Proton Competition’s dual IMSA-WEC Porsche 963 program continues to come together behind the scenes. The German team has told RACER that it is expecting to take delivery of its new LMDh Porsche at the end of April, before taking on an extensive test …
Proton Competition’s dual IMSA-WEC Porsche 963 program continues to come together behind the scenes. The German team has told RACER that it is expecting to take delivery of its new LMDh Porsche at the end of April, before taking on an extensive test program.
The only hiccup thus far is a delay to the program’s start date, which will see the team likely wait until after the Le Mans 24 Hours in June to debut its cars.
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Unless a significant commercial opportunity emerges, team principal Christian Ried has repeatedly made it clear that the team would prefer to test its valuable new assets rather than rush to the Le Mans and compete in IMSA at its first opportunity.
RACER understands that when it takes delivery of its 963s, the team’s testing plans feature multiple venues in Europe, with 8-10 days of track time likely. Currently, it appears that the FIA WEC effort is most likely to get underway at Monza, while the IMSA program’s most likely start point is now Road America.
RACER also believes that the team’s step up to Hypercar in the FIA WEC will see it reduce its GTE Am entry to a single car: the No. 77 Dempsey Proton 911 RSR 19 for the FIA WEC races after Le Mans. Proton will, however, continue to support the Iron Lynx/Iron Dames effort.
Christian Ried’s team isn’t the only team on the cusp of receiving an LMDh chassis from Porsche for use in the FIA WEC this season, as Hertz Team JOTA, which is present in Sebring with a pair of LMP2 ORECAs, is also close to taking delivery of a 963. The team is fully focused on its LMP2 title challenge at the moment, but it will quickly split its resource to accommodate its Hypercar effort in the coming weeks.
Part of its transition to Hypercar is embedding its new team principal, former head of DTM at Audi Sport Dieter Gass, into the operation. He is present with Hertz Team JOTA in Florida for his first event with the British team.
RACER spoke with Gass ahead of what is set to be a quieter event for him in his new role. While he is part of the team this weekend, he is still getting up to speed. The real work starts for him when the team debuts its 963, which is expected to be at Spa.
Gass says he’s really enjoying life at JOTA so far and has been impressed with the level that the Le Mans class-winning team operates.
“I got in touch with (JOTA co-owner) David Clarke some time ago, before the deal with Porsche was sealed,” he told RACER. “He told me his vision and said he wanted to work with me. We stayed in touch and once the 963 deal was sealed we continued our discussion.
“It was an easy decision. It’s all happening now, there are so many cars and manufacturers involved in prototypes so I’m really looking forward to it.
“I was really surprised by the level of every area of the team. I honestly didn’t expect it to be this good from the outside. For now it’s been good to get back in the paddock, reconnect and get to know the team.”
Everything changed for Pfaff Motorsports in 2022 – campaigning a new class in GTD PRO and new drivers, both of whom were experiencing their first full season in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The results, however were the same, …
Everything changed for Pfaff Motorsports in 2022 — campaigning a new class in GTD PRO and new drivers, both of whom were experiencing their first full season in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The results, however were the same, if not more superlative: a championship for the team and drivers on the back of five victories.
It’s all new again in 2023 for the Toronto-based team, which was recently inducted into the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame. Two new Porsche factory drivers, one of whom looking at his first full season of IMSA, and a new car, the brand-new 992-generation 911 GT3 R. Fortunately, on the drivers’ side, switching each year isn’t too much of a challenge.
“There’s a small adjustment period, but I think that’s what makes the Porsche drivers so special, is that that adjustment period is a fraction of what it would be from someone outside of the network, if you will,” explains team manager Steve Bortolotti. “Porsche does an amazing job of grooming their drivers from through their ladder system, and once they’re contracted drivers to Porsche, they do a really good job of teaching them how to act and helping them understand the car, frankly.
“So it makes our job as a team substantially easier to have the revolving door, I guess, that we’ve had the last three years. It’s certainly not easy, but there’s a leg up with the work that Porsche has done in the background with the drivers that has made them a much easier fit than someone who doesn’t know the brand or the unique nature of the car.”
