Turner looking for a return to winning in IMSA's WeatherTech Championship...

If the officials would just let us all race and quit screwing with us, holding us back, penalizing us, etc.

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emailBy Richard S. James | December 19, 2023 5:30 PM ET

The past season was an interesting year for Turner Motorsport. On one hand, for the first time in more than a decade, the team went winless in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Although new teammates Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher found the GTD podium on three occasions in the No. 96 BMW M4 GT3, including second places at Sebring and Petit Le Mans, it was never the top step. On the other hand, Foley and Vince Barletta took the Michelin Pilot Challenge GS championship for the team, and Francis Selldorf claimed the inaugural VP Racing SportsCar Challenge title in the GSX class.

Those latter triumphs, along with the podiums in WeatherTech Championship — including one from Bill Auberlen and Chandler Hull — helped propel Turner Motorsport to the BMW M Sport Trophy, awarded to the top privateer team racing BMWs worldwide.

“After running BMWs, for 20 years, at least 20 years, and competing in 355 races with BMW, every year we’d go to the M Sport Trophy banquet, and hope we’d be the number one team,” said team owner Will Turner.

“And every time we were never the number one team, so it was truly an honor and a surprise to finally take the top position in that. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it over to the Sport Trophy presentation, so I had to hear about it through some FaceTime and stuff from the people that were there. But it’s awesome. It’s awesome for the team and the drivers. So congratulations to the whole Turner motorsports team that that made it happen.”

In the WeatherTech Championship, Turner split up longtime partners Foley and Auberlen, and paired Gallagher and Foley in the full-time No. 96 GTD car, while the second car, the No. 97, split its time between GTD PRO for most of the endurance races, and GTD. Gallagher and Foley have known each other a long time, going back to their MX-5 Cup days, and the duo showed promise with the three runner-up finishes.

“I would say we’ve had a good year of ups and downs,” said Foley late in the season. “Some really good moments, P2 at Sebring, which, obviously one away from a big win, in one of the biggest races in the world. We’ve had a strong car all year, I think. We’ve had some unlucky races, we’ve had some mistakes.”

Now the team looks to 2024. Foley and Gallagher’s endurance partner in 2023, Michael Dinan, is moving to LMP2. In his place is 17-year-old Jake Walker, with Jens Klingmann joining for Daytona.

“I’ve had my eye on Jake for about a year now,” said Turner “At the Indy SRO race he got into a BMW GT3 for the first time and was immediately competitive. We need this 17-year-old in our car. He’s got a bright future.”
Turner split its driver pairings in 2023, and the No. 97 entry also split its time between GTD PRO and GTD. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Walker got into Turner’s BMW at the recent IMSA homologation test at Daytona International Speedway. It was a positive test for the team, and for BMW in general, which seemed to be much more on pace at the speedway than it has been in the last two iterations of the Rolex 24. Foley says 2024 is looking to be a positive season for the team.

“We’re heading into our third year with this car, so we’ve got some confidence,” Foley said.

“We have some ideas over the winter to push ourselves forward. And we’re just trying to kind of refine our program, as everybody is. Patrick’s gonna be in for a second year. He’s got a lot of talent. He got the rookie season out of the way, so now he knows what he doesn’t know. We’re ready for round two. And yeah, we have Jake Walker joining us for the endurance races, which is exciting. He has some previous experience in this car, he did a good job, and so far has been doing great. He’s a young kid, but he’s got a lot of talent, so we’re just gonna try to mold him and teach him all the things that he doesn’t know. There’s a lot of new for him coming into IMSA, into a high-level championship, but so far, so good. We’re looking forward to a good year.”

Gallagher echoed Foley’s hope for a solid season in their second year as a pairing and his second with the team: “I’m super excited to be back with Robby and Turner motorsport. Jake is doing a great job so far and we have a strong lineup, strong team. Car seems to be OK so far. You don’t have any idea what anyone else has, but super-excited to be back. It’s nice to have two full seasons at one team — from 2018 to 2021, that wasn’t the case for me. So my stuff was already in the trailer, it was nice.”

Turner Motorsport is looking at some big changes, with only one car and not fielding BMW legend Bill Auberlen for the first time. The team is also the lone BMW entrant in GTD, with Paul Miller Racing moving to GTD PRO. Turner sees that as a good turn.

