop pumping resources into Formula 1 and IndyCar, an instead get more heavily involved in road racing. After all, in many respects it represents a better bang-for-the-buck for the marketing folks, with a direct correlation between the cars that race and the cars sold through dealers.

Lotus has already initiated a sports car racing program in Europe with several renditions of the Evora, including the most recent Evora GTE, which competed first at the 24 Hours of Spa in Belgium and then at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Lotus has now confirmed with AutoGuide that it is planning a U.S. stop this year, where it will look to challenge the Ferraris, Corvettes, Porsches and BMWs at the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Lotus did not give any indication of how many vehicles it would run at the 10 hour endurance race, which will be another step in the Evora GTE’s development as Lotus looks to seriously take the fight to its rivals and cease to be an afterthought in the exotic and sports car segment.

Porsche is about to unleash a very different type of hybrid on the residents of California, announcing plans to have the GT3 R Hybrid race car take part in the American Le Mans Series race at Laguna Seca on September 17th.

The race car won’t be eligible to race for points, as the ALMS governing body does not yet allow hybrids, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be competing and looking for a win. Porsche works pilots, Romain Dumas and Richard Lietz, who have both raced the car, will be sharing duties behind the wheel.

Version 2.0 of the hybrid racer, the GT3 R Hybrid uses a modified version of the original’s powertrain, making 470-hp from a naturally aspirated six-cylinder boxer engine, with an additional 200-hp of electric boost available on demand. It also weights over 100 lbs less than the original thanks to a focus on weight savings for the electric components.

So far the GT3 R Hybrid has competed in two races this year, finishing a disappointing 28th at the Nurburgring 24 Hour Race as a result of rule changes for hybrid cars as well as contact with another vehicle. The hybrid racer did start off the year strong, however, taking the podium at the Nürburgring Long Distance Championship in Germany.

GALLERY: Porsche GT3 R Hybrid

The bright yellow Corvette Racing C6.Rs may have raced to victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the team’s efforts at home have been met with less spectacular results. To be fair, Corvette Racing cars have landed a spot on the podium twice this season, but the team has also suffered some major setbacks in other races. As perhaps a sign that Corvette Racing may reclaim some of its former glory the No. 4 car of Oliver Gavin and Jan Magnussen finally clinched the top spot on the podium at the Grand Prix of Mosport over the weekend.

A combination of hard driving, excellent pit stops and a bit of luck put the Corvette in first. Starting in just sixth position in the GT class the No. 4 Vette emerged from the pits in 3rd place after the first round of stops. With Oliver Gavin piloting the car for the first half of the race, Jan Magnussen took over, passing one of the Risi Competizione Ferrari 458 Italias near the end of the race. Then, with just laps to go, Dirk Werner, driving the No. 55 BMW was forced to pit for a stop-and-go penalty after making contact with one of the slower GTC cars, allowing Magnussen to move into first.

He held on to take the checkered flag and subsequently end BMW’s dominance in the series. “We got our first win on the board and we’ve broken BMW’s stranglehold on ALMS victories this year. I’m absolutely delighted!” said Oliver Gavin.

The No. 3 Corvette driven by Tommy Milner and Olivier Beretta managed a sixth place finish, starting 8th on the grid and eventually climbing to 4th until contact with the very gold No. 11 Porsche GTC car resulted in a spin.

The next race on the ALMS calendar is at Mid Ohio in two weeks time.

GALLERY: Corvette Racing at Grand Prix of Mosport

GALLERY: Corvette Corral

Auto racing and environmental consciousness normally do not mix, however, the American LeMans Series has been working on changing that, and hopes to improve on its already green track record.

This is the only race series around the world in which four different types of fuels are being used, namely E10, E85, diesel and isobutanol. Also, apart from the result of championship points given to teams and drivers respective of their finish in the race, ALMS also awards a championship within a championship to the greenest team on the grid.

Now the series is looking to go greener still by hoping to soon introduce natural gas powered race cars. In an interview with Fox Car Report, ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton said he wants to “demonstrate the competitiveness of natural gas, and the ease and convenience of refueling, because right now that’s seen as one of the impediments. If you can take away some of what the consumer would describe as downside issues, and demonstrate its competitiveness and the fact that you don’t have to sacrifice anything, I think it would go a long way toward mainstream acceptance of natural gas as a fuel for any type of vehicle.”

When asked about electric race cars, Atherton said this technology might play in this series in the future, but not at the moment, saying electric drivetrains cannot handle the stress of such a race series, however he is looking at other electric race series to bring in as part of their support festivities. Nissan has already hinted at an all electric series using spec versions of the NISMO Leaf RC race car.

In a merger that seems obvious from the get-go, American Le Mans has named the Sports Car Club of America its Official Grassroots Motorsports Partner.

No, not Grassroots Motorsports, the required summer reading of any Miata or E30 owner—grassroots motorsports, as in an attempt for American Le Mans to reach out to those not blessed with talent scouts or an innate driving ability honed from being in go-karts from the age of 4. It’s a way for American Le Mans to leverage the support of SCCA’s 60,000+ members, though we’d be hard-pressed to find one of them who hasn’t heard of ALMS.

“The partnership between ALMS and SCCA is a very natural one,” said Scott Atherton the president and CEO of ALMS. “The majority of ALMS fans are auto enthusiasts, many of them wondering how they can become more involved in motorsports at a grassroots level; the SCCA is the ideal place to start that journey. Similarly, we believe SCCA members have a deep appreciation for our sport and hope all of them will take full advantage of the fan-centered opportunities the ALMS offers.”

The next race in the 2011 American Le Mans season will be on the weekend of July 8-9 at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. And in the grand tradition of motorsports being sponsored by vaguely irresponsible-seeming manufacturers of hard liquor, the top sponsor this year is Tequila Patrón.

[Source: American Le Mans]