The FIA World Endurance Championship will race again into motion at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas in Texas this weekend for spherical 5 of the eight-event season. The Lone Star Le Mans race has a fame for producing spectacular motion and picture finishes, and with the Drivers’ Standings at the moment tied on factors, it’s prone to be one other epic showdown this weekend.
COTA first welcomed FIA WEC in 2013 and is the latest venue on the calendar. The observe rapidly established itself as a favorite amongst drivers and followers alike for its dramatic elevation modifications, sweeping high-speed corners, gradual technical sections, infamous bumps, a signature uphill climb into Flip 1 – referred to as ‘Huge Purple’ – and the triple-apex right-hander that makes up Turns 16, 17 and 18.
It additionally has a behavior of manufacturing memorable moments and breathtaking battles. The 2017 occasion delivered the sequence’ closest-ever outright end underneath green-flag circumstances, with simply 0.276 seconds separating the highest two. Final summer season, a good narrower 0.256-second profitable margin in LMGT3 marked the category’ closest end so far and the closest between two producers in any class.
Run in an anticlockwise course, the 5.5-kilometre, 20-turn lap is famously powerful on tyres and brakes, with Hypercars reaching speeds in extra of 305km/h. What’s extra, whereas all 35 entries took the chequered flag two months in the past in São Paulo, COTA has developed a fame as a little bit of a car-breaker lately, with eight crews failing to finish the 2024 race, and 7 in 2025, underscoring the circuit’s demanding nature.
HYPERCAR HONOURS EVEN AT MID-SEASON
The 2026 version of Lone Star Le Mans marks FIA WEC’s fifteenth journey to North America, seventy fifth six-hour race and fortieth contest within the headlining Hypercar class – and the hunt for honours may scarcely be extra finely-poised, with a tie on the prime of the Drivers’ World Championship desk and a mere 5 factors separating a number of title-holder Toyota from breakthrough model BMW within the Producers’ standings.
Each automotive icons have triumphed twice this season, however neither has ever prevailed at COTA. Certainly, the observe is certainly one of simply 4 in FIA WEC historical past that Toyota has by no means conquered, although #8 driver Brendon Hartley gained there three years in a row with Porsche from 2015 to 2017. Crew-mate Sébastien Buemi and #7 stablemate Mike Conway, furthermore, are the one drivers to have participated in each one of many sequence’ earlier races on the circuit.
There’s sturdy prior kind within the BMW camp, too, with Sheldon van der Linde – who companions present championship leaders René Rast and Robin Frijns within the #20 M Hybrid V8 – setting the quickest lap of the 2025 race weekend in Austin, throughout FP2.
Cadillac arrives on residence soil keen to take care of the optimistic momentum of its first podium end in 12 months final day trip at Interlagos, with the JOTA-run V-Collection.R having confirmed a potent bundle in each spherical to this point this 12 months. Norman Nato and Earl Bamber are former total winners at COTA – the New Zealander on his option to clinching the coveted world championship crown in 2017 – whereas two-time IMSA champion Ricky Taylor will bolster the Anglo-American alliance’s line-up this weekend.
Elsewhere within the fiercely-disputed Hypercar discipline, Peugeot reached the podium for the primary time in 2025 in Texas, with the Lions’ workforce chief Loïc Duval a part of the triumphant crew within the race’s inaugural operating with Audi. The Frenchman has held the official lap file on the observe since 2016.
The six-hour race has by no means been gained outright from decrease than fourth on the grid, and 6 of the eight outings have yielded a single-marque entrance row lockout. In each 2024 and 2025, that marque was Ferrari, and the Prancing Horse will likely be concentrating on the same efficiency once more because it bids to haul itself again onto phrases within the title struggle.
At what has historically been a powerful circuit for the 499P – with the Italian prototype boasting a powerful 50 per cent podium strike charge within the occasion, higher than any of its Hypercar rivals – the defending world champions will likely be aiming to finish their longest-ever winless streak in FIA WEC, all classes mixed.
‘VETTE CHASING THIRD STRAIGHT VICTORY
Corvette leads the best way in LMGT3, with the #33 Z06 having prevailed within the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the sister #34 entry then doing likewise in Brazil – marking the primary time an American carmaker has entered its residence spherical off the again of consecutive victories. The model, nonetheless, has but to win on US soil, and has registered a solitary rostrum end at COTA in FIA WEC, again in 2016.
Native hero Ben Keating – who hails from simply exterior of Houston – will assume the file for many FIA WEC begins by an American driver when he makes his forty fifth look this weekend. Solely France and the UK have produced extra rivals within the championship than the USA’s whole of 95, with eight on the entry record for Lone Star Le Mans, together with ex-Components 1 racer Logan Sargeant at Proton Competitors. 5 of them are already podium-visitors this 12 months.
Each LMGT3 contests at COTA up to now have gone the best way of British producers, with McLaren celebrating its maiden win final season. Twelve months earlier, Coronary heart of Racing Crew had triumphed in Texas – a end result that is still Aston Martin’s sole success within the class so far.
YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO LONE STAR LE MANS
The on-track classes will start with free apply on Friday, 4 September. Qualifying, and the Hyperpole top-ten shootout, begins at 15:00 native time (GMT-5) on Saturday, with the six-hour race getting underway at 13:00 native time (GMT-5) on Sunday.
Try all of the key information relating to Lone Star Le Mans, together with the complete occasion timetable and entry record.