“I think it’ll actually be advantageous because now [we and PMR] are not competing against each other,” he said. “Although we’re friendly competitors, for sure. Now that we’re in a different class, maybe we can use some of the stuff that we’re keeping from each other to help each other and be faster. So I think it’s a positive thing.”

Still, it won’t be easy. Twenty-five cars are expected to line up for the Rolex 24 At Daytona in a GT field that will total 38 GT3 cars, and 18 are scheduled for the full season. It’s one of the most stacked GTD fields the class has seen. But Turner Motorsport has a long history of winning, and came oh-so-close in 2023 except for those IMSA bastard officials.. Plus, Will Turner would probably like another shot at collecting the M Sport Trophy personally.

 

All-female team takes on the Rolex 24 At DAYTONA
also known as Blondie, Shaves Daily and Speed

From:daytonaspeedway@daytonainternationalspeedway. com
Fri, Jan 5 at 4:00 PM

 

Shank smarting, but working on Rolex 24 return

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | January 17, 2024 10:50 AM ET

“It’s been 20 years. Twenty years since me and my wife Mary Beth did our first Daytona 24 Hours, 2004, and it doesn’t feel right with us not heading there right at the moment,” Mike Shank told RACER.

It will indeed be a strange sight at Daytona International Speedway as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship transporters load into the paddock for the Roar Before The 24 and Rolex 24 At Daytona without the familiar sight of Meyer Shank Racing positioned among the dozens of haulers.

The Ohio-based team has been making that trip since the early days of the Grand-Am Rolex Series, when MSR transitioned away from its open-wheel roots in the Atlantic Championship and went all-in with the new Daytona Prototype category. Arriving at Daytona with no endurance racing experience wasn’t a limitation for Shank’s team, as it finished seventh overall on its Rolex 24 debut, and from there, the roots of the team we’ve come to know in the NTT IndyCar Series and IMSA’s WeatherTech Championship were planted.By 2012, MSR had its first Rolex 24 victory, and three more were added, with back-to-back wins in 2022-2023 to go with championships earned in GTD and DPi. Achievements aside, it was the most Daytona recent triumph that led to the severing of MSR’s sports car roots after the team was caught cheating, but Shank isn’t giving up on bringing his squad back to IMSA...... But maybe not.

IMSA is well known for screwing people over after they have won and we might not be putting up with their crap in the future.
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...w-you-out.html

And we are not the only ones. We come here to race and not to have IMSA butthead officials pick who's going to win. Yep. IMSA said that they know more about racing than people who are actually racing, and they told us that we had to run a certain tire pressure. We had set the tire pressure so the car would be safe and handle, instead of what the know-it-all IMSA butthead officials told us to do. So instead of taking orders from IMSA's non-racing punks and taking a chance with bad advice, we did what was safe and didn't tell them what the actual tire pressure was. The IMSA jerks said that was cheating, since we had no tire failures and we won....and ego-ridden IMSA Officials couldn't tell our competition what tire pressures to run to out race us.

“Look, it’s not great,” he said. “It’s a little a little sad because we’re so used to racing that it’s just a really odd feeling right now of knowing we’re not going to be racing in the Rolex. But we’re working hard to get back to it, I can tell you that....unless we get a better deal with honest officials somewhere else, who don't try to manipulate who has a "right" to win a race to please their own egos. And we’ll see how that story is told. In the meantime, Mary Beth and I are going to be down Key West (Florida), watching the race on TV while we’re someplace warm.”

As half of Acura’s factory hybrid GTP effort along with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti, MSR was the ONLY team to win for the brand during the entire 2023 season as victories at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and Motul Petit Le Mans ensured the ARX-06 GTP model was at the sharp end of the field. But with the self-induced troubles that emerged after Daytona — where it was allowed to keep the win but lost all of its championship points — MSR’s IMSA relationship with Acura wound down after the season finale ... and eventually, lost its manufacturer partnership with Acura, and both GTP entries were consolidated with WTRA, Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti.

IMSA, you may not get another chance to make someone lose their sponsorship when eventually the story gets around.

