Following its official withdrawal last week from the FIA World Endurance Championship, Lamborghini finds itself with an urgent need to identify the service providers(s) who will run its GTD PRO and GTP cars in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar …
Following its official withdrawal last week from the FIA World Endurance Championship, Lamborghini finds itself with an urgent need to identify the service providers(s) who will run its GTD PRO and GTP cars in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The Italian brand confirmed its exit from the WEC’s Hypercar class due to the FIA’s new-for-2025 mandate that each manufacturer field two factory cars — a doubling for Lamborghini if it went forward — by stating how the regulation “changes the terms on which Lamborghini entered the championship this year and is no longer aligned with the company’s strategy,” and also reiterated its intent to continue in the U.S., adding that “Lamborghini has therefore evaluated its options and elected to sit out the 2025 FIA WEC while remaining committed to SC63 development by continuing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the United States.”
Lamborghini’s departure from the WEC coincides with a change in relationship with longstanding partner Iron Lynx, who recently announced it has aligned with Mercedes-AMG to represent the German auto manufacturer in the WEC’s LMGT3 class.
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Change has been anticipated between Lamborghini and Iron Lynx with its Huracan GT3 effort in IMSA’s GTD PRO class as well, and potentially in GTP with the Lamborghini SC63 hybrid, which has been run by PREMA Racing under the Iron Lynx banner.
RACER understands a new GTD PRO service provider could be waiting in the wings if Iron Lynx does not return. One possible option could be found with Canada’s Pfaff Motorsports, which led Porsche’s factory effort to a GTD PRO championship in 2022, represented McLaren in the class last season, and has put the McLaren 720S GT3 up for sale on multiple websites. To date, the team has not declared its plans for next season.
With the GTP program, which ran under the direction of Iron Lynx/PREMA during the Nov. 15-17 IMSA test at Daytona, the path forward is said to have more options for Lamborghini to consider, including a continuation with PREMA if it severs ties to Iron Lynx. Where the GTD PRO effort is likely to be a full-season commitment, Lamborghini’s second season of GTP racing is targeted for the five-race Michelin Endurance Championship, which excludes the shorter 2h40m and 100-minute events.
Reached for comment, a Lamborghini representative told RACER its IMSA program will be announced soon, but declined to provide any details.
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET …
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.
Q: I know it sounds fickle, but after watching Formula 1 fumble all over itself to suddenly talk to General Motors now that Michael Andretti has stepped down, I would love to see a total power move from GM once negotiations are complete:
“After careful consideration we have decided Formula 1 would not bring enough value to the General Motors brand to warrant the upheaval of its addition to the series.”
Third supplier in IndyCar engines instead?
Brad, Seattle, WA
MARSHALL PRUETT: I’ve heard the GM-to-IndyCar rumor since 2010 but can’t find any evidence that says it will happen. Fingers crossed.
Q: The announcement that Wayne Taylor Racing will operate the Cadillac GTP program in IMSA for 2025 did not mention Andretti Global as a partner. The RACER.com article noted that Wayne Taylor said the team name was changed from WTRAndretti to WTR at the request of Cadillac. Is Andretti Global still involved? Seems like there is more to this when a significant partner’s name is removed from the team name.
What is the latest beyond-the-scenes developments with Andretti Global/Cadillac’s efforts to get into F1? Is the Andretti Global F1 facility really continuing to staff up and work on a 2026 car? I have read speculation that with both Michael Andretti and Greg Maffei out of their respective roles, along with the U.S. Dept. of Justice investigation proceeding, that there may be a compromise in the works to allow an 11th team on the grid. Comments attributed to Mario Andretti and Eddie Jordan recently imply something is in the works sooner rather than later.
David, Danville, CA
MP: You sent this prior to Monday’s formal confirmation of the Cadillac F1 program being accepted for 2026, but as I wrote in the first Mailbag after Michael was uninstalled at his own team, all of my sources positioned this as a high-level move to weed out the problematic aspects of Cadillac’s efforts to reach F1.
Liberty Media had major issues with Andretti. And General Motors, as I was told, also took issue — far too much drama and public-facing instability for its liking — and an initiative to move forward without the Michael Andretti distractions was hatched to get Cadillac into that 11th F1 entry slot.
Everything we’ve seen since then has fallen in line with what those sources spelled out in September because that’s precisely what’s been unveiled. We also noted how, in everything prior to Michael’s exit, the F1 team was presented as Andretti+Cadillac, and how in a post-Michael world, the new positioning was of Cadillac as the entrant, minus the Andretti name. But that never meant the Andretti team went away.
Think of the Sauber F1 team, which went by Sauber or some version of Sauber forever, and how it fell back and renamed itself Alfa Romeo Racing from 2019-23. We all knew it was Sauber making the cars and running the team, but it was presented as Alfa. That’s what is taking place with the removal of Andretti from the now-it’s-Cadillac-F1 routine.
