The clear headliner from today’s FIA WEC Rookie Test in Bahrain was MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who made his first Hypercar test with BMW Team WRT. The Italian completed 69 tours of the Sakhir circuit over the two sessions in the No. 20 M Hybrid …
The clear headliner from today’s FIA WEC Rookie Test in Bahrain was MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who made his first Hypercar test with BMW Team WRT. The Italian completed 69 tours of the Sakhir circuit over the two sessions in the No. 20 M Hybrid V8, setting a best time of 1m50.557s to go seventh in the combined rankings.
Speaking with reporters at the end of the day, the 45-year-old Italian made clear he really enjoyed the experience behind the wheel.
“I am really happy about today,” he said. “From my first moment, I had a good feeling with the car and tires. I expected to suffer a bit more in warming up the tires. But here with the 50 degrees I didn’t have that problem.
“I tried both tire options, set my quickest on the mediums but felt good with the hard. This car has a lot of horsepower, but you have a good feeling and I like the braking without ABS. Sometimes you make mistakes but you can adapt it more to your style. It’s a proper race car, more stiff and precise, and you have a lot of aero so it’s impressive.
“The line with the Hypercar is also similar to the motorcycle line because you stay on the track and in a GT you cut everything. So this car is more similar to a bike.
“As for my time, I was a bit unlucky because I had two sets and with the second you can improve. With the first, I had a red flag, with the second I spun in traffic. Luckily I managed another lap and set the 50.5 but there’s more potential there.”
One of the biggest LMGT3 questions heading into the off-season is whether or not Rossi will return to WRT in 2025. When asked about his plans for next season, he said he hasn’t yet made a final call and is still deciding between a GT3 campaign in FIA WEC or GT World Challenge.
“I haven’t made my mind up, but I have quite a lot of pressure from BMW to remain in the WEC because it’s more important for them. But I haven’t decided — some things are better here, some better there. Now it’s more WEC,” he said.
“Anyway, I will race in the GT World Challenge finale in Jeddah, and then I will decide what I am going to do. It will be one or the other.”
Rossi’s experience today appears to have been an eye-opener. But will it lead to further outings in a prototype?
“I have to say after today coming back to GTs will be a little more difficult,” he said. “Next year, no. If I had the chance in the future, why not? The first test was very good.”
All of a sudden, things are looking up for BMW’s M Hybrid V8 program on both sides of the Atlantic. With a second-place finish in the WEC race at Fuji and a 1-2 in the IMSA Endurance Cup round at Indianapolis, both WRT and RLL have found form at the …
All of a sudden, things are looking up for BMW’s M Hybrid V8 program on both sides of the Atlantic. With a second-place finish in the WEC race at Fuji and a 1-2 in the IMSA Endurance Cup round at Indianapolis, both WRT and RLL have found form at the same time.
Two races remain in 2024 — IMSA’s Petit Le Mans and the WEC’s 8 Hours of Bahrain — and they appear crucial for BMW as it sets its expectations for 2025. Are we witnessing a turning point, like the latter part of 2023 was for Porsche Penske Motorsport, or will this month’s results prove a flash in the pan? BMW believes it’s doing the right things to make it the former.
Either way, the standout September for the German brand’s top-class sports car program has been a long time coming. Prior to Indy, RLL had been fighting through a sophomore slump in IMSA GTP, with zero trips to the podium through the first seven races. WRT, meanwhile, had also been waiting for a breakthrough before arriving in Japan, after spending much of its maiden Hypercar campaign playing catch-up with its new package.
So, what has changed? According to BMW, what we are seeing are the results of incremental updates to the car.
In the current era — with manufacturers desperate to keep budgets under control — once an LMDh like the M Hybrid V8 is homologated, your options to take strides in performance and reliability terms are limited. The rule-makers must approve all updates and any changes to improve a car’s raw speed are unlikely to be granted as Balance of Performance — in theory — serves as a backstop.
