FIA World Endurance Championship

One month on from the Le Mans 24 Hours, the pinnacle of endurance racing resumes with its final European race of the year at the Nürburgring GP circuit. It was here that Porsche really stepped up their game last year to set them on their way to a first WEC title and leave their rivals scratching their heads, but after a difficult start to the season at Silverstone and Spa, will the 919 Hybrid still be the car to have in the Eiffel Mountains? As ever, there will be plenty to watch out for, with the ever competitive LMP2 category, as well as the GTE-Pro and GTE-Am classes providing entertainment and intrigue in spades.

• LIVE, Rd 4, 6 Hours of Nürburgring – Sunday 24 July at 11:30 and 16:05.

IMSA Sportscar Championship

The WEC’s American cousins will also be in action during July, with a 6-Hour endurance race at Watkins Glen followed swiftly by 2hr 40 minute thrashes around the Canadian Tyre Motorsport Park and Lime Rock Park. As the third round of the North American Endurance Cup, Watkins Glen will see the return of Daytona and Sebring victors ESM, with starlet Pipo Derani in tow. Will the Brazilian throw the cat amongst the pigeons in the battle for the outright championship between the two Action Express cars and Marc Goossens?

Due to the limited size of the ‘bullring’ that is Lime Rock, the Prototype class will not be present, giving the LMPC class runners a rare chance to fight for outright victory. However, Porsche’s Nick Tandy and Patrick Pilet will be hoping that the heavens open to give their GTLM 911 a shot of repeating its remarkable outright victory at the Petit Le Mans last year.

• Highlights, Rd 6, Watkins Glen 6 Hours – Saturday 9 July at 21:00.• Highlights, Rd 7, Canadian Tyre Motorsport Park – Sunday 17 July at 19:25.• Highlights, Rd 8, Lime Rock Park – Saturday 30 July at 10:30.

FIA World Rally Championship

If mud and dirt is more your thing, then the World Rally Championship ought to be the perfect tonic. The WRC holds two rallies in July, with Poland followed by the famous Finnish forests, the rally affectionately known as the 1000 Lakes and perhaps the most revered of them all. A winner in each of the last two years, Jarri-Matti Latvala traditionally goes well on home soil, but has endured a tough start to the season, with world champion team-mate Sebastian Ogier building a commanding points lead in the early rounds. Could this be the trigger the Finn needs to reverse his fortunes? We’ll have daily highlights on each of the rally’s three days to keep you up to date with all the action.

• Daily highlights Rd 7, Rally Poland – Friday 1 July, Saturday 2 July and Sunday 3 July at 22:35.• Daily highlights, Rd 8, Rally Finland – Friday 29 July at 22:35, Saturday 30 July at 21:30 and Sunday 22 May at 22:35.

Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup

GT racing doesn’t get much bigger or better than this. With a grid of 50-plus GT3 cars set to battle twice around the clock on one of Europe’s grandest stages, the Spa 24 Hours has the biggest entry for only one type of car in the world, and is firmly established as one of the gold standard events on the endurance racing calendar that any driver worth their cloth wants to have on their CV.

2015 winners Marc VDS will not be back to defend their crown, so the path is open for a new pretender to claim the victory. It’s one of few events that the Audi R8 LMS has yet to win after sweeping the Nürburgring 24, Sepang 12, Dubai 24 and Daytona 24 over the last year, but past success counts for little at Spa, where the slightest misjudgement in traffic can spell disaster. We’ll be bringing you full coverage of the pre-qualifying, qualifying and Superpole sessions, plus the race itself, so you’ll be fully up to speed with all the action as it unfolds.

• LIVE, Rd 4, Spa 24 Hours – Thursday 28 July at 16:30 (Pre-Qualifying), Thursday 28 July at 18:45 (Qualifying), Friday 29 July at 16:20 (SuperPole), Saturday 30 July at 15:00, 21:55 and Sunday 06:00.

FIM MXGP

After the first few rounds of the season, the 2016 MXGP title battle looked to be a two horse race between Romain Febvre and MX2 champion Tim Gajser, with only Max Nagl in Argentina breaking their stranglehold over the top spot. However, slowly but surely, multiple champion Tony Cairoli has been gaining ground on them, reminding everybody that the six titles he won between 2009 and 2014 were no fluke with an emphatic double victory in Germany which he followed up with a popular win on home ground in Italy. As the season heads towards its business end with rounds 13 and 14 from the Czech Republic and Belgium, will Cairoli be able to overhaul the young pretenders?

• Delayed-as-live, Rd 13, Loket (Czech Republic) – Sunday 24 July at 18:10 (Race 1) and 20:55 (Race 2).• Delayed-as-live, Rd 14, Lommel (Belgium) – Sunday 31 July at 16:15 (Race 1) and 18:15 (Race 2).

V8 Supercars

The V8 Supercar championship has long been a fans favourite, and for good reason. With Holden, Ford, Volvo and Nissan all represented and some of the finest drivers in Australasia swapping paint at circuits across the continent, it’s not hard to see the appeal. Predicting the outcome of the championship however will be anything but easy, with veteran Craig Lowndes locked in battle with team-mate Jamie Whincup, Kiwi superstar Scott McLaughlin and the defending champion Mark Winterbottom – who won four out of the five races at these circuits last year – all scrapping to be top dog. Someone had better break it to them that there can only be one winner…

• Highlights, Rd 7, Townsville – Sunday 17 July at 20:30.• Highlights, Rd 8, Queensland – Saturday 30 July at 13:05.