On the WTR side, Andretti Global is involved, but mostly by name through ownership of WTR instead of being intermingled in the team’s daily activities. Andretti applied a significant layer of oversight and involvement in their first season together in 2023, and the outcome was far from harmonious. Andretti pulled back and let WTR be WTR in 2024, which was tons better, and that’s the way it will likely stay.
Despite being excellent in sports cars for a brief period from 2007-08 in the former American Le Mans Series, Andretti Global are not experts in IMSA or hybrid GTPs, whereas WTR are among the best, making the recent shift towards being a standalone operation a smart one by its parent company.
If GM joins IndyCar as a manufacturer, I’ll celebrate by wearing something fancy like a bowtie to the press conference. Matt Fraver/IMS Photo
Q: I’ve been to the Roush Automotive Collection a couple of times whenever there was an open house when NASCAR came to Michigan. There’s a Whistler Mercury Cougar IMSA GTO car, and close by is Tommy Kendall’s All Sport Mustang that he raced in Trans Am. Just by looking at the bodies, it seems to me the IMSA GTO and Trans Am cars from the late ’80s and early ’90s look pretty similar. What are the similarities and differences between IMSA GTO and Trans Am from that era, and could cars from those rivaling sanctioning bodies compete in both series?
Brandon Karsten
MP: Roush routinely rebodied his Bob Riley-designed tubeframe Ford/Lincoln Mercury/Merkur GTO and Trans Am cars to use in both series. Engine displacement and configuration were the main differentiators, but the cars — minus paint and stickers — were largely identical.
Q: On your podcast two weeks ago you said that when a new chassis comes out there will be only 25 cars, not 27 like IndyCar has now. Why is that, and which teams will lose a car?
Paul, Indianapolis, IN
MP: It’s not official, but every team owner I’ve spoken with regarding charters has said at some point that they expect the release of new cars to coincide with Penske Entertainment trimming the field from a max of 27 cars to 25.
As for where the two deleted cars would come from, there’s no answer, since it hasn’t been formally adopted. But I’d start with the three-car teams (Andretti, Ganassi, McLaren, RLL and Penske) as the first candidates to cull one car. The other option to address is whether version 2.0 of the charter, assuming the 25-car limit is implemented, would allow more non-charter entries to try and qualify for those 25 spots.
Would one of those three-car teams trim to two chartered cars and try and bump their way into the races with a third and newly unchartered car, provided it was allowed?
Q: Good on FOX for not only getting one of their more popular personalities into the 500 Pace Car, but also using a good chunk of prime NFL pregame show to announce it to the noon Sunday NFL audience. Now, maybe Michael Strahan could have been better informed about some of the details of the job ahead of him, but to have Will Power’s car and the pace car there in the studio with them and to spend that much time on it — these are good signs.
Aitch, Richmond, VA
MP: It’s the latest example of how the FOX deal is the biggest achievement by Penske Entertainment since it bought the series. The NFL pre-game show on FOX is sponsored by Verizon, so using Power’s Verizon-sponsored car during the shoot was a smart and obvious choice.
But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you that in a paddock that is always on high alert for things that could be a conflict of interest in a series owned by Penske where Penske also competes, not every reaction to this has been positive.
A call from one person asked why Penske was using the opportunity to benefit himself with one of his cars on a big nationally televised show, instead of helping one of the other IndyCar teams — possibly one that isn’t as financially secure — to use the hit to land a sizable sponsor. I can see how Penske-helping-Penske was the takeaway for some, and if the show wasn’t sponsored by Verizon, I’d likely agree. But this made sense to me, so I don’t agree.
Robert Wickens had a dream. His first run with Bryan Herta Autosport in a modified Hyundai Elantra N TCR more than three years ago turned that dream into a possibility. The new brake-by-wire system that Bosch developed and implemented on the BHA …
Robert Wickens had a dream. His first run with Bryan Herta Autosport in a modified Hyundai Elantra N TCR more than three years ago turned that dream into a possibility. The new brake-by-wire system that Bosch developed and implemented on the BHA Elantra for the Indianapolis round of Michelin Pilot Challenge threw the doors wide open. Now Wickens is ready to fulfill that dream as he moves to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) category with DXDT Racing and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.
“I’ve been wanting to move up into WeatherTech for quite some time – I felt like I was fairly transparent in that messaging – but it was always a difficult communication,” Wickens explained. “Trying to convince the OEMs or the team owners to, one, put me in the car like any other racing driver; and then say, ‘Oh, by the way, you have to design a whole braking system that doesn’t exist.’ So the fact that Bosch came to the table with with their technology, it’s already proving that it’s giving me the opportunities that I want in my career. Not only just in this next journey, moving up into the IMSA WeatherTech series, but we already raced it in the TCR category for the final two rounds of the Michelin Pilot challenge series with great success.”
As the 2023 IMPC TCR champ (with Harry Gottsacker) notes, budget has been a big obstacle into getting into another car. Developing a hand control system for a car isn’t exactly easy. The Bosch system, while not quite plug-and-play, clears many of the hurdles, especially as Bosch ABS systems are used in many GT3 cars – not to mention that the brake-by-wire system in the LMDh cars that make up the majority of GTP entries are Bosch as well.
