Kamui Kobayashi will return to Wayne Taylor Racing next year when he bids for a third victory in three starts at the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener.

The two-time World Endurance Championship title winner with Toyota was named in the #40 WTR with Andretti Cadillac V-Series.R for Daytona in January when the team announced an unchanged full-season driver line-up after its switch from Acura.

The regulars in the #40 car will be Jordan Taylor and Louis Deletraz, who came together when WTR expanded to two cars this year, while Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque will continue a partnership that dates back to 2021 in the #10.

The drivers who will join the two regular pairings are all veterans of previous WTR campaigns.

Kobayashi drove WTR Cadillac Daytona Prototype international machinery before the team’s four-season stint with Acura at Daytona in 2019 and 2020, winning the race both times, with Fernando Alonso among his team-mates in the first year.

The 38-year-old, who is also team principal of the Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC squad, was unable to drive for WTR on its switch to another Japanese brand and moved to the Action Express Racing Caddy DPi-V.R run in conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports under the Ally Cadillac Racing banner in 2021 and 2022.

The line-up in the #40 V-Series.R will be completed by Cadillac regular Alex Lynn, who will race the car at the Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans enduros that make up part of the five-event IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup segment of the series.

Current Cadillac driver Lynn will join WTR for enduro events

Photo by: Art Fleischmann

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The Briton, who looks certain to continue with Cadillac in the WEC on its switch of teams from Ganassi to Jota next year, has a 100% winning record with WTR, like Kobayashi.

Lynn contested the 2017 Sebring 12 Hours with the team, winning the race aboard a Caddy DPi shared with the Taylor brothers, who are the sons of team founder Wayne.

Ricky Taylor, who is returning to Cadillac after seven seasons with Acura that began at Penske in 2018, and Albuquerque will be joined by Will Stevens for Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans.

The Briton was part of the WTR Acura line-up in 2022 at Daytona and Sebring and is expected to move over to Cadillac with Jota next year after racing one of its customer Porsche 963 LMDhs in the WEC since last season.

Brendon Hartley, also a Toyota driver in the WEC, completes the line-up in the #10 car with a one-off at Daytona.

The New Zealander has raced for WTR since 2022 when he joined the team for the end-of-season Petit Le Mans 10-hour race at Road Atlanta and this year contested three of the five IMSA enduros in one of its Acura ARX-06s.

Kobayashi described his return to WTR as a “homecoming”, adding: “I have such an amazing and fun memory of racing with his team and also with Cadillac Racing.

“I am really appreciative not only to WTR and Cadillac to give me another opportunity to race for them but also Morizo-san [Morizo is the racing alias of Toyota chairman Akio Toyoda] and TGR for allowing me to compete in this historic event in the United States.”

WTR boss Taylor said that Kobayashi’s abilities “speak for themselves”.

MANCHESTER UNITED are preparing to face former manager Jose Mourinho when they take on Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday night.

It comes eight years after he was sacked by Red Devils chiefs following a mixed two and a half seasons at the helm.

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It was during his first campaign at Old Trafford that he took Man Utd to Fenerbahce in the Europa League.

And while he would eventually win the competition at the end of the season, the group-stage clash in November 2016 was an evening to forget for the iconic Portuguese coach.

Man Utd, who had beaten Fenerbahce 4-1 two weeks earlier, trailed after just two minutes and fell 2-0 down before the hour mark thanks to goals from Moussa Sow and Jeremain Lens.

Wayne Rooney pulled one back late on, but it proved to be merely a consolation.

And while it was nearly a decade ago, two of Man Utd’s starting line-up are still in Erik ten Hag‘s squad.

They are left-back Luke Shaw and forward Marcus Rashford.

Shaw played in front of keeper David de Gea and alongside defenders Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian.

Morgan Schneiderlin, Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba made up the midfield trio.

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And Rashford and Rooney were joined up front by Anthony Martial.

