Weekend Motorsports Preview: Something for Everyone

Unless the only racing that you care about is Formula 1, there will be racing for you to watch this weekend. If you like touring cars there are races from the DTM, V8 Supercars and WTCC. The biggest race of the weekend is the Six Hours of Spa for the World Endurance Championship. There is also a MotoGP race from Jerez. 

DTM

The Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters has its first race of the year this weekend at the Hockenheimring.

There are some rules changes this year. The cars are equipped with a drag reduction system similar to what used in Formula 1. It allows for a 5km/h to 10km/h increase in speed. There is a new Hankook option tire, but teams are only able to use them for a limited number of laps. Also there is only one 90-minute practice session before qualifying and the race. 

Audi is switching the A5Audi A5Germany, 2007 > present197 versions
464 photos
2 videos
to RS5Audi RS 5 DTMGermany, 2013 > present5 photos
as their car for this season, but it is more of a change in branding than a change in the actual car.

The race starts at 1:33pm (11:33am GMT) local time on Sunday, May 5, and it will be streamed on DTM.tv.

NASCAR

The series heads to the Talladega Superspeedway for a 188-lap, 500-mile race. The race starts at 1:00pm ET (5:00pm GMT) on Sunday, May 5. Jimmie Johnson leads the championship with 343 points.

V8 Supercars

The series heads to the Barbagallo Raceway in Perth for three races - one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Will Davison leads the championship with 697 points.

World Endurance Championship

The Six Hours of Spa is on Saturday, May 4. Qualifying has just ended, and the starting order will be the #1 AudiAudi R18 e-tron quattroGermany, 2012 > present8 photos
2 videos
, #3 Audi long tail, #2 Audi, #7 ToyotaToyota TS030 HYBRIDJapan, 2012 > present5 photos
2 videos
and #8 Toyota in the LMP1 class. In the LMP2 class, the #49 Pecom Racing, #38 JOTA and #24 OAK Racing lead the class. The #98 Aston MartinAston Martin Vantage GTEUnited Kingdom, 2012 > present4 photos
1 video
led the GTE-Pro class followed by the #51 and #71 AF Corse FerrarisFerrari 458 Italia GTCItaly, 2011 > present5 photos
1 video
. In GTE-Am, the #95 Aston Martin, #81 8 Star Motorsports' Ferrari and #96 Aston Martin lead the class.

The race starts at 2:30pm local time (12:30pm GMT) and will be streamed at Audi Live Racing

WRC

The Rally Argentina runs from May 3 to May 5. The big news for the race is that Sebastien Loeb has returned to CitroënDS DS3 WRCFrance, 2010 > present10 photos
for this rally. As of the first 10 stages of competition, Loeb is in first place with an 8.9 second lead over Mikko Hirvonen.

WTCC

The series moves to the Hungaroring for its fourth round of the year. It will hold two, 12-lap races on Sunday, May 5. Yvan Muller leads the championship with 120 points, a 24-point lead.