Scott McLaughlin has been very excited to get in and drive and will do a stint in the nighttime hours. Scott McLaughlin last drove the car in night practice on Thursday night. McLaughlin sharing with Josef Newgarden, Kyffin Simpson, and John Farano, team boss. Scott McLaughlin has finally been able to race the Rolex 24 after five or six years. Blomqvist, Taylor, Lynn, Tandy, the top four in GTP presently. We are also looking at the Garage 56 NASCAR Cup entry that hopefully will be raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a driver lineup of Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, and Formula 1 champion Jenson Button. That is going to be fun! Hopefully they get an entry from the FIA and the ACO.
Felipe Nasr and Porsche #7 in trouble. He is crawling. Coming to a halt. This is not unexpected. What happened? It just shut down the car, the entirety of the systems. Nasr is now back underway. Control, Alt, Delete. BMW #25 in the garage. Trouble with the MGU, the Motor Generator Unit. Is it the sensor? Is it the computer unit itself? The team is in the garage working on the issues. Trouble for BMW Team RLL early doors. BMW were the last to get their second GTP racer put together and tested. This is a 4-liter turbo V8 former DTM touring car motor. This team tested in Eurpe and North America as Pipo Derani took a wide entry into the Le Mans Chicane and went straight on.
He will be back on the road. It is getting used to the brake by wire system for sure. Jarett Andretti is your new LMP3 leader and David Pittard is now leading GTD Pro. That is the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage. Penske Porsche have had a radio issue, a power steering issue, and an engine shutdown and refire for Felipe Nasr. Pittard is sharing #23 with fellow Brit Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas, the Spaniard. Jaret Andretti is the new LMP3 leader at Andretti Autosport leading by five and a half seconds sharing with Gabby Chaves, Dakota Dickerson, and Rasmus Lindh.
We have many stacked lineups in the whole field. Andretti and Chaves will share the #36 all season in IMSA 2023. There was probable smoke in the cockpit. You will smell campfires and barbecues from the crowd too. Into LMP2, we watch the defending class winners at DragonSpeed as Eric Lux spins off the road and thankfully does not hit anything. Lux in the Rick Ware Racing Oreca, car #51. Lux sharing with Devlin DeFtancesco, Austin Cindric, (defending Daytona 500 champ), and Pietro Fittipaldi.
50 years ago, Brumos Racing won this race with the late Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood with two drivers and spending very little time in the pit lane. A special moment. How wonderful! You read a feature on that car a few days back. To Brumos Porsche, congratulations everybody. 50 years! Klaus Bachler has the #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R 992 model. Bachler is sharing with Patrick Pilet and Laurens Vanthoor. Another story, the #93 Racer's Edge Motorsports with Wayne Taylor Racing. Ryan Briscoe, sharing with Ashton Harrison, Danny Formal, and Kyle Marcelli. It has been a long time since Racer's Edge Motorsports has run a Rolex 24. Ashton Harrison is next in for her first stint in the Rolex 24.
2022 Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric is doing a one-off for the Rolex 24 and is prividing what he can for his team. He has enjoyed working with Eric Lux and his other co-drivers. This is the only race Rick Ware Racing may do in the WeatherTech Championship this year. Currently leading LMP2, the #35 car for TDS Racing. Francois Heriau sharing with Giedo van der Garde, Josh Pierson, and Job van Uitert. Austin Cindric, Motocross, Bathurst 12 Hours, NASCAR Cup and Truck Series, sports cars, you name it. He is a well-rounded driver indeed.
The Heart of Racing Aston leads GTD Pro as Tom Blomqvist continues to dominate at the top of the shop. Porsche is back and the boss, Thomas Laudenbach, says they want to come back and fight for overall victory. Same as Cadillac, Acura, and BMW, to race in IMSA and World Endurance, both. Racing and road car tech have to be relevant to each other. Acura leads with Tom Blomqvist and Ricky Taylor third. Blomqvist extends the lead and coasting to do fuel saving. Blomqvist stopped later than the others. The Acura seems to be the top handling GTP car at this time.
Things can change. Make the equipment last. Blomqvist could soon lap the other GTP cars as we watch David Pittard at work in the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. He is now rated as a gold driver. He did a lot of good work in World Endurance for Aston Martin last year. An Aston Martin factory driver. Heart of Racing evaluated their program and are stepping up to the plate. That is what any teams have to do. This is a professional deal. Alex Riberas had a birthday yesterday. Riberas thought he would get his face in a cake. He was not for that and resisted the attempt to get his face smashed into the frosting.
Electrical woes for BMW currently. We just don't know if these cars will last as we see the #01 Cadillac and the #10 Acura in the pit lane. So is the #31 Action Express Cadillac. All of the Cadillac's are in the lane now. A good and clean stop at Action Express and they are back at it. Porsche 963 #7 for Porsche Penske Motorsports now in the pit lane and back out as well. These cars are like fighter jets, the GTP cars. They are amazing. Very similar to Formula 1 or IndyCar in this modern age. Philipp Eng pits the #24 BMW and now, Mike Skeen in the #32 Korthoff Motorsports is off the road from the GT Daytona lead. The car is clean, but he went off the road.
Meyer Shank Acura, car #60, pits from the lead, coasting in. Multiple champion Colin Braun in the car. It takes getting used to with the immediate electric power launch out of the pit lane. Mild temperatures today but cars are having a spot of bother getting heat into the tires, the Michelin tires. Pipo Derani tagged that Mercedes. Never mind. Jack Aitken now in the car on his out lap on cold tires. This shemozzle is under review. Colin Braun and Jon Bennett almost won the title against the DPi cars. Braun and Bennett were all set to race LMP3 and when Braun was signed by Meyer Shank, Bennett said, "OK. It is time to stop."
The controls, the fly by wire throttle on these GTP cars, just amazing stuff. Now leading GTP, the sister #02 Ganassi Racing Cadillac, the blue Cadillac, with Alex Lynn and now Colin Braun comes back to the top of the shop. This race is nearly two hours old as we await GTD cars to make their pit stops. This is a quick race so far as we have had just one yellow for as far as we've gone but there is a long, long way to go. Jimmie Johnson will be one of the drivers with this new Garage 56 NASCAR Le Mans race program. This is something we are going to talk about more in the coming days.
Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, and Formula 1 champion Jenson Button. IMSA President John Doonan is very excited. We will see if February 23rd, if this car gets on the Le Mans entry list. This will be the centenary of Le Mans. 100 years. ACO, NASCAR, Goodyear, Chevrolet. We have seen cars like the Deltawing and with alternative fueled racers. Much pressure on the invite. Will the French organizers let them in? I hope so. A great synergy between NASCAR, IMSA, and the ACO. NASCAR President Steve Phelps clarifies this is a completely different car than the regular Next Gen NASCAR Cup car.
Good fight between Porsche and BMW! Wow! Meanwhile, we are seeing motorsports come way back in just the last five years. NASCAR fans, take note.
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