British F4 – Zandvoort
George Proudford-Nalder continued his rookie season in the British F4 Championship by adding another podium finish to his tally at Zandvoort in the Netherlands.
A strong performance in testing ended with George topping the final session on Friday, ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying session. A tight session ended with George inside the top seven, giving him three top-10 starts over the weekend’s three Sprint races.
The first of those took place later that afternoon but a stall ahead of him left him blocked and falling down the order. After finishing an unrepresentative 22nd, he started race two from fifth on the grid and would prove the star of the contest.
The Australian moved up to fourth following a shunt ahead of him at the banked fourth corner, then two immense restarts from safety car periods enabled him to slipstream alongside and pass both Cameron Nelson and Alba Larsen respectively – braving it past Nelson around the outside at the Tarzan hairpin.
He chased Ethan Lennon all the way around the last lap but still came home in a brilliant second place for his second podium of the season. He then had a chance to add to that in one final race, starting from P7 on the grid.
Another strong performance started with a good getaway that jumped him a place better off on lap one, after which he overtook Ethan Jeff-Hall late on to earn fifth place and more crucial championship points.
George next returns to the UK and to one of the fastest circuits in British motorsport, Thruxton, for the next three British F4 races from 25-26 July.
FIA World Endurance Championship – Sao Paulo
Yasser Shahin’s FIA World Endurance Championship season saw him travel across the Atlantic Ocean with the The Bend Manthey team to Brazil.
As part of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, Shahin lined up alongside Riccardo Pera and Richard Leitz in the #92 Porsche in the LMGT3 class where the trio undertook three Free Practice sessions, Qualifying and the Enduro Race.
The car began finishing 15th in the opening practice session and quickly rose up the order to fifth in the second, before dropping again to 17th prior to Qualifying.
Qualifying was a different beast for The Bend team, tallying a lap of 1:34.558, the seventh fastest for the session after six laps. The car was unable to budge further up the order in Hyperpole, but were confident of what they could accomplish in the main race.
Across 219 laps, Shahin and company worked their way toward the front of the pack, to claim its third podium of the season as they banished the memory of a tough 24 Hours of Le Mans last month.
Lietz was made to work hard for the result, though, as Logan Sargeant in the #88 Proton Ford Mustang engaged the Austrian in a superbly entertaining duel.
In the final laps, Lietz was able to ward off the ex-Formula 1 driver by drawing upon all of his experience to defend.
Next up will be the Lone Star Le Mans from 4-6 September at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
GB3 Championship – Spielberg
Australian Dante Vinci made headway up the order of the GB3 Championship grid at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, beginning with a top 10 result in Qualifying 1, before backing it up with a sixth-fastest lap in Qualifying 2.
After 14 laps in Race 1, Vinci was consistent, although fell out of the points by a couple of positions and obtaining a 12th-place finish for Hillspeed.
It was a similar result for Vinci in Race 2, dropping a position to again narrowly fall outside of the points by finishing 11th, despite an 18-lap drive to be proud of.
Vinci was able to crack the top 10 on his final effort of the round, finishing sixth in Race 3 after 12 laps, and adding to his season points total.
Four rounds remain in the GB3 Championship for 2026 with the grid to return to British shores next round, with Silverstone to host the next meeting from 1-2 August.
GT World Challenge Asia – Fuji
Australian drivers experienced contrasting fortunes during GT World Challenge Asia’s visit to Fuji Speedway, with Tom Sargent showcasing strong qualifying pace while Andrew MacPherson and Ben Porter continued to score valuable Am class points.
MacPherson and Porter started the weekend on a high by securing Am class pole position in Qualifying 1, placing 12th outright.
They were unable to repeat that result in the second session, qualifying 25th overall and fifth in class.
The AMAC Motorsport pairing went on to finish 22nd outright and fifth in the Am class in Race 1 before recording a similar result in Race 2, crossing the line 24th outright and again fifth in class.
Sargent enjoyed an impressive turnaround across the two qualifying sessions. After qualifying 24th outright and fifth in the Silver-Am class for Race 1, the Australian stormed to second outright and Silver-Am pole for Race 2.
Unfortunately, the qualifying pace did not translate into the race results, with Sargent finishing 18th overall and fourth in Silver-Am in Race 1 before adding 16th outright and another fourth-place Silver-Am finish in Race 2.
The next round of GT World Challenge Asia takes place at Okayama International Circuit from 27-30 August.
Rally della Marca – Montebelluna-Valdobbiadene
In their second appearance in the Italian Challenger Series, Taylor Gill and Daniel Brkic put together a solid performance on the mountainous roads of North-East Italy by finishing eighth in the Rally della Marca.
The one-day rally (excluding the shakedown) involved six Special Stages and one Power Stage with Gill eager to get valuable times on the board from the get go in the #12 Citroën C3.
Gill opened up with an 11th-fastest first stage time of 19:08.9, before accumulating results of 11th and 10th in SS2 and SS3 before Service.
An 18th-fastest time in SS4 was able to push up Gill and Brkic into ninth overall with only three stages remaining, before the Australians posted their highest result of ninth in SS5 before the final Service.
Gill then upped the ante again with a sixth-fastest time in SS6, but were unable to climb the overall standings with the power stage to come.
The pair’s 7:40.1 in the final stage of the event was enough to leap frog them into eighth overall, securing a strong finish to the event two and a half minutes behind the eventual winners and on the second step of the podium in the Rally2 Under 25 class.
Gill and Brkic return to the FIA World Rally Championship for their highly-anticipated return to Rally Finland from 30 July to 2 August.
