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The DTM will use an Indycarstyle push-to-pass system alongside a revised DRS in 2019 in a bid to improve the racing spectacle. The first pushto-pass device in DTM history will allow drivers to access an extra 30bhp which they will be allowed to use 12 times in a race. The DTM has also revised its DRS approach, with the device now activated within a three-second range of the car in front… Sheldon van der Linde will make his DTM debut in 2019, as he replaces Augusto Farfus in BMW’S factory line-up. The 19-yearold has contested a variety of touring car and GT championships since leaving his native South Africa as a two-time champion of the national Volkswagen Cup in 2015, which included finishing on the podium at last year’s Spa 24 Hours… Reigning DTM champion and HWA Formula E driver Gary Paffett will be part of the Mercedes assault on this year’s Intercontinental GT Challenge. Paffett, who has previous experience of Merc GT3 machinery from the Spa 24 Hours in 2016 and ’18, has been named by the German manufacturer as one of nine full-time drivers for the fiveround IGTC. The series kicks of next month with the Bathurst 12 Hours… New Ferrari Formula 1 simulator driver Pascal Wehrlein could contest Indycar races as well as the Le Mans 24 Hours this year. Wehrlein, who raced for the Manor and Sauber Formula 1 teams in 2016 and ’17, split from long-term backer Mercedes at the end of last year… Glen Wood, co-founder of historic NASCAR team Wood Brothers Racing, has died at the age of 93. Wood was a four-time race winner in NASCAR’S top division, but is best known for creating Wood Brothers Racing – the category’s longest-running team – with siblings Leonard and Delano… TCR promoter WSC and Creventic, the Dutch organisation that runs the 24H Series that includes the Dubai 24 Hours and Barcelona 24 Hours, will organise the inaugural ‘TCR Spa 500’. It will be run exclusively for TCR machinery and will be run over 500 laps, or 3502km (2176 miles), on the Spa-francorchamps circuit.