Twenty Huracáns on the Yas Marina Grid Open a Global Season
When approximately twenty Huracán Super Trofeos line up at Yas Marina Circuit on February 2-3, they will fire the starting gun on something far larger than a regional race weekend. The Abu Dhabi opener launches an 18-round global campaign stretching from the Persian Gulf to Laguna Seca by September, a geographic footprint that reveals exactly where Lamborghini sees its customer base, and its competitive identity, growing. For a brand that staged its first European one-make championship only nine years earlier, the scale of the 2018 calendar amounts to a statement of intent.
The Middle East leg, entering its second season, runs three double rounds between early February and early March, alternating between Yas Marina and Dubai. Each weekend consists of two 50-minute races preceded by two 20-minute qualifying sessions and two 60-minute free practice sessions, a format carried over from the inaugural 2017 Middle East season. The grid mixes returning operations like GDL Racing (2017 Pro and Am champion in the region) and Konrad Motorsport (2017 Pro-Am winner) with newcomers including Japanese outfit Emperor Racing and the returning English squad Toro Loco. That blend of established teams and fresh entries signals the Middle East series attracted enough interest in year one to justify expansion rather than contraction.
Why Super Trofeo Carries More Weight Than a Typical One-Make Series
One-make racing championships exist across the supercar segment. Ferrari runs its Challenge series, Porsche fields the Carrera Cup, and several other manufacturers offer similar programs. What separates Lamborghini’s approach is how directly the Super Trofeo feeds into the brand’s broader motorsport identity and, increasingly, its product development cycle.
Since its European debut in 2009, the Super Trofeo has expanded to Asia, North America, and now the Middle East. The European series celebrates its tenth edition in 2018, a milestone few customer racing programs from any manufacturer can claim with unbroken continuity. Lamborghini motorsport boss Giorgio Sanna previously described the Middle East as a “strategic” market for the brand, and placing a racing series in Abu Dhabi and Dubai reinforces that commercial priority with something more tangible than a dealership opening.
The one-make format, where every competitor races an identical Huracán Super Trofeo, strips away the engineering arms race that defines open-class GT racing. Championships are decided by driver skill, team preparation, and racecraft rather than budget-driven aerodynamic development. For the gentleman drivers who populate the Am and Lamborghini Cup classes, that level playing field is the entire point. For Squadra Corse, the engineering division behind the program, running hundreds of identical race cars across four continents generates a volume of real-world durability data that no test bench can replicate. Every grid in every climate zone becomes another data set feeding the next generation of Lamborghini competition cars.
The Huracán Super Trofeo: V10 Race Car Built for Every Skill Level
At the center of this global operation sits a single machine. The Huracán Super Trofeo is a hardcore, race-ready iteration of the road-going Huracán, stripped of creature comforts and rebuilt around an enhanced version of the production model’s 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 engine. Significant weight reduction through carbon fiber and aluminum construction transforms the car’s character from grand tourer to purpose-built racer, while a roll cage visible through the windshield, racing slicks, and aggressive aerodynamic elements including a large rear wing complete the conversion.
Lamborghini structures the series with four driver classes: Pro, Pro-Am, Am, and Lamborghini Cup. That tiered system is the key to the program’s commercial appeal and its strategic value. A professional looking to build a GT3 career can race in the Pro class against similarly credentialed competitors. A Lamborghini owner with track day experience but no racing license can enter the Lamborghini Cup class and compete against peers of roughly equivalent ability. One source suggests the Super Trofeo series offers world-class performance at a relatively accessible price point for entry into GT-level racing, positioning it as a genuine pathway rather than a vanity exercise.
Lamborghini does not publicly detail the full cost of a season’s participation, and those figures vary by region, team affiliation, and class. What the four-class structure confirms is that Squadra Corse designed the program to accommodate a range of budgets and ambitions, from owner-drivers running a few rounds to professional outfits contesting the full calendar. Each of those participants, regardless of class, puts miles on the same platform and generates the same engineering intelligence for the factory.
Eighteen Rounds Across Iconic Circuits
After the Middle East rounds conclude in early March, the three main continental series launch in quick succession, and the calendar reads like a greatest-hits collection of international motorsport venues.
