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Following its annual summer break, the FIA World Endurance Championship will roar back into action at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Texas this weekend (4-6 September), with Lone Star Le Mans set to deliver the next unmissable instalment of a sensational season.

Designed with the input of former motorcycling world champion Kevin Schwantz, COTA first welcomed FIA WEC in 2013 and is the most modern venue on the calendar. The track quickly established itself as a favourite amongst drivers and fans alike for its dramatic elevation changes, sweeping high-speed corners, slow technical sections, notorious bumps, a signature uphill climb into Turn 1 &ndash; known as &lsquo;Big Red&rsquo; &ndash; and the triple-apex right-hander that makes up Turns 16, 17 and 18.&nbsp;

Run in an anti-clockwise direction, the 5.513km, 20-turn lap is famously tough on tyres and brakes, with Hypercars reaching speeds in excess of 315km/h. What&rsquo;s more, while all 35 entries took the chequered flag two months ago in S&atilde;o Paulo, COTA has developed a reputation as a bit of a car-breaker in recent years, with eight crews failing to complete the 2024 race, and seven in 2025 &ndash; underscoring the circuit&rsquo;s demanding nature.

It also has a habit of generating memorable moments and breathtaking battles, with the 2017 event witnessing the series&rsquo; tightest-ever outright finish under green flag conditions at a slender 0.276 seconds. By the same token, the even slenderer 0.256-second margin of victory in LMGT3 last summer represented the closest finish in the production-based class to-date &ndash; and the closest in any category between two rival marques. One way or another, another epic encounter this weekend looks assured&hellip;&nbsp;

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<h2>Honours even in Hypercar at midway stage of season</h2>

The 2026 edition of Lone Star Le Mans marks FIA WEC&rsquo;s 15th trip to North America, 75th six-hour race and 40th contest in the headlining Hypercar category &ndash; and the hunt for honours could scarcely be more finely-poised, with a tie at the top of the Drivers&rsquo; World Championship table and a mere five points separating multiple title-holder Toyota from breakthrough brand BMW in the Manufacturers&rsquo; standings.

Both automotive icons have triumphed twice this season, but neither has ever prevailed at COTA. Indeed, the track is one of just four in FIA WEC history that Toyota has never conquered, though #8 driver Brendon Hartley won there three years in a row with Porsche from 2015 to 2017. Team-mate S&eacute;bastien Buemi and #7 stablemate Mike Conway, moreover, are the only drivers to have participated in every one of the series&rsquo; previous races at the circuit.&nbsp;

There is strong prior form in the BMW camp, too, with Sheldon van der Linde &ndash; who partners current championship leaders Ren&eacute; Rast and Robin Frijns in the #20 M Hybrid V8 &ndash; setting the fastest lap of the 2025 race weekend in Austin, during FP2.&nbsp;

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Cadillac arrives on home soil eager to maintain the positive momentum of its first podium finish in 12 months last time out at Interlagos, with the JOTA-run V-Series.R having proven a potent package in every round so far this year. Norman Nato and Earl Bamber are former overall winners at COTA &ndash; the New Zealander on his way to clinching the coveted world championship crown in 2017 &ndash; while two-time IMSA champion, Ricky Taylor will bolster the Anglo-American alliance&rsquo;s line-up this weekend.

Elsewhere in the fiercely-disputed Hypercar field, Peugeot reached the rostrum for the first time in 2025 in Texas, with the Lions&rsquo; team leader Lo&iuml;c Duval part of the triumphant crew in the race&rsquo;s inaugural running with Audi. The Frenchman has held the official lap record at the track since 2016.

While qualifying form has not always translated into race day results this season, at COTA &ndash; as at Interlagos &ndash; it could be a different story. The six-hour bout has never been won outright from lower than fourth on the grid, and six of the eight outings have yielded a single-marque front row lockout. In both 2024 and 2025, that marque was Ferrari, and the Prancing Horse will be targeting a similar performance again as it bids to haul itself back onto terms in the title fight.&nbsp;

At what has traditionally been a strong circuit for the 499P &ndash; with the Italian prototype boasting an impressive 50 per cent podium strike rate in the event, better than any of its Hypercar rivals &ndash; the defending world champions will be aiming to end their longest-ever winless streak in FIA WEC, all categories combined.