For this season, the driver lineup includes Patrick Pilet, well known to IMSA fans for having been one of Porsche’s GTLM drivers, including winning the 2015 championship. Pilet is partnered with Klaus Bachler, for whom many of the North American circuits will be new. Laurens Vanthoor joins in for the endurance races.
“It’s a big honor to be here with this great team, when they won the last two years the championship. Then together with Patrick, he has won the championship in GTLM, so he has so many races here, so much experience.”
Both drivers know maintaining the success that Pfaff has had in recent years will be no easy task, especially as they and the team work to achieve the best setups on the new car and figure out what it wants on circuits where it hasn’t seen any mileage. But they also understand the culture within Pfaff meshes with their own, and believe that even if the start is slow, they will get the team back onto the top step of the podium.
“It’s always difficult to win, and what they achieved is something really special,” declares Pilet. “We should not forget that we should stay humble because it’s a brand-new car; it’s not like you’re coming in with a past car that you know perfectly, you have all the setup and everything. We have to learn this car, we have to learn how to work also with a team. I’m not scared about this, because we have exactly the same philosophy and, and the way they work is really nice. It’s a really good approach of racing, and there are real racers. But, yeah, we will go step by step. We will try to improve every race and championship is long.”
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The latest generation of Porsche’s GT3 racer had an inauspicious debut at the Rolex 24 At Daytona, where Pfaff soldiered through the race to finish fifth in GTD PRO, a lap down. IMSA usually tries to bring in new cars as underdogs, and adjust Balance of Performance parameters up to bring the car into contention. However, at Daytona, the Porsche teams were shockingly off the pace. The 992-based GT3 R is a rather different machine than its predecessor, and some of those differences are not only making it difficult for teams to adapt, but also played a part in what making might have been a small handicap — 5mm smaller intake restrictors than the previous generation — into a big one.
“It’s certainly a lot more work, I think, than we were expecting coming into the season, because the car is so dramatically different in philosophy from the previous car,” says Bortolotti. “That said, the struggles that were well documented from Daytona are something that we feel are… there’s two sides to every story, right? Certainly a function of it can be attributed to Balance of Performance, but then the drivers aren’t coming off saying, ‘The car’s perfect — put a cover on it,’ either. So we have to focus on controlling what we can control and developing the platform we have.
“That’s where our team’s focus needs to remain with a new car, because the car is, from a suspension geometry point, substantially different from the old car; it doesn’t appear to make as much mechanical grip as the previous-generation car. So that’s posed some new challenges and the way the car makes the lap time with its downforce, compared to the old car. It’s different. That doesn’t mean one is better or worse than the other, it’s just different and it’s not a build-off of what we had in the past. It’s like we’re starting fresh, and we just need to follow our engineering processes and the data and make sound decisions as a group to improve the car as best we can within the parameters set up by IMSA.”
BoP might make the process of improvement complex, but Pfaff feels the proven ingredients of its successful program will help the team find its way back to the front. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
In introducing new GT3 cars, manufacturers aren’t always trying to make them faster, because it’s a homologated, Balance-of-Performance class. The goal is usually to improve reliability, drivability, comfort, tire degradation, and widen the setup window wherever possible. But in doing so, there are new things for the teams to learn.
“Handling-wise, as a driver, there’s some big differences to the old car, for sure,” explains Bachler. “It’s four years younger, so a lot has changed. The car is more balanced, mechanically, and also aerodynamically. In general, the ABS and (traction control) was improved. But those are small things; it’s still a 911, so it’s not a revolution. It’s evolution. And in the end, we just need to be as fast as possible with developing the setup, because this is new on this car.”
As the team heads into the second round of the WeatherTech Championship, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring — a race in which they weren’t really in contention in 2022 — they’re confident there are some improvements to be made over the Daytona result. A change to the BoP will certainly help, and the team has a race of learning the new car under its belt. All that, plus just the way the team does things, its overall philosophy, have them believing that they’ll be in contention again in the near future.
