Vasser Sullivan continues winning ways… in Thursday night bartender challenge
Coming off of back-to-back GTD Pro victories, Vasser Sullivan Racing has now won big this weekend before one of its cars had ever driven around Road America.
That’s because GTD Pro driver Ben Barnicoat and GTD driver Aaron Telitz picked up the win in Thursday night’s IMSA Celebrity Bartender Challenge, held at historic Siebkens Resort as part of the IMSA Welcome Party.
The event saw assorted IMSA drivers do their best to serve drinks and earn tips, tips which would then be donated to the Elkhart Lake Educational Foundation, along with the Resilient Racers charity to benefit both Camp Boggy Creek and the Austin Hatcher Foundation.
The Vasser Sullivan team fended off strong competition from the Myers Riley Motorsports team of Bill Riley, Sheena Monk, Felipe Fraga, and Jenson Altzman, along with members of Acura Meyer Shank Racing, Aston Martin THOR Team, JDC-Miller MotorSports, Porsche Penske Motorsport, Paul Miller Racing, and Manthey.
BMW drivers receive matching Spider-Man race suits
BMW M Team WRT’s Spider-Man livery for the #24 BMW M Hybrid V8 wouldn’t have been complete without matching Spidey Suits for its drivers, Dries Vanthoor and Sheldon van der Linde.
Thankfully, all parties involved agreed, and both Vanthoor and van der Linde are decked out in special race suits to match the new look of their car.
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Udell thrilled with DragonSpeed call-up
Alec Udell is grinning from ear to ear this weekend at Road America, ahead of his first IMSA race with DragonSpeed.
The American was called up on short notice to fill the role of Endurance Cup third driver in the team’s Corvette, following the shift of Casper Stevenson into the seat previously filled by Henrik Hedman.
The deal came together so late that Udell’s first experience working with the team was during FP1 today, but his prior experience with the Z06 GT3.R as part of DXDT’s effort has allowed him to hit the ground running.
“The team has been really nice so far,” he said. “Elton (Julian) called me up and asked if I wanted to join them for the race as we’d have a good line-up. Everyone is switched on, the car felt nice, and everyone has been fighting low grip, but we’ve made adjustments.
“It’s nice to get a few different flavours of teams this season, but I’m happy to be on board with DragonSpeed. There’s a lot of good resources available to the teams from Pratt Miller, so you know where you need to be, even though different teams take different approaches to systems and controls.”
Looking further ahead, Udell says no decision has been made on whether or not he could rejoin the team for Petit Le Mans.
“Everything was so last minute, I’m focused on this weekend, then we’ll see what happens.”
Habsburg and Vesti share first Road America impressions
With the IMSA race at Road America now an Endurance Cup round, there are a number of drivers on the entry this year visiting the circuit for the first time in the third seats.
Among them are Alpine factory driver Ferdinand Habsburg and Cadillac racer Frederik Vesti, here this weekend with Era Motorsport and Action Express respectively.
Both are hugely impressed with the Road America facility and the circuit, and were grateful to have tested at the challenging, high-speed track prior to the race weekend to get their eye in.
“I tested here last week and got a good bit of running, thank god! It was massively useful to test in advance because this track demands a lot of respect. It’s proper, not quite Macau, but so high speed, low downforce,” Habsburg said.
Vesti added: “It’s incredible. I had my dad with me today, and he’s equally surprised. In Europe there are great tracks, but they have a tendency to change over the years with more runoff, whereas here it’s stayed the same. There are concrete walls close to the track, kerbs and bumps that haven’t changed, and that’s what we love. You feel alive on a track like this.”
Record crowd expected
Sunday’s race is expected to break the all-time attendance record for the IMSA race at Road America, according to Mike Kertscher, the president of Road America.
“We don’t release numbers; we talk in percentages,” he told DSC. “I can always tell when we release our ticket specials and start selling tickets back in the winter, if it’s going to be a big rental. I could see it in ticket sales, golf cart rentals and camping passes. Demand was through the roof. It varied week by week, but we’ve been anywhere from 20 to 30 per cent up year on year, and last year was a record for us. We’re going to have to play with some weather here, it looks like, but race day looks like it’s going to be fabulous and we won’t be turning people away because we have the space.
“It’s a testament to John (Doonan) and his team for what they’ve built. It wasn’t always that way. IndyCar was a tentpole for us, and the NASCAR events. But the momentum of IMSA now is remarkable, and this one is without question on the same plane as IndyCar in terms of attendance, and ahead in some aspects when I look at activation and hospitality.”
Robichon: “You’d expect people to have a more level head” over six hours
After last year’s two-hour 40-minute race was littered with yellows at Road America, there’s much discussion this year about the impact that the race duration change will have on the driving standards.
A handful of drivers DSC polled during the bullpen pointed to the Watkins Glen 6 Hour last month as evidence that the longer race on Sunday may not be any different, but Heart of Racing’s Zacharie Robichon believes that in general things have improved in the last 12 months and that this year’s race may feature fewer caution periods.
“The assumption is that as a longer race it should be calmer. It’s one of my favourite tracks. So the fact it’s an endurance race is great. But there are maybe a few too many places where if you want to get revenge on somebody, you can. But that being said, it’s a longer race, you’d expect people to have a more level head, at least for the first few hours.
“I think it being six hours will lend itself to some good racing. And the standard has improved after last year, when IMSA put their foot down to calm everyone down. It’s changed the racing for the better, but it’s still old school.”
