The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport squad comes into Motul Petit Le Mans with a healthier margin than has been seen in the top class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in many years. That gives them the ability to play it somewhat conservatively… but will they?
“I think it’s between not being super aggressive, and not being super defensive,” explains Felipe Nasr, going for the championship with Dane Cameron and an assist from Matt Campbell. “We’ve got to be fine somewhere in the middle, because I know how important track position in this place is – especially if you can shuffle yourself to the front, you can look after your tires, your fuel mileage, and that plays a big role on the race strategy.
“Then you have the elements of traffic … you have to be fully focused and present at all times. And that’s not only me included, it’s the whole team. But no different approach to what we’ve been doing all season. We have that margin to play with, and hopefully we’ll use it wisely.”
Flying in a helping hand
With the destruction that Huricane Helene left in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, many people in remote areas had no means to get necessary supplies. Enter the aviation community, and several racers that also happen to be pilots.
Korthoff Preston Motorsports driver and North Carolina resident Kenton Koch was one of them. A pilot with his own plane that is often his and wife Dani’s transportation to races, Koch used the one day he had between race weekends to shuttle supplies to remote areas, making three runs to three different airports.
“The community in general aviation is is amazing – that’s what brought me to it,” Koch said. “The flying part was cool but the people were cooler. When the opportunity arose for GA to help get supplies to people, everyone was all about trying to help, and having that as a tool was pretty cool to be able to do that. Being close by, it just made a ton of sense just to go out and try to help.”
Koch said there were a lot of aircraft in the air, and people lined up at the airport to drop off supplies. He had sought donations on social media, and used those donations – much of which came from the motorsports community – for fuel, to buy more supplies, and help out other pilots with fuel costs.
Helicopter pilot and former IMSA racer John Edwards was flying supplies also, as well as NASCAR driver Greg Biffle.
Hyundai/Genesis making contacts
After the recent news that Hyundai was looking at racing Hypercar and GTP with an LMDh car running under the Genesis brand, Hyundai Motorsport principal Cyril Abiteboul was seen making the rounds through the Road Atlanta paddock. Bryan Herta Autosport, with several IMSA Michelin Pilot championships in TCR, seems an obvious candidate to race a Genesis GTP car, but Chip Ganasssi Racing is also seeking a new manufacturer with which to return to the WeatherTech Championship in 2026.
Frederik Vesti getting his first taste of IMSA
With regular driver Charlie Eastwood called away on personal business, Mercedes-AMG F1 reserve driver Frederik Vesti and endurance expert Sebastian Alvarez are joining John Farano in the No. 8 Tower Motorsports ORECA LMP2 machine this weekend. This will be his first Petit Le Mans
“I got a quick call on Monday that I was going to do IMSA this weekend in LMP2. I was really happy, it’s a really good experience to get in IMSA,” said Vesti. “Coming here I had no experience at [Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta] other than the simulator, but the simulator is a really good tool to prepare, so I was quite okay when I jumped in for the first time. So far I’m loving my time here. I think it’s a drivers’ track and it’s incredible to drive.”
Vesti has previous experience in LMP2, but hasn’t dealt with traffic quite like the 53 cars on 2.54-miles of Road Atlanta.
“The traffic is a special one, especially this track where it’s just so tight. Some turns, like the Esses before Turn 5, if you catch a GT there you’re just stuck behind, there’s no way you’re going to get past. It’s about taking the right amount of risk, because it’s easy to overdo it and have a crash or have contact that will cost time.
“Being patient is key, but at the same time, we’re racing drivers and we need to win a race so we can’t just sit behind traffic all day long. It’s a nice risk management game for all the drivers out there.”
They signed the dinosaur, they signed the dinosaur!
Continuing a tradition started by Meyer Shank Racing, AO Racing invited fans to sign Rexy, the Porsche 911 GT3 Rawr that Laurin Heinrich, along with Michael Christensen and Julien Andlauer, hopes to drive to a championship today.
Glowing Mustang
As darkness falls, notice the Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3s in GTD Pro. The outlines of the Mustang graphic glow nicely at night.
Drive time
Minimum drive time for the Pro-Am classes, LMP2 and GTD, is 2h30m, 25 percent of the 10-hour race. Minimum drive time for GTP and GTD PRO is 45 minutes. Maximum drive time is six hours, with no more than four hours in any six-hour period.
Tire allocations
GTP and LMP2 teams have nine sets of Michelin medium-compound tires for qualifying and race. Given the generally mild conditions expected for the race, a double stint or two early in the race shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but teams may opt to employ a different strategy to double-stint as it cools down. GTD PRO and GTD teams have 14 sets for the event to use as they see fit.
How to watch
Peacock will carry the race flag-to-flag beginning at noon ET. NBC will carry the start of the race until 3 p.m. ET. Outside the U.S., the full race will be available on IMSA.tv and YouTube.com/IMSAOfficial. Audio commentary is available on IMSA.com and
RadioLeMans.com, as well as SiriusXM, where coverage begins at Noon Saturday (XM 206, Web/App 996)