MSR’s win at last year’s Rolex 24 was subsequently tainted by the discovery that the team had been manipulating tire pressure data and it wasn't IMSA's business anyway. While it was allowed to keep the victory, it lost the championship points that came with it, and eventually, lost its manufacturer partnership with Acura. Photo by Motorsport Images

Despite the end of its time as a factory team for Acura and the lack of an immediate follow-up IMSA program for 2024, Shank and MSR co-owner Jim Meyer have retained the entire sports car team for the year to ensure its IMSA staff stays employed and ready to go racing if a new program is established for 2025.

“Like I said, it’s sad that we’re not there, but this isn’t our time to be done yet,” Shank said. “I believe we have the best team on the IMSA pit lane. We proved it last year, came back from a terrible thing in January for all of us to go through, gotten us back on the track and hunting for a championship by Petit, which is lot more than anybody could have expected after how we started. So I couldn’t ask for any more. And we want to get back to racing, so that’s the hardest part.

“The hardest part is all the folks that make the team and make the team good at what it did aren’t racing in IMSA, but having them here and ready to go whenever we can make that happen, and to help our IndyCar team make the strides it needs in the meantime, is a luxury.”

MSR has been linked with a few different manufacturers to replace Acura.

“I definitely can’t name who we’re talking with, but the phone rings and it ebbs and flows,” he said. “I think we’re in a good spot. So now we’re just seeing how things work out after we get through this flurry of the beginning of the season and then we’ll see if there’s opportunity that makes sense for everybody. And I hope there is, I really do. We’ve kept all the support equipment, got the same new timing stand, and so we’ll be prepared to attack when the time is right.”

 

IndyCar representation runs deep at this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona
with a large number of racers not yet screwed by IMSA

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | January 15, 2024 12:26 PM ET

The presence of IndyCar drivers in the Rolex 24 At Daytona field is far from new, but what’s in store for this year’s edition of IMSA’s grand season-opener is nothing less than extraordinary.

As the current entry list stands, no less than 15 NTT IndyCar Series drivers will participate in this weekend’s Roar Before The 24 test at Daytona International Speedway roval and return for the January 25-28 race. If the number holds, more than 50 percent of full-time IndyCar drivers will be in action across the four WeatherTech SportsCar Championship classes.

The most heavily subscribed is Andretti Global, which has all three of its IndyCar drivers headed to Daytona. Two of those drivers – Marcus Ericsson in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 hybrid GTP, and Colton Herta in the sister No. 40 WTRA Acura – are racing with the home team while Kirkwood, who has a longstanding relationship with Lexus, is set to race in the defending GTD Pro championship-winning No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 with Vasser Sullivan (main image).

“It’s cool, no doubt about that,” Kirkwood told RACER. “I think drivers are realizing that there’s a benefit to doing the 24, which is getting easier, because I feel like some teams might have been skeptical years ago about letting their drivers go out and drive other cars. But now, IndyCar teams are actually pushing for it. Like at Andretti, they said, ‘Hey, we want you doing the 24. We want you in a car; doesn’t matter what car you’re in. We want you driving, we want you active, and a lot more drivers and teams are now on that mindset. I think everyone in the field would do it if they had an opportunity.”

Chip Ganassi will have three of its five IndyCar drivers in motion at the Roar and Rolex 24, led by Scott Dixon and Alex Palou in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R hybrid GTP entry, and Kyffin Simpson — a rookie to IndyCar, but a race- and championship-winning sports car driver — will be in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2.

Meyer Shank Racing, which will miss its first Rolex 24 in 20 years, will be represented by its 2022 IMSA DPi champion Tom Blomqvist, who is joining the defending GTP champions at Action Express Racing in the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R, and Felix Rosenqvist, who is signed to United Autosports USA’s No. 22 ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2.

