THE LINE - JUNE 18, 2014

(Porsche)
Porsche delivered a strong performance with its innovative and complex 919 Hybrids at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but came up short. After more than than 22 hours, the No. 20 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber suffered a powertrain problem at the world’s most famous endurance race. Earlier in the race the LMP1 class car was leading overall for a significant period of time. The second Porsche prototype – the No. 14 919 Hybrid driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb – suffered a gearbox failure. And though the No. 14 car did manage to cross the finish line under its own power after an extended stay in the pits, it was not classified as finishing the race. “At the moment, of course, there is a lot of disappointment," commented Andreas Seidl, Team Principal of Porsche's LMP1 program. "But if anyone would have told us before the race that the outcome would be what it was, we would have been very happy with it. We have learned a lot for next year and tomorrow we start to prepare for 2015. The drivers and the entire crew – everyone did a great job. We are proud to have brought one car to the finish line. To be able to fight with the other one for the silverware until shortly before the end was the icing on the cake."

(Toyota)
Toyota Racing gave Audi and Porsche all they could handle and scrambled to a podium finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the Toyota squadron left the Circuit de la Sarthe bitterly disappointed. Anthony Davidson, Nicolas Lapierre and Sébastien Buemi (No. 8 Toyota Hybrid TS040) finished third to maintain their lead in the World Endurance Championship and record Toyota’s fifth top-three finish at Le Mans. The No. 7 car of Alex Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima was sidelined from the race while holding a strong lead. Having started from pole position, the Toyota Hybrid fell victim to electrical problems as the race neared the 14-hour mark. The next round of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship will be at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in September. Before then the Toyota Hybrid TS040 is scheduled to take to the hill climb course at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (26 – 29 June), as part of a large collection of contemporary and classic Toyota race and rally cars that will be in action and on display.

(Nissan NISMO)
The No. 38 Jota Sport Zytek Z11SN-Nissan driven by Harry Tincknell, Oliver Turvey and Simon Dolan prevailed in the P2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing fifth overall. The No. 35 Oak Racing Ligier-Nissan driven by Nissan GT Academy racers (and former gamers) Jann Mardenborough and Mark Shulzhitskiy and established LM P2 racer Alex Brundle led the class for fourteen hours before encountering spark plug issues just two hours short of the finish.

(Photo by Richard Prince for Corvette Racing)
Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor (No. 73 Corvette Racing C7.R) finished second in the GTE Pro class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia driven by Gianmaria Bruni, Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella won the class in an almost perfect run. After battling issues throughout the race including a faulty valve stem for the Corvette’s air jack system, the No. 73 Corvette completed 338 laps (2,862.52 miles) and finished one lap down to the winning Ferrari. The final four hours of the race started with Taylor trailing the third-place Porsche 911 RSR by about 90 seconds before the young American drove a scintillating triple-stint to close the gap by more than half to 47 seconds. By the time he handed the No. 73 Corvette over to Magnussen and the Dane completed his first flying lap of his final stint, the interval to the new second-place Porsche was 28 seconds with an hour and 40 minutes left. Magnussen drove a single stint and handed over to Garcia. The Spaniard took out huge chunks of time and took the second position for good when the Porsche pitted with trouble 75 minutes from the end. The No. 74 Corvette C7.R team car of Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Richard Westbrook finished fourth in class. The car had been running in podium contention as well before losing eight laps due to a slipped alternator belt and gearbox leak. “My last stint was my best-ever stint in Le Mans, no doubt about it," Taylor said. "The car was awesome and we were much better on the tires than the Porsche we beat to third at the end. We triple-stinted our tires but they only double-stinted. Regardless we had the strongest package out there today. We were just unfortunate in the beginning  of the race.” Next up for Corvette Racing is the Sahlen’s Six Hours at The Glen on Sunday, June 29 from Watkins Glen International. The event will air live at 11 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.

(Aston Martin The Americas)
Nicki Thiim, Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeier Hansson (No. 95 Young Driver AMR V8 Vantage GTE) won the GTE Am class at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Gulf-liveried car finished with a two-lap lead over its nearest rival.

(Photos courtesy of FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy)
Latvia’s Reinis Nitiss (above) won World RX of Norway, round three of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy, after a near-perfect performance at the wheel of his No. 15 Olsberg MSE Ford Fiesta Supercar. The 18-year-old now leads the Championship over Norway’s Petter Solberg (No. 11 PSRX Citroen DS3 Supercar) who finished runner-up in front of a delighted home crowd. World RX debutant Ken Block (below) finished third – and took the Euro RX win – in his Hoonigan Racing Division Ford Fiesta. “I really couldn’t be happier,” said Block. “This is my first time on a proper rallycross track and to finish the event alongside two great guys [Nitiss and Solberg] on the podium is awesome. I struggled with the starts and haven’t quite figured it out yet but World RX is an awesome Championship and it’s been great for myself and the team to see how everything works.”