As a result, manufacturers must develop their cars through marginal evolutions rather than frequent major updates and tread carefully when deciding which areas to spend their “Joker” tokens on. In both the WEC and IMSA, ensuring your car can look after its tires and maintain a steady pace over multiple stints is the key to success.
And that’s exactly what BMW has done with WRT and RLL over the past two years. Like the other LMDh manufacturers, when it comes to bringing evo Jokers, it has been apprehensive. But that doesn’t mean it has been twiddling its thumbs.
Andreas Roos, the head of BMW Motorsport, told RACER last month at Circuit of The Americas’ Lone Star Le Mans weekend that no major updates were in the pipeline. Instead, BMW has an off-season test plan mapped out and will stick with what it has for 2025.
“We are not where we want to be but there is room left in our package,” he said. “So we are trying to optimize this.
“The performance has spiked, like at Le Mans. So we know the potential is there, we just have to be more consistent and quick under all circumstances. But it’s clear with all these manufacturers that it’s not that easy to make steps.”
JEP/Motorsport Images
That begs the question: where exactly are the gains being made? According to Valentino Conti, BMW’s head of track engineering, much work has gone into fixing vibration issues that impacted a number of areas through the first season of the M Hybrid V8’s life.
He reveals that a change in engine concept from the current P66/3 eight-cylinder turbo (based on the DTM unit used in 2017-18) was even considered at one stage. But, like Porsche, BMW has decided to stick rather than twist, holding off on a major change. It’s also understood that developments from Bosch — the hybrid unit supplier for all LMDh cars — have made a big difference in this area and played a part in both BMW and Porsche’s decisions.
“We have had vibration issues not only affecting the hybrid system, but various other parts on the car,” he says. “We did a thorough analysis and we were thinking of a change (like Porsche) on the engine concept, but we identified all the areas and found solutions, which means we can stick to the concept.
“We never had many issues with the MGU; it was other parts of the car where we had issues that we had to fix. One part was the steering wheel. We were analyzing vibrations in the whole car, and one part was the steering wheel.”
Software is another area in which BMW has made progress with the M Hybrid V8. The complex systems behind the current set of LMH and LMDh cars can be tweaked and refined pretty freely. And, as Conti explained, there’s far more to it than just updating the car’s traction control.
“TC is one part for sure; you can always work on that and improve, and that’s critical for us,” he says. “But there are other functions on the car that you want to develop. You can influence the balance and also its performance under braking because it’s hydraulic, it’s in combination with the hybrid system and the re-gen. You want to play with these areas.
“You also have a power curve which you have to follow and with vibrations and oscillations, and it’s very hard to match the power. Sometimes, you overshoot, you undershoot, and you have to work out the margins and reduce them. Software never ends.
“And on this car, opposite to Formula E, it’s very aero-driven, and this is where we have to learn. The aero is frozen but you have to find the optimal window to run the car on the track and the differences here are the three types of tires and sometimes it’s not clear.”
Managing tire warm-up is a critical part of the performance equation in both IMSA and WEC. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
As BMW and its teams have learned more about the M Hybrid V8, they have found ways to improve tire warm-up, too.
With no tire warmers in either IMSA or the WEC, every manufacturer has had to find ways to get their cars up to speed as quickly as possible after each pit stop, to avoid bleeding away time on out-laps. There is still room for improvement in this area, though.
“Tire warm-up is a big thing,” Conti stresses. “With LMH and LMDh, there are differences because they have the MGU at the front and when they get away they can spin the front wheels, so for us bringing the front wheels up to temperature is still a struggle. And that’s not the only advantage.”
So while no evo Jokers are expected anytime soon — in part because the M Hybrid V8’s reliability is “knock on wood, OK” and in a “stable window” according to Conti — there’s cause for optimism. There is the belief that this uptick in form from BMW can and will carry over to the 2025 season, where expectations will be even higher.
Will we see BMW challenge for titles and major race wins at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans? Taking that step, according to Roos, is going to take “something from everyone to give the drivers what they need to be consistently fast.”