“It really starts with us doing a good job over the last few years of really defining our process that we feel has led us to success, and believing in that process and working the process,” says Bortolotti. “It sounds cliche, but the reality is we feel we’ve got a very open and contrarian culture where we’re not afraid to disagree with each other and challenge each other with new ideas, and it’s very collaborative. I believe that has actually only helped us with a new car and helped us find success quicker, because we’re not afraid to speak up to one another. And that’s not in a confrontational or negative way. I mean — it’s certainly in a healthy, respectful way that we communicate with each other.
“But at the end of the day, it’s the people that need to hear that stuff, that might be hearing something for the first time, having the confidence in what they do and in their employment, to hear criticisms from someone else, then apply the learning and understand what’s being said. So I truly feel that the success has been well documented on our side and we just have our little recipe that we know what makes us great, I hope, and we’ve got to continue to work the plan.”
There’s simply nothing like the engine in Porsche’s 963. In fact, it’s the only one of its kind in IMSA’s new WeatherTech SportsCar Championship hybrid GTP class. Take a look at the time-honored roots and the modern take on the motor code named …
There’s simply nothing like the engine in Porsche’s 963. In fact, it’s the only one of its kind in IMSA’s new WeatherTech SportsCar Championship hybrid GTP class.
Take a look at the time-honored roots and the modern take on the motor code named ‘9RD’ that Porsche Penske Motorsport intends to take to victory lane at the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
And if you missed any of the previous installments of our “GTP 101” series, CLICK HERE for the full playlist.
After leading every lap en route to victory in Sunday morning’s first race of a Sunday doubleheader at Sebring International Raceway, Bijoy Garg had a much tougher time in this afternoon’s second 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race. …
After leading every lap en route to victory in Sunday morning’s first race of a Sunday doubleheader at Sebring International Raceway, Bijoy Garg had a much tougher time in this afternoon’s second 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race.
The end result was the same, though, as Garg drove the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 back into Victory Lane. Despite starting the race from the pole position, Garg surrendered the lead to Dan Goldburg in the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08 on the opening lap.
Goldburg grabbed the advantage just before the full-course caution came out due to a first-lap incident in Turn 1 involving Adrian Kunzle in the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier, Scott Neal in the No. 86 Kellymoss with Riley Ligier and Courtney Crone in the No. 99 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine. When the green flag flew again 10 minutes into the race, a three-car battle ensued at the front of the LMP3 field that included Goldburg, Garg and Antonio Serravalle in the No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports America Ligier.
Though no positions changed hands, the battle remained close among the three cars through the halfway point of the race. It was particularly close between Goldburg and Garg, who made several runs at Goldburg in traffic before finally making the decisive pass in Sebring’s famed Hairpin (Turn 7) with 15 minutes left in the race.
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“I did a pretty big dive bomb, but it worked out and none of us got damage,” said Garg.
Garg then went from hunter to hunted for the next few laps as he navigated traffic with Goldburg in his mirrors, before catching a break when Goldburg spun in Turn 7 with under 10 minutes remaining. Garg went on to win by 4.949s over Serravalle, picking up a Sebring weekend sweep for himself and his Jr III Racing teammates.
“I lost the lead off the start, but I wasn’t too worried,” Garg said. “I knew it all came down to the traffic and just finding an opportunity there, so as long as I stayed with (Goldburg), I was fine. I used some lapped cars, set a pick for him and then got it.
“From there, it’s all about the traffic management, as usual. It’s not easy going to a multi-class. I’m just really happy to come out with the win today.”
Serravalle was one of a number of series newcomers in the 30-car field at Sebring. He had a double podium day with a third-place run in the morning before his runner-up performance in the afternoon for the Muehlner squad.
Goldburg recovered from the spin to finish third for his fourth consecutive podium result to open the VP Racing Challenge season. He will depart the weekend atop both the overall LMP3 championship standings, as well as the Bronze driver standings. He has been the highest-finishing Bronze-rated driver in every race so far.
The next event for the VP Racing Challenge is scheduled for July 7-9 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Challenge Chevrolet Grand Prix weekend.
Gregory Liefooghe started from the GSX class pole in the No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 and led every lap but the last one in Sunday morning’s first 45-minute race.
While he also started this afternoon’s race from the class pole, it appeared on the opening lap like he might come up empty on the day as he fell from first to fifth at the end of the first lap.
“The start was pretty sporty,” Liefooghe said. “There (were) two LMP3 cars that crashed right in front of me. I was on the outside, so I kind of got stuck, fell back and almost got collected, so I was really happy to survive.”
He did more than survive. Liefooghe went right to work when the race went back to green following a 10-minute full-course caution period, picking off the cars in front of him, including Luca Mars, who won this morning’s race in the No. 59 KOHR MOTORSPORTS Ford Mustang GT4 but had to make an unscheduled trip to pit lane early in race two.
“Unfortunately, Lucas broke down,” Liefooghe said. “I’m not sure what happened to him. We were looking forward to a battle with him and see how we improved our car compared to his since this morning.”
Liefooghe would not be denied in race two, especially with Mars out of the picture. He drove away from the field after taking the lead, and took the checkered flag 22.712s ahead of Sebastian Carazo, who finished second in the No. 27 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS.
“It just seems like our car was really good on the high-speed stuff,” Liefooghe surmised. “(Turns) 17 and 1 (were our strong suits). It felt like we were able to brake a lot deeper than the other competitors and we kind of squeaked by in those two spots on track.”
While Liefooghe and Carazo, who also finished third this morning, had podium finishes in both of the day’s races, they were greeted by a new face on the podium at the end of race two — Patrick Wilmot came home third in the No. 88 Split Decision Motorsports BMW.
It may have looked easy from the outside, but Bijoy Garg suggests his flag-to-flag victory in Sunday morning’s 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race at Sebring International Raceway was anything but. “It wasn’t easy, definitely,” said …
It may have looked easy from the outside, but Bijoy Garg suggests his flag-to-flag victory in Sunday morning’s 45-minute IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge race at Sebring International Raceway was anything but.
“It wasn’t easy, definitely,” said the driver of the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320. I feel like we had pace on all the other guys. They just got through traffic a bit better, but overall, I’m super happy with the win. Our car felt great all race.”
It looked great all race also. After starting the race from the pole position, it didn’t take long for Garg to pull away from rest of the field.
By the end of the second lap, he already held a 3.7-second lead over Dan Goldburg in the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08. Garg eventually built an advantage of more than five seconds before the field caught up slightly once the leader encountered traffic.
Garg appeared to be cruising to victory until a full-course caution came out for debris from Tim Probert’s No. 65 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 with just under 14 minutes remaining in the race. The green flag flew once again with four and a half minutes left on the clock and Garg once again showed Goldburg and the rest of the field a clean pair of heels.
“I knew once I got a gap, I could hold it,” Garg said. “So, all I needed to do was get a good restart and I did that. Once I had the gap into (Turn) 1, I was like, ‘OK, time to go.’”
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The victory was Garg’s first in the series. He crossed the stripe 3.479s ahead of Goldburg, who saw his two-race series win streak snapped but he continues to lead the VP Racing Challenge LMP3 class points leader. Goldburg was also the highest-finishing Bronze-rated driver, enabling him to continue leading the Bronze driver point standings as well.
Antonio Serravalle rounded out the top three in the No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine. Lance Willsey — a 2022 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring winner in the LMP3 class — finished fourth on Sunday morning in the No. 30 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier ahead of Brian Thienes in the No. 77 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Ligier. Thienes had worked his way up from fifth on the starting grid to third on the opening lap, but an off-course excursion later in the race moved him back down the order.
Mars takes GSX win in last-lap thriller
While the LMP3 class polesitter managed to go flag-to-flag en route to the victory, Gregory Liefooghe’s efforts to do the same in the GSX class came up one lap short.
Buoyed in part by the late-race full-course caution, 17-year-old Luca Mars managed to reel in Liefooghe’s No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 over the closing laps. And just after taking the white flag, Mars knew it was time to make his move in his No. 59 KOHR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4.
“It was a long race there,” Mars explained. “Lapped traffic kind of separated me and Greg a little bit, but I had him coming into (Turn) 1. I had a run, so I set up and got a little over-under. I was able to stick my nose in so he couldn’t fully block. I just kind of put my car in there where he couldn’t get down and squeeze me. I just got around the corner, he went a little wide, and that was it.
“I still needed to defend him a little bit, but I came through Tower Corner, Turn 13, and I saw I had a gap, and I knew I was really good through the 14-15-16 complex, so I went through there, put my head down and knew I had a big gap coming down into 17, so I was pretty confident in the win coming down there.”
Mars’ margin of victory was a scant 0.292 seconds over Liefooghe. It was his first win, coming in his first VP Racing Challenge start ahead of this afternoon’s second race of the Sunday doubleheader.
“It’s a new series,” said Mars, who was one of many additions to a field that swelled to from 24 cars at Daytona to 30 this weekend. “It’s an awesome series. I’m super glad to be here this weekend. I had a great time out there. It was a long race, and I’m super looking forward to racing later today.”
After leading both practice sessions, taking the pole position, and leading all but the final lap, Liefooghe took second in his series debut. Sebastian Carazo claimed the final spot on the podium with a third-place run aboard the No. 27 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 718 GT4 RS CS.
Moisey Uretsky made it four different manufacturers in the top-four GSX positions, coming home fourth in the No. 44 Accelerating Performance Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Francis Selldorff filled out the top five in the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4.
The second and final 45-minute race of the day for the VP Racing Challenge takes the green flag at 1:30pm ET. Live Timing & Scoring is available on IMSA.com.
Bijoy Garg is two-for-two in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge qualifying. After claiming the pole position for the series debut in January at Daytona, Garg made the most of Saturday afternoon’s abbreviated qualifying session at Sebring …
Bijoy Garg is two-for-two in IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge qualifying.
After claiming the pole position for the series debut in January at Daytona, Garg made the most of Saturday afternoon’s abbreviated qualifying session at Sebring International Raceway, putting the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P320 at the head of a spectacular 30-car field for both of Sunday’s 45-minute races.
Garg’s best lap was 1m56.854s (115.221mph) to claim the pole for race one Sunday morning and his second-fastest lap of 1m57.099s (114.980mph) was quick enough to put him on pole for race two Sunday afternoon. The LMP3 field had a substantially reduced qualifying session due to a red flag midway through when the No. 54 MLT Motorsports Ligier of Adrian Kunzle stopped on course in Turn 10.
“Definitely a really good lap and a really good car by the team,” Garg said. “Jr III Racing did a fantastic job just getting this car ready and ensuring that we’re in the position to get pole. It was a bit of a stressful qualy, obviously, with two timed laps, basically, at speed. Just hard to get in a rhythm, but glad we could still get it.”
Joining Garg on the front row for both races will be Dan Goldburg in the No. 73 JDC MotorSports Duqueine D08 with an overall best qualifying lap of 1m57.415s (114.671mph). Goldburg heads into Sunday’s races as the LMP3 class points leaders after sweeping both races of the season-opening doubleheader at Daytona.
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Goldburg is 60 points ahead of Brian Thienes, who qualified fifth in the No. 77 Forte Racing Powered by USRT Ligier, and 140 points in front of Garg. Canadian racer Antonio Serravalle qualified third in the No. 18 Muehlner Motorsports America Duqueine at 1m58.351s (113.764mph) ahead of Courtney Crone in the No. 99 Forty7 Motorsports Duqueine at 1m59.014s (113.130mph).
In the GSX class, Gregory Liefooghe placed the No. 43 Stephen Cameron Racing BMW M4 GT4 on the class pole position for both races with a best lap of 2m10.285s (103.343mph) and a second-best lap of 2m10.325s (103.311mph) in the 15-minute qualifying session. Liefooghe was fast throughout Saturday, leading both practice sessions prior to qualifying as well.
“We were way off in Daytona,” Liefooghe said. “We’ve done a little bit of testing since then, and it seems we were starting to be in the window of that car. Steve Cameron’s always tuning on the car and giving us the best car possible, and Sebring is one of my favorite tracks, so it seems to have all clicked together.”
Joining Liefooghe on the GSX front row will be Luca Mars, who celebrated his 17th birthday earlier this week. Mars posted a best lap of 2m11.001s (102.778mph) in the No. 59 KOHR MOTORSPORTS Ford Mustang GT4. Francis Selldorff rounded out the top three in GSX with a best lap of 2m11.103 (102.698mph) in the No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT4.
After taking victories in both races at Daytona, GSX points leader Billy Griffin qualified 18th in class on Saturday in the No. 14 KOHR MOTORSPORTS Mustang GT4.
Sunday’s doubleheader kicks off with race one taking the green flag at 8 a.m ET. The second 45-minute race of the day goes green at 1:30 p.m. ET. Live Timing & Scoring data from both races is available on IMSA.com.
Hyundai is taking IMSA Michelin Pilot TCR champions Michael Lewis and Taylor Hagler, along with fellow Bryan Herta Autosport racers Mason Filippi and Harry Gottsacker, to one of the world’s toughest 24-hour races, the ADAC TotalEnergies 24 Hour Race …
Hyundai is taking IMSA Michelin Pilot TCR champions Michael Lewis and Taylor Hagler, along with fellow Bryan Herta Autosport racers Mason Filippi and Harry Gottsacker, to one of the world’s toughest 24-hour races, the ADAC TotalEnergies 24 Hour Race at Germany’s Nurburgring circuit in May. Hyundai Motor America alongside Hyundai Motorsport GmbH will partner with Target Competition to field a single Elantra N TCR entry piloted by the veteran lineup of Hyundai drivers from BHA.
“Hyundai and Bryan Herta Autosport give us such great opportunities,” said Lewis. “It is cool to compete in a historic, unique, and crazy event where we can showcase Hyundai’s vehicles amongst the great competition out there. 24 hours around probably the most difficult circuit out there, but we love it and that’s the kind of stuff we look to do. Thank you to Hyundai for making this happen for us and we will do our best and have fun.”
Since 1970, the Nurburgring 24 Hours has been a staple on the European racing network that highlights touring cars and GT endurance racing. Team Target Competition is no stranger to the world of TCR racing in Europe and gives a familiarity to the Hyundai BHA drivers ahead of their debut.
Target Competition has earned championship accolades, including back-to-back drivers and team championship titles in the TCR International Series (2015) and in ADAC TCR Germany series (2016, 2017) as well as capturing the TCR Europe Trophy in 2017.
The Hyundai Elantra N TCR that the racers will drive is a clone to the Elantra Ns that they drive in IMPC, where Lewis and Hagler have taken the drivers championship two years straight and Hyundai has claimed he manufacturers championship as well.
“I look forward to representing Hyundai USA in an international program for the first time in Germany,” said Hagler. “We will have the opportunity to sample a wide range of the race-prepared versions of the N vehicles as we work to qualify for the race. It will be a busy spring balancing the logistics of our IMSA and Nurburgring 24 schedules and spending time on the simulator to prepare for the race!”
To be eligible to compete, all four Hyundai BHA drivers are required to participate in informative classes, Nürburgring Endurance Series (NLS) races and a specific qualifying race ahead of their entry into the ADAC TotalEnergies 24 Hours event. Within the required NLS races, all four drivers will pilot a Hyundai i30 N streetcar featuring only slightly modified safety equipment in co-driver pairings of Hagler and Lewis then Gottsacker and Filippi. Given the eligibility requirements, the drivers will be taking six trips to Germany leading up to the start of the 24 Hours weekend. Immediately after the checkered flag waves at Sebring, drivers will depart to ensure their timely participation in their first NLS race.
“I am very grateful for Hyundai making this happen, and it’s an honor to represent Team America at the Nürburgring,” Filippi said. “I cannot wait for each of the six trips and to run as many laps as possible to learn such a grueling, but fun track. Hyundais are fun to drive and it will be exciting to get behind even more N models while roasting around the Nordschleife. The Nurburgring is my favorite track I’ve ever driven, and I am fulfilling one of my dreams by competing there over the next few months.”