Pogba lasted just 30 minutes before he was replaced by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

The Swedish striker was one of three substitutions made by Mourinho.

Juan Mata came on for Schneiderlin at half-time, before Rashford made way for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The unused substitutes were Sergio Romero, Phil Jones, Ashley Young and Marouane Fellaini.

ABU DHABI – Khamzat Chimaev is confident he’ll be able to take Robert Whittaker to his world with ease.

Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) meets Whittaker (27-7 MMA, 17-5 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 308 co-main event at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi (pay-per-view, ESPN+). When asked if he thinks he could stand with Whittaker, Chimaev said he doesn’t see the fight playing out there.

“Who did stop my takedowns?” Chimaev told MMA Junkie and other reporters at Wednesday’s UFC 308 media day. “Nobody. So, I don’t think this guy will be different. Kamaru Usman has been a great champ, and he took down everyone. But I took him down. I dominate him in the rounds easy. What’s going to be different with taekwondo or karate guy compared to Usman, who’s been a wrestler? He was a professional wrestler before.”

Chimaev hasn’t competed since defeating former UFC welterweight champion Usman last October at UFC 294. He has recently experienced some health issues and appeared to slow down late in his recent wins over Gilbert Burns and Usman.

But Chimaev assures that despite this being his first scheduled five-round fight, he’s still going to storm out of the gate like always.

“I’ve been pushing from first second to last second in my sparring, but I don’t think it will be different in the cage, as well,” Chimaev said. “I didn’t say anything about my health before the Usman fight, so everyone thinks Khamzat went into the cage healthy, but it wasn’t that. I was sick in the morning before the fight. I didn’t find an excuse. I didn’t cry.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 308.

American Express has become an official partner of Formula 1 after expanding its sponsorship deal with the series.

Having previously been a regional partner in the Americas, Amex will now be visible at 15 of F1’s 24 grands prix next season.

Amex card members will gain access to a raft of perks, including pre-sale tickets and a range of on-site experiences at the tracks where the company will hold activations – including the Monaco, British and Italian Grands Prix.

The multi-year expansion of the previous agreement is a reflection of the close partnership that has developed, not only through Amex’s sponsorship in the Americas but also its commitment to the F1 Academy.

Earlier this year, Amex became an official partner of F1 Academy, sponsoring a car in the female-only series, supporting British racer Jess Edgar and also hosting a “Celebration of Women with Drive” event at the Miami Grand Prix back in May which featured an appearance from award-winning musician Camila Cabello.

“American Express has been a fantastic partner to Formula 1 in the Americas and as a supporter of F1 Academy, and I’m delighted that they have chosen to expand their relationship with us to become an official partner,” said Formula 1’s chief commercial officer Emily Prazer.

“We look forward to working with Amex to enhance the experience of card members at our races and showcasing Amex perks to our existing fans everywhere we race.”
Amex will continue to have a presence at the races in the Americas, including at this weekend’s Mexico Grand Prix.

Jessica Edgar, Rodin Motorsport

Photo by: F1 Academy Limited

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Complimentary race radios will be available for card members, while the Amex Fan Experience will allow ticket holders the chance to design their own car livery and record their own driver intro video.

 “We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Formula 1, building on the strong momentum of the sponsorship in the Americas over the past year,” added American Express chief marketing officer Elizabeth Rutledge.

“With more than 300 million fans worldwide age 18-34, F1 continues to grow in popularity and as a passion area for Millennials and Gen Z – American Express’ fastest growing customer segment.”

Captain John McGinn says he has never met anyone else like Unai Emery and that the Spaniard’s place among the legendary figures in Aston Villa’s history is already assured.

Villa’s impressive start to the season continued with a 2-0 victory over Bologna as they went top of the Champions League table.

Emery, who celebrates two years in charge at Villa Park on Thursday, has also guided the side to fourth in this season’s Premier League, four points behind leaders Liverpool.