Struggle. That’s the word that best describes what BMW M Team RLL has experienced this IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season prior to the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Not a single podium …
Struggle. That’s the word that best describes what BMW M Team RLL has experienced this IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season prior to the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks six-hour race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Not a single podium finish for either M Hybrid V8 through the first seven races.
But what a way to break that streak.
In a week that saw the RLL offices in nearby Zionsville searched by the FBI over suspected allegations of intellectual property theft on the IndyCar side of the team, the one-two finish of Philipp Eng and Jesse Krohn leading Nick Yelloly and Connor De Phillippi to the checker for the team’s first on-track victory was a welcome relief.
“I have to tell you, given all the craziness of this week, this may rank as our greatest victory as a team,” declared team owner Bobby Rahal, who said it’s perhaps only eclipsed by his own Indianapolis 500 win in 1986. “You know, I’m so pleased for these guys who have done a great job.
“Our relationship with BMW Motorsport … these people work night and day just as we do as a team to try to get us to this position that we achieved today. I’m just so thrilled for everyone in our team and at BMW Motorsport because it’s been a tough year in a lot of respects.”
In the inaugural year of the new era of Grand Touring Prototype and the LMDh formula, the team found the podium five times with the No. 25, and De Phillippi and Yelloly finished second at Watkins Glen, putting them in position to be declared winners when the first-on-track Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 was moved to the back for excessive skid plank wear. Until Sunday, the No. 24 squad had never scored a top-three finish.
“Last year, we had a number of podiums, and I don’t know, maybe we thought it’s a little easier than it is. This year, it’s been more difficult. And to do it today … none of our competitors really had any problems and yet we were able to succeed.”
BMW M Team RLL executed the ideal endurance racing strategy – survive, make sure you’re in the top five going into the final stint, and have the pace to execute. And while they may not have had the quickest cars, they were good over a long run.
The final caution period that came with 1h15m left in the race reset any strategy at play. Every team that still had a shot at victory was in a similar boat in terms of energy. There was enough to make it the end, but not going flat out. The BMWs had made their last stops with 1h6m to go, while some of the cars behind them had made a stop later in the caution period and were in a slightly better situation. The final stint had 55m of green-flag running.
But the BMW’s had enough pace under those circumstances to get to the front after restarting second (25) and third (24). Eng in the 24 went past teammate De Phillippi shortly after the restart when De Phillippi got balked in traffic heading onto the front straight. Eng then passed Louis Delétraz in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06 in a textbook case of studying the opponent and finding a weakness. De Phillippi followed shortly thereafter.
A perfect strategy got the No. 25 its first on-track victory. Michael L. Levitt/Motorsport Images
Neither Delétraz nor Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 PPM 963 had much to attack the BMWs with, and the two M Hybrid V8s sailed jubilantly under the checker.
“We ended up in this amazing position to be leading the race,” said Eng. “We knew that it was energy limited, so I had to save a lot of energy to make it to the end. I knew that the cars around were in a similar position, but the team guided me very well through the whole stint. So I always knew what I had to do and how much I needed to save.
“It’s quite an emotional win, actually, because it reminded me back to the days where life was a bit tough and buying fuel for my car wasn’t so easy. It reminded me quite a lot to those times because that’s what I had to do to make it to the end of the race and eventually get us the win.”
“I was listening to it, and I had to take off the headphones because it was stressful,” added Krohn, who beame Eng’s partner in the 24 this year, replacing Augusto Farfus. “I was like, ‘I’ve done my job. Let it play out.’ There was a lot of talk about the fuel, what the competitors are doing and how much fuel we have to save if we are going to make it. It sounded like there’s no chance, but Philipp just drove on fumes.”
Krohn had indeed done his part, including several treacherous laps on slicks trying to find traction on a still-damp track. The No. 24 crew was the first to go back to dry tires as the track was drying after a long period of rain.
“They asked if I could do it. They said, ‘What do you think? Are you happy to go out on slicks?’ I was quiet for a while, and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ Because it really looked like it’s going to be the time for slicks.