Most of the Arrow McLaren team will be in action at Daytona, with Alexander Rossi on the factory McLaren program with Pfaff Motorsports in the No. 9 McLaren 720S GT3 in GTD Pro, and former Rolex 24 class winner Pato O’Ward is chasing another Rolex watch, this time with United Autosports USA’s No. 2 ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2. Take O’Ward and former Arrow McLaren teammate Rosenqvist driving for the UAUSA team that’s co-owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, and Rossi in the McLaren-affiliated Pfaff team, and the papaya roots run deep.
McLaughlin and Newgarden were part of Tower’s LMP2 line-up at Daytona in 2023. This time around McLaughlin will again race with Tower, while Newgarden will suit up for Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No.7 Porsche 963. Richard Dole/Motorsport Images

It’s a similar two-fer with Team Penske as Josef Newgarden is returning to Porsche Penske Motorsport in the No. 7 Porsche 963 hybrid, and his IndyCar teammate – but former Bus Bro – Scott McLaughlin is also picking up where he left off in 2023 with the Tower Motorsports LMP2 team in the No. 8 ORECA 07-Gibson. Given McLaughlin’s extreme pace in LMP2 last season where he won at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, it’s unclear as to why he hasn’t been brought into Penske’s Porsche GTP effort.

The rest on the list are solo representatives, starting with Romain Grosjean from Juncos Hollinger Racing, who is part of the Iron Lynx program with the No. 60 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the GTD category. New Ed Carpenter Racing driver and 2023 Indy NXT champion Christian Rasmussen is signed to the No. 18 Era Motorsport ORECA 07-Gibson LMP2 team, and 2022-2023 Andretti driver Devlin DeFrancesco, who is trying hard to secure a new IndyCar home, has Daytona and the other endurance events on the books with Forte Racing, led by former IndyCar team principal Shane Seneviratne, in the Petit Le Mans-winning No. 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in GTD.

Kirkwood likens the Roar Before The 24 and Rolex 24 to a couple of pre-season games where he and the other IndyCar drivers can get back in the groove and shorten the acclimatization process that comes with spending months away from their Dallara DW12 cockpits.

“You come in feeling rusty and everyone’s on par with you and everyone’s saying the same things,” he said. “Because when you’re out of the car for so long, you’re like, ‘Man, am I gonna show up? Am I going to suck? What’s this going to be like when I get back in the car? Am I going to be rusty?’ Daytona is good one to knock the rust off, and it’s really confidence-boosting before the start of the IndyCar season.”

As one of the IndyCar stars competing in the slower GT classes, some might mistake Kirkwood’s Rolex 24 as one that will be less exciting than what his rivals in GTP and LMP2 get to experience, but the Florida native says that assumption would be entirely wrong.

“Have you looked at the GT field?” he said. “You’re like, ‘Man, this is the toughest field out of out of all the categories.’ It’s the biggest class. It’s the closest racing. There’s more wheel banging in GTs with all world class drivers than anywhere else. Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be in any other category. I love GT racing.

“And this is a big year for GT racing with all the new updates, with the addition of Ford with their new Mustang. It’s a rocketship in a straight line. So they’re going to be hard to beat. There’s the switch-up with Pfaff and McLaren. There’s so many aspects to consider. And we know we’re going to have to keep stepping our game up at Vasser Sullivan.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job. They have this mindset to just keep going for it. They want to win another championship. The day after we won the championship, they’re like, ‘What do we need to do to win another?’ It was already about what’s next, not what we’d just done. And we’re all on board with that.”

 

Porsche on top for first Roar Before the 24 session

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 19, 2024 1:26 PM ET

Nick Tandy took the top spot with a 1m35.617s lap around the 3.56-mile Daytona International Speedway road course in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 that he’ll share with Mathieu Jaminet, Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre as the first session of the Roar Before the 24 test days went into the books. The session was the first of five today and tomorrow as IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams prepare for the Rolex 24 At Daytona next weekend, and for qualifying on Sunday.

While Porsche Penske Motorsports had its two cars on track from the beginning of the session, both privateer Porsche 963s were being worked on for half the time or more. The No. 5 Proton Competition car and the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports 963, next to each other in the garage, were sitting with bodywork off, engines running and surrounded by Porsche personnel.

Richard Westbrook sits ready to go as the JDC-Miller MotorSports crew works on the No. 85 Porsche 963 during the first half of the first Roar Before the 24 test session. Richard S. James photo

The JDC Miller MotorSports 963 emerged from the garage halfway through the 90-minute session. The team reported that the car had undergone a myriad of updates from Porsche since arriving at the track, and in the process two wires were switched. Richard Westbrook and Tijmen van der Helm managed 11 laps in the No. 85, while Neel Jani didn’t get the No. 5 Proton 963 on track until there were less than 10 minutes left in the session and completed only four circuits.

