DSC’s Daily Notebook (26/07/2023)

Pauwels gets GT3 chance with Comtoyou

18-year-old TCR driver Kobe Pauwels is set to make his GT3 debut at the Nürburgring with Comtoyou Racing in the GT World Challenge Endurance Cup.

The Audi customer team has had to shuffle its driver line-up as Max Hofer is unavailable to take his usual seat in the team’s #21 Gold Cup-entered R8.

This has prompted the team to insert Gilles Magnus into the #21 alongside Maxime Soulet and Nicolas Baert. That left a vacant seat in the team’s #11 R8 LMS, which is entered in the Pro class.

As a result the team has opted to give Pauwels a chance off the back of his impressive 2023 TCR Europe campaign in which he has four wins to his name so far.

“Sunday evening, after my victory at Le Castellet, François Verbist called me into his office to ask me if I was ready to start in GT3″, said Pauwels, who also won the European Rallycross RX3 Championship last year.

“I would never have thought it possible in my first season of circuit racing, but I couldn’t refuse this opportunity. I don’t know the circuit or the car, but the team doesn’t put any pressure on me. I am here to learn and have fun.

“With Fred Vervisch and Christopher Haase as teammates, I couldn’t dream of better instructors to help me progress faster. In my eyes, GT racing has always been the next step in my career and I wanted to do it with Comtoyou Racing. The chance has just arrived a little earlier than expected!”

Lamborghini LMDh audio

Lamborghini has released a short teaser video on social media of the first fire up of the upcoming SC63 LMDh’s 3.8-litre twin turbo V8 engine.

This is the first time we hear it and we already can't get enough of our new #Lamborghini SC63's engine roar. But that's not the only sound it makes that we love pic.twitter.com/lMpkRzZ2rZ

— Lamborghini Squadra Corse (@LamborghiniSC) July 25, 2023

Le Mans onboards

The Le Mans 24 Hours YouTube channel has released a series of onboard videos from this year’s race, including full laps with the race-winning #51 Ferrari 499P, GTE Am class-winning Corvette C8.R and the Garage 56 Camaro ZL1.

Hinchcliffe tests with Kellymoss Racing

IMSA GTD team Kelly Moss racing has been out testing this week with its Porsche 911 GT3 R 992, with IndyCar star James Hinchcliffe at the wheel.

Fenders are fun! Had a blast @IMS in something totally new for me. Huge thanks to @KellyMossRacing for the chance to turn some laps in their GTD car. I could get used to this! pic.twitter.com/IIVm4YiXzd

— James Hinchcliffe (@Hinchtown) July 25, 2023

Later this week a large cohort of IMSA teams are set to run at Indianapolis too, as part of an official test organised by the championship ahead of the WeatherTech Championship’s return to the ‘Brickyard’ in September.