Nasr not thinking about championship
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Felipe Nasr said he’s no longer thinking about the title battle in GTP after four consecutive finishes outside the top three.
The Brazilian, who won the Rolex 24 and Sebring 12 Hours to kick off the season in the #7 963, sits third in the standings, but far enough back (258 points) that he finds himself more focused on getting back to winning silverware than banking points.
“It looks better for us here,” he said. “FP1 was hard to get a read because cars were doing different things with tyres. The track evolved a lot too. But up to this point we were running a different championship; we couldn’t match anyone else’s speed to get a top three.
“We know how to execute in endurance races though, so I’m hoping for a top three again. I’m not thinking about the championship. I’m here to win the race. The whole team’s effort is to get back to the top or victory lane. To do it this weekend with the tribute liveries would be amazing.”
Baron: AXR will stay aggressive in pursuit of GTP titles
Action Express Racing strategist Peter Baron says that the points-leading team will not be taking a cautious approach to Sunday’s race despite it holding a comfortable lead.
Jack Aitken leads the Drivers’ championship by 200 points over Porsche driver Laurin Heinrich, and the team has a 245-point advantage over the #93 Acura in the Teams’ standings.
“We’ll always be aggressive, just intelligently aggressive. You can be aggressive and not put things at risk,” he said when asked about the team’s prospects.
“Normally it’s a fuel mileage race, so it will be interesting to see if it’s different. We were here testing about a month ago, and we saw the Acuras were quick there; they’ll be tough to beat, as will BMW. But we should be right there.
“You don’t necessarily have the fastest car to win here though; you need to maximise everything. I’ve seen races full of yellows and races fully green here.”
Hand: “It hurt” to miss Watkins Glen
Gradient Racing driver Joey Hand got back on track for the first time since the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring earlier today. The Ford Racing factory driver reflected on missing the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen last month due to an injury he sustained while karting.
“Well, in my life, I’ve missed some races for some injuries,” said the man who, 20 years ago, suffered one of modern sports car racing’s more infamous wrecks at Mid-Ohio. “I kind of know what’s going to happen.
“When you miss a race, and you see your car driving around on track, it definitely makes you feel bad, put it that way. And it makes you understand how much you want to be at the track. It hurt to miss (Watkins Glen). There’s no way I could do it.
“But it felt really good to be back on track,” he smiled. “No issues with my injury; it’s all good, in the car especially. It was just awesome to be back with the team and see everybody’s faces and all that.
“I’m really happy to be back, and use that little rejuvenation – when you miss one, it reminds you how much you love racing.”
He’s hoping that his rejuvenation, and a little bit of luck, can finally bring in Gradient Racing’s first podium since switching from Acura to Ford last year.
“I told Andris (Laivins, Team Principal), I’d really love to come in here and be the booster. That’s how I’ve been dreaming it up,” Hand recalled.
“I want to come here and just have a great race with these guys – and they definitely deserve it.
“A lot of people classify the Gradient programme as a small team, and in a way we are. But they work at the same level as the big teams. It’s tough that we’ve had some issues that took us out of some opportunities.
“But this is a place that I’ve had really great success. It’s definitely my favourite race track in the world. Even though it’s not my home race, when you have a track that’s been really good to you, you’d like to bring that home field advantage with you – and that’s what I’m hoping to do this week.”
Maxson wins Carrera Cup opener
Tyler Maxson’s #77 Topp Racing Porsche looked pitch-perfect all race to take the win overall in Porsche Carrera Cup Race 1 this afternoon. Leading from pole to the chequered flag, Maxson finished seven seconds ahead of championship rival Aaron Jeansonne in the #24 Kellymoss car in second. Jared Thomas would finish out the podium in third for the JTR Motorsports Engineering team.
Maxson got a great jump off the starting line while Aaron Jeansonne in the #24 Kellymoss car immediately put pressure on rookie Cole Kleck for second position. The field was mostly clean through the first lap, save for Nikita Lastochkin losing the rear of the car and spinning in Turn 1, somehow avoiding contact with the barriers and continuing.
The #29 Kellymoss car of Josh Conley in the Pro-Am class spun after getting on the power at Turn 5, sustained damage, and retired a few laps later, leaking coolant. This would hand over the Pro-Am class win to Patrick Mulcahy, who started the race down the order due to his penalty for causing a red flag in qualifying.
In the Masters, Marco Cirone in the #88 ACI Motorsports took the win ahead of Scott Blind in the #45 Ruckus Racing after a long-fought battle with Rob Walker in the #53 JTR Motorsports Engineering car. The lead battle was spiced up by the #6 ACI Motorsports Pro class car of Alex Pratt backing then-leader Walker up to maintain his own track position. Pratt would scuffle with Walker for almost half of the race distance, going so far as to pick up a drive-through penalty for blocking.
Cirone put the pressure on Walker after the two were unleashed from behind the #6, which saw Walker put up a big defensive effort to keep the Masters class championship leader Cirone behind him. Ultimately, Walker was handed a +10-second post-race penalty for blocking in the last 10 minutes of the race, finishing third in class eventually.
On the final lap of the race, Callum Hedge in the #9 JDX Racing car had a race-ending incident in Turn 9, retiring him from Race 1 after running well all session. Hedge would be hungry for a good result in the second race of the afternoon to keep himself in the running for the driver’s title since this incident put Jeansonne up into P2 ahead of him.
Images © Jack Webster / dailysportscar.com
