Pipo Derani, a two-time IMSA champion for Action Express Racing and Cadillac, will not return to Whelen Cadillac Racing in 2025. Derani posted on Instagram that he and Action Express Racing have agreed to part ways at the end of the season. “We have …
Pipo Derani, a two-time IMSA champion for Action Express Racing and Cadillac, will not return to Whelen Cadillac Racing in 2025.
Derani posted on Instagram that he and Action Express Racing have agreed to part ways at the end of the season.
“We have mutually agreed not to go forward together past this year,” Derani said in the post. “We’ve had a fantastic time together with two championships, two endurance championships and many race wins and pole positions. I truly have enjoyed my time with this team and with Cadillac. I appreciate everything they’ve given me, what they’ve done for my career and all the good times we’ve had together will forever be in my memory. It’s time to go win a third championship this year together before both of us move different ways.”
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Derani won the 2021 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship DPi title with Felipe Nasr for the team, and followed it up with the successor GTP championship with Alexander Sims, as well as the Michelin Endurance Cup. He and Jack Aitken currently sit fourth in the 2024 GTP points.
Amid swirling rumors about who will take over the Cadillac Racing program from Chip Ganassi Racing – with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti being the rumored candidate – Derani is the first confirmed driver change in GTP for 2025. Neither Action Express Racing nor Cadillac has given any indication that AXR would not be returning with Cadillac next season.
Two drivers that have already proven their mettle in qualifying this season will be sitting on pole for Saturday’s 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pipo Derani scored his third consecutive pole of 2024 to head GTP, while Parker …
Two drivers that have already proven their mettle in qualifying this season will be sitting on pole for Saturday’s 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach. Pipo Derani scored his third consecutive pole of 2024 to head GTP, while Parker Thompson claimed his second GTD pole following his qualifying performance for the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
Derani ended qualifying for the third round of the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season with a slightly rearranged nose on the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing V-Series.R after setting his 1m11.388s (99.24mph) time early in the session before the crew slapped on a new set of tires. But while going for another flyer, he nosed it into the Turn 9 tire wall. Fortunately he was able to reverse quickly – something he and his engineers had discussed during the track walk – and avoided causing a red flag that would also cost him his fast lap.
Nick Yelloly and Sebastien Bourdais were on different qualifying strategies, both waiting until late in the session to emerge from the pits and attempt to put in a lap. Yelloly fell a mere 0.009s short of grabbing the pole for the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, which will start on the outside of the second row.
The late-session strategy nearly bit Bourdais, who had a fast lap balked by Mike Rockenfeller in the No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963, which has struggled for pace all day. He started his next lap with only seconds left in the session, and posted a 1m11.411s time in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, 0.023s off pole, to start on the inside of the second row.
“It’s it’s a street track and it’s a very difficult one to pass on, so I’m happy with the lap,” said Derani. “I did it early in the session, and some guys left it to try towards the end, but the lap seemed to be enough – just enough – for pole, which was good. But yeah, on a street track like this in 100 minute race it’s always important to start off on pole.”
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Nick Tandy, the defending Long Beach winner with Mathieu Jaminet in the No, 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963, will start outside the second row.
Tandy’s teammate Dane Cameron put the No. 7 PPM 963 on the inside of the third row, and Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti finally found enough pace for Jordan Taylor to qualify the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 in sixth. The GTP field, minus the No. 5 Porsche, was separated by only 0.611s.
Despite good conditions that led to a new track record in GTD, as well as a softer Michelin tire, Derani’s time was nearly 1.5s off Filipe Albuquerque’s pole time from last year, which Derani put down to track conditions.
“I don’t know … We had the same at Sebring,” Derani said. “We were slower than last year, but I believe it’s mostly down to track conditions, and at Sebring we had a short qualifying session due to the red flags. But here it could be down to just the rubber that’s been laid down by the Indy cars and the other categories as well. I quite honestly didn’t feel like the track evolved as much as it did last year.”
Perry Nelson/Lumen
Vasser Sullivan Racing and Lexus’s plan to split its drivers and run a second GTD car paid off as it was a Lexus 1-2 in qualifying. Parker Thompson got the better of his usual co-driver Frankie Montecalvo, putting the No. 89 Lexus RC F GT3 on pole with a 1m17.357s (91.59mph) lap, a new GTD record. It was Thompson’s second pole of the season, and Lexus’s first at Long Beach.
