Sebastien Bourdais was buoyed by his pole run in qualifying for today’s six-hour TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It brought a glimmer of hope that the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R isn’t eliminated from the championship.
At the same time, he recognizes that Porsche Penske Motorsport, currently one-two in the championship, seems to be able to pull out a good result in any circumstance.
“They always seem to come back from the dead,” Bourdais said with a laugh. “So every time you think they’re pretty much done there, they come back and finish on the podium or win the race. It’s the beauty of IMSA — it’s never over. But at the same time, they haven’t had a single bad race so far this year, and we’ve already had one DNF and one that looked like a DNF.
“So, yeah, we need help for sure. If the stars align, and we get a little lucky, then everything’s possible. On pure results, if they finish placed, then it’s very much over.”
Indy first-timers
Ben Barker, driving the No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 with Giammarco Levorato and Corey Lewis, is one of several drivers in the field making their debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and RACER sought out his first impressions.
“First time to the to the mecca of motorsport in the U.S., and yeah, it’s pretty amazing. Like the whole complex is pretty crazy. It’s an exciting little track and lots of cars, so it’s going to be busy.
“It’s short, it’s it’s not loads to it. But equally, there’s quite a lot of combined corners sections that you really have to think about your car placement. Trying to learn the track [in the first practice session] with lots of cars was a bit tough, so I didn’t really get in a proper flow.”
Weather wondering
Who knows? Every time we think rain or thunderstorms will impact a race, we’re wrong. The chance of rain has ebbed since yesterday, and now the forecast predicts only a slim chance toward the end of the race. It’s also going to be considerably cooler than the past couple of days.
The greater impact, if the storms that rolled through Friday evening are any indication, is from lightning. Lightning strikes within a certain radius of the track will bring a red flag.
Drive time
The minimum drive time for GTP and GTD PRO in the six-hour race is 30m. Minimum drive time for LMP2 and GTD is 1h30m. Maximum drive time for all classes is four hours.
Tire allocations
GTP and LMP2 have seven sets of Michelin hard-compound tires between qualifying and race. GTD PRO and GTD have nine sets for the event. Rain tires, which have a chance of coming into play, do not count against the allocations.
How to watch and listen
The race will be broadcast in its entirety, beginning at 11:30 a.m ET on Peacock, with the NBC broadcast kicking in at 3 p.m. ET. Audio coverage from IMSA radio will be on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com, and SiriusXM (XM 206, Web/App 996)