HYUNDAI ALL-IN FOR SPORTS CAR RACING
A massive Korean attack is about to be unleashed on all levels of global sports car competition.
Hyundai has already announced an assault on the Le Mans 24-Hour race in 2026 under its Genesis flag and it will soon be followed – perhaps as early as this week – with a commitment to GT3 and GT4 racing.
The production-based GT effort is being built around a flagship two-seater for its upscale Genesis division and is likely to built around a production version of its X Gran Berlinetta Tribute concept car.
It's a front-mid engined supercar with curvy good looks and the promise of supercar performance from a turbocharged V6 engine.
The most obvious indication of the high-flying sports car program is the signing of Jacky Ickx, a six-time Le Mans 24-Hour winner and eight-time grand prix winner, as a Genesis brand ambassador.
He has been pictured many times with the Genesis concept car, although he is best known for his success with Porsche in sports cars – headlined by the second-most-successful Le Mans record after Audi racer Tom Kristensen.
Luring Ickx, who is also a past winner of the Bathurst 1000 alongside Allan Moffat and might return to Mount Panorama on some future date for the Bathurst 12-Hour, was a major coup for Genesis.
But it's only a small piece in a much larger sports car competition picture.
Hyundai is widely expected to end its participation in the World Rally Championship at the end of next year to focus on its track attack and free funds for the effort.
It has finally just claimed the WRC driver's title, as Belgian driver Thierry Neuville scored a points success in Japan after one of the most disjointed and unlikely contests – with the two fastest drivers, Kalle Rovanpera and Sebastian Ogier both running limited programs – in championship history.
Hyundai has recently re-signed Neuville to continue as its WRC spearhead – but only on a one-year deal that finishes at the end of 2025.
That, once again, dovetails with the sports car plans, including Le Mans, from 2026.
Hyundai also has a relatively low-key TCR circuit program, although it has just netted back-to-back Australian championships with Josh Buchan, HMO Customer Racing and its i30N.
But TCR is fading on the world scene and grid numbers have dropped to single digits at some times in Australia this year.
Surprisingly, there is an Australian connection to the Genesis GT program through the TCR program.
It is Rob Benson, an engine guru who has been leading the local TCR program after first shooting to prominence in the 1980s in Australia with the Holden Racing Team.
His career and expertise in V8 engines took him eventually to NASCAR in the USA before he was recruited by Hyundai for its four-cylinder turbo program in the World Rally Championship.
Benson has just been lured back to Alzenau in Germany by Hyundai, where there is every indication he will be key to a Genesis powertrain package perhaps built around some sort of turbocharged V8 engine.
It would be logical for Hyundai to use the same basic engine package for both its Hypercar hybrid racer at Le Mans and the GT3 and GT4 cars.