Expanding on Hyundai’s international reach around the Nürburgring 24 Hours, Jeff Ricca of Ricca Autosport will represent Hyundai Motor America within the VT2 class of the Hyundai i30 Fastback N Cup as the sole driver from the United States via Hyundai’s “Dare to Dream” global program. Ricca currently drives a Hyundai Elantra N in the TC class of the 2023 SRO TC America Powered by Skip Barber Racing School championship and has previous experience at the 24-hour event providing key knowledge of European competition.
IMSA has enlarged the intake restrictors for both the 992 Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Lamborghini Huracán Evo2 for the upcoming Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the second round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Both cars suffered for lack of …
IMSA has enlarged the intake restrictors for both the 992 Porsche 911 GT3 R and the Lamborghini Huracán Evo2 for the upcoming Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the second round of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Both cars suffered for lack of pace at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, the Porsche especially so. One Porsche team had already withdrawn from Sebring over the Balance of Performance issue, and others have said they would alter their participation in the series if something wasn’t done before Sebring.
The 911 GT3R is now allowed 38mm restrictors — the 4.0-liter flat six uses two of them. That’s an increase of 4mm from last month’s IMSA-sanctioned test at Sebring (although reports are that restrictors up to 36mm were fitted during the test), and an increase of 5mm from the Daytona specification.
According to one team running the Porsche, the 992-generation 911 GT3 R relies more on aero grip than mechanical grip compared to its predecessor, which means more drag. Sucking air through the smaller restrictors severely hurt the car’s power and thus top-end performance.
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The Lamborghini moves from a single 47mm restrictor to 49mm for Sebring, an increase of 1mm from the Sebring test. That car, along with the new Ferrari 296, also was off the pace at Daytona. The Ferrari received a slight bump in boost pressure for Sebring, but also 15kg more weight, while the Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 received similar adjustments.
Other changes include an increase of the Mercedes-AMG’s minimum weight by 15kg, and 15kg reductions for the Aston Martin Vantage, BMW M4, Corvette and Lexus RC F GT3s.
We’ve all been in a love-hate relationship with something or someone. Sometimes that comes from hating part of it, but loving another aspect. Other times it’s something that makes you so miserable that you can’t help but love it. Sebring? Yeah, for …
We’ve all been in a love-hate relationship with something or someone. Sometimes that comes from hating part of it, but loving another aspect. Other times it’s something that makes you so miserable that you can’t help but love it. Sebring? Yeah, for many drivers, it’s like that.
Sebring International Raceway is legendary for its bumps and its surface that alternates between concrete and asphalt. During next week’s Twelve Hours of Sebring for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, as well as the WEC 100 Miles of Sebring the day before, there will be a time when the position of the sun entering a couple of the critical turns is almost unbearable. Then there is the darkness — darkness unlike most endurance racers encounter at any other circuit.
“It is the most unique track that we go to on the schedule at least,” explains Andy Lally, fresh off a GTD podium finish in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Aston Martin Vantage at Daytona (and pictured above at Sebring last year). “There aren’t too many places where we combine asphalt and concrete racing surfaces. In fact, I think it’s probably the only one with the exception of some places with small patches. The fact that we know there’s problems with the track and we don’t want to fix it, we know that there’s some treacherous corners and we know that there’s bumps and and cliffs and holes and stuff … that is all part of the historical value of Sebring and what it brings. As it is fairly grueling on a driver and it’s barely ever really nice weather there, that’s what makes it satisfying if you do well.”
There’s also the way the circuit changes over the course of the race — set the car up to be fast for the finish, and in the middle of the day it will be an absolute handful.
“Understanding the unique challenge of that is that the track gets good and bad at different points in the day, so and then even some of the asphalt corners get good and bad in different points in the day. So Sebring, in particular, you know your morning goodness is worn off and you’re going to the afternoon sliminess as soon as you get a little too sideways coming out of (Turn) 5, and you know, pretty much on that lap, that Turn 16 is going to start to be horrible,” says Lally, who ran his first race at Sebring in 1996. “And every bit of feedback and everything that you do for the rest of the day until about 4:30 or 5:30 p.m. is useless to make 5 and 16 good. And then gradually some of the other corners drop off; you get some corners like 11 that stays shaded with the trees there but you get a lot of different corners that progress from good to bad differently.