“This played a big part of how we ended up where we did. It was probably the sketchiest six laps of my life. I just – every time I even thought about going on power, I had wheel spin and the car was almost going off. So it was super tough.
“It was the right call from the team – that saved us a pit stop. Every time we stop, there is a chance of things going wrong. So definitely the right call, and it was all on my shoulders, a lot of responsibility; but in these races in IMSA, you’ve just got to make sure that you are there in the last two hours with the car in one piece, and today we did it as a team.”
After a year of struggle, after a week when the team made headlines for the wrong reasons, Rahal barely had enough superlatives to quantify his joy.
“All these guys, us, these young drivers, BMW Motorsport, everybody has worked their butt off to have a day like today…. For our team, and I think everybody in Munich and for everybody in Zionsville who works day-in and day-out on this program, this is huge for us. Because this is – I don’t want to say retribution, but this is reward for all of the effort that everybody has put in.
“So I’m so happy. I’m so happy for these guys, for our team, for the people in Munich who bust their butts for this program.”
BMW M Team WRT’s No. 15 M Hybrid V8 set the pace in the second Free Practice session of the WEC weekend in Fuji this afternoon. Dries Vanthoor was the hotshoe for the team in the session, setting a 1m29.577s early in the running as part of a flurry …
BMW M Team WRT’s No. 15 M Hybrid V8 set the pace in the second Free Practice session of the WEC weekend in Fuji this afternoon. Dries Vanthoor was the hotshoe for the team in the session, setting a 1m29.577s early in the running as part of a flurry of times which saw three cars complete laps under 1m30s for the first time this week.
Vanthoor’s 1m29.577s was almost a full second quicker than the best time set in Free Practice 1 earlier in the day by his older brother Laurens Vanthoor in the the No. 6 factory Porsche, but just 0.009s up on the No. 5 Porsche that slotted in second this time with a lap from Matt Campbell.
Adding to the encouraging session for BMW was a late long-run from Raffaele Marciello, who completed a series of fast laps in the No. 15 with medium tires on the front and hards on the rear, as the team worked towards nailing in a setup for the race.
Completing the top five was the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series. R, No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari and No. 8 Toyota, all three lapping within three and a half tenths of the No. 15 BMW.
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Like Hypercar, the running order in LMGT3 was significantly different from FP1, with the Vista AF Corse finding speed. Alessio Rovera put the No. 55 Ferrari atop the times with a 1m40.851s. However, Marino Sato’s 1m40.528s from the earlier session in the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren remains the quickest lap of the day from the class.
TF Sport’s No. 82 Corvette finish up second in the afternoon, with the No. 60 Iron Lynx Huracan third. It was extremely close in the category, with 16 of the 18 cars lapping within a second.
There was one notable incident, with Claudio Schiavoni spinning at Turn 10 in the No. 60 Huracán, before receiving a reprimand for an unsafe rejoin.
Track action continues tomorrow with Free Practice 3 at 10:20am local time.
Connor De Phillippi, just as he did in Friday’s first practice session for the IMSA SportsCar weekend at Road America, set a quick time early in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. In the second session, though, his 1m50.335s time (132.08mph) …
Connor De Phillippi, just as he did in Friday’s first practice session for the IMSA SportsCar weekend at Road America, set a quick time early in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. In the second session, though, his 1m50.335s time (132.08mph) held for the best of the weekend so far.
Just as the first practice ended under red flag, this session also was effectively ended when Ben Keating went off track in the Carousel and clouted an unprotected part of the concrete wall with the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA, after his co-driver Ben Hanley set the fastest LMP2 time. The ORECA suffered heavy damage, but Keating’s upturned thumb out of the door let emergency workers know he was OK. Keating had been wide at Turn 8 just before the accident, but it’s unknown if both incidents had the same cause, or if going wide prior left him with dirty tires unable to hold on in the Carousel.
Although the session did go green with a little over 2m left, many cars remained in the pits and only one driver bettered his time in the final go.
Filipe Albuquerque, who set the fast time Friday, was only 0.009s off De Phillippi to lead the two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06s in second and third. Jordan Taylor had a 1m50.620s lap in the No. 40 Acura to trail his teammate by 0.258s.
Jess Krohn was fourth quick in the No. 24 M Hybrid V8, but an off-track excursion in Road America’s notorious Kink may have damaged the car, and the crew was taking the rear of the BMW apart in the garage before the session ended. Gianmaria Bruni completed the top five in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 to lead the Porsche contingent.
Hanley may have pushed the No. 2 ORECA to the fast time, but the United Autosports crew has a lot of work ahead of them to get the car ready for Sunday’s race, much less Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session. Tom Dillmann was 0.053s off Hanley in the No. 52 Euro Interpol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA to split the United entries, Paul Di Resta having posted a 1m53.575 in the No. 22.
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Scott Andrews in the No. 79 JDC-Miller MotorSports ORECA and Nicklas Nielsen in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA rounded out the top five.
Jack Hawksworth, 2022 winner with Ben Barnicoat at Road America in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, was the quickest GTD PRO driver in the session with a 2m03.475s lap (120.94mph). Alexander Sims followed in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R (2m03.615s), as did Bryan Sellers in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 (1m03.648s).
Dirk Mueller and Nicky Catsburg rounded out the top five for Ford Multimatic Motorsports and Corvette Racing by PMM, respectively, behind the top two GTD runners.
Loris Spinelli was at the head of the GTD field in the No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, his 2m03.804s time 0.249s better than Onofrio Triarsi in the No. 023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3, making its first appearance in a sprint race.
Mikael Grenier was third in GTD in the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG GT3. Roman De Angelis (No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo) and Russell Ward (No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG GT3) were fourth and fifth.
The session was interrupted by two red flags, the first a seven-minute stoppage for the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 stopped on course, and the second for Keating’s incident.
Qualifying is next, slated for a 5:20 p.m. ET start, carried live on IMSA.tv and on Peacock.
The Super Bowl 58 commercial conversion continued throughout the past week as the 2024 USA TODAY Ad Meter Replay Ratings kicked off on Monday. Immediately following the Big Game between the Chiefs and 49ers, our Ad Meter panel handed the 36th annual …
The Super Bowl 58 commercial conversion continued throughout the past week as the 2024 USA TODAY Ad Meter Replay Ratings kicked off on Monday.
Immediately following the Big Game between the Chiefs and 49ers, our Ad Meter panel handed the 36th annual Ad Meter title to State Farm’s “Like a Good Neighbaaa.” The commercial starred Arnold Schwarzenegger with an appearance by Danny DeVito. That advert pulled in a 6.68 overall score.
But now for the finale of another promising Ad Meter year.
Ad Meter’s Replay Review has four categories: Most Comical, Most Inspirational/Heartwarming, Best Cameo, and Rookie of the Year.
With those votes now in, let’s have a drumroll please…
BMW has ruled out updating its M Hybrid V8 with any “Joker” upgrades in the foreseeable future, as the second half of its inaugural WEC Hypercar campaign beckons in Brazil. BMW Motorsport Andreas Roos told RACER that he does not feel it is necessary …
BMW has ruled out updating its M Hybrid V8 with any “Joker” upgrades in the foreseeable future, as the second half of its inaugural WEC Hypercar campaign beckons in Brazil.
BMW Motorsport Andreas Roos told RACER that he does not feel it is necessary yet to bring changes to the car, which has been competing in IMSA GTP with Team RLL since January 2023 and in the WEC with Team WRT since the start of the current season.
One of the interesting storylines to track over the past season has been the stance each Hypercar and GTP manufacturer is taking to car evolutions and updates. This week Ferrari became the latest manufacturer to introduce “Joker” updates to its car, with improved brake cooling ducts and new dive-planes now installed on the three 499Ps in time for this weekend’s race. This follows the substantial updates introduced for the Peugeot 9X8 earlier this year and the suite of changes Toyota developed for the GR010 HYBRID ahead of the 2023 season.