“There was a lot of pressure today,” declared Thompson. “Practice two, we did a qualifying sim and I thought that we were going to have to work really hard for that pole. We still had to work hard for it, but to be 1-2, really proud. That just shows how good our Lexus is around Long Beach. Awesome to get Frankie up there too. He’s obviously my full-time teammate, so it’s a little bittersweet because I love to take a pole but he’s been working really hard this year with me, and now with Jack Hawksworth, to make sure that he’s up at the front. Great to sweep the front row, but it’s only half the job.”
Montecalvo was 0.262s off Thompson’s best in the all-Lexus front row in the No. 12. The two drivers are teamed with last year’s long Beach winners in GTD PRO, Ben Barnicoat in the No. 12 and Jack Hawksworth in the No. 89.
Albert Costa Balboa had a 1m17.679s in the No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 to claim the inside of the second row, and Roman De Angelis will start the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo to his right. Row three as the GTDs roll to the green will be the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 (Danny Formal) and the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG (Mikael Grenier), freshly repaired from its shunt in the first practice. The team reports that most of the left side of the car was replaced, as well as some major parts like the splitter.
With the exception of Costa, De Angelis, and Grenier, it was the Am drivers qualifying in GTD, creating the greatest range in lap times of any session so far.
Stevan McAleer set the quickest GTD lap in the second practice, but it was all the car had – Sheena Monk didn’t get to qualify the No. 66 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 because the Gradient Racing crew was changing the engine. With no warmup prior to the race, the first time that new engine will run is on the recon lap prior to Saturday’s green flag.
Next: The 1h40m IMSA SportsCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, with green scheduled for 1:35 p.m. local time, 4:35 p.m. ET.
Pipo Derani’s quest for a fifth Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring title is finished after a high-speed incident in Turn 10 that left the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac in the tire barrier and upside down. Pipo Derani UPSIDE DOWN! The race leader in the 12 …
Pipo Derani’s quest for a fifth Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring title is finished after a high-speed incident in Turn 10 that left the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac in the tire barrier and upside down.
Pipo Derani UPSIDE DOWN!
The race leader in the 12 Hours of Sebring got into the tire barrier and flipped. He walked away under his own power.
While attempting to pass Miguel Molina in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, Derani made contact with the Ferrari, sending him hard into the tires. Fortunately, the Brazilian escaped without injury.
Derani said he wasn’t sure what happened in the incident with the Ferrari.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” he said after being checked and cleared by the medical center. “I was 12 seconds ahead and everything was running smooth. We overtake thousands of thousands of cars through a race like this. It’s one of those moments. Maybe he didn’t see, let go a little bit and there I was. Maybe I was expecting him to just hold his line to the right, knowing that I was going to go on the left. It’s just one of those situations where it happens without you having any chance of thinking whether you should have done something different or not.”
After a lengthy yellow, Maxine Martin leads in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8.
Despite an Acura posting the fastest time in an abbreviated qualifying session, it will be an all-Cadillac front row for the start of the 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac. Pipo Derani had the second-best time for Whelen …
Despite an Acura posting the fastest time in an abbreviated qualifying session, it will be an all-Cadillac front row for the start of the 72nd Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Cadillac. Pipo Derani had the second-best time for Whelen Cadillac Racing in the No. 31 V-Series.R, but when Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti lost all the times for the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 — including Ricky Taylor’s best of 1m48.038s — for working on the car during qualifying, Derani’s 1m48.152s lap stood for pole. It’s Derani’s second pole of 2024, and his second consecutive Sebring pole.
Mathieu Jaminet crashed the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 with six minutes run in the 15-minute session, bringing out a red flag. Jaminet put the right-side wheels off at the exit of Turn 1, causing the car to snap left and hit the wall, leaving the PPM crew a bit of work to do before tomorrow’s 9:40am race start.
The red flag left drivers little time — less than four minutes — to bring the tires up to temperature and put in a flyer. Normally they would allow several laps to bring the tires in, but they had only an out lap before they had to put a lap on the board.
“It was a difficult qualifying session,” said Derani. “It’s never easy when you have a red-flag situation where you have to put the lap in. I was told over the radio that I could potentially grab a second flying lap if I pushed, so I obviously I pushed, but I was way too close for comfort to the No. 40 Acura [driven by Louis Deletraz]. He made a few mistakes in front of me so I lost a little bit of time having to control that distance to try and make sure I guaranteed a lap in case I didn’t have a second one.”
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Derani attempted a second flyer, on which he was ahead on the predictive timing, but got too close to Deletraz and had to abort it.
“For sure there is more from the lap time, but nevertheless it looks like it was enough to be on pole,” he said. “It’s never the nicest way to get a pole, for everybody, that no one was able to achieve the full potential of their cars. But nevertheless, it’s still the same for everyone. You still have to put a lap in and make sure that you you make no mistakes in such a pressured situation.”