Wickens hasn’t yet driven a Z06 GT3.R with the Bosch system installed, and indeed, such a beast doesn’t yet exist. He has seen a prototype model of the controls as they will be implemented in the car. The fact that Bosch and Pratt Miller, the builder of the Z06 GT3.R, are practically neighbors seems to be streamlining the process. Wickens has had a lot of input into the layout, and the car he drives will have its own special homologation to accommodate the system.
“This is going take some time, but we’re hoping to get on the driver-in-the-loop simulator in the coming weeks,” Wickens said of the timeline. “Then hopefully we can get our first straightline test sometime in January, in or around Daytona, with plans for our first on-track – call it performance – running in that late February to March timeline. So definitely up against the clock a little bit. But I know if anyone’s going to do it, it’s GM, Bosch and Pratt Miller. So I know I’m in good hands.
“It’s really cool to see the development, because it’s kind of starting from near nothing. I’ve been to Pratt Miller already. I saw the 3D-printed rapid production concept of the steering wheel and the hand controls and kind of fine tuning stuff. It’s tailor-made, really, so it’s a unique situation. Not many drivers can tailor-make their throttle and brake and everything to how they want unless you’re driving in Formula 1 or something, so it’s been a cool journey so far.”
Wickens will made his IMSA debut with DXDT, which is also entering its first year in the championship after moving across from GT World Challenge America. IMSA Photo
Since Wickens is doing only the sprint rounds of the WeatherTech Championship – those races of 2h40m or less – the timeline to get everything done is longer. Wickens is looking forward to making his debut in the Corvette at Long Beach, a track he raced in IndyCar, but hasn’t had the opportunity to drive since his accident. He expects the debut to be rough, but he’s excited to have it at a track where he will be among his IndyCar brethren.
“Having my season kick off in Long Beach is going to be a little bit of a baptism by fire for sure,” he laughed. “Why not learn IMSA WeatherTech racing at a track with no runoffs and walls everywhere? But the emotional journey of having my debut on a race weekend that we share with IndyCar is going to be pretty special, with my active role within Andretti Global that I still have, and there’s going to be a lot of friends around – old drivers, current drivers… it’s just going to be really cool to see. And I’m sure the support is going to be really, really nice. So the whole thing’s just going to be fun. Honestly, I think there’s definitely more excitement than nerves.”
Wickens is eagerly anticipating getting back into a rear-wheel-drive racecar. He thinks it may suit his driving style a bit better, noting that he often has to be later on the throttle than his teammates at corner exit because the first small percentages of throttle are difficult to apply with the hand controls. Too much throttle early in a front-drive car leads to wheelspin and understeer, so he’s found it easier to just delay throttle application. He thinks the Corvette might make easing onto the throttle with the hand controls a more effective proposition.
Wickens isn’t yet sure whether he will be returning to BHA and the IMPC TCR class for 2025, although he would certainly appreciate the extra track time. But he notes the contributions that program has made toward getting him where he is now.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere without Bryan, Herta, Sean Jones and Hyundai,” he said. “Those were the key people that allowed me a chance to drive a racecar again, and frankly, lit the spark that I knew was never dead inside of me. It really just kind of got the whole thing started, and we had a very successful three years together. There’s nothing but great feelings. If our journey ends now, or if it can continue on to the future, we’ll have to see, but I think for now, we accomplished a lot of great things together in TCR.
“It would have been nice to get another championship – every driver wants to win every championship in every race – but I think to look back on my three seasons in the Michelin Pilot Challenge series and TCR, and to have such great results and consistency throughout, it was a great journey.”
Either way, Wickens expects to be at Daytona International Speedway for the Rolex 24. He plans to absorb as much knowledge about his new DXDT Racing team, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, and the series as possible. And then awaiting his own turn behind the wheel of a GT3 car, something that seemed like only a dream a short time ago.
Robert Wickens will reach another milestone in his years-long recovery next year when he joins DXDT Racing to drive its Corvette Z06 GT3.R in a graduation to IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The 2023 IMSA TCR champion with Bryan Herta …
Robert Wickens will reach another milestone in his years-long recovery next year when he joins DXDT Racing to drive its Corvette Z06 GT3.R in a graduation to IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
The 2023 IMSA TCR champion with Bryan Herta Autosport in IMSA’s Michelin Pilot Challenge series departs BHA to join DXDT for five sprint races in the GTD Corvette, which is outfitted with the same brand-new hand-control and electronic-braking technology developed by Bosch Wickens used to close the season in his Hyundai Elantra N TCR. Wickens’ teammate will be named at a later date.
The Canadian is set to join the David Askew-owned, Bryan Sellers-led team for a program starting at Long Beach and continuing with stops at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Road America, and Virginia International Raceway.
