Today, the FIA World Endurance Championship ran their first race of the 2023 season.
Tomorrow, the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship takes centre stage for the 71st annual Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring.
Here’s a catch-up on the news from qualifying day on the IMSA side of the paddock…
Three cars fail post-qualifying scrutineering checks
Three cars from different classes failed post-qualifying scrutineering, including two Mercedes-AMG GT3s, both of which failed to meet the car’s prescribed minimum ride height.
They are the #79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes (Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon/Maro Engel), that originally qualified third in GTD Pro, and the #57 Winward Racing Mercedes (Russell Ward/Philip Ellis/Indy Dontje), that originally qualified second in GTD.
Both cars will be moved to the rear of the combined GTD grid tomorrow morning.
The #4 Ave Motorsports Ligier JS P320 (Trenton Estep/Tonis Kasemets/Seth Lucas) which originally qualified second in LMP3 also failed post-qualifying technical inspection, for a similar reason, IMSA officials citing Rule 3.5.4 of the ACO LMP3 technical regulations – “Any sprung part of the car must be situated more than 50 mm above the reference surface.”
Likewise, they will be sent to the back of the grid in their class.
Crashed Porsches fit to race
The #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963 (Matt Campbell/Felipe Nasr/Michael Christensen) and the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R crashed at turn one during their respective Qualifying sessions.
Both cars will race tomorrow after undergoing repairs.
The #7 Penske Porsche 963 has had its kinetic system at the rear changed, but otherwise, it mostly sustained cosmetic damage.
Likewise, the #9 Pfaff Porsche had no serious terminal mechanical damage to report, with a representative of the team remarking on how well the new 911 GT3 R has done in terms of sustaining its integrity in a crash – and protecting the drivers within them.
Starting grid
On the provisional starting grid, four more GTD cars have been moved to the back of the grid for changing their set of starting tyres: The #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, the #77 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, and both Kellymoss with Riley Porsches, #91 and #92.
They’ll start ahead of the #9 Pfaff Porsche, which had its two fastest lap times deleted after Klaus Bachler’s crash, then the #95 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 and #32 Team Korthoff Mercedes – both of whom had all their times deleted when drivers Bill Auberlen and Mikael Grenier got out of the car prematurely – and then the aforementioned #79 WeatherTech and #57 Winward Mercedes.
Porsche #6 963 leads Practice 4
A short ten-minute Practice 4 was held before Qualifying today. This is not the official Warm-Up session – that happens Saturday morning at 8:00 AM EDT.
Mathieu Jaminet went quickest in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963, followed by Ricky Taylor in the #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 in second, and Pipo Derani in third aboard the #31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
Anders Fjørdbach was quickest in LMP2 (#20 High Class Racing Oreca 07) and Dan Goldburg likewise led LMP3 (#85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Duquiene).
Daniel Serra in the #62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 led the GTD Pro class, and Mikael Grenier was quickest in GTD in the #32 Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.
LMP2 locked into WeatherTech Sportscar Championship from 2025, LMP3 future TBD
As reported by our friend and colleague Marshall Pruett, IMSA announced today that the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship will allow current-generation LMP2 cars to compete through 2025.
Important News: "To enable current potential future participants to properly plan ahead, current LMP2 cars will be eligible in the WeatherTech Championship through 2025. Specific details on future LMP3 eligibility within IMSA sanctioned series will be announced by June 1, 2023."
— Marshall Pruett (@marshallpruett) March 17, 2023
This lines up with the current LMP2 homologation dates confirmed by the ACO late last year, before the planned introduction of the next-generation LMP2 chassis from 2026.
LMP3’s future in IMSA awaits a 1 June announcement. While there are many loud and vocal detractors of its presence in IMSA’s top series, LMP3 has allowed a pathway for privateer teams and drivers of all skill levels to compete at the highest levels of American sports car racing.
Qualifying stats and figures
While LMDh (GTP) and DPi are built on similar principles, they are two different classes and IMSA has tried not to directly compare course records between the two classes. But it doesn’t mean we won’t give it a try and point out a couple of key figures from Qualifying:
Pipo Derani’s pole-winning lap for the 12 Hours of Sebring – 1’45.836 – was within eight-tenths of a second from the previous DPi course record, a 1’45.055 set by Sebastien Bourdais (the outside pole-sitter) last year in qualifying.
What’s more, Derani’s time would have put him fourth on the grid for today’s FIA World Endurance Championship 1000 Miles of Sebring – two-tenths quicker than Alex Lynn’s time in an identical Cadillac V-Series.R with the same Balance of Performance!
As mentioned in our full qualifying report, Glenn van Berlo set a new course record for the LMP3 class. His 1’55.210 broke the previous lap record from Rasmus Lindh, a 1’56.061 set in 2021.
Antonio Garcia set the official GTD Pro lap record with his pole-winning time of 1’59.315 – surpassing Daniel Serra’s 1’59.414 set last year.
However, Serra still holds the outright lap record for GT3 cars in the Sebring 12 Hours, a 1’58.710 set in 2018 aboard the Ferrari 488 GT3.
BMW making steady progress
Amidst the early success of Cadillac and Acura, BMW’s new M Hybrid V8 prototypes are plugging along – even if their progress isn’t showing with chart-topping lap times.
BMW M Team RLL driver Sheldon van der Linde, unhurt after his accident in Practice 2, told DSC that the team have been focusing on making the car compliant over Sebring’s bumpy surface.
While he isn’t confident that they have the outright pace to win at this stage, he is pleased with the progress relative to fellow first-year programme Porsche. “We were only two-tenths down in qualifying to the Porsches today, which is an improvement from where we were at Daytona,” said the younger of the Van der Linde racing brothers. The two BMW M Hybrid V8s start sixth and eighth tomorrow.
Acura hopeful ARX-06 electrical gremlins are solved
Both Acura ARX-06s had a trouble-free Practice 4 and GTP Qualifying session. They were quick during Thursday’s three Practice sessions but had many issues along the way.
The #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura alone had an electrical problem that kept them out for most of Practice 1. The cause was a software update that was installed successfully, and then, like a piece of malware, caused other problems that kept them from running.
When Tom Blomqvist did take the car out on track he broke down with an MGU issue and caused a red flag. The issue was repaired in time for Blomqvist to set the fastest time in Practice 2.
Then, electrical issues forced Colin Braun to stop on his way out of the pits, and as he tried to get going again and stay clear of other cars, he stopped again after picking up damage. A similar electrical issue also struck the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing/Konica Minolta Acura in the same Practice 3 session.
Hot Wheels to produce AO Racing “Rexy” diecast car
Our latest update from AO Racing’s camp is that Hot Wheels, the world-famous manufacturer of diecast cars and toys, will produce scale models of their #80 Porsche 911 GT3 R “Rexy”.
https://twitter.com/AORacingUSA/status/1636684481993031680
This announcement comes after Hot Wheels decals were spotted along the sides of the car along with the introduction of the new livery.
And it logically follows along with the initial purpose of introducing “Rexy” – to appeal to young children and get them into racing. (This author is one such child that grew up with Hot Wheels cars!)
