McLaren Trophy, America 2025 US calendar confirmed with prominent US circuits chosen for inaugural season

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McLaren Automotive has confirmed the calendar for the inaugural 2025 McLaren Trophy America championship that will make its debut next Spring. The new championship will, like its European counterpart, have ten rounds at five venues.  Established in Europe for the 2023 season, McLaren Trophy is designed to challenge serious race drivers in 50-minute races with pitstops for driver changes. Designed for the 585PS V6 twin-turbo, carbon-fibre chassis Artura Trophy race car, the championship is also open to drivers of the older 570S Trophy.  The new McLaren Trophy America championship will get underway in late March 2025 at the Sonoma Raceway in Northern California, with all rounds supporting GT World Challenge America powered by AWS. From here the championship heads to the iconic Circuit of the Americas, which has hosted the US Grand Prix for over a decade.  The midpoint of the new championship will be at Virginia International Raceway in July, ahead of an August round at the challenging Road America circuit. The inaugural McLaren Trophy America season will finish in style at the Indianapolis road circuit in October.  The series features bespoke McLaren Artura Trophy race cars that share much of the same race-bred engineering technology as the highly acclaimed McLaren Artura road car, including the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) which provides a rigid and lightweight chassis for supreme racetrack performance and remarkable impact resistance.  Power comes from the same twin-turbo V6 engine as the road car, tuned for an output of 585PS, and creating a sensationally fast car in a straight line, further complemented by the fact that the 120-degree angle engine sits low in the chassis to make it equally spectacular in its cornering abilities. A bespoke aerodynamic package including a high downforce rear wing enhance the whole experience and enable the Artura Trophy to deliver lap times that compare favourably with GT3 class cars – whilst delivering maximum driver engagement.  Cars will be run by independent teams with existing 570S Trophy cars also being eligible for the series. These cars will compete for class wins and championships just like Artura Trophy and will be fully supported by McLaren Motorsport with replacement parts and back up available at every round.

Transcript

00:00There's a magical moment when you get in something that's been tuned for the racetrack

00:10that is a race car without compromise.

00:13There's a mental shift that goes in your head as a driver.

00:16You put the helmet on and get in this and you're like, all right, I'm ready.

00:25The synergies between the Artura road car and the Artura race car really for me comes

00:28down to balance.

00:29Without a doubt, the Artura is one of my favorite road cars I've driven just because of its

00:33approachability and how hard you can drive it on the road.

00:36And it has this operating window that gives you confidence to really know where the limit

00:40is.

00:41And that's echoed very much in the race car.

00:43Out on track, you can really challenge the braking.

00:45You know you're going to have the rear support on combined entries.

00:48The traction's unbelievable.

00:50So it's very clear that there's a lot of crossover in balance and stability and performance between

00:55the road car and the race car.

00:57The challenge of the single make racing is that everyone has the same equipment.

01:00So it really comes down to the driver to execute during qualifying, during the race.

01:04And the driver can make a big difference on the ultimate result of the race.

01:08My impressions of it are that it gave me an unworldly amount of confidence.

01:14And that's what I was hoping for because if a gentleman driver's ever going to get behind

01:18the wheel of one of these things, it's got to fill them with confidence.

01:21The sound was great.

01:22The tires were amazing.

01:23Just the brakes, even in the wet, I thought were sensational.

01:26So it's left me wanting more.

01:28The Artura Trophy was really eye-opening.

01:29You know, it was a lot of fun to get 15, 20 laps in it today, especially just coming out

01:34of Daytona where I raced the McLaren GT3 car.

01:37So a lot of high-performance similarities, a lot of fun to drive, and I wish I got more

01:41time with it.

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