(Photo by Harold Hinson/HHP for GM Racing/Chevrolet)
Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet SS) had the measure of the NASCAR Sprint Cup field when it mattered at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday. It was Johnson's third win of the year, his first ever at MIS and his 69th career Sprint Cup victory. He is now second to Jeff Gordon (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet SS) in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings. Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Budweiser Chevrolet SS) finished second at MIS on Sunday, and Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Miller Lite Ford Fusion) came home in third. Watch a NASCAR video here.

(Mercedes-Benz)
Mercedes-Benz will be the leading marque at the 21st Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 26 - 29. The on-track action will be led by Lewis Hamilton as he lights up the tires of his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One machine on the 1.16-mile Goodwood Hill on Sunday. He’ll be joined by iconic cars spanning a century – from the Mercedes Grand Prix racing car that formed part of the trio that scored a one-two-three at the French Grand Prix in 1914 – to the beautiful and brutal W 125, W 165 and of course, the magnificent W196 (above) Silver Arrows. Driving Mercedes-Benz racers and road cars at Goodwood will be a line-up of legendary drivers – from Roland Asch to Anthony Davidson and Dario Franchitti, Johnny Herbert and Silver Arrows driver Hans Herrmann, Klaus Ludwig and Jochen Mass, Sir Stirling Moss, Paul and Sir Jackie Stewart, Bernd Schneider and Karl Wendlinger.

(Image courtesy of Red Bull Global Rallycross)
Following Scott Speed’s win at the first round of the Championship in Barbados in the 7UP Polo, the talented American driver took his, and Volkswagen’s, second consecutive victory at Global Rallycross’ biggest stage — the summer X Games in Austin, Texas (above). Speed (No. 77 Andretti Autosport 7UP VW Polo) and Tanner Foust (No. 34 Andretti Autosport Rockstar Energy Drink VW Polo) are preparing for the third round of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Championship this weekend at the Volkswagen Rallycross DC at RFK Stadium, Washington, D.C., June 21-22. It will be a "home" race for the Andretti Autosport VW GRC squad because of its close proximity to the Volkswagen Group of America headquarters in Herndon, VA, near to the nation’s capital. "We have strong momentum going into the Volkswagen Rallycross DC event. Coming off two wins in Barbados and X Games Austin, we are well-ahead in the points hunt,” said Speed. “We will continue to focus and make sure the 7UP Volkswagen pushes to the front of the pack.” While Speed has been red hot in the first two races of the Red Bull Global Rallycross season, Foust has had a tough go of it with incidents in Barbados and Austin. He will be seeking to turn his season around at the event. NBC will air the race live on Sunday, June 22 at 2 p.m. EST. Follow @VW and @FollowAndretti on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend. For tickets and further event information, visit: http://www.rbgrcdc.com/

(McLaren Automotive North America)
McLaren will have a huge presence at the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed later this month. In a new location for 2014, adjacent to the TAG Heuer Drivers’ Club, the McLaren House will be home to examples of the recently launched 650S Coupe and Spider, the McLaren P1, as well of one of the earliest examples of McLaren’s successful racers, the M7C, the machine driven by Bruce McLaren to three podium finishes during the 1969 Formula 1 season.

(Volkswagen)
The Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross team has officially unveiled the Beetle GRC rallycross machine, which will run later this season in the Red Bull Global Rallycross championship, driven by Tanner Foust and Scott Speed. The GRC Beetle has a turbocharged and intercooled 1.6-liter four-cylinder TSI® engine with 544 horsepower. Designed and engineered from the ground up as a GRC car, the super Beetle has a sequential six-speed gearbox, with a fixed-ratio all-wheel-drive system that features multiplate limited-slip differentials at the front and rear. The car uses an all-around strut-type suspension, with ZF dampers and about 9.1 inches of travel to cope with the rigors of the off-road portion of a rallycross course. The GRC Beetle has 14.0-inch diameter front and 11.8-inch rear vented disc brakes, with four-piston aluminum calipers. The 17-inch wheels are equipped with 240/640-R17 Yokohama competition tires. Overall, the car is 168.8 inches long and 71.7 inches wide, and has to weigh in at a minimum of 2668 pounds, per series regulations. The sprint from 0 to 60 mph should be around 2.1 seconds.

(Volkswagen)