Sebastien Bourdais will start alongside in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to repeat the Cadillac front-row lockout not only from the season-opening race at Daytona, but last year’s Sebring as well. Bourdais’s best was 0.147s off Derani.
The interrupted session produced an unusual and jumbled grid beyond the front row. Philipp Eng qualified the No. 24 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8 third with a 1m48.829s, and the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 will start outside the second row courtesy of Phil Hanson, who posted the fastest lap of yesterday’s practice sessions and had the fastest lap when qualifying was red flagged. The other privateer Porsche, the No. 5 Proton Competition 963, will start inside the third row thanks to Julien Andlauer, and Deletraz put the No. 40 Acura ARX-06 on the outside. Row four will be the No. 7 PPM 963 (Felipe Nasr) and the No. 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx SC63 (Matteo Cairoli).
PJ Hyett shocked the LMP2 field by scoring his first pole position for only his second race in the category. His 1m52.142s in the No. 99 AO Racing ORECA nicknamed “Spike” was 0.171s better than Dan Goldburg in the No. 22 United Autosports ORECA that will start on the outside of the second row in a session that ended under a red flag with just over 30 seconds left.
“There’s a lot of emotions going through me right now, just because of how special this feels,” said Hyett. “Yeah, the dragon was definitely breathing fire today, I’ll say that.
“The really cool thing about what’s happened this season between [The No. 77 GTD PRO Porsche 911 GT3 R] ‘Rexy’ on pole at Daytona and ‘Spike’ now at Sebring, is that we tried to build his team in a new, fun way to attract a whole new generation of fans and get people excited about these fun-loving characters racing around the racetrack. To be able to back that up with really strong performances in qualifying to show we’re not just screwing around — we’re out here trying to win, get poles and we’ve been able to do that this year. So it’s it’s been a lot of work, a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, but I love that we’ve been able to now marry our fun new approach to sports car racing with actual results.”
Goldburg’s United teammate Ben Keating had a 1m52.673s to qualify the No. 2 ORECA third, 0.092s ahead of Nick Boulle in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports entry. Gar Robinson (No. 74 Riley Motorsports) and George Kurtz (No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR) completed the top six.
Hawksworth was good as gold with the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 as he rocketed to GTD PRO pole. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
GTD PRO quick lapper Jack Hawksworth set a new lap record of 1m58.714s in his No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3. The old GTD PRO record of 1m59.315s was set last year by Antonio Garcia for Corvette Racing. Hawksworth held the three-year-old GTD record, a 1m58.217s.
“It’s really hot today, so how you bring your tires in, and the peak of the tire, that window is smaller than it would be if it was 60 or 70 Fahrenheit,” related Hawksworth. “The team did a really good job kind of dropping me into a nice gap, so I had a completely clear track and could kind of bring my tires in the way I wanted to and then could put a nice lap in, so that was good.
“The whole weekend has been really good so far. We actually struggled a little bit with setup early on, not feeling super-comfy. And then last night, we found a couple of things and ever since then we’ve felt pretty good. So I’m excited for the race tomorrow and looking forward to it.”
The GTD-class No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes AMG was to start alongside after Philip Ellis set a 1m58.778s, but the car’s times were subsequently disallowed when the post-qualifying technical inspection revealed that it was carrying non-permitted sensors.
In its place will be another GTD car, Antonio Fuoco producing a 1m59.014s in the No. 47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari 296 to better Parker Thompson in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F by 0.129s.
Mario Farnbacher was the next GTD PRO driver on the time sheet, posting a 1m59.264s in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage Evo. Mikael Grenier was next in No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes AMG; the last GTD car before a string of six GTD PRO cars.
The No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R (Seb Priaulx) and No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R (Alexander Sims) led that group, with No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 (Madison Snow) and the No. 04 Corvette Z06 GT3.R (Tommy Milner) behind.
This story has been updated since it was first published to include the No. 57 entry having its times disallowed.
UP NEXT: The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring starts at 9:40am ET.
Even though nearly ideal conditions contributed to records falling at Daytona International Speedway in qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, it was greater understanding of the LMDh cars that make up the Grand Touring Prototype class that led to …
Even though nearly ideal conditions contributed to records falling at Daytona International Speedway in qualifying for the Rolex 24 at Daytona, it was greater understanding of the LMDh cars that make up the Grand Touring Prototype class that led to the smashing of the five year old record by every GTP car, said polesitter Pipo Derani.
Derani set a best time of 1m32.656s in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. That 138.32mph lap was more than a second better than Oliver Jarvis’s 2019 1m33.685s lap in a Mazda DPi, and 1.645s better than Tom Blomqvist’s 2023 qualifying time in the Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06.
LMP2 polesitter Ben Keating described the low-50 degree F temperature, cloudless sky and brisk wind from the East as “perfect,” as well as saying the track was “unbelievably fast.” But Derani countered that it was more about the knowledge gained over a year of racing the GTP cars that has made them faster.
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“I think a lot of it is just us understanding the car,” he explained. “I think obviously the conditions help – as usual, this time of the year is quite cold at Daytona, so more or less the perfect condition for qualifying – but I think everyone is just so much more integrated with their tools and how to extract lap time from from such a difficult car. I would say, at least on our side, we are a much better team with the electronics and with the complexity of the hybrid race car than we were 12 months back.”
Cadillacs led three of the five Roar Before the 24 sessions – Derani took two and Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 01 led another – and locked out the front row, with a Porsche and a BMW qualifying in the row behind. Ultimately, Derani noted it was working on the little things that allowed him to get the pole over the other Cadillac prepared by Chip Ganassi Racing.
“I think we’re working in the right direction, obviously,” he said. “Last year, we were close to pole position, but not quite there. I think in the end, everyone is really tight. I think Porsche was almost within a tenth from pole, so I think there’s details. In the end of the day, it’s finding those little details to find that little extra time, and we were able to do just that today.”
Sunshine, cool conditions and a brisk wind in the optimal direction helped lead to records falling in three classes as the Roar Before the 24 ended with qualifying for the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar …
Sunshine, cool conditions and a brisk wind in the optimal direction helped lead to records falling in three classes as the Roar Before the 24 ended with qualifying for the 62nd Rolex 24 At Daytona, the opening round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The record breaking was led by GTP pole qualifier Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, who smashed Oliver Jarvis’s track record by more than a second.
With every GTP qualifier under Jarvis’s record, Derani’s 1m32.656s stood on top as he led a Cadillac lockout of the front row.
“With the help of a great team and a great car beneath me, obviously the Cadillac was flying out there today and it’s just a privilege and a pleasure to drive such a car — really well balanced today,” said Derani. “We did the quali simulation before and we were missing a couple of things to P1, and I think we’ve worked exactly on what we needed to for qualifying and this gap that we had from from practice to qualifying. So you had great teamwork there to … not turn things around, but just to improve what was needed to qualify. The car felt on rails and it was nice to enjoy and feel the full potential of the GTP.”
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Sebastien Bourdais, who had set the best time in the pre-qualifying test session, was 0.071s off Derani’s best time in the No. 01 Cadillac Racing. The No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 will start on the inside of the second row thanks to Felipe Nasr’s 1m32.876s lap, with Connor De Phillipi on his right in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8. The two Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acuras will occupy the third row, Louis Deletraz in the No. 40 ARX-06 just bettering teammate Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10.
The No. 5 Proton Competition Porsche 963 did make the qualifying session after Neel Jani crashed the car in the final pre-qualifying practice session.
Ben Keating led the way in LMP2 for United Autosports. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Ben Keating didn’t have a chance to beat the lap LMP2 lap record thanks to the Gibson engines in the class still carrying 35mm restrictors to separate them from the GTP cars, but in taking the LMP2 pole he tied a record of a different sort — the most poles at Daytona International Speedway. Keating posted a 1m38.501s in the No. 2 United Autosports ORECA to claim his fifth pole, bringing him even with Nick Tandy.
“The track was unbelievably fast today,” stated Keating, who will do double duty in the race, also driving the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963 in GTP. “It’s almost perfect conditions — the sun’s out, it’s nice and cold, you’ve got a headwind coming into the bus stop and a tailwind going down the front straight.
“I never really knew what quite to expect. It’s not that much different than my quali sim yesterday afternoon. I did a 1m39.0s in my qualifying sim yesterday, which was a really, really fast lap, and I thought that if I could do that again, that that would be enough. I think it was my fourth lap and it didn’t feel like I was that far up on the delta, but I believed the dash and it said that I was up and so I continued to push even though I felt like I was still warming the tires up. On my dash, I think it showed up as a 38.3, something like that. And I was shocked. I couldn’t believe how quick it was.”
Nick Boulle set a best time of 1m38.603s in the No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA, 0.102s off Keating’s pole time. George Kurtz was bit farther off to claim third at 1m39.252s, and will start the NO. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR ORECA inside LMP3 convert Gar Robinson, who set a best time of 1m39.297s for Riley Motorsports. The No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsports Ligier will start fifth after Dan Goldburg’s 1m39.506s lap.