<h2>&#39;Vette chasing third straight victory in LMGT3</h2>

Corvette leads the way in LMGT3 at the mid-season stage, with the #33 Z06 having prevailed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the sister #34 entry then doing likewise in Brazil &ndash; marking the first time an American carmaker has entered its home round off the back of consecutive victories. The General Motors-owned brand, however, has yet to win on US soil, and has registered a solitary rostrum finish at COTA in FIA WEC, back in 2016.

Local hero Ben Keating &ndash; who hails from just outside of Houston &ndash; will assume the record for most FIA WEC starts by an American driver when he makes his 45th appearance this weekend. Only France and the UK have produced more competitors in the championship than the USA&rsquo;s total of 95, with eight on the entry list for Lone Star Le Mans, including ex-Formula 1 star, Logan Sargeant at Proton Competition. Five of them are already podium-visitors this year.

Both LMGT3 contests at COTA thus far have gone the way of British manufacturers, with McLaren celebrating its maiden win last season following a post-race penalty for the #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari. Twelve months earlier, Heart of Racing Team had triumphed in Texas &ndash; a result that remains the only LMGT3 victory achieved from pole position, and Aston Martin&rsquo;s sole success in the class to-date.

It also represented the most recent of the legendary British marque&rsquo;s ten podium-topping performances at the track &ndash; twice as many as any of its rivals. Like Ferrari, Aston Martin is currently enduring an unprecedented barren run, but it returns to Austin buoyed by back-to-back poles at La Sarthe and Interlagos.

In 2025, it was Proton Competition&rsquo;s pair of Ford Mustangs that dominated LMGT3 Hyperpole at COTA, although the American muscle cars have not started from the front row since. Notably, the category&rsquo;s pole position curse continues, with no subsequent pole-sitter having bettered the eighth-place finish posted by the #88 Mustang at COTA last summer &ndash; or, this year, having scored any points at all.

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<h2>Key info</h2>

The on-track sessions will begin with free practice on Friday, 4 September. Qualifying &ndash; and the Hyperpole top ten shootout &ndash; starts at 15:00 local time (GMT-5) on Saturday, 5 September, with the six-hour race getting underway at 13:00 local time (GMT-5) on Sunday, 6 September.&nbsp;

Check out all the <a href="https://www.fiawec.com/en/race/lone-star-le-mans-2026" target="_blank">key information</a> regarding Lone Star Le Mans, including the full event timetable and entry list.

All of FIA WEC. All of endurance racing&rsquo;s greatest battles. Watch live and on demand with FIAWEC+ &ndash; the official streaming platform of the FIA World Endurance Championship, wherever you are, whenever you want, including the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. <a href="https://plus.fiawec.com/en/fia-wec" target="_blank">Stream FIA WEC live</a> with FIAWEC+.

FIA WEC : COTA clash kick-starts second half of captivating campaign

This was not a shot in the dark. The Ford Hypercar’s first kilometres come after months of work on the engine, simulator and honing Ford Racing team procedures. Their journey to the 95th 24 Hours of Le Mans on 9–13 June 2027 has begun.

A Hypercar leaving the workshop for the first time, plus six drivers aiming for the same project goal amount to over 1,000 kilometres in three days. To an outsider, the Ford Hypercar&rsquo;s first date at the Paul Ricard circuit may seem like the beginning. In fact, it&rsquo;s the culmination of months of preparation. To get the car track ready, Ford Racing spent many hours working on the engine in the <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/ford-racing-recreates-a-lap-of-the-24-hours-of-le-mans-circuit-60925" target="_blank">dyno cell in Dearborn</a>, making sure the car would be operational from the outset. The first outing may be the first chapter, but there was a prelude to the story of Ford&rsquo;s journey to the 2027 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship to take on Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Genesis, McLaren, Peugeot and Toyota.

