With the summer break over, the chase for the World Endurance Championship titles resumes with the Lone Star Le Mans on 4-6 September, as the leading players in the top endurance series take to the track in Austin for a 6-hour race.
Circuit of The Americas opens the second half of the 2026 season, and in Texas there will clearly be plenty of curiosity to see how things develop in the Hypercar class, where BMW and Toyota are battling for the lead, pursued by Ferrari, which has no intention of giving up without a fight.
Naturally, the spotlight will also be on local favourite Cadillac, which after the bitter pill swallowed in Sao Paulo is eager for redemption with a V-Series.R that has shown itself to be more competitive in various situations. For this reason, the General Motors brand has chosen to call up local hero Ricky Taylor, to whom it will entrust the wheel of the #12 in place of Alex Lynn, who will return for the final two rounds of the year.
Genesis Magma Racing, meanwhile, was at COTA in recent weeks for an important development test session with its GMR-001. Once the race is over, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Korean brand's team will join Ferrari and Aston Martin for further private tests, with the latter two manufacturers having recently begun working on evolutions of their respective 499P and Valkyrie for 2027.
In the LMGT3 class, this is a hugely important event for Corvette Racing, currently leading with the TF Sport's #33 Z06 GT3.R driven by Jonny Edgar, and with the desire to perform well in front of its home crowd.
Obviously, nobody just stand by. The #92 Porsche-Manthey of reigning champions Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz is 27 points behind the Corvette, while it will also be worth keeping an eye on BMW-WRT, Ferrari-AF Corse and Lexus-ASP, as well as the Ford-Proton entries backed by the home crowd.
THE SCHEDULE
Track action begins on Friday with the first two free practice sessions, both lasting 90 minutes, as always useful to prepare both the assault on Hyperpole and Sunday's race.
On Saturday, there will be the usual final 60-minute free practice session before qualifying, split by giving the LMGT3s track time first and then continuing with the Hypercar session.
On Sunday, Lone Star Le Mans will start at lunchtime, with the race concluding late in the evening after six hours of action.
So let's look at the schedule to follow all the track action.
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
 COTA |
|
| COTA - Free Practice 1 | |
| COTA - Free Practice 2 | |
| COTA - Free Practice 3 | |
| COTA - Qualifying - LMGT3 | |
| COTA - Hyperpole - LMGT3 | |
| COTA - Qualifying - HYPERCAR | |
| COTA - Hyperpole - HYPERCAR | |
| COTA - Race | |
Lone Star Le Mans - Session timings in CDT (-5 GMT)
FRIDAY 4 SEPTEMBER
- Free Practice 1: 11:30-13:00
- Free Practice 2: 16:00-17:30
SATURDAY 5 SEPTEMBER
- Free Practice 3: 11:00-12:00
- LMGT3 Qualifying: 15:00-15:12
- LMGT3 Hyperpole: 15:20-15:30
- Hypercar Qualifying: 15:40-15:52
- Hypercar Hyperpole: 16:00-16:10
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
- Race: 13:00 - 19:00
FIA WEC 2026: how to watch Lone Star Le Mans
The entire World Endurance Championship can be watched on Eurosport in most parts of Europe, and MotorTrend and HBO+ in North America.
The championship has also launched the brand-new FIAWEC+ website and app, which also includes Live Timing provided by official timekeeper Al Kamel.
As is the case with every round other than Le Mans, Free Practice 1 and 2 will not be broadcast live on TV, but both sessions can be followed via official timing.
Live coverage begins with Free Practice 3 live.