There are two clear camps. Some manufacturers are keen to push the rule-makers for permission to improve their cars while others maintain that in a Balance of Performance formula, it should not be necessary to enter an arms race unless there are fundamental reliability issues to address. And BMW, it appears, falls in the latter camp, along with Acura (HRC USA), which has previously expressed concerns over escalating costs associated with car updates.
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“To be honest (updating the car) is not on the radar,” Roos said. “We are looking at areas we can improve. I am of the opinion that we entered a BoP championship, so as long as you can adapt the cars in the BoP window to be equal in terms of lap time performance, it should be done that way. If you struggle in certain areas, that cannot be adjusted by BoP, then it’s correct to use a Joker, but we are not there yet.
“We are still understanding the car and developing it in the areas that homologation allows. When we reach a point where we realize an area we need to improve, we will investigate what we can do. You generate a list with points where you could do better. But is it valid as a Joker, yes or no? We are not there yet. Nothing is planned at the moment.
“In the first three races, we’ve had two LMDh cars win and the field is close between LMDh and LMH. It’s a quite level playing field and we have to look not only at pure lap time figures but also at how cars use tires, these are things that you need to check.
“I have to say, this year we can’t complain generally — we see good competition between the manufacturers.”
It appears that customer M Hybrid V8s are unlikely to be introduced any time soon either. BMW is exploring the potential of adding a customer program and acknowledged that there has been demand from private teams to race the M Hybrid V8 independently from the factory. But Roos and his colleagues are not yet convinced that it makes business or sporting sense.
“With new manufacturers bringing two cars (by rule) in the future it will be difficult to have grid space (in the WEC’s Hypercar class),” he said. “We have requests from potential teams and customers. But our approach is a bit like what we do on the GT3 side.
“We limit ourselves to the amount of cars we want to have because we clearly want to have quality cars. It’s not only where the cars are running, but how you support them. If you want to do it, you want to be competitive, with happy customers. This is very important. If you bring multiple cars and they are not supported and the cars are too complex, it needs a lot of effort.
“We are focused on our (factory) cars now, and to make everything in the window where we need to be. We will have internal discussions about possible customer cars next year and take a decision from there. I don’t want to say yes, or no. It’s something we will look at next year, but we want quality, not just quantity.
“And it’s clear to me on the commercial side that it (customer cars) will not help to finance the general operation. We have found a formula that works because if it didn’t you wouldn’t see nine manufacturers.
“We made the right steps in bringing the cost down, but there’s a lot of money involved and one, two or three customer cars will not help you to fund it. The costs are so high that I wouldn’t feel comfortable telling a customer that they are financing our factory cars.
“It’s not about the money — you just want a competitive car on the grid, that is the first goal. Of course, you need to talk about money, but the first goal is how you want to run the program.”
For BMW, the strength of the WEC’s fan appeal is matched by the technical showcase it provides the company. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images
Despite BMW’s apprehension when it comes to evo Jokers and customer cars, Roos reiterated that the brand is fully committed to a multi-year program in the WEC. He was keen to emphasize the success of the ruleset and the championship’s growth.
“We are definitely satisfied,” he said. “The championship has taken a step from 2023 to 2024 with record crowds at Imola and Spa. And there were so many people going to Le Mans Test Day. Le Mans is obviously key, too, and it was a sellout with more than 300,000 tickets sold months in advance for what is one of the greatest and most important races worldwide.
“For us, this is definitely not a one-year thing. We want to do more here and it’s something we are committed to so we can showcase what we do and our technology. And this ruleset came at the right time, with cars like the BMW M5 which is a V8 hybrid, like what we run in the WEC. That road relevance is important. The GT3 car is close to the road car — you use the road car to develop the race car, but on the LMDh side we develop technology and we can showcase it. This platform gives us everything we need at the moment.”
It was highs and lows for BMW M Team RLL in the second practice session for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, with Philipp Eng posting the best time of the GTP field in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 shortly before Connor De Philllippi put the No. 25 …
It was highs and lows for BMW M Team RLL in the second practice session for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, with Philipp Eng posting the best time of the GTP field in the No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 shortly before Connor De Philllippi put the No. 25 M Hybrid V8 in the barrier to end the session with a red flag a minute-and-a-half early.
