As the 2025 IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship drew to a close, so did that of two names heavily associated with the modern Hypercar era: Lamborghini have shut up shot, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have turned their final laps with BMW as WRT take over the IMSA operation for 2026.

Both will surely be missed in their own ways, but I want to first take a parting glance at Lamborghini.

It’s safe to say the SC63’s time in Hypercar hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride. Allegations of fraud, a general lack of funding and an awkward divorce with original service providers Iron Lynx have left the Italian brand with far more bruises to their reputation in the sportscar racing world than they’d have originally envisioned.

When it was announced back in May of 2022, the sportscar racing world was left foaming at the mouth. A brand without much in the way of motorsport pedigree finally making a serious move to take on the big boys of the game was an awesome prospect, and it came during the arguable zenith of the hype surrounding Hypercar. When it was announced that Iron Lynx was joining to run the SC63 programme in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA, I still remember the absolute frenzy of speculation. Would we, could we get an Iron Dames SC63?

Sadly, the answer would be no. Not since 1991 has there been an all female crew competing at Le Man’s top class, and that wait is sadly still ongoing despite today’s abundance of entries.

No. Instead, what we got was a struggle from the word go. After missing it’s slated 24 Hours of Daytona debut, the SC63 went on to what can only be described as another in Lamborghini’s short list of dismal top class efforts.

Even with Romain Grosjean in their WEC lineup, and with two cars in the field in that first season of competition what was supposed to be Lamborghini’s magnum opus produced an incredible record of one points finish all season long. Their only saving grace was that it’s first – and only – Le Mans run was something to at least pat themselves on the back about. A Lamborghini lasted all 24 hours the first time ever.

That was the programme’s peak.

Since there, bar promising showings at the 2024 Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis and last week’s Petit Le Mans, it’s all been doom and gloom. It would only race a total of fifteen occasions, which saw a total of zero wins, zero podiums and a single fastest lap.

Really, the SC63 never got a fair chance. With Lamborghini unwilling to commit to a second stab at WEC and Le Mans, the car only contested the five race IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup in 2025 and that was only compounded when Iron Lynx cut ties citing a lack of factory support and alleged data breaches.

And so with Riley Technologies drafted in as an emergency replacement, optimism was always going to be hard to come by and, sadly, that lack of confidence was only proven right. An embarrassing early exit at Daytona saw the car run just 34 laps total – less than two hours of total track time – before overheating ensued and the car’s day was done. Sebring saw similar mechanical issues, with the sole car classified 48th overall. Their only memorable moment was that aforementioned Road Atlanta finale, where a couple of smart strategy decisions were oh so close to paying off.

When we inevitably resort to retrospectively comparing each Hypercar in twenty years time, it’s fair to say the SC63 will not find itself amongst the Ferraris and Toyotas, moreso the Vanwall end of the spectrum.

They weren’t the only ones the sportscar community found itself waving goodbye too, as a much longer and storied one had one final race to run. After 16 years of loyal service, lacklustre performances saw BMW announce that as of 2026 they will cease lending factory support to Team RLL, in favor of giving WEC counterpart WRT the nod to take control.

It’s a partnership that goes back to 2009, with a strong debut year as the American factory team with third in that year’s American Le Mans Series teams championship standings. A runner up spot at Petit Le Mans secured further backing from BMW and it wasn’t long before Munich knew they’d made the right call. Team RLL soon changed their entire reputation from a Indycar backmarker to one of GT Racing’s most formidable outfits.

The new decade saw RLL conquer the series from every angle. Claiming the team’s title in 2010, they then swept the series the following year, claiming the driver’s, team’s and manufacturer’s championships plus a class win at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Their time with the M2 GT2 was impeccable, but as with Lamborghini, the team arguably hit their peak early on life too.

After a competitive 2012 season, the beloved M3 was ditched in favour of the new Z4 GTE and RLL never really recovered. For the rest of their tenure as BMW’s North American representatives they’d never win another title, their only real claim to fame being a Daytona 24 class win for the M8 GTE in 2020.

The promise of a GTP project from 2023 brought RLL some new hope that, perhaps, they’d find their feet once more with a first foray into prototypes. Sadly for them, their time with the M V8 Hybrid was anything but. A disastrous debut at Daytona in 2023 saw numerous electrical issues, before a middling performance at Sebring was elevated by a controversial crash in the last 20 minutes. There’s certainly an argument their runner up spot was fortuitous, but it was Watkins Glen where the car showed true promise. After a brilliant strategy and after having unlocked the car’s true pace for the first time, the team were leading with ten minutes to go before German neighbours Porsche ruined Munich’s party minutes before they were able to celebrate.

However, when it was revealed that Porsche themselves had fallen foul of underfloor wear regulations BMW were instated at the top of the official standings despite having finished second on the road. Thus, RLL had secured BMW’s first top class win since the days of the V12 LMR.

Consistent points finishes followed, before a first win at the road at 2024’s Battle on the Bricks once again proved that the car was capable of beating Porsche in a straight fight. But compared with WRT’s WEC performances, and against the rest of the GTP field BMW finally saw fit to consolidate their prototype programme, the announcement arriving in July that after 16 years RLL would lose their factory support to WRT.

Where do they go from here? Time will only tell, though rumours have already sprouted that they’ll be running as a privateer with McLaren’s own GT3 offering from next year.

As for Lamborghini, something tells me they’ll re-emerge in thirty years for their fourth crack at building a top class car that actually lives up to the hype. And hopefully if they do, they’ll finally get it right.

thumbnail credit – SmackJam, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons