Thursday Paddock Notes From Daytona
Pit lane
Whilst the IMSA entry is complete here with 59 cars, there are a further seven cars on-site involved with the filming that will take place at Daytona for Brad Pitt’s forthcoming F1-themed movie.
There are a number of specific on-track sessions on the timetable for the movie production team to undertake on and off-track filming with their primary Porsche 911 GT3 R, fielded with help from Wright Motorsports, and a second car, a BMW M4 GT3 fielded by Turner Motorsport.
More details of the project can be found here >>
The Red (Cadillac) Baron
The #31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R will have Peter Baron as its race strategist this season, the ex Starworks team owner filled a similar role at Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac DPi effort in 2022.
Chris Mitchum, director of race team operations: “Peter and I worked together back in ’05 on his team. He’s had a whole year with our team kind of in the background watching. I think his ability to work with and in concert with Iain (Watt, technical director), Gary (Nelson, team manager) and myself has proven well last year and I look forward to this year. It’s a fresh approach and I think as much as the series has changed over time, you have to be willing to look at things in a different way. So, I think there will be a lot of new for us this year and it’s what we need to be able to compete at this level.”
Peter Baron: “Last year I was with Action Express Racing involved with driver performance and, because of my strong strategy background, providing support and recommendations to the team. I’ve been working with Cadillac, which is investing a lot with mathematically-driven tools, modeling and research. It’s good to be back on the radio with drivers calling the race.”
The move for Brown comes in the wake of Action Express’s Championship-winning strategist Tim Keene moving to Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti.
Skeen’s Scheme For Korthoff Preston AMG
The #32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports GTD class Mercedes AMG is sporting a radical new livery for 2024, the livery designed by team driver Mike Skeen after the team’s neat and tidy 2023 livery was felt by some in the team as lacking visibility when the car was on track.
Roar Timetable
Track action at Daytona starts on Friday for all three Championships present for the weekend with the WeatherTech Championship cars and the fields rom both the Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Sportscar Challenge all having two sessions apiece.
The final timetable is available here >>
Spike’s scales
Whilst the ‘Spike’ the LMP2 Dragon livery concept was released by AO racing a little while ago, Thursday at Daytona gave us the first opportunity to see the car in reality and up close – and it didn’t disappoint.
In particular the fine detail of the livery features Spike’s scales, this colour scheme is going to be another smash hit for the AO Racing squad.
United liveries
Amongst the final liveries to be revealed for the Rolex 24 were United Autosports’ pair of Oreca 07 LMP2 entries.
The #22 features a variation on the regular United blue, red and white colours to accommodate the new sponsors for the Daniel Goldberg, Paul di Resta, Bijoy Garg and Felix Rosenqvist – driven machine.
The team’s #2 Oreca though marks a sharp change for the team with Ben Keating’s fan-favourite backing from Wynns arriving on his United fielded car.
Keating shares the car with Ben Hanley, Nico Pino and Pato O’Ward at Daytona.
WTRAndretti liveries
The liveries for the pair of WTR by Andretti Acura ARX 06 GTPs were released just before the ROAR test weekend.
But the liveries in reality are much, MUCH nicer than the somewhat underwhelming renders in the official release.
Both cars have silvered finishes to their primary colour. (Blue for the #10, red for the sister #40) and both look stunning close up.
HRC branding
The weekend marks the first public outing of the new HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) US branding, worn here by HRC US President David Salters, here in conversation with the somewhat more vertically challenged Wayne Taylor.