“This is the opportunity I have been seeking for quite a while now, and it wouldn’t be possible without the support from David Askew at DXDT, Bosch and GM,” Wickens said. “My goal since returning to racing was to race in the IMSA WeatherTech Series, so to tick that box with a limited schedule in 2025 is a huge step in my progression back to professional racing. It was never going to be an easy task, but when great minds put their heads together anything is possible.”
Severely injured in an IndyCar crash at Pocono Raceway in 2018, Wickens fought through paralysis in his legs to regain the ability to walk in short bursts, but lingering damage made the use of hand controls to manage braking and throttle application a requirement upon his return to racing with BHA and Hyundai in 2022.
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Paired with Mark Wilkins, the duo took two wins on his TCR debut, and with a change in co-drivers to Harry Gottsacker, the two earned the TCR title in 2023 and returned to take runner-up honors in the class in 2024. In the routine developed with BHA, a driver change assistant was deployed to carry and install Wickens into the car and remove him and carry him back to the pit wall, which is expected to continue at DXDT.
Having spent most of the year working in the background to develop an opportunity to compete in the WeatherTech Championship, Wickens hoped to create a full-time opportunity for himself, but will embark on the new adventure with DXDT at IMSA’s shorter races and look to expand his calendar in 2026 and beyond.
“It’s always great when you can add a driver of Robert’s caliber to the team,” Askew said. “He is a top driver and has shown through drive and resilience that nothing is out of reach, evidenced by his race wins and championship titles in TCR. It’s certainly going to be a new challenge for all of us, but it’s one I’m so excited to take on. I know with all the work by us, Bosch, GM, and Pratt Miller this offseason, we’re in a good position to hit the ground running in Long Beach.”
This is what I’ve been pushing for since day 1 of my recovery. I’m excited to announce that I am entering the @IMSA Weather Tech Series in the GTD class with @DXDTRacing. None of this would have been possible without the support of the team, Bosch, GM, and so many more. pic.twitter.com/7Ou8SM9zfC
Wickens is the only driver directly supported by Bosch, and while other vendors have supplied hand controls in the series, he will race the mid-engine V8-powered Corvette with the first hand-control system made by the company for use in the WeatherTech Championship.
Pratt Miller Motorsports, which turns the production Corvettes into GT3-specification race cars for General Motors, has integrated Bosch’s technology into the American supercar for Wickens and DXDT, with functionality built in that allows the hand-control system to be switched on for Wickens and switched off for co-drivers who prefer to use the brake and throttle pedals.
“We are proud to be part of this effort alongside DXDT Racing, Pratt Miller, Bosch and of course Robert Wickens,” said Mark Stielow, GM’s director of motorsports competition programs. “For many years, Corvette Racing and Bosch have worked together to drive innovation in motorsports, most notably through the Collision Avoidance System that is now common in sports car paddocks around the world. It means a tremendous amount for Robert and Bosch to choose the Corvette Z06 GT3.R and DXDT Racing as they achieve their goal of making racing more inclusive to all competitors around the world, no matter the series or classification.”
For the first time in several years, qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona will take place on race weekend, with the qualifying session for the 2025 event taking place Thursday, Jan. 28, two days before the race. With the provisional schedules for …
For the first time in several years, qualifying for the Rolex 24 At Daytona will take place on race weekend, with the qualifying session for the 2025 event taking place Thursday, Jan. 28, two days before the race.
With the provisional schedules for the Roar Before the 24 and the Rolex 24 having been released to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors, it’s now known that the Roar weekend on Jan. 17-19 will consist of testing sessions only in addition to two races for the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge. Qualifying will take place on the following Thursday.
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Qualifying, and in some years qualifying races, had been held on the Sunday of the Roar weekend for the past four years.
The schedule change is a knock-on effect from IMSA moving up the pre-season test to November instead of December. That change, along with the implementation of torque sensors in the GT classes, moved Targeted Performance Testing of the GT3 cars in GTD PRO and GTD to the Roar weekend, and thus the shift of qualifying. Targeted Performance Testing was implemented last year, where each manufacturer nominates a team and driver to carry out prescribed tests in order to better set Balance of Performance for the unique Daytona International Speedway circuit.
The Roar will feature seven sessions for a total of 10h15m of track time, including a special 90-minute session for Bronze-rated drivers in LMP2 and GTD only, the last scheduled test of the weekend.
A further change to the qualifying schedule revealed a big alteration to the way GTD PRO and GTD will interact. First, each class will have its own 15m qualifying session, whereas for the past two years they have been combined.
That change prompted a look at the sporting regulations, revealing that the classes will be split, with GTD PRO cars starting ahead of all GTD cars, regardless of qualifying time. Since the inception of the GTD PRO category, the two GTD classes have started based on qualifying time with the classes intermixed. Further, GTD PRO and GTD will be split for restarts after a full-course caution.
The Roar weekend will also feature sessions for Michelin Pilot Challenge, which will have its traditional four-hour BMW M Endurance race on Friday before the Rolex 24. Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup will also have a pair of races on Thursday and Friday of race weekend. The 63rd Rolex 24 At Daytona is scheduled to begin at 1:40 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25.
Aston Martin Racing has set March’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring as the site where its new Valkyrie GTP model will make its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut. Although it was hoped the V12-powered prototype would take part in IMSA’s …
Aston Martin Racing has set March’s Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring as the site where its new Valkyrie GTP model will make its IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship debut.
Although it was hoped the V12-powered prototype would take part in IMSA’s season-opener during January’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, the call has been made to skip the arduous 24-hour race as the Valkyrie’s first competitive outing in favor of the shorter but more punishing event at Sebring. The Valkyrie’s global racing launch will take place late in February at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s curtain-raiser in Qatar.
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Run in partnership with The Heart of Racing, the Valkyrie turned its first laps in an IMSA-sanctioned test last week at Daytona as the series’ technical team benchmarked cars from all four WeatherTech Championship classes ahead of the upcoming season.
Drivers Roman de Angelis, Ross Gunn, and Alex Riberas took turns behind the wheel of the car at Daytona where the Valkyrie, which conforms to LMH regulations, shared the track with cars built to LMDh rules from Acura, BMW, Lamborghini, and Porsche.
Across two days of running, the Valkyrie produced a best lap of 1m37.169s, which was 1.461s shy of the leading Acura Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06’s 1m35.708s tour of the 3.5-mile infield road course.
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET …
Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.
Q: Why did Sebastien Bourdais not sign with Meyer Shank for IMSA like his Cadillac teammate Renger van der Zande? Was he signed elsewhere before everything was finalized with Acura? Was there only one seat? Politics of racing?
Kim
MARSHALL PRUETT: Seb was retained by GM/Cadillac to race in the WEC. He and Renger went to/stayed where they were wanted most.
Q: I have been studying this year’s oval IndyCar races and have a few observations:
After several years of oval domination, Josef Newgarden had a tough time this year. While he did win the Indy 500 and the race at WWTR, his other oval results had to be disappointing to him after the dominance of the previous years.
Meanwhile, his Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin established himself as a force to be reckoned with on ovals. Scott had two wins a second and a third, qualified on the pole four times and second twice. He led by far the most oval laps at 554, more than double that of second-placed Will Power with 240 and almost one third of the total oval laps (1666).
Team Penske continued its oval domination. The three drivers led a total of 895 of the 1666 laps, or 53.7%. They led more laps than all the other teams combined. In addition, the team had a record of five wins, two seconds and three thirds from the seven oval races. They also had five poles and five other front row starts, including a complete shutout of the front row at the Indy 500.
Despite this dominance they did not win the championship, which supports the notion that the best all-around team that finishes well in all disciplines will be the likely champion, as seen by Alex Palou’s third title in only four years with Chip Ganassi Racing.
Finally, I have to give a big shoutout to Colton Herta. After five years of disappointing oval results, a fourth, two fifths and two sixths, he qualified well in 2024 and got a win and a third. Perhaps these oval performances will continue and put him in the upper echelon of title contenders.
I can’t wait until next year to see how things unfold. Despite the doom and gloom championed by many of the Mailbag readers, IndyCar is the best racing on the planet.
Doug Mayer
MP: Agreed, Doug. Despite its many problems and shortcoming, most of those items do not detract from the on-track product. Important year ahead for Penske. Its driver trio is simply amazing. Full stop. It’s the streaky nature of their amazingness that has kept them coming up just shy in the championship runs since 2020 while Ganassi’ has taken four of the last five.
McLaughlin looks poised to have a breakthrough in that regard. He doesn’t need to hit home runs in every race. A couple of dingers and a steady diet of doubles and triples will make him an IndyCar champion; it’s the exact formula Palou has used to stifle Penske’s gaudy stats.
The 2025 grid isn’t even full yet, but you can already count McLaughlin among the title contenders. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Q: With Roger Penske buying GPALB and the exclusive right to stage races at Long Beach until 2028, is Green Savoree the next company he’s thinking of buying? They own four tracks, and three of them need way more attention and investment. The St. Pete GP is only one that seems OK, but it still could use having the IMSA WeatherTech series added on to make it a proper big-time event – an East Coast Long Beach.
I do hope Roger doesn’t mess what Jim Michaelian and his team have done for LBGP for 50 years. If anything they need few more TV monitors, better speakers and a better booking agent to attract better acts, especially for a city like Long Beach that has great local original music scene.
The other main question is, can Roger convince the Long Beach council to re-up the next contract? Or Will Liberty Media with Chris Pook or NASCAR bid for the next contract?
Dale Gribble, Arlen, TX
MP: Green Savoree would need to be for sale for that to happen. Forsythe was interested in selling to the right buyer. I miss the days of St. Pete being an IndyCar/ALMS event. Penske’s track record is one of taking control of or starting events and investing or making significant improvements, and if I’m the city council, that’s something to bank on.
Q: I can’t say enough how happy I am to see the current positive vibe of sports car racing both in IMSA and WEC. This is all thanks to allowing LMDh and Hypercar solutions to be available for prospective manufacturers to utilize! GTP will be all the richer for it, and my yearly Rolex 24 trip since 2016 will be even more exciting with Aston Martin’s stunning Valkyrie joining the line-up of awesome machines from the current OEMs.
People argue about what solution is better, but both are excellent. With LMDh, big makes like GM, Porsche or Honda can get involved using their powertrain tech and design language as well as other tricks of the trade developing a car that is very much their own without having to start from scratch with a custom monocoque and other bespoke parts.
For Hypercar, a large manufacturer that wants to build from scratch and take up the task of developing everything for the challenge, or to provide a car available for purchase such as Toyota or Ferrari, can do so too. What’s more, a smaller manufacturer that doesn’t make its own engines can still build their own vehicle and represent themselves accordingly, like Glickenhaus did.
This logical approach has given us so many cool cars to enjoy on track and excellent racing. I hope this momentum continues to carry on. Even though it’s years away, the hydrogen concept race cars Alpine, Hyundai, and Toyota have shown off have me feeling positive about the future for sports car racing! Cheers to that and a bit of positivity for the Mailbag.
Derrick Fonseca
MP: There’s no real debate to have; both formulas are excellent and provide manufacturers with the option that best fits their desires and financial capabilities. I don’t know what to do with all of this Mailbag warmth and kindness!
The first IMSA-sanctioned test prior to the 2025 season – and only until the Roar Before the 24 – is complete. While there are never any clear-cut answers in testing because teams are working through different testing agendas and aren’t always …
The first IMSA-sanctioned test prior to the 2025 season – and only until the Roar Before the 24 – is complete. While there are never any clear-cut answers in testing because teams are working through different testing agendas and aren’t always showing off their full potential, some patterns emerge.
First, Lamborghini Iron Lynx has made some strides, indicating that the pace the SC63 showed at Indianapolis wasn’t a fluke. The car didn’t race at Daytona last year, as Lamborghini chose Sebring as its competition debut, but it did show some potential at last year’s Daytona test. This time, Romain Grosjean set the fastest GTP time of the weekend, a 1m35.611s lap (134.043mph). Andrea Caldarelli backed that up with the fourth-fastest time of the test.
Acura Meyer Shank Racing seems set to pick up where it left off, with two of its drivers setting the third- and fourth-quickest times. New to the team, former BMW shoe Nick Yelloly in the No. 93 Acura ARX-06 set a time 0.097s off Grosjean’s best and 0.197s better than teammate Tom Blomqvist in the No. 60.
“Working with the guys and girls here and at the shop and with MSR has been fantastic, and obviously with HRC,” said Yelloly following the test. “We’ve been ticking off everything we can do on our program. Working through, sticking to our own program and making sure we constructively test everything we need to before we come back here in January. So, everything’s gone smoothly.
“Lap time-wise, it’s always nice to see yourself further at the front, but it doesn’t matter until we go racing, to be honest. But, yeah it’s been fantastic. I think Mike [Shank] runs a great operation here, as do HRC and its friendly faces all the time. Nothing’s too big of a job. Everyone gets their heads down and works their tails off to chase our end goal, which is obviously to be at the front.”
From fifth to ninth, it was all BMW M Team RLL. Running the same four drivers in both cars, three of the drivers were accounted for in those five places. Marco Wittman was the quickest of the bunch in the No. 25 BWM M Hybrid V8.
Cadillac tested an updated version of its V-Series R. Richard Prince/Cadillac Photo).
Jack Aitken was the quickest of the Cadillac drivers – no surprise given his experience with the V-Series.R and Whelen Cadillac Racing – in 10th overall while Cadillac tested some updates and Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing worked to get up to speed with its new cars. CWTR’s Jordan Taylor was one of those getting familiar with the V-Series.R.
“It has been great coming back to Cadillac and driving the new V-Series.R,” he declared. “It definitely has its own driving style-wise: the way it feels, the way you attack corners, the set-up changes are different, the terminology is all different. It has been a lot to learn but nice to get a head start here in November, before the year ends. We should get a good head start from this test and go into the off-season with more ideas to come back to the Roar with.
“We are all excited to start the season next year. I think there is a lot of expectation on big results. Obviously, last year, we had two wins and the team would definitely like to increase that and I think we will have a great chance to with Cadillac.”
The quickest of the Porsche runners was JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Gianmaria Bruni, 14th overall and leading the Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963s. All three 963s were armed with updates for next season.
Ford topped the GTD timesheets. LAT Images/IMSA
Ford Multimatic Motorsports sextet of drivers dominated the GTD PRO proceedings. The Mustang GT3 held the top five and six of the top seven times, interrupted only by
Klaus Bachler in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R in fifth. Dennis Olsen held the top spot with a 1m47.822s lap (118.862mph) in the No. 65 Mustang. Olsen, who raced the Mustang for Proton Competition in WEC in 2024, will be an endurance addition for the team in 2025.
“It’s definitely really nice to be back in IMSA,” noted Olsen. “I’m getting into the groove here with Multimatic and it’s very nice. The team is very new to me, and we are working to get the two cars communicating strongly together. We’re sharing everything and working together as a team and as a group.
“We’re working on all the systems trying to prepare for the big one. Still a lot left to do, and it’s definitely challenging, but we’ll keep on working and improving,” he added.
Malthe Jakobsen set the top time in LMP2 for CrowdStrike by APR as the team prepares for its return to competition after a hiatus in the latter half of 2024. Jakobsen’s 1m38.635s was the quickest of eight LMP2 teams at the test.
Elliott Skeer was quickest among the GTD drivers testing at Daytona, as Porsche pilots took the top three spots. Skeer turned a 1m48.221s lap in the No. 120 Wright machine to better Matteo Cressoni in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R, as well as teammate Loek Hartog. The fourth and fifth spots were occupied by Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos; first was Andy Lally for Magnus Racing, followed by Valentin Hasse-Clot for new GTD entry van der Steur Racing.
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams will embark on individual testing programs for the rest of the year before reconvening at Daytona for the Roar Before the 24 on Jan. 17.
Van der Steur Racing is no stranger to the IMSA paddock, with a presence dating some twenty years. Most recently, the team founded by former racer Gunnar van der Steur has competed in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. …
Van der Steur Racing is no stranger to the IMSA paddock, with a presence dating some twenty years.
Most recently, the team founded by former racer Gunnar van der Steur has competed in the Grand Sport (GS) class of the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge. For 2025, VDSR will move to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship side of the paddock as it steps up to campaign the No. 19 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in the Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class.
They’ll compete in all five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup events, and possibly select sprint races as well, with drivers Rory van der Steur and Valentin Hasse-Clot.
Van der Steur Racing is making maximum use of the resources that Aston Martin Racing and its partner Prodrive have to offer in terms of technical and engineering support. Hasse-Clot is an Aston Martin factory driver who teamed with Rory van der Steur to finish fourth or better in four of the five Michelin Pilot Challenge races they ran together in 2024 in van der Steur’s Aston Martin Vantage GT4.
His best result of the season was achieved in the sprint race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where he teamed with Scott Andrews for a second-place finish.
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The No. 19 Aston Martin missed the Saturday morning session of the three-day IMSA-sanctioned test, but got up to speed quickly, with Hasse-Clot setting the third quickest GTD time in the Saturday night session.
Maxime Robin, van der Steur, Eric Filgueiras and Brady Behrman also ran laps in the car over the course of the weekend, with Robin running P3 in the first Sunday session. The team’s full 2025 driver lineup has not been finalized.
“It’s obviously a huge move for the team, and for my teammate Rory, who is discovering everything about GT3,” commented Hasse-Clot during the test. “They made the right decision by hiring people from the Aston Martin Racing (AMR) factory, so it’s going to be a smooth transition, I think. We’re all here to support them in this move.
“I’m feeling good,” he continued. “I’m very familiar with the car and the mechanics and engineers and everyone around the team. Saturday was our first roll-out with the car and with the IMSA systems on board the car, and we’ve sorted everything. All positive!”
Brandon Badraoui/Lumen
Fast start for Iron Dames Porsche
While there were other highlights, a sixth-place GTD class finish in the season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona remained the best result of the 2024 season for the all-female Iron Dames program in the No. 83 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.
For 2025, the pink Iron Dames livery and the No. 83 stay the same, but the driver lineup is evolving and the team has opted to trade the Lamborghini for a Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). It’s a homecoming of sorts, because Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy drove a similar Porsche to a historic first all-female win at the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.
“Clearly we had a difficult year in 2024, so we chose to look for more reliability, for more consistency, and we found a partner within Porsche,” said Frey. “We already had some experience with that brand in Europe and thought it would be a nice idea to also make the move to Porsche for IMSA in 2025. We very much look forward to that.”
The 2025 Iron Dames WeatherTech Championship lineup is yet to be announced, but Frey was in the car for the test along with Karen Gaillard and team co-owner Claudio Schiavoni. Matteo Cressoni, a driver and engineering advisor for the related Iron Lynx organization, also drove the No. 83 Porsche at Daytona and set the second fastest GTD time of the week on Sunday afternoon.
Frey was pleased coming off her track time at Daytona.
“Whenever we jump in the car it gives us a smile, so we love the car very much,” she said. “The test for us was very positive, so I can’t wait to get it started in January.”
Michael Levitt/Lumen
New horizons for DXDT
DXDT Racing has plenty of experience with the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The North Carolina-based team was the first to earn a major victory with the new-for-2024 GT3 version of the iconic American sports car.
This year, DXDT is tackling a new challenge by competing full-time in the WeatherTech Championship’s GTD class. With the 2025 driver lineup not yet announced, those at the test sharing seat time in the No. 36 Corvette were Alec Udell – who competed with the team this past season in GT World Challenge America – Salih Yoluc, Corvette factory driver Charlie Eastwood, and two-time IMSA champion and GM driver Pipo Derani.