<h2>Thousands of hours of preparation for the first outing</h2>

A race car doesn&rsquo;t come into being when it leaves the pit lane. The Ford Hypercar was a reality long before it entered the track at the Paul Ricard circuit.

A few weeks earlier, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/ford-hypercar-v8-roars-to-life-for-the-first-time-ahead-of-the-2027-24-hours-of-le-mans-60883" target="_blank">5.4-litre V8 naturally aspirated engine</a>, developed in-house, was fired up for the first time in France. The American manufacturer worked alongside <a href="https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/news/ford-partners-with-oreca-for-hypercar-programme-launching-in-2027-59768">chassis builder Oreca</a> to integrate the powertrain, while fleshing out its sporting programme in view of its FIA World Endurance Championship entry in 2027.

All that remained was to test the car on a real circuit.

Dan Sayers, WEC Hypercar Program Manager at Ford Racing sums up the philosophy: &lsquo;Reaching Paul Ricard and getting the car through its shakedown and three full days of running is exactly the milestone we set out to hit. Everything we did in the buildup&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;the dyno work in Dearborn, the fire-up in France, the countless hours in the sim&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;was about making sure that when we rolled out onto the track, we were ready to be plug and play.&rsquo;

It was important to know as much as possible about the car&rsquo;s behaviour before the first outing, so as to gather precious data from lap one. This next phase is all about learning.

<h2>From preparation to experience</h2>

The team at Ford Racing were able to see the results of their work in real conditions at the Paul Ricard circuit. Engineers gathered data, drivers got familiar with the Hypercar&rsquo;s behaviour and the team checked that the project elements hung together correctly.

For an entirely new programme it&rsquo;s essential to begin turning laps into learning. Logan Sargeant, one of the six drivers in the programme, knows that as well as anyone. &lsquo;Kicking off a new programme always takes time&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;you&rsquo;re figuring out how all the pieces fit together, and we&rsquo;re still working through that,&rsquo; explains the American. &lsquo;That said, we really hit the ground running.&rsquo;

Indeed, the team left nothing to chance. &lsquo;Starting testing from where we did is a huge credit to the team. There have already been countless hours poured into this project, including a ton of time in the simulator, so we&rsquo;ve had a massive head start. Now it&rsquo;s about making sure everything comes together flawlessly, and that&rsquo;s the next step for us.&rsquo;

That&rsquo;s where the first kilometres are precious. Data gathered on track can be reworked in simulation. Behaviour observed by a driver can give engineers new indications. Noticed early on, a little glitch can be ironed out and avoid bigger problems further down the line. Every lap becomes a piece of a huge puzzle that Ford is piecing together.

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<h2>Six drivers form one team</h2>

A less visible element of the first outing is nonetheless important: teamwork. The programme isn&rsquo;t just a car, it&rsquo;s a group of people.

All six drivers were at Paul Ricard. Sebastian Priaulx, Mike Rockenfeller and Logan Sargeant were already announced as playing a part in the Hypercar&rsquo;s development. The three others brought their experience too.

Mark Rushbrook, Global Director of Ford Racing: &lsquo;The fact that all six of our drivers were on hand, working together and pushing this programme forward, tells you everything about the spirit we&rsquo;re building at Ford Racing.&rsquo;

Building. The watchword. For Ford is not just entering two cars in 2027. The American brand is back at the highest level of endurance racing with the aim of reclaiming overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With four wins to date (1966&ndash;1969), the manufacturer is counting on the Hypercar to be reacquainted with the Le Mans trophy after a sixty-year hiatus.

Yet there&rsquo;s a world of difference between the Ford&nbsp;GT40 and today&rsquo;s car. Technology has changed, cars are not the same and endurance racing has undergone profound transformation. One thing remains: the idea that Le Mans requires preparation to match the size of the challenge.