European Le Mans Series

The ELMS returns to action at the Red Bull Ring in July, with the racing set to be just as hot as the Austrian summer. Thiriet by TDS Racing got their championship challenge back on track in Imola after a disastrous opening round at Silverstone, but will face a stiff challenge from last year’s victors Harry Tincknell, ex-Formula One driver Giedo van der Garde and Simon Dolan in their trusty G-Drive Gibson. Elsewhere in the field, a huge field of LMP3s are sure to provide plenty of thrills and spills, alongside an intriguing battle for GTE class honours between the British JMW Motorsport Ferrari and Beechdean Aston Martin teams.

• Delayed-as-live, Rd 3, Red Bull Ring – Sunday 17 July at 14:00.

FIA European Truck Racing Championship

After taking in Spielberg, Misano and Nogaro, the heavyweights of the international motorsport world descend on the Nürburgring for Round Four of the ETRC. With four races held over the course of the weekend, there’s action aplenty to be had and a few star names too – watch out for Ellen Lohr, the only woman to win a DTM race back in 1992, who will be driving a MAN truck for the Lutz Bernau team.

• LIVE, Rd 4, Nürburgring – Saturday 2 July at 09:10 (Race 1), 15:00 (Race 2) and Sunday 3 July at 12:10 (Race 3) and 15:00 (Race 4).

FIA F3 European Championship

The FIA F3 European Championship has long been a breeding ground for some of the top talents aiming to reach Formula 1, that tangible link reinforced still further by Max Verstappen’s first Grand Prix win in Barcelona, just over a year after graduating from the category. Rounds 6 and 7 from Zandvoort and Spa-Francorchamps will provide the clearest indication yet as to whom amongst his predecessors might be best placed to follow him, with iconic corners like the Tarzan hairpin, Eau Rouge and Blanchimont requiring technique and commitment in equal measure.

• LIVE, Rd 6, Zandvoort – Saturday 16 July at TBC (Race 1), TBC (Race 2) and Sunday 17 July at TBC (Race 3).• LIVE, Rd 7, Spa-Francorchamps – Friday 29 July at 11:10 (Race 1), 15:25 (Race 2) and Sunday 30 July at 12:00 (Race 3).

EuroFormula Open

Marketed as an affordable and stable platform to learn the ropes in single-seaters, the Formula 3-based Euroformula Open heads across the channel to Silverstone, which will provide a stern test for those wanting to catch the eye of team principals further up the racing ladder.

• LIVE, Rd 4, Silverstone – Saturday 23 July at 15:05 (Race 1).• Delayed-as-live, Rd 4, Silverstone – Sunday 24 July at 21:50 (Race 2).

TCR International Series

Nine different touring car brands battle in this closely-fought, wheel-banging, bodywork-rubbing tin-top championship, which was established in 2015. For Round 7, the TCR International Series heads to Sochi, where Team Craft-Bamboo’s Sergey Afanasiev will look to put on a good show for his home crowd in the proven SEAT Leon TCR. But with team-mates Pepe Oriola and James Nash in fine form, not to mention the West Coast Racing Honda of Italian veteran Gianni Morbidelli, it is a near-impossible task to predict who will come out on top at the home of the Russian Grand Prix.

• LIVE, Rd 7, Sochi – Sunday 3 July at 10:23.

International GT Open

For more evidence of GT3’s success, you need look no further than the International GT Open series where, in July, the latest models from Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, Lamborghini and Aston Martin can be found running nose-to-tail around Silverstone. British hopes lie with the Balfe Motorsport Ferrari 458 of team patron Shaun Balfe and Phil Keen, although Garage 59 pairing Duncan Tappy and Michael Benham might lay claim to that too, having won at Estoril from tenth on the grid in Benham’s first weekend at this level.

• LIVE, Rd 4, Silverstone – Saturday 23 July at 16:00 (Race 1).• Delayed-as-live, Rd 4, Silverstone – Sunday 34 July at 22:50 (Race 2).

24H Series

If you haven’t already had your fill of endurance racing, Creventic’s 24H Series will be back in action in July at Paul Ricard for another 24 Hour jamboree of GT3, Porsche Cup and touring car action. RAM Racing took the spoils last year with an all-star line-up in their Mercedes SLS AMG, but will the newer Mercedes-AMG GT3 model be up to emulating the feat? As is always typically case in 24 Hour events, absolutely anything can happen…

• LIVE, Rd 5, Paul Ricard 24H – Saturday 16 July at 13:00.

Blancpain GT Sports Club

The atmosphere might be friendly for these Bronze- and Iron-categorised drivers, but once the impressive array of GTE and GT3 machinery is unleashed on the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the Ardennes Forest, all bets are off!

• LIVE, Rd 4, Spa-Francorchamps – Friday 29 July at 14:30 (Race 1) and Saturday 30 July at 09:30 (Race 2).