In 2023, McLaren joined the ranks of car manufacturers with a one-make racing series when it launched the inaugural McLaren Trophy season in Europe.
Similar to Ferrari’s pioneering challengeThe series is open to private teams made up of aspiring and amateur racing drivers, and is fully supported by McLaren in terms of logistics, spare parts and other trackside support.
McLaren announced in March that the series would expand to the U.S. in 2025, and on Monday the company released the calendar for the inaugural U.S. season.
There will be five rounds of two races each, supporting the GT World Challenge America calendar. Each race will be 50 minutes long and will include mandatory pit stops for driver changes, and the McLaren Automotive YouTube channel will stream all of the races live.
![McLaren Trophy single-make racing series McLaren Trophy single-make racing series](https://thegurumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/mclaren-trophy-one-make-race-series_100920945_l.webp.webp)
McLaren Trophy single-make racing series
The five rounds will be held at Sonoma Raceway (March 28-30), Circuit of the Americas (April 25-27), Virginia International Raceway (July 18-20), Road America (August 15-17) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (October 3-5). Formula 1 fans will note that Circuit of the Americas is the current home of the United States Grand Prix.
A Trophy racing car based on the McLaren Artura supercar will be the focus of the McLaren Trophy in the USA, although teams will still be competing with the old 570S Trophy in the European series you will be able to compete in the US series with the older car. There will be separate classes for each car.
The Trophy versions of the supercars are close in specification to their street-legal siblings, but feature modifications to aerodynamics, powertrains and safety systems. McLaren says the cars offer performance that comes close to matching GT3 race cars. In the case of the Artura Trophy, the plug-in hybrid system from the street car has been removed, meaning there is only a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6, tuned in this case to deliver 577 horsepower, versus the 596 horsepower that the engine makes in the street car.