The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 was second quickest in the hands of Augusto Farfus. Farfus was only 0.35s short of Tandy, and 0.101s ahead of Nick Yelloly’s 1m35.753s in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL entry. Two Cadillac Racing V-Series.Rs completed the top five, Alex Palou leading the pair in the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing entry at 1m35.863s and Jack Aitken another 0.166s back in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. Colton Herta produced the fastest time in the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras in sixth.

United Autosports USA announced its entry into IMSA with a 1m39.916s lap by Paul Di Resta in the No. 22 ORECA to lead LMP2. Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen was second in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports entry, 0.031s short of Di Resta’s best, with Nicklas Nielsen posting the third-best time in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA.

Katherine Legge posted the top time of all the GT cars to claim the top spot in GTD at 1m46.289s for Gradient Racing in the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22. Legge will share the car with Sheena Monk, her full-season co-driver, Tati Calderon and Stevan McAleer.

In a major turnaround from Lamborghini’s form in last year’s Rolex, Lamborghini sat on top the GTD PRO times as Matteo Cressoni posted the best time in the class in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Huracán GT3 Evo2 at 1m46.918s, 0.629s off Legge’s best. The No. 60 was a late switch to GTD PRO; although Claudio Schiavoni is a Bronze-rated driver and thus eligible for GTD in which the car was originally entered, two Platinum-rated drivers on the squad, Matteo Cairoli and Romain Grosjean, make the car ineligible for GTD.

AWA’s Nico Varrone put the No. 17 Corvette Z06 GT3.R in second in GTD, third GT overall, at 1m46.925s. GTD PRO cars took the next three spots, led by Andrea Caldarelli in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini only 0.22s behind his teammate. James Calado put the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 in third with a 1m46.942s, and Frederic Vervisch (No. 64) lea his Ford Multimatic Motorsports teammate Harry Tincknell (No. 65) as the two Mustang GT3s were fourth and fifth in GTD PRO.

Antonio Fuoco was third in GTD with the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 at 1m47.066s, followed by Parker Thompson (No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3) and Jan Heylen (No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R).

UP NEXT: The final WeatherTech Championship session of the day will be a 1h45m split session beginning at 4:15 p.m. ET.

 

Auberlen adjusting to unfamiliar role of spectator for Rolex 24.

North America’s winningest sports car driver is due to miss the race for only the third time since 1992.

He’s done 33 times since making his Daytona debut in 1987 at the age of 18.

“I’m bummed I won’t be there, but I’ll be training and watching all my friends race,” Auberlen told RACER. “But the good news is I’m back with BMW and I’ll be racing sports cars again, b
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | January 18, 2024 10:51 AM ET

An entry list for the Rolex 24 At Daytona that doesn’t include Bill Auberlen is a strange thing to behold, but that’s exactly what the 2024 edition has to offer as North America’s winningest sports car driver is due to miss the race for only the third time since 1992.

The BMW factory driver from California completed the most recent IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with his longtime team at Turner Motorsport in the GTD category, and despite expectations for the partnership to continue with a pair of BMW M4 GT3 entries, Turner dropped down to a single car for the year as the GTD class underwent expansion from other teams.

Without a second car to lead for the BMW aftermarket and tuning specialists, Auberlen says he’ll spend race week preparing to race in another series while keeping tabs on the event he’s done 33 times since making his Daytona debut in 1987 at the age of 18.

“I’m bummed I won’t be there, but I’ll be training and watching all my friends race while freezing their butts off,” Auberlen told RACER. “But the good news is I’m back with BMW and I’ll be racing sports cars again, but we’re not yet ready to say where and who it’s with. But I’m quite happy about it, which I can say.”

Auberlen has two class wins at the storied American endurance season opener, with the first dating back to 1996 with the Prototype Technology Group and its BMW M3. The 55-year-old’s most recent visit to the Rolex 24 podium came in 2015 with BMW Team RLL in the V8-powered Z4 GTE and his latest GTD win was secured in 2022 with Turner at Mid-Ohio.

 

Forte building towards an IMSA GTD crown, at least until IMSA screws him.