The 52-year-old has yet to win a trophy with the club but McGinn believes his place in Villa history is safe.

“No matter what happens until now and whenever he leaves – we hope it’s never – he will certainly go down as one of our club’s greatest managers,” McGinn said.

“You feed off your leader. He is our leader and we feed off that. No-one can question what he puts in, the effort – and everything which comes his way and our way is on the back of hard work.

“He is just so driven. I have never met anyone like him,” added the 30-year-old.

McGinn acknowledged Emery has been the “only person” who has not been excited by Villa’s early season form, with the ex-Arsenal boss instead concentrating on his job.

“He just focuses his full energy all the time,” added the Scotland midfielder.

“He does not let us take our foot off the gas so we can use all our energy and enthusiasm, and the excitement we have. His determination and intensity is unmatched.”

Max Holloway respects Ilia Topuria’s skills ahead of their lightweight title bout at UFC 308 on Saturday, but he doesn’t understands a few things about his opponent.

Topuria captured the UFC belt by stopping Alexander Volkanovski in shocking fashion earlier this year, and now faces the man that has given the MMA world one an all-time memorable moment with a last-second knockout over Justin Gaethje to claim the BMF belt. Topuria challenged Holloway to do his “point down” call in the first 10 seconds of the bout rather than the final ones, and Holloway thinks that’s just Topuria being unoriginal.

“It just makes no sense,” Holloway said at the UFC 308 media day in Abu Dhabi. “At the end of the day, to me, I don’t think he deserves. You gotta earn that right. I don’t think he deserved that right. I mean, you know the guy that he’s copycatting. This guy’s a copycat. Down to the tattoos, his aura, to the way he’s approaching fights. The guy’s a copycat and you’re best friends with the guy he’s trying to copy.

“At the end of the day, I think you got to earn that moment. I believe he could have earned it with Josh Emmett in their five-round war. Josh Emmett was trying to swing. If you guys go back to that fight ,and watch what happened, when Josh Emmett was trying to swing, someone shot and someone hold someone down for the rest of the fight, so I think the moment needs to be earned. He’s just trying to steal stuff. He’s already trying to steal one person’s aura, and now he’s trying to steal somebody else’s thing, so it’s amazing.”

Holloway called Topuria’s mind “very interesting” with the way he speaks and acts going into a fight, but “if that’s what it takes to be the best version of himself come Saturday night, so be it.”

“I’m more confused about everything he’s saying about me not wanting to fight him, me getting forced to fight him,” he said. “He got me out here feeling like how he looked after my Gaethje fight. It’s crazy.”

Having said all that, Holloway does not underestimate a man that has won seven straight inside the octagon and 18 overall as a MMA fighter.

“He’s good,” Holloway said. “A lot of people forget that when he came into the UFC he got brought in as a grappler and wrestler, that’s what he was, and he came to the UFC and started knocking people out. His boxing is nice. As a fighter, you cannot be a hater and say he’s not good. Is he proven? He did what he had to do, when he had to do it, to get to the position he has, so there’s no disrespect to that. But he get to see me come Saturday night, so that should be fun.”

UFC 308 will mark Holloway’s 16th five-round fight since joining the UFC in February of 2012, three years prior to Topuria’s first MMA bout. Yet, “Blessed” doesn’t feel in disadvantage being five years older than the current champion.

“I’m just a couple years older than him,” said Holloway, who has more than double the experience in terms of MMA bouts with 34 appearances. “I’ve been here, done that. A lot of people keep forgetting how young I was. I think ESPN posted it. When I was at his age, I had all my title wins and title defenses, so that’s just how that goes. … I know he talked about his cardio. He believed he has cardio, but most of the time, his cardio is outshining the opponent’s cardio because he’s hurting them early in their fights. The beautiful thing is guys, I just cannot wait, man. I can’t wait. There’s going to be something special. Tune in Saturday night.”