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<h2>First step on the long road to Le Mans</h2>

The three-day test was one of the first stages on an arduous journey. At Ford Racing, everyone knows the finish line is a long way off.

&lsquo;There&rsquo;s a long list of milestones still ahead of us before Q1&nbsp;2027, but these past couple of weeks has given the team a lot of confidence and strong foundations to build on,&rsquo; says Dan Sayers.

The schedule is packed. After the first outing, the Hypercar development programme continues on other circuits and environments, to cover plenty of ground before the car&rsquo;s maiden race. The test phase spans three continents, and that&rsquo;s before the first FIA WEC race.

&lsquo;Every mile we put on this car brings us closer to Le Mans, and closer to reclaiming our place at the top of endurance racing,&rsquo; says Mark Rushbrook, summing up the aim of the pre-competition preparation.

For the moment, Ford are not playing to win. There are no chequered flags involved yet. However, in the data recorded at Paul Ricard, in the sensations felt by the drivers and in the thousands of elements analysed by the engineers, there is already a taste of the Ford Hypercar as it will be on the morning of 13 June 2027.

Ford Hypercar: behind the scenes at the carefully-prepared track test

Ford Racing has reached the first major milestone in its 2027 FIA WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans campaign. The American Hypercar covered 1,000 kilometres in three days, officially launching the development programme that will span three continents.

The countdown begins. Just weeks after its 5.4-litre Coyote-based V8 engine fired up for the first time, the Ford Hypercar was on track for tests at the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France. A symbolic step in the project to bring the US brand back to the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2027.

To the Ford Racing team, the tests were the real starting point. After a shakedown, the car completed three full days on track, clocking over 1,000 kilometres. For a newborn car, that&rsquo;s quite a first outing!

<h2>The Hypercar finds its feet</h2>

All Ford programme drivers attended the test. Logan Sargeant, Matt Campbell, Tom Blomqvist and Mike Rockenfeller took turns at the wheel, while Sebastian Priaulx and Nick Yelloly helped with data collection to prepare the next stage of development.

Matt Campbell: &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been here for the whole test and from my side, it&rsquo;s gone smoothly. I&rsquo;ve seen fans online raving about how awesome the sound is, but from inside the cockpit, it&rsquo;s on another level&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;it&rsquo;s absolutely deafening! I&rsquo;m genuinely excited for what&rsquo;s ahead with this car. We know there&rsquo;s a long road in front of us, but this has been a really positive start. I&rsquo;ve had the most track time out of the drivers, and aside from a few minor teething issues&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;which you&rsquo;d expect at the beginning of a new programme&thinsp;&ndash;&thinsp;everything has gone well. From here, things really ramp up: I&rsquo;m heading back to the USA for three days of sim work before returning to Europe for the next test.&rsquo;

<h2>Testing on three continents</h2>

The pace ramps up from here on. After three days on the simulator in North Carolina, Ford heads to Portim&atilde;o in early September. Then Silverstone, Monza, Imola and Aragon in Europe and then back to the States towards the end of the year for new more destinations: Circuit of the Americas (Austin) and Sebring.

A packed schedule! Ford is looking to get to know the car better kilometre after kilometre, fine-tuning the set-ups to turn the car fresh from the workshop into a racing machine.

The goal is to get a solid grounding by the first quarter of 2027. Paul Ricard is just the first stage. As everyone knows, all great journeys begin with a first step. Before the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a car is designed, built, and tested. The first few laps are a glimpse of things to come.

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Initial testing complete for the Ford Racing Hypercar

The no43 Inter Europol Competition returned to the top step of the ELMS podium for the first time since Le Castellet in 2024 after a dramatic 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps which saw six Safety Car periods in the first half of the race.

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Le Mans Magazine

FIA WEC : COTA clash kick-starts second half of captivating campaign

Ford Hypercar: behind the scenes at the carefully-prepared track test

Initial testing complete for the Ford Racing Hypercar

Race Highlights | 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps 2026 | ELMS

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