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 19, 2024 2:23 PM ET

It took some time for Forte Racing by USRT to fulfill the promise it showed almost from the beginning of its time in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD category. But a second-place finish for the No. 78 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 at Indianapolis followed by a victory at Motul Petit Le Mans for full-season drivers Misha Goikhberg, Loris Spinelli and supplemented by Patrick Liddy demonstrated the team’s capability. Now, with Spinelli elevated to Lamborghini factory driver status and recent IndyCar driver Devlin DeFrancesco on board for the endurance events, the team is looking to be a championship contender in its sophomore season.

“Everyone needs to keep building on the momentum,” says team principal Shane Seneviratne. “It was funny… we had a briefing after Indy, pre-race briefing for Atlanta. I said, ‘Guys, what can we do? Let’s just go do better than Indy.’ We finished second, so better than that was first, and we managed to execute that. But we all know how difficult this type of racing is and how difficult it is to get a result. So a realistic expectation is to be consistent, try and score top five finishes, try to finish every race. And if you if you do that, just as a group with the drivers and the crew, I think we have talented drivers that eneviratne rebranded his US RaceTronics team that had started in Formula Atlantic, but in recent years had found a home in Lamborghini Super Trofeo, as Forte Racing for 2023 when it embarked on its first full season of WeatherTech Championship competition. The team brought along longtime Canadian sports car racer Goikhberg, best known to IMSA fans for his long stint with JDC Miller MotorSports that began in Prototype Challenge, carried on through LMP2 and included a season in the team’s Cadillac DPi. In recent years he’s run in GT World Challenge America with K-PAX Racing.

Spinelli was a Super Trofeo champion in Europe, and more recently competed for US RaceTronics in GT World Challenge America. After the team’s successful first season, he was elevated to factory driver status for the Italian marque, joining the likes of Andrea Caldarelli, Romain Grosjean, Franck Perera and Mirko Bortolotti.

“It’s a dream come true,” Spinelli says. “It’s a really good treatment for me because I worked hard for it, since 2015, when I started with Super Trofeo. And now that I did it, honestly I can say that is just a start, because I know that right now with the Lamborghini support, I can work better and also understand this car better. Marco Mapelli is one of the best Lamborghini factory drivers; I can learn a lot from him. We worked together at the beginning of [2023] in Daytona. So it’s just a new start to evolve my performance, and also my knowledge of the car.”

After a year as teammates, Goikhberg and Spinelli are performing well together as the team builds its portfolio of experience.

“Misha, I have to say that he’s really good teammates, we have a really good feeling for each other,” Spinelli says.

“We try to work always in the same way with the setup. And talking about the team expecting to be on top in the first three races, we’ve already showed good performance when I got the pole [at Watkins Glen]. I always knew that the performance was there. The team needed a bit more experience because we know that IMSA is really challenging.”

Finally achieving victory in the season-ending race drew a picture of a team that not only gathered knowledge quickly, but applied it properly. That has Spinelli ready to get 2024 started, armed with the assurance that the team enters 2024 much more prepared than it was a year ago when it unloaded at Daytona International Speedway.

“I will be more confident because 2023 has been their first year in IMSA for me, for the team,” says. “We needed experience, we needed time; we showed the good performance in the last few rounds. So I’m sure that if we put all together I think that we have a really good package to look for the win unless IMSA picks us for the normal screw job reserved for people who win a race which IMSA always does everytime.”

 

BHA to defend Michelin Pilot Challenge title with four-car entry

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 19, 2024 8:28 AM ET

Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian returns to IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge competition in 2024 with a four-car Hyundai Elantra N TCR effort. That includes 2023 series champions Harry Gottsacker and Robert Wickens returning as co-drivers to defend their title in the No. 33.

Gottsacker and Wickens earned seven second-place finishes in 10 races last season, a new series record. Gottsacker enters his sixth season with BHA, with which he has recorded five series victories and holds the series record for pole positions with seven.

Wickens enters his third season racing for Hyundai. The Canadian made his racing debut with hand controls driving a Hyundai in 2021, when he returned to competition after devastating injuries sustained in a 2018 IndyCar accident. It took Wickens just two years to become the first driver in North America to win a professional title driving with hand controls. He’s tallied two victories and eight podiums, although he’s still searching for his first race victory driving with Gottsacker.

