In brief, May 2010
* British sports car stalwarts Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter will team up in this year’s GT1 World Championship, sharing the second Nissan GT-R run by the new British Sumo Power squad.
* Former British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato will remain a Chevrolet driver in the series in 2010. The 42-year-old will stay with the factory RML team, graduating from a Lacetti to the Cruze model.
* The Triple 8 Engineering squad, winner of six BTCC drivers’ titles, is moving into single-seaters. It has joined with Teamcraft, which ran Team Pakistan in A1GP, to field a Mygale-Mercedes in British F3.
* Brooklands Hotel has opened its doors in Surrey. The new art-deco-inspired building has the historic circuit literally ‘running through the lobby’ and features art influenced by the circuit and motor racing.
* Audi will run a scheme to let customers race one of its R8 LMS cars as part of a ‘factory’ team. Participants will compete for six-time Le Mans winner Reinhold Joest. The team plans to contest six races in 2010 including the VLN (Langstreckenmeisterschaft) on the Nordschleife.
* Martin Brundle has opened a new Daytona Raceway karting track in Kent. The Daytona Lydd International Raceway joins the company’s other circuits in Esher, Milton Keynes and Manchester.
* From April 30-May 2 there is an exhibition of paintings by Michael and Graham Turner at Halton House, near Wendover, Bucks. For details visit www.studio88.co.uk
* Tesla Motors and TAG Heuer are embarking on the first round-the-world trip by an electric, zero-emission GT car. The 24,000-mile journey began on March 18 in Basel. The tour is expected to take eight months and will end in Paris.
* Despite being laid up in hospital, Sir Stirling Moss placed the winning $1.7m bid on a Porsche RS61 at Gooding & Co’s Florida auction in March. “I’ve had my eye on that Porsche for several weeks and can’t wait to see it,” said Moss, who is recovering from broken ankles after a lift shaft fall. The Spyder is similar to the RS60 he raced in the 1961 Targa Florio.