Udell is looking forward to his first full season in the WeatherTech Championship.
“IMSA has the highest competition in the U.S. for any form of sports car racing,” he said. “The level of operations, the team strategy and all the execution … you have to be perfect. There’s no wiggle room with the packed fields. The events bring in a ton of fans and are really a show. It’s a fantastic place to race.
“We’ve had the goal of getting everything to gel together and building momentum to grow this program,” he added. “The focus was always to build up to the IMSA championship.”
The DXDT Corvette completed 343 laps over the course of two days at Daytona.
“Everything is coming together smoothly,” Udell reported. “We’re bringing a lot of talented minds together and I think that’s what it takes to have a successful program.”
The 2025 WeatherTech Championship season opens with the annual Roar Before the Rolex 24, January 17-19, leading into the Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 23-26.
Speed is seldom the primary objective of pre-season testing, although any of the 31 participants in the IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway would take pride in topping the timing screens. For most teams and manufacturers, the November test …
Speed is seldom the primary objective of pre-season testing, although any of the 31 participants in the IMSA test at Daytona International Speedway would take pride in topping the timing screens.
For most teams and manufacturers, the November test is mostly about integrating new personnel and learning how their cars react to changes in chassis setup and atmospheric conditions. There’s no substitute for time on track when it comes to learning.
Cars from all four classes that contest the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship shared the 3.56-mile road course Saturday, a marathon day of testing that spread 10 hours of track time through three sessions, including two hours of night running. The test concludes Sunday with two three-hour sessions exclusively for the GTD and GTD PRO classes.
Prior to the Saturday night session, Acura Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian’s pair of Acura ARX-06 were the pacesetters overall and for the GTP class. Nick Yelloly’s 1m35.708s lap in the Saturday morning session in the No. 93 car was best of all, narrowly ahead of Tom Blomqvist’s 1m35.905s set Friday afternoon in the No. 60.
Those times were about three seconds off the GTP lap record set by Pipo Derani in qualifying for the 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona.
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Yelloly is new to the MSR Acura effort this year, having spent the last two years racing in the GTP class for BMW M Team RLL.
“We’ve been ticking off everything we can do on our program, making sure we constructively test everything we need to before we come back here for the Rolex 24 in January,” Yelloly said. “Everything has gone smoothly. We had a test last week at Sebring. That was my first impression of the car and the team. Here at Daytona, it’s always nice to kind of see what you’re like in terms of just general drivability compared to the competition.
“Lap time-wise, it’s always nice to see yourself further at the front, but it doesn’t matter until we go racing, to be honest. Solid couple days, and it will be nice to feel what the car is like at night. Obviously, this car has very different tendencies to what I’ve been used to. We’ve got traffic here, so I’ve been seeing where I can or can’t overtake, or if it’s different to what I’ve been used to. Working with the guys and girls here at Meyer Shank and with HRC (Honda Racing Corporation USA) has been fantastic.”
Among GTP competitors, Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 Porsche 963 completed the most laps in every of the first four sessions, a total of 487 circuits. That was a robust 171 laps more than the next-best total of 316 turned by the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, and more than BMW M Team RLL managed with both of its BMW M Hybrid V8s (390).
While BMW was lacking in terms of mileage, its cars were solidly on the pace. They ran in the top three in each of the first three sessions, before a reduced workload Saturday afternoon saw the No. 24 car run only 10 laps. Also showing speed was the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63, which was fastest on Friday morning in the hands of Andrea Caldarelli and ran P2 on Saturday afternoon driven by Romain Grosjean.
Dennis Olsen led the way in GTD PRO with Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Mustang GT3. Michael Levitt/Lumen
Mustangs off to solid start in GTD PRO
In the GT classes, the Ford Mustang GT3 showed steady improvement throughout the 2024 season, culminating in a pair of podium finishes. The Mustang program continued its upward trend at the Daytona test, as Dennis Olsen led all GT-class runners in the No. 65 GTD PRO Mustang GT3 fielded by Ford Multimatic Motorsports.
Olsen was timed at 1m48.177s in the Saturday afternoon session, edging teammate Seb Priaulx in the No. 64 Mustang by 0.019s with a time also set in Session 4.
Eliott Skeer’s Saturday afternoon best was fastest in the GTD class and third among all GT runners at 1m48.438s.
“It’s definitely really nice to be back in IMSA,” said Olsen, who drove a Mustang for Proton Competition in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024. “I’m really enjoying being back driving on Michelin tires in the best championship in the world.
“I’m getting into the groove here with Multimatic and it’s very nice. The team is very new to me, and we are working to get the two cars communicating strongly together. We’re sharing everything and working together as a team and as a group.
“We’re working on all the systems trying to prepare for the big one,” he added. “Still a lot left to do, and it’s definitely challenging, but we’ll keep on working and improving.”
Malthe Jakobsen turned the fastest lap of the test for the LMP2 class at 1m38.635s on Friday afternoon.
IMSA-sanctioned testing at Daytona wraps up Sunday.