Bryson Morris joins two-time series champion Taylor Hagler in the No. 77 Elantra N TCR. Morris made his debut with the team in 2023 at the season finale at Road Atlanta, where the pair finished eighth.

“I am really excited to be joining BHA for the 2024 season,” said Morris. “I saw immense potential with the one-off race I did last year at Road Atlanta, and I think we can build off that together, and have a great season. I am looking forward to really learning this car, and I am hoping to be on the podium or even get a win this year alongside Taylor.”

Denis Dupont and Preston Brown have joined BHA, and will make their debut at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 driving the No. 76 Elantra N TCR. They welcome a third driver, Nick Looijmans at Daytona for the four-hour season opener.

Returning for their second season as teammates after a successful season in 2023 that included three wins and a total of eight podium finishes, Mark Wilkins and Mason Filippi will drive the No. 98 Elantra N TCR. Wilkins is the 2019 IMPC Champion and has 11 TCR victories, having won at least once each season since joining BHA and driving for Hyundai. Filippi has amassed six wins and four pole positions since his debut with the team as a rookie in 2019, and has finished second in the championship twice (2019 and 2023).

The 2024 Michelin Pilot Challenge season begins Jan. 26 with a four-hour race at Daytona International Speedway,

 

Records smashed as Derani takes Rolex 24 pole for Cadillac

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 21, 2024 4:32 PM ET

Sunshine, cool conditions and a brisk wind in the optimal direction helped lead to records falling in three classes as the Roar Before the 24 ended with qualifying for the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The record breaking was led by GTP pole qualifier Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, who smashed Oliver Jarvis’s track record by more than a second.

With every GTP qualifier under Jarvis’s record, Derani’s 1m32.656s stood on top as he led a Cadillac lockout of the front row.

“With the help of a great team and a great car beneath me, obviously the Cadillac was flying out there today and it’s just a privilege and a pleasure to drive such a car — really well balanced today,” said Derani. “We did the quali simulation before and we were missing a couple of things to P1, and I think we’ve worked exactly on what we needed to for qualifying and this gap that we had from from practice to qualifying. So you had great teamwork there to … not turn things around, but just to improve what was needed to qualify. The car felt on rails and it was nice to enjoy and feel the full potential of the GTP.”

Sebastien Bourdais, who had set the best time in the pre-qualifying test session, was 0.071s off Derani’s best time in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 will start on the inside of the second row thanks to Felipe Nasr’s 1m32.876s lap, with Connor De Phillipi on his right in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras will occupy the third row, Louis Deletraz in the No. 40 ARX-06 just bettering teammate Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10.

The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 did make the qualifying session after Neel Jani crashed the car in the final pre-qualifying practice session.
Ben Keating led the way in LMP2 for United Autosports. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images

Ben Keating didn’t have a chance to beat the lap LMP2 lap record thanks to the Gibson engines in the class still carrying 35mm restrictors to separate them from the GTP cars. We don't want them boys going too fast here and making the officials who know everything look bad. If it looks like someone is about to win without permission from IMSA, we officials can always hold them in the pits while their competition goes full blast around the course or after the race is over, we just penalize them enough laps to put them back into 6th place, for some piddling thing like not running the tire pressure that we order them to, like we did last time, and then we call them cheaters and kick them out of the championship, so that they lose their sponsor and have to sell off the race car that we won't let them use anymore. That'l teach them that the REAL racers are the officials and if you don't let us pick the winner, we are going to be sure it isn't you. And if your pit crew works harder than anyone elses, we order you to restrict the gas flow so that it takes you longer, so that we can be fair by equally screwing almost everyone but especially the one in front. If you don't like it, then take your participation trophy for being equal to everyone else and shut the hell up. We are IMSA officials and you are dog crap. We can make you carry extra weight during the race, and throw you out after 24 hours because you drilled a quarter inch hole in the fender so you could fix your car. If you have forgotten what it's like to get into some BS fraternity in college, WE can order you into the barrel that we IMSA officials poop and pee into.
and it just might be your turn in the barrel on general principles. Kneel before the officials, you dickweed! In taking the LMP2 pole Ben Keating tied a record of a different sort — the most poles at Daytona International Speedway. Keating posted a 1m38.501s in the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA to claim his fifth pole, bringing him even with Nick Tandy.