Seb Priaulx and the AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R took a bite out of the GTD PRO field in the abbreviated qualifying session. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
A crash early in the combined GTD PRO and GTD qualifying session left drivers with only seven minutes to put in a flyer. David Brule crashed the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R heading into Turn 3, the International Horseshoe, on his out-lap, bringing out a red flag. The cleanup took long enough that the clock had to be reset to the minimum allowable green flag time to make the qualifying session official.
When the session resumed, the GTD PRO cars came on slowly, languishing in the field until the very late stages. Katherine Legge, who was the first GTD car to break the qualifying record, sat at the top until Seb Priaulx moved the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R to the front with a new GTD PRO record of 1m44.382s. That broke Laurens Vanthoor’s two-year old record, also set in a Porsche.
“I can’t thank AO enough for giving me a great car today,” said Priaulx after scoring his first pole in IMSA. “I got the tire temperature up nicely and I prepared the car well on the out lap and just put everything together and it just clicked today. I haven’t qualified the car for a long time — probably a bit rusty, but it did seem to pay off today, so I’m happy.”
Jack Hawksworth got close to Priaulx on his final flyer, but fell 0.08s short in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus. Antonio Garcia was third quickest in GTD PRO in the Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R, but he’ll have six GTD cars in between he and Priaulx as he’ll start on the inside of the fifth row. Franck Perera in the No. 19 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 was fourth in GTD PRO, 11th overall, followed directly by Daniel Serra in the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3.
Parker Thompson paid his Vasser Sullivan Lexus team back for his promotion by taking GTD pole. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
Parker Thompson kept Porsche from claiming a double GT pole by taking GTD honors, and will start inside the second row in the No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Thompson set a new GTD record as well with a 1m44.462s, breaking a five-year old 1m44.541s previous best by Marco Gomes in a Ferrari 488 GT3.
“I think it’s a weight off my shoulders coming into the season with a full-time drive with Lexus racing and Vasser Sullivan,” said Thompson, who was the endurance third driver in 2023 and swapped roles with Aaron Telitz for 2024. “It was my first-ever qualifying session in GTD — I just wanted to kind of go out and have fun, and it’s it’s amazing what happens when you just go out and have fun. The Lexus Racing RCF was a rocket today. Hats off to Vasser Sullivan. I can’t thank them enough for the trust to put me in full-time. And I think this is a great start to reward them with that effort.”
Klaus Bachler was 0.043s off Thompson’s pole time in the No. 86 MDK Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R and will start outside the second row. Legge in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX Evo22 will be on the inside of the third row of GTs, with Kyle Marcelli in the new No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán alongside. The No. 78 Forte Racing Lamborghini (Loris Spinelli) and No. 34 Conquest Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 (Alberto Costa Balboa) will make up the fourth row.
UP NEXT: Practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona begins on Thursday, with the race kicking off at 1:40 p.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 27.
As he did yesterday afternoon, Pipo Derani set the top time in the first of three Saturday test sessions for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams. Derani pushed the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to a best lap of …
As he did yesterday afternoon, Pipo Derani set the top time in the first of three Saturday test sessions for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams. Derani pushed the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R to a best lap of 1m35.372s at Daytona International Speedway, 0.026s quicker than Richard Westbrook in the No. 85 JDC-Miller MotorSports Porsche 963. The No. 85 was the first of the two privateer Porsches on the time sheet, both of which bettered the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries.
In front of a large crowd for a test day a week before the race — DIS has had to stop cars entering the infield for the first time during the Roar — once again the four different GTP manufacturers were represented in the top five. Connor De Phillippi notched his third straight appearance in the top three in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL with a best lap of 1m35.680s, followed by Scott Dixon in the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R from Chip Ganassi Racing. Filipe Albuquerque was the quickest of the Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti squad, posting a 1m35.939s in the No. 10 Acura ARX-06. The top eight GTP cars were within a second.
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Tommy Milner was the quickest of the GT runners, putting the No. 4 GTD PRO Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R on top with a 1m45.844s lap, the fastest GT time of the weekend so far. He was followed by a trio of GTD entries, led by Kyle Marcelli as the No. 45 WTRAndretti Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 made its first appearance at the top of the class with a 1m45.986s lap. Thomas Preining followed by 0.144s in the No. 43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, with Julien Andlauer next in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche at 1m46.323s. Dennis Olsen (No. 55 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3) and Charlie Eastwood (No. 17 AWA Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R) completed the top five in GTD.
Harry Tincknell was second in GTD PRO in the No 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 with a best time of 1m46.357s. Michael Christensen was third, 0.045s off Tincknell’s best, in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche. Jack Hawksworth, doing double duty in Michelin Pilot Challenge, was fourth in the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3, followed by Frederic Verviisch in the No. 65 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang.