“The challenge is not being fooled by the temperature change during the day,” he explains. “You know, there’s other tracks around the U.S. that do this. But as far as what’s on the IMSA calendar, nothing changes like Sebring. If you drove out at 9am and threw down a lap and then left the car alone, put another set of stickers on it and drove out at noon, just three hours later, your time difference would put you from qualifying first on the grid to last on the grid. It’s such a change throughout the day. That afternoon part is just so potentially treacherous. And you can also chase something that sets you down the wrong path for the night.”
Sebring’s sunsets can be spectacular, and the photographers carefully plan their location to be in the right place at the right time to capture that beauty as a stunning backdrop to the cars. But there’s half an hour during the race until the sun goes below the horizon that is treacherous for the drivers. Unlike the photographers, they’re hoping the sun goes down behind some clouds.
“Sunset … definitely going into (Turns) 17 and 7, you’re hoping to get any clouds,” says Corvette Racing’s Antonio Garcia. “If it’s a full bright sky, you know it’s going to be really, really tough. That also goes into the point that, at times, I got into the car with three-hours-and-something to go. So that means that you get the sunset, and then you go full into the dark. So you need also to pick the right visor, everything needs to be perfect.
“I have had every single condition there and every single moment of different weather. But, yeah, for sure the sunset, if it’s full bright, is tricky. That’s something you don’t want to be fighting too much with somebody, or traffic gets very, very tricky in those conditions because somebody might not see you. It’s only 20, 25 minutes; but it’s it’s very tricky.
Garcia, though, confesses he loves the track in darkness, while also admitting that that can depend on one’s position in the field: “I love the racetrack, the whole lap at night. So when it’s full dark, and you know it’s coming to the end of the race, that’s the more joyful time of the of the race. No matter how tired you are, if you’re up in contention for the race, especially, that’s when the whole magic of Sebring comes.” Garcia has been there, most recently last year when the No. 3 Corvette team won the Twelve Hours of Sebring, its only victory of the season, but also three GTLM wins before that.
There’s no passion for the track when Sebring brings an end to a team’s race before the 12 hours is up. But make it to the finish, make it to the podium, and the torture is worth it.
Meyer Shank Racing released a statement accepting responsibility for the infractions and the penalties applied to the team for manipulating tire pressure data during the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and indicated that it has parted with the individual …
Meyer Shank Racing released a statement accepting responsibility for the infractions and the penalties applied to the team for manipulating tire pressure data during the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and indicated that it has parted with the individual responsible.
“We accept the series’ decision and have taken responsibility,” read the statement.
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“We want to apologize to everyone at Acura, HPD, and all of our partners. We have dealt with this issue internally and the team member that was responsible is no longer with the organization. We do not want this error to overshadow the tremendous effort that our team, drivers and all of our partners have put forth to develop this new LMDh car. We consider this matter closed and are fully focused on resetting and coming back for the Twelve Hours of Sebring.”
Honda Performance Development discovered the team was manipulating the tire pressure data that IMSA monitors to ensure compliance with minimum tire pressure regulation, and reported the matter to the sanctioning body. IMSA and Michelin set minimum pressures for safety reasons, but teams often would prefer to use lower pressures to aid traction in cornering and acceleration.
“We are extremely disappointed in the misconduct of the Meyer Shank Racing team during the Daytona race,” said David Salters, president and technical director at HPD. “We became aware of a problem with data from the No. 60 MSR car, and after a detailed investigation following the race, we reported our findings to IMSA. HPD does not tolerate any misconduct, delinquency, or data manipulation of any kind. We completely support the action of IMSA in this matter. We have put in a huge effort over two years with our chassis partners into the ARX-06 to make the best race car we could. To have this put into question is unacceptable.”
HPD and IMSA found that that team was adding a correction factor into the tire pressure data so that the data IMSA received shows higher pressures than were actually being used. IMSA revoked the annual credential of team engineer and strategist Ryan McCarthy, likely the individual referred to in the team’s statement, and suspended him indefinitely. Other penalties applied include the loss of 200 team and driver IMSA WeatherTech Championship points, loss of all Michelin Endurance Cup points, loss of prize money, a $50,000 fine and probation for the team through June 30.
