Two Races, Two Wins: FFF Racing’s Perfect Weekend at La Sarthe
On September 19, 2020, FFF Racing’s Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Lamborghini factory driver Andrea Caldarelli swept both Road to Le Mans races at the Circuit de la Sarthe in their Huracán GT3 Evo #63. The Road to Le Mans runs as a support race to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, part of the Le Mans Cup championship for LMP3 and GT3 machinery. Winning once on that hallowed tarmac is noteworthy. Winning twice in a single weekend, against a mixed field that included prototype racers sharing the same asphalt, tells a deeper story about the car underneath.
The #63 Huracán ranked second in the first practice session and fastest in the second, then secured pole position for the opening 55-minute race. Hamaguchi built a substantial lead during his stint before handing over to Caldarelli at the mandatory pit stop. Caldarelli extended the gap to more than 16 seconds by the checkered flag. Race one was never in doubt.
Race two proved a different animal entirely. Damp conditions greeted the field on Saturday morning, and the pair started from second on the grid. Hamaguchi moved to the front early with an aggressive move approaching the first chicane, but after the pit stop, Caldarelli found David Perel’s Ferrari closing fast. Perel got to within half a second on the final corners. Caldarelli held on. That contrast between the two victories is what makes the weekend so telling: the Huracán GT3 Evo could dominate in the dry and survive under pressure in the wet, two very different tests of a racing platform’s maturity. It was the kind of weekend that crystallized years of development into a single, convincing statement about where the car stood in its lifecycle.
Why a Support Race at Le Mans Matters More Than It Sounds
Calling the Road to Le Mans a “support race” undersells its value for manufacturers. Customer teams run GT3 and LMP3 cars on the full 13.6-kilometer Circuit de la Sarthe, including the Mulsanne Straight, the Porsche Curves, and every other section that makes Le Mans the most demanding endurance venue in motorsport. For Lamborghini, placing a customer team on the top step at La Sarthe carries real brand weight, even outside the main 24-hour event.
Caldarelli’s post-race comments credited Hamaguchi’s opening-stint composure and the team’s car preparation. Hamaguchi, for his part, referenced a previous podium at the circuit in 2016, framing the 2020 victory as a personal milestone. The dynamic between a factory driver and a gentleman racer sharing a car sits at the heart of how GT3 customer racing works: Lamborghini supplies the hardware and engineering support through Squadra Corse, while teams like FFF Racing operate the programs. Victories earned this way validate both the car and the support structure behind it, which is exactly the kind of proof prospective customer teams evaluate before committing budgets that run well into six figures annually. A double win at La Sarthe, then, was not just a weekend result. It was a sales argument for the entire Huracán GT3 platform and the ecosystem Lamborghini had built around it.
The V10 That Kept Evolving: From GT3 Evo to Evo2
The Huracán GT3 platform launched in 2015 and underwent continuous updates over the following years. One source reports the GT3 Evo that won at Le Mans in 2020 ran a 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 producing 620 horsepower at 8,250 rpm, paired with a 6-speed sequential gearbox by Hör and carrying a dry weight of 1,230 kg. Billet aluminum suspension arms, a Bosch Motorsport traction control system adjustable in 10 positions, and a 12-position ABS system gave drivers and engineers a wide tuning window, critical for adapting to circuits as varied as La Sarthe.
The platform kept evolving well beyond that 2020 weekend. The Huracán LMGT3 Evo2 debuted for the 2023 racing season with a new roof air scoop and tail fin to improve engine airflow, revised electronically actuated throttle bodies, and a refined aerodynamic package for better stability in fast corners. Its V10 produces approximately 640 horsepower (subject to Balance of Performance regulations) at a race weight of 1,355 kg. Iron Lynx and Iron Dames campaigned the Evo2 in the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, where it earned a podium at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The Evo2 stood alone as the only V10-powered car in the LMGT3 class, a distinction that underscored just how unusual Lamborghini’s engine philosophy remained in a field dominated by turbocharged sixes and eights.
The Huracán Evo2 was not present on the WEC grid for the 2025 season. One source reports Iron Lynx transitioned to managing Mercedes’ new program, while the Iron Dames team reportedly moved to Porsche machinery for 2025. Those departures signal the natural end of a platform’s competitive window rather than a failure of the car itself. A decade of incremental refinement, from the original GT3 through the Evo and Evo2, had simply run its course.
The Temerario GT3: Lamborghini Finally Builds Its Own Race Car
That decade-long Huracán GT3 run set the stage for something Lamborghini had never done before. According to Road & Track, the upcoming Temerario GT3 marks Lamborghini’s first competition car to be entirely designed, developed, and built in-house at Sant’Agata Bolognese. Previous GT3 efforts, including the Huracán that won at Le Mans in 2020, relied on external partners for significant portions of the build. The shift to a fully in-house program represents a fundamental change in how Lamborghini approaches racing.
The road-going Huracán, meanwhile, was succeeded by the plug-in hybrid Temerario. The Huracán STJ, limited to just 10 units, served as the V10 supercar’s farewell. For enthusiasts tracking the connection between road and race, the interesting tension is this: the Temerario GT3 strips the road car’s hybrid system entirely, running a modified version of its twin-turbocharged V8 without electric assistance. GT3 regulations require it. The Huracán GT3 Evo’s naturally aspirated V10 defined a specific character on track, a linear power delivery and an unmistakable exhaust note that teams and fans could identify from pit lane. The Temerario GT3 will need to build its own identity from scratch.
For customer teams currently evaluating their next GT3 purchase, the practical calculus is straightforward: the Huracán platform proved itself over a full decade of global competition, from Le Mans support races to DTM and British GT. The Temerario GT3 inherits that credibility but carries the uncertainty of any first-generation race car. Lamborghini’s willingness to bring the entire development process in-house suggests the company is betting heavily on controlling quality and pace of updates, a lesson likely learned from managing years of incremental Huracán revisions through external partners. The double victory at La Sarthe in 2020 now reads less like a standalone result and more like a midpoint in a longer arc, the moment the V10 platform proved its maturity and, in doing so, gave Lamborghini the confidence to take full ownership of what comes next.
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