Nicklas Nielsen led LMP2 for AF Corse, posting a 1m38.576s in the No. 88 ORECA. Charles Milesi got within 0.043s of Nielsen in the No. 11 TDS Racing car, with Malthe Jakobsen third in the No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR entry. James Allen (No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA) and Tom Dillmann (No. 52 Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports) filled out the top five.
The second test session for IMSA’s Roar Before the 24 produced four different marques in the top four GTP cars, led by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R as WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers set their …
The second test session for IMSA’s Roar Before the 24 produced four different marques in the top four GTP cars, led by Pipo Derani in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing V-Series.R as WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers set their cars up for the Rolex 24 at Daytona next weekend. Derani’s 1m35.217s lap (134.6mph) in the Cadillac he’s sharing with Jack Aitken and Tom Blomqvist was the quickest of both sessions, topping Nick Tandy’s time Friday morning in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963.
“It’s just getting back to the rhythm,” said Derani. “Everyone has been on holidays, but not really on holidays — everyone was trying to prepare for the comeback. You’ve got to be on your toes; it was a good day, but you’ve got to keep digging. It’s great to be back. I think the three of us are running fairly similar and we want the same thing from the car. Still, we’ve got our program to go through and we are ticking those boxes and hopefully we’ll be as ready as we can for race week.”
Connor De Phillippi was 0.377s off Derani’s best time in the No. 25 BMW M Team RLL M Hybrid V8, with Tandy next at 1m35.721s – about 0.1s off the time he ran earlier. Filipe Albuquerque was the top Acura runner for WTRAndretti, turning a 1m35.945s lap. Jesse Krohn competed the top five, posting the fast time for he No. 24 BMW M Team RLL squad on his final flying lap.
Christian Rasmussen was quickest in LMP2 for Era Motorsport, posting a 1m39.674s in the No. 18 ORECA. He was followed by Nolan Siegel in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier, 0.253s slower. Nicklas Nielsen ran the third-fast time at 1m40.027s in the No. 88 AF Corse ORECA.
Rasmussen’s time in the No. 18 was the quickest of any LMP2 runner in the two sessions.
“We were struggling a little bit in the first session as we knew we had a few things to work on,” explained Rasmussen. “It seemed like it worked when we tried it, so we were happy to start off the week like this. That’s always what you want, so yeah, I think we have a good team. I think we have a good car. We’ll just keep on working at it and see what we can do for the race.”
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Christopher Mies put the new Ford Mustang on top of the GT charts with a 1m46.494s (120.34mph) in the No. 64 Ford Multimatic Motorsports Mustang GT3 to lead GTD PRO, besting the time Matteo Cressoni posted earlier in the day in the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini. From there, the time sheet alternated between GTD and GTD PRO, with Jan Heylen leading GTD in the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R with a 1m46.741s lap. His lap wasn’t quick enough to top Katherine Legge’s morning time in the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura, a fact that she put down to conditions being perfect for the twin-turbo machine.
“In all honesty, I also think that it was [because most of the other teams were] out there bedding brakes and scrubbing new tires when the track was fastest, and we weren’t, so that gap is probably not realistic,” Legge explained. “I would love to think that it was realistic, and I would be very positive going into next week, but I think we were just out there going as fast as we could when everybody else was doing the procedural fundamentals, which we then did in [the second] session.”
James Calado was second as the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 maintained its form from the earlier session, posting a 1m46.76s lap that was 0.211s better than Alexander Sims could muster in the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Z06 GT3.R. Earl Bamber was next in GTD Pro in the No. 4 Corvette, with Seb Priaulx in the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche completing the top five.
Manny Franco put Conquest Racing’s No. 34 Ferrari 296 GT3 in second in GTD, 0.153s shy of Heylen’s best, followed by Trent Hindman in the No. 92 Kellymoss with Riley Porsche 911 GT3 R. Rounding out the top five were Kei Cozzolino (No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3) and Eddie Cheever III (No. 47 Ferrari 296 GT3).
The session was interrupted by a single red flag for the for a spin by the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car.
UP NEXT: The third session begins at 11:15 a.m. Saturday for another 90-minutes of testing.
Pipo Derani is entering 2024 as a champion – a position he’s not unfamiliar with, after he and Alexander Sims took the inaugural IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing. He also finds himself with a …
Pipo Derani is entering 2024 as a champion — a position he’s not unfamiliar with, after he and Alexander Sims took the inaugural IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP title for Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing. He also finds himself with a new full-time co-driver, another situation that he’s becoming used to, having come into the last three seasons with someone new. But with Jack Aitken sliding into the full-time driver role from his endurance addition position, the transition isn’t as big.
