Following its annual summer break, the FIA World Endurance Championship will roar back into action at Austin’s Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Texas this weekend (4-6 September), with Lone Star Le Mans set to deliver the next unmissable instalment of a sensational season.
Designed with the input of former motorcycling world champion Kevin Schwantz, COTA first welcomed FIA WEC in 2013 and is the most modern venue on the calendar. The track quickly established itself as a favourite amongst drivers and fans alike for its dramatic elevation changes, sweeping high-speed corners, slow technical sections, notorious bumps, a signature uphill climb into Turn 1 – known as ‘Big Red’ – and the triple-apex right-hander that makes up Turns 16, 17 and 18.
Run in an anti-clockwise direction, the 5.513km, 20-turn lap is famously tough on tyres and brakes, with Hypercars reaching speeds in excess of 315km/h. What’s more, while all 35 entries took the chequered flag two months ago in São Paulo, COTA has developed a reputation as a bit of a car-breaker in recent years, with eight crews failing to complete the 2024 race, and seven in 2025 – underscoring the circuit’s demanding nature.
It also has a habit of generating memorable moments and breathtaking battles, with the 2017 event witnessing the series’ tightest-ever outright finish under green flag conditions at a slender 0.276 seconds. By the same token, the even slenderer 0.256-second margin of victory in LMGT3 last summer represented the closest finish in the production-based class to-date – and the closest in any category between two rival marques. One way or another, another epic encounter this weekend looks assured…
The 2026 edition of Lone Star Le Mans marks FIA WEC’s 15th trip to North America, 75th six-hour race and 40th contest in the headlining Hypercar category – and the hunt for honours could scarcely be more finely-poised, with a tie at the top of the Drivers’ World Championship table and a mere five points separating multiple title-holder Toyota from breakthrough brand BMW in the Manufacturers’ standings.
Both automotive icons have triumphed twice this season, but neither has ever prevailed at COTA. Indeed, the track is one of just four in FIA WEC history that Toyota has never conquered, though #8 driver Brendon Hartley won there three years in a row with Porsche from 2015 to 2017. Team-mate Sébastien Buemi and #7 stablemate Mike Conway, moreover, are the only drivers to have participated in every one of the series’ previous races at the circuit.
There is strong prior form in the BMW camp, too, with Sheldon van der Linde – who partners current championship leaders René Rast and Robin Frijns in the #20 M Hybrid V8 – setting the fastest lap of the 2025 race weekend in Austin, during FP2.
Cadillac arrives on home soil eager to maintain the positive momentum of its first podium finish in 12 months last time out at Interlagos, with the JOTA-run V-Series.R having proven a potent package in every round so far this year. Norman Nato and Earl Bamber are former overall winners at COTA – the New Zealander on his way to clinching the coveted world championship crown in 2017 – while two-time IMSA champion, Ricky Taylor will bolster the Anglo-American alliance’s line-up this weekend.
Elsewhere in the fiercely-disputed Hypercar field, Peugeot reached the rostrum for the first time in 2025 in Texas, with the Lions’ team leader Loïc Duval part of the triumphant crew in the race’s inaugural running with Audi. The Frenchman has held the official lap record at the track since 2016.
While qualifying form has not always translated into race day results this season, at COTA – as at Interlagos – it could be a different story. The six-hour bout has never been won outright from lower than fourth on the grid, and six of the eight outings have yielded a single-marque front row lockout. In both 2024 and 2025, that marque was Ferrari, and the Prancing Horse will be targeting a similar performance again as it bids to haul itself back onto terms in the title fight.
At what has traditionally been a strong circuit for the 499P – with the Italian prototype boasting an impressive 50 per cent podium strike rate in the event, better than any of its Hypercar rivals – the defending world champions will be aiming to end their longest-ever winless streak in FIA WEC, all categories combined.
Corvette leads the way in LMGT3 at the mid-season stage, with the #33 Z06 having prevailed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the sister #34 entry then doing likewise in Brazil – marking the first time an American carmaker has entered its home round off the back of consecutive victories. The General Motors-owned brand, however, has yet to win on US soil, and has registered a solitary rostrum finish at COTA in FIA WEC, back in 2016.
Local hero Ben Keating – who hails from just outside of Houston – will assume the record for most FIA WEC starts by an American driver when he makes his 45th appearance this weekend. Only France and the UK have produced more competitors in the championship than the USA’s total of 95, with eight on the entry list for Lone Star Le Mans, including ex-Formula 1 star, Logan Sargeant at Proton Competition. Five of them are already podium-visitors this year.
Both LMGT3 contests at COTA thus far have gone the way of British manufacturers, with McLaren celebrating its maiden win last season following a post-race penalty for the #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari. Twelve months earlier, Heart of Racing Team had triumphed in Texas – a result that remains the only LMGT3 victory achieved from pole position, and Aston Martin’s sole success in the class to-date.
It also represented the most recent of the legendary British marque’s ten podium-topping performances at the track – twice as many as any of its rivals. Like Ferrari, Aston Martin is currently enduring an unprecedented barren run, but it returns to Austin buoyed by back-to-back poles at La Sarthe and Interlagos.
In 2025, it was Proton Competition’s pair of Ford Mustangs that dominated LMGT3 Hyperpole at COTA, although the American muscle cars have not started from the front row since. Notably, the category’s pole position curse continues, with no subsequent pole-sitter having bettered the eighth-place finish posted by the #88 Mustang at COTA last summer – or, this year, having scored any points at all.
The on-track sessions will begin with free practice on Friday, 4 September. Qualifying – and the Hyperpole top ten shootout – starts at 15:00 local time (GMT-5) on Saturday, 5 September, with the six-hour race getting underway at 13:00 local time (GMT-5) on Sunday, 6 September.
Check out all the key information regarding Lone Star Le Mans, including the full event timetable and entry list.
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