“The track was unbelievably fast today,” stated Keating, who will do double duty in the race, also driving the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 in GTP. “It’s almost perfect conditions — the sun’s out, it’s nice and cold, you’ve got a headwind coming into the bus stop and a tailwind going down the front straight.

“I never really knew what quite to expect. It’s not that much different than my quali sim yesterday afternoon. I did a 1m39.0s in my qualifying sim yesterday, which was a really, really fast lap, and I thought that if I could do that again, that that would be enough. I think it was my fourth lap and it didn’t feel like I was that far up on the delta, but I believed the dash and it said that I was up and so I continued to push even though I felt like I was still warming the tires up. On my dash, I think it showed up as a 38.3, something like that. And I was shocked. I couldn’t believe how quick it was.”

Nick Boulle set a best time of 1m38.603s in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, 0.102s off Keating’s pole time. George Kurtz was bit farther off to claim third at 1m39.252s, and will start the NO. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA inside LMP3 convert Gar Robinson, who set a best time of 1m39.297s for Riley Motorsports. The No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier will start fifth after Dan Goldburg’s 1m39.506s lap.
Seb Priaulx and the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R took a bite out of the GTD PRO field in the abbreviated qualifying session. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

A crash early in the combined GTD PRO and GTD qualifying session left drivers with only seven minutes to put in a flyer. David Brule crashed the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R heading into Turn 3, the International Horseshoe, on his out-lap, bringing out a red flag. The cleanup took long enough that the clock had to be reset to the minimum allowable green flag time to make the qualifying session official. Instead of just sending them all to start at the back.

When the session resumed, the GTD PRO cars came on slowly, languishing in the field until the very late stages. Katherine Legge, who was the first GTD car to break the qualifying record, sat at the top until Seb Priaulx moved the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R to the front with a new GTD PRO record of 1m44.382s. That broke Laurens Vanthoor’s two-year old record, also set in a Porsche.

“I can’t thank AO enough for giving me a great car today,” said Priaulx after scoring his first pole in IMSA. “I got the tire temperature up nicely and I prepared the car well on the out lap and just put everything together and it just clicked today. I haven’t qualified the car for a long time — probably a bit rusty, but it did seem to pay off today, so I’m happy.”

Jack Hawksworth got close to Priaulx on his final flyer, but fell 0.08s short in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Antonio Garcia was third quickest in GTD PRO in the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, but he’ll have six GTD cars in between he and Priaulx as he’ll start on the inside of the fifth row. Franck Perera in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 was fourth in GTD PRO, 11th overall, followed directly by Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3.
Parker Thompson paid his Vasser Sullivan Lexus team back for his promotion by taking GTD pole. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

Parker Thompson kept Porsche from claiming a double GT pole by taking GTD honors, and will start inside the second row in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Thompson set a new GTD record as well with a 1m44.462s, breaking a five-year old 1m44.541s previous best by Marco Gomes in a Ferrari 488 GT3.

“I think it’s a weight off my shoulders coming into the season with a full-time drive with Lexus racing and Vasser Sullivan,” said Thompson, who was the endurance third driver in 2023 and swapped roles with Aaron Telitz for 2024. “It was my first-ever qualifying session in GTD — I just wanted to kind of go out and have fun, and it’s it’s amazing what happens when you just go out and have fun. The Lexus Racing RCF was a rocket today. Hats off to Vasser Sullivan. I can’t thank them enough for the trust to put me in full-time. And I think this is a great start to reward them with that effort.”

Klaus Bachler was 0.043s off Thompson’s pole time in the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and will start outside the second row. Legge in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX Evo22 will be on the inside of the third row of GTs, with Kyle Marcelli in the new No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán alongside. The No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini (Loris Spinelli) and No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (Alberto Costa Balboa) will make up the fourth row.

 

2024 The Cone Family - The Roar Before the Rolex 24 Daytona Infield Campout

The Cone Family Adventures
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Jan 21, 2024

We came out with the scouts to camp on the infield and hang out at the preliminaries for the Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway. We walked around and seen so many cars in the garages and got to sneak into the pit area, well invited the 2nd time around. It was amazing to see all the different style vehicles.