With the 28-year-old Aitken joining him, though, it means a transition of another sort. The 30-year-old Brazilian is now the senior member on the team to a less experienced co-driver. With previous teammates Mike Conway, Felipe Nasr and Alexander Sims, all of whom had a wide range of experience in sports car racing and other disciplines of the sport, Derani had little to teach and some things to learn. Now his role becomes less student and more mentor, even if his former Formula 1 reserve and test driver teammate is widely experienced.
“Jack came to the top of all the categories when we started late last year researching the various drivers who would be available for our endurance role,” says team manager Gary Nelson. “Being young, to me, for an endurance driver says you can build experience at the endurance races the first year. The opportunity came and he’ll be our full-time driver next year. They get along very well.
“What’s interesting is that Pipo will be in a different role with Jack coming on board. Before, we had Mike Conway kind of working with Pipo when he was younger and we got wins and championships with Mike as our endurance driver. I think it’s a great transformation to see him mature and grow into the top driver on our team and a young guy coming along getting the advantage of Pipo’s experience.
“I like the idea of having that small age difference because I saw how Conway and Pipo advanced through their years working together. Same with Felipe Nasr,” Nelson adds, referencing the partner with whom Derani won the 2021 DPi title.
Aitken already has enduro experience with the Whelen team, but Derani is hopeful their strengths can be meshed even more strongly in 2024. Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
Derani acknowledges that while he is the more experienced endurance sports car racer, he doesn’t really feel like there’s much to teach his teammate. Not only has Aitken raced with the team in the Michelin Endurance Cup races in 2023, including the victory at Sebring and at Le Mans, but Aitken was the reserve and test driver for Renault and Williams in F1. Derani, though, has been with the team for a long time, and has many more years racing in the WeatherTech Championship; that experience may prove valuable in helping Aitken integrate and perform at a high level more quickly.
“I think it’s going to be the first time that I am actually older in the team,” Derani says. “I think more than the age factor is the fact that I’ve been with a team for so long now that I can try and help here and there. But Jack was racing with us this year and doing a fantastic job. So I don’t see myself as, let’s say, a tutor or a teacher or anything, but trying to complement each other because he brings youth, talent and speed. And I would like to say I bring a little bit of experience in the series in general, because he’s also very experienced in in Europe and in other forms of racing. So it’s going to be an interesting combination, I think, with different different experiences that we’ve had. He got up to Formula 1, so he understands a lot of the high-tech cars that we are racing here, and he did a great job since the beginning of the year.”
Embarking on a season with a younger driver still a relatively fresh to sports car racing give Derani occasion to reflect on those that aided him when he was moving from single-seaters to endurance racing.
“When I first joined this sport, moving from Formula 3 and then doing European Le Mans Series races, but then I immediately went into WEC in a two-car team, and in the other car was a very experienced driver — Sam Bird, who’s currently in Formula E. I think having his reference that year was a massive help. At that time, he had already been a Formula 1 test driver, Formula 2 for several years, had already had sports car experience. And so at that time, having him as a reference made me grow a lot. Not in terms of speed, because I think speed was there from the beginning; but understanding how to approach a long race and how to approach a long stint, which was completely new to me. So I would say that 2015 was a season where I learned massively. I grew so much, but along the way, there are always situations you find yourself in that make you grow. So, for example, when I joined Whelen Engineering, Felipe, obviously being a year older than me, having just won the championship, put him in a different mindset than I was when I was joining. And so you end up learning as well from those situations.”
Having been the new guy himself with the AF Corse Ferrari team at Le Mans in 2018, Derani (middle) would like to provide the same benefits his veteran teammates gave him. Ashleigh Hartwell/Motorsport Images
Now a two-time IMSA champion himself, Derani has the opportunity to fill the role of helper and, like his younger self, realizes there may not be much to impart to Aitken regarding pace, but much to bring him up to speed on in terms of the different style of racing.
“Throughout my career, I’ve had moments where I where I’ve encountered people that were in different phases of their career that helped shape my career into what it is today. And so I think perhaps, where we’re going with Jack, it’s more or less the same thing. He’s relatively new to IMSA, to the sport here in the U.S. I would like to think that having won the championship myself and experienced that and what it takes to win the championship, that I would be able to pass along some of that experience to him. In terms of of speed and talent, there is absolutely nothing that I can do for him because he’s massively talented himself, but I think those kinds of experiences that you go through in your career might help someone else as they join a new series or a new form of the sport.”