The No. 24 spun exiting Turn 1, sliding across the track and hitting the barrier on drivers’ right, ending teams’ opportunities to run a qualifying simulation at the end of the session. That perhaps preserved Eng’s top time of 1m33.725s (130.59mph), set in the final 20 minutes of the session. Mathieu Jaminet posted the closest time to Eng’s, a 1m33.900 in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 to lead Renger van der Zande in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R by a mere 0.058s.
Tom Blomqvist set the best time of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing squad and the fourth-best overall, with Richard Westbrook putting the JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 in fifth.
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Felipe Fraga was credited with a somewhat astounding time in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports ORECA to lead LMP2 and head even one GTP car. His 1m35.269s (128.48mph) lap was 0.678s better than the rest of the field, led by Colin Braun with a 1m35.847s in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA.
Nicklas Nielsen, still reeling in his 24 Hours of Le Mans victory for Ferrari AF Corse, had the third-best LMP2 time, a 1m36.135s in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA. Bijoy Garg (No.22 United Autosports ORECA) and Nico Varrone (No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA), both also Le Mans winners in 2024, completed the top five.
Madison Snow topped GTD PRO and the GTs overall in the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3, at 1m44.907s (116.67mph), a time 0.023s better than GTD leader Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3.
Daniel Serra had the second-quickest time in GTD PRO in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 at 1m45.010, 0.538s better than Ross Gunn in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Alexander Sims (No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R) and Jack Hawksworth (No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F) rounded out the top five.
GTD championship leader Winward Racing had the second-best time in the class, courtesy of Russell Ward’s 1m45.766s in the No. 57 Mercedes AMG GT3. The other Mercedes AMG in the field, the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports entry, was third quick in the hands of Mikael Grenier at 1m45.860s. The No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 with Antonio Fuoco and the No. 44 Magnus Racing with Andy Lally at the wheel were fourth and fifth.
Aside from the session-ending red flag, the test was interrupted by one other for Lance Willsey spinning the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier LMP2 car into the barrier at Turn 9. Several cars received drive-through penalties during the session for multiple track limits violations, and several of those were handed multiple drive-throughs.
Qualifying is next, starting with the GT categories at 3:30pm ET. Qualifying will be carried live on Peacock and on IMSA.tv.
BMW Team RLL led the way in the second practice session for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship portion of the Detroit Grand Prix, courtesy of Philipp Eng. The Austrian pushed his No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to a lap of 1m06.348s …
BMW Team RLL led the way in the second practice session for Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship portion of the Detroit Grand Prix, courtesy of Philipp Eng. The Austrian pushed his No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 to a lap of 1m06.348s (89.256mph) around the 1.654-mile, nine-turn street circuit, more than half a second faster than Nick Tandy’s pace-setting lap for Porsche Penske Motorsports in the first session earlier this morning. Tandy was just a tenth back in the No. 6 963, though, while Renger van der Zande was just 0.122s back in third for Cadillac Racing, suggesting a strong battle is in store in qualifying later this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Corvette gave the locals encouragement by leading the way in GTD PRO, as Tom Milner’s 1m09.654s with the No. 4 Z06 GT3.R topped teammate Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 by 0.167s. Seb Priaulx was third in the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R with a 1m09.883s.
Qualifying for the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic is coming up at 4:40pm ET this afternoon and will be televised live on Peacock.
BMW Team RLL Technical Director John Hennek and driver Connor De Phillippi join RACER’s Ryan Myrehn to discuss preparations for a brand-new venue for the GTP class as well as the intricacies of street course setups. Presented by: RACER’s Trackside …
BMW Team RLL Technical Director John Hennek and driver Connor De Phillippi join RACER’s Ryan Myrehn to discuss preparations for a brand-new venue for the GTP class as well as the intricacies of street course setups.