Lamborghini says the Asian series opens at Sepang, Malaysia on April 14-15, running alongside the Blancpain GT Series Asia. One week later, the European series begins at Monza on April 21-22, coinciding with the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup opener. The North American series follows at Mid-Ohio on May 5-6, a circuit returning to the calendar after a multi-year absence, running in conjunction with the IMSA GT series.
A notable calendar change for Europe: Misano Adriatico replaces Paul Ricard for Round 3 on June 23-24. The rest of the European schedule visits Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, and the Nürburgring. In Asia, the series moves through Buriram, Suzuka, Fuji Speedway, and Shanghai. North America covers Watkins Glen, Road America, Virginia International Raceway, and Laguna Seca.
| Series | Rounds | Key Circuits | Season Span |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middle East | 3 double rounds | Yas Marina, Dubai | Feb – Mar |
| Europe | 5 rounds | Monza, Silverstone, Spa, Nürburgring, Misano | Apr – Sep |
| Asia | 5 rounds | Sepang, Suzuka, Fuji, Shanghai, Buriram | Apr – Sep |
| North America | 5 rounds | Mid-Ohio, Watkins Glen, Road America, Laguna Seca, VIR | May – Sep |
Pairing Super Trofeo rounds with established GT series events like Blancpain and IMSA is a deliberate strategic choice. It guarantees larger trackside audiences, shared paddock infrastructure, and a built-in audience of motorsport media. For teams, it also reduces travel logistics since many outfits already contest those companion series. The arrangement reinforces the Super Trofeo’s position not as a sideshow but as an integrated part of the global GT racing ecosystem.
Super Trofeo as a Pipeline to Lamborghini’s Bigger Motorsport Ambitions
The series functions as more than a customer engagement tool. Running a fleet of identical race cars across wildly different climates, altitudes, and track surfaces, from the desert heat of Abu Dhabi to the elevation changes of Spa, generates engineering intelligence that feeds directly into Squadra Corse’s higher-tier programs.
That connection between customer racing and factory motorsport became explicit when Lamborghini developed the Huracán GT3, which shared significant DNA with the Super Trofeo car. The same pipeline now points toward the Temerario GT3 program. According to Autoblog, the Temerario GT3 debuted at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed as Lamborghini’s first competition car fully designed, developed, and built in-house. The Super Trofeo series will almost certainly transition to a Temerario-based platform in the coming years, continuing the tradition of the customer series evolving in lockstep with Lamborghini’s road car lineup.
For current Huracán Super Trofeo owners and teams, the 2018 season represents one of the final chapters of the V10 era in Lamborghini customer racing. The naturally aspirated 5.2-liter engine that defines these cars will eventually give way to the Temerario’s twin-turbocharged V8 hybrid architecture, bringing different power delivery characteristics, new maintenance protocols, and an entirely different driving experience. Teams building institutional knowledge on the Huracán platform now are investing in expertise that will need substantial updating when the next generation arrives. That reality makes the 2018 campaign both a competitive season in its own right and a closing act for a formula that turned Lamborghini from a motorsport outsider into a global customer racing force.
Full 2018 Lamborghini Super Trofeo Calendar
Middle East
- Round 1: Abu Dhabi, February 2-3
- Round 2: Dubai, February 16-17
- Round 3: Dubai, March 2-3
Europe
- Round 1: Monza, April 21-22
- Round 2: Silverstone, May 19-20
- Round 3: Misano, June 23-24
- Round 4: Spa-Francorchamps, July 26-27
- Round 5: Nürburgring, September 15-16
Asia
- Round 1: Sepang, April 14-15
- Round 2: Buriram, May 12-13
- Round 3: Suzuka, June 29-30
- Round 4: Fuji Speedway, July 21-22
- Round 5: Shanghai, September 22-23
North America
- Round 1: Mid-Ohio, May 5-6
- Round 2: Watkins Glen, June 28-29
- Round 3: Road America, August 4-5
- Round 4: Virginia, August 18-19
- Round 5: Laguna Seca, September 8-9
Lamborghini says the continental champions will converge at the World Final later in the year, where drivers from all four series compete for the overall Super Trofeo world championship.
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