While Aitken already has had the opportunity to gain much of that knowledge in his stint as endurance driver with the team, the British driver says Derani has been a great help to him in acclimating to WeatherTech Championship competition.
“Pipo is very established with the team, so it would have been easy for him to throw his weight around and make sure I knew I was number two,” Aitken says. “But there has been none of that. He’s shown me the ropes, given me advice on track and on the American culture. He’s one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. I love the circuits. I love the paddock and the team. I can’t ask for more, so I want to be there for a while and make my mark there.”
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the …
IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams have been gearing up for the 2024 season in private testing, but they’ll gather together at Daytona International Speedway next week for a four-day IMSA homologation test. While the test allows the sanctioning body to help gauge car performance and make any Balance of Performance changes — especially with the new crop of GT3 cars coming in from Ford and Chevrolet — it will be critical for the teams in preparation for the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the rest of the season.
For the Grand Touring Prototype teams, it affords them the opportunity to build upon the knowledge they’ve gathered over the first season with the cars and try some new approaches. Last year, most of the teams running the brand-new LMDh-specification cars were simply trying to figure out how to run the things and make sure they would last 24 hours. Mission accomplished, they can now turn their attention to wringing more performance out of their machines.
“One of the things that we’re excited about with our carryover program for ’24 is we’re able to focus on the car and understanding it more as well as making sure we have all the support on the GM and Dallara side ready to help the teams be successful,” says GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser. “One of the most challenging things this year has been the lack of time. We’ve been running race to race to race, and we’d occasionally slip in a test. Really, it was our race schedule in 2023 that kept us busy, which was phenomenal because you can’t have a better test than a race to see what you can do with the car.”
Racing proved to the teams that the cars are more durable and reliable than many expected. The races showed what can go wrong, and how to correct the problems to keep the car on track. But it’s hard to find the time in a race weekend to try the little things that can add up to significant time over the course of every lap.
“Toward the end of the season with the couple of tests we had, we started to learn more about the car and what makes it go and what doesn’t work,” says Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No. 01 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R. “It’s just going to take time. People think we’ve had a lot of testing, but it was all centered toward homologation and reliability. We’re still really green on knowledge of the car as far as designing setups and getting performance out of it.
“Since we homologated the car, there’s really been little time to optimize it and understand it as far as finding that last half a second that’s a game-changer when you come to race weekends. It’s going to be a continuous learning process, trying to make numbers fall into place and validate the reads.”
Bourdais and company are eager to move beyond the basics in optimizing the capabilities of their LMDh prototypes. Richard Dole/Lumen
Bourdais is one of several Cadillac Racing drivers who will be testing next week at Daytona. Cadillac Racing won the 2023 GTP title with the No. 31 V-Series.R courtesy of Whelen Engineering and drivers Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims. With the addition of endurance driver Jack Aitken, they also took the the Michelin Endurance Cup. Bourdais and Renger van der Zande also scored a victory with the Chip Ganasssi Racing squad at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, helping Cadillac to the manufacturers’ title. Despite what can only be called a successful season in the inaugural year of the new GTP class, there’s no resting on the laurels — there’s a lot of room for improvement.
“Like any new car, you always want more testing, more practice time. Especially when it’s such a complex race car with the hybrid, and a heavy car makes for a longer road in terms of development,” explains Derani. “We’re a year and a bit into the development of this car but only just now starting to understand a few things that make sense to the setup and how we make this car go quicker. Still a lot to improve from everyone.
“We’ve done a strong job despite all the difficulties we had this season. It’s always a learning process and you have to be humble enough to know you have to continue that way if you want to succeed in this series.”
But beyond just working on the car, like every team Cadillac Racing also has new team members and drivers to bring into the loop. Aitken moves from endurance third driver on the No. 31 to full-time partner to Derani. Tom Blomqvist shifts from Meyer Shank Racing and Acura to join Derani and Aitken for the endurance events in addition to competing in his rookie IndyCar season. For those drivers especially, any testing time is critical.
“We have a lot to work on and improve; I think that’s the case for everybody with these cars that are still so early in the development cycle that everybody is learning quickly,” Aitken says. “We’ve made massive gains through the season, but when you don’t have racing, it gives everybody the opportunity to breathe a little bit and the capacity to make some changes and updates and advancements. It’s going to be a busy period for us. The race to be ready for the Roar and Daytona will be pretty intense. Though it feels a long way from now, it will come around quickly.”
The GTP teams, along with LMP2, will be on track next Wednesday and Thursday, joined by GTD PRO and GTD on Thursday before the series turns its attention to two days of targeted performance testing of the GTD cars.
