The second North American round of the FIA World Endurance Championship comes to you LIVE on Motorsport.tv from Austin, Texas. The Circuit of the Americas has been a feature on the WEC calendar since 2013, adding searing heat to the already high-temperature on-track action. With the hybrid LMP1 cars suffering many problems at an unusually hot Le Mans 24 Hours, where Porsche only just grabbed victory from an LMP2 car, could the US round see a similarly topsy-turvy race?
Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber currently sit on a hat trick of wins since Le Mans, boosting them to a 41-point lead in the standings. Their nearest rivals are Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima, who will be without regular team-mate Anthony Davidson this weekend, with the veteran Stephane Sarrazin making his first start since Le Mans. With only the three Asian rounds remaining after this weekend, time is against the Toyota crew, and with Hartley and Bernhard pairing having won the last two seasons at CoTA, the championship could be nearly done before the next round at Fuji. After mechanical woes in Mexico, Jackie Chan DC Racing’s LMP2 lead has been cut down from 46 to 23 points by the Vaillante Rebellion pairing of Julien Canal and Bruno Senna, the Chinese team will be looking to re-establish their dominance. Eight points is all that separates the #67 Ford and #91 Porsche in the GTE-Pro class, with both Ferrari and Mexico winners Aston Martin close behind, whilst Clearwater Racing lead Dempsey-Proton and Aston Martin Racing in the GTE-Am classification.
The first of the big Australian Supercars endurance races of the season comes to you this weekend, LIVE from Sandown Raceway. Since moving to the 500 km distance in 1984, the race has acted as a warm-up event for the legendary Bathurst 1000 km. The 2017 event follows the same trend, also being the first round of the Pirtek Endurance Cup. The addition of double Enduro champion Warren Luff, Prodrive WEC regular Richie Stanaway, Supercars regular Alexandre Premat and Porsche Supercup race-winner Matt Campbell, is sure to keep the racing close as ever. The overall Drivers’ Championship is headed by Scott McLaughlin, who after a setback in the first race at Sydney Motorsports Park, now only has a 12-point lead over Jamie Whincup. With 300 points on offer for the winner at Sandown, anyone down to fifth could be leading heading to Bathurst.
Latvia is the host-nation for the antepenultimate round of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship. Johan Kristofferson has won a record four WRX events on the bounce, establishing a 46-point lead over his nearest rival Petter Solberg. The Swede can mathematically win the championship in Riga, but would need his team-mate to have an especially off-weekend to do so. With the PSRX squad looking to wrap up the teams' title this weekend, it's unlikely that Kristofferson will be hoping for bad luck to strike the two-time champion. The Bikernieki track holds its second World RX event, with last years race being Sebastien Loeb’s first, and so far only win in his rallycross career, the Frenchman will be hoping to repeat that and close the gap to Mattias Ekstrom for third in the standings. The two guest drivers from Loheac also continue, with Audi Sport DTM driver Nico Muller and Alistair McRae both re-joining the field in the Baltic.
A double-win in the Netherlands for home-hero Jeffery Herlings was not enough to prevent Antonio Cairoli from wrapping up the FIM MXGP World Championship, and his ninth motocross world title. The Italian will be hoping to end the season as he started it, as the series heads to France, returning to Villars-Sous-Ecot for the first time since 2015. On that occasion it was Romain Febvre who took the win, the Frenchman now locked in a battle with Tim Gajser for fifth in the standings.
Unlike the top class, the battle for the title is not quite over in the FIM MX2 World Championship. Jeremy Seewer would need two lowly or non-finishes from Pauls Jonass to be in with a chance of overhauling the Latvian’s 35-point lead in the final round. Both protagonists were present the last time MX2 race at Villars-Sous-Ecot, so both men will be looking to put their experience to use as they battle it out for the title.
It’s the home race of standings leader Adam Lacko in the FIA European Truck Racing Championship, as the series heads to the Autodrom Most on the Czech-German border. Lacko currently holds a 58-point lead over four-time series champion Jochen Hahn, who in turn is closely followed by Steffi Halm and Norbert Kiss. Last season it was Hahn who took the majority of the spoils at Most, though Lacko will be looking to put that right as he pursues his first ETRC title. Two further drivers looking to impress at home are David Vrsecky and Frankie Vojtisek, both of whom are sure to be local favourites with the Czech fans.
To finish off the weekend, we have action from the latest round of the V de V Endurance Series from Jarama, highlights of the penultimate round of the FIM Sidecarcross World Championship from Germany, TCR Asia Series from Shanghai, and Porsche GT3 Cup Canada from Trois-Rivieres, plus much more!
Friday 15th September
18:55 - The Flying Lap, Ep 22
20:00 - V de V Endurance Series, Rd 5, Jarama
21:00 - FIA European Truck Racing Championship, Rd 6, Most
21:30 - Belgian Rally Championship, Rd 7, Omloop
Saturday 16th September
10:40 - VW Racing Cup UK, Rd 6, Thruxton
11:10 - VAG Trophy, Rd 6, Thruxton
12:10 - NASCAR Xfinity Series, Rd 25, Richmond
13:15 - TCR Asia Series, Rd 9, Shanghai
13:45 - TCR Asia Series, Rd 10, Shanghai
15:15 - FIM Sidecarcross World Championship, Rd 13, Germany
16:45 - Porsche GT3 Cup Canada, Rd 3, Trois-Rivieres
17:45 - LIVE FIA World Endurance Championship, Rd 6, Circuit of the Americas 6 Hours
04:00 - LIVE Virgin Australia Supercars Championship, Rd 10, Sandown 500 km
Sunday 17th September
12:00 - LIVE FIM MX2 World Championship, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 1)
13:00 - LIVE FIM MXGP World Championship, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 1)
15:00 - LIVE FIM MX2 World Championship, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 2)
16:00 - LIVE FIM MXGP World Championship, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 2)
17:00 - Delayed-as-Live FIA World Rallycross Championship, Rd 10, Latvia
19:05 - Virgin Australia Supercars Championship highlights, Rd 10, Sandown 500 km
23:05 - FIM MXGP World Championship Replay, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 1)
00:10 - FIM MXGP World Championship Replay, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 2)
01:10 - FIM MX2 World Championship Replay, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 1)
02:10 - FIM MX2 World Championship Replay, Rd 19, Villars-Sous-Ecot (Race 2)
