Tom Kristensen Flagging In Retirement
Tom Kristensen will be Grand Marshall for the FIA WEC’s 6 Hours of the Circuit of The Americas, ‘Mr Le Mans’ will wave the green flag to send the cars onto their formation lap.
After temperatures into the 30s all day at CoTA the circuit got a heavy shower at around 18:30 with stormy clouds still around before the second (night) free practice!
Feedback from one leading LMP2 driver on the AP Racing replacement brake discs for the Oreca 05 cars is that there is a definite different feel to the new items, a swift learning curve required. The drivers have to be far more precise under braking.
Ave Riley Attracts ‘The Management’
An interesting quartet was spotted by the DSC Editor at the Riley awning this evening with Bill Riley and Tony Ave showing the Ave Riley AR2 to IMSA’s Ed Bennett and Scott Atherton.
This is the same chassis that has tested in Europe with Murphy Prototypes, a full interview with Tony Ave on the prospects for the new car, which will not now be seen racing in 2016, will follow later on DSC.
Scuderia Corsa To Return With GTLM Programme in 2017 and Potentially a Star Driver
Expect Scuderia Corsa to be back in 2017 with its Ferrari 488 GTLM car in IMSA racing (seen below at the Daytona test in January) , we understand with a programme set to make major headlines – is some ex F1 talent about to head its way?
IMSA Crack Down
We understand that IMSA is taking a rather more strict line on track limits this year here than in 2015, where the GT cars in particular were permitted to run way off circuit at parts of the track to get a faster lap time.
IMSA is also set to crack down on what has been a more than reasonable amount of contact in GTLM this season. One impact of that was felt by Risi Competizione’s Giancarlo Fisichella who has been placed on probation for the next two IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship events after some post-race shenanigans with the #912 Porsche last time out at VIR, the two cars having tangled earlier in the race leaving the Risi Ferrari off track and out of third position.
Fisichella was determined to have violated Rule 48.4 (unjustifiable risk) of the 2016 IMSA Sporting Regulations & Series Supplementary Regulations for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Mazda Recovery Moments!
There was a bit more to the story about the #55 Mazda stopping on track in the morning session and the greatly extended red flagging of the session…
According to Mazda’s John Doonan, that was just the start of the problems. “While it was bad enough that the new master cylinder failed, it was what happened afterwards that really frustrated me. At least Jonathan had the sense to recognize that there was an issue when he was on the straight. I hate to think what might have happened if he was elsewhere on the track…”
As things have been since the end of the IMSA Safety Team as it was, it became the responsibility of the track safety crew to remove the car from the track. “So, the tow truck driver pulls up, hooks our Mazda prototype to the truck and starts to try to pull it up onto the flatbed. Unfortunately the front tires would not budge. When the winch was powered up to move the car, all it did was drag the stationary car across the track, bouncing and scraping along the way.” Because of the agreement, the IMSA crew, the experts, were forced to stand by, arms folded.
“Instead of having the experts – the ones that know our race cars inside and out, handle this, we had to watch our race car get drug across the asphalt. Thankfully some of our Mazda crew jumped into action and hustled onto the track with jacks and dollies to allow the car to be pulled safely back to the paddock.”
“It is times like this that really make me second guess my career choice. The idea of mowing the lawn at Road America looks pretty attractive right about now, where my decisions for the day would be which direction I mow and what to have for lunch…”
