IMSA Lime Rock Park FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix Preview

The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship heads to Salisbury, Connecticut at Lime Rock Park for the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix Presented By Liqui Moly. The WeatherTech Sportscar Championship will be truncated this round. Only the GTD (15 entries) and GTD Pro (5 entries) classes will be participating this weekend. They are accompanied by the Michelin Pilot Challenge and VP Racing Sportscar Challenge support classes. The spotters guide for this weekend is below.

Lime Rock park is a 1.50 mile circuit that features 7 turns and a long high speed straight. Drivers will benefit from the lack of on track traffic. The LMP2, LMP3 and GTP cars not being present during the race. The Michelin Pilot Challenge will feature the TCR class (14 entries) and the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge will host both the LMP3 (6 entries) and GSX (11 entries) classes.

Action starts at 10:05am EST on Friday July 21st 2023 with practice sessions. The races can be streamed on Peacock, IMSA TV and USA. More broadcast information can be found here: IMSA Lime Rock Park Broadcast Schedule

IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship Entry List

Sean Creech Motorsport announced this morning that they will be entering an LMP2 car in the 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The move comes after IMSA announced that the LMP3 class will be moved to the VP Fuels Sportcar Challenge.The team will enter a Ligier JS P217 that they are currently awaiting shipment for.

Sean Creech stated, “We’re happy to have our program set for 2024. We wanted to stay in the prototype classes and our existing relationship with Ligier opened the door to staying with them. It’s the same number of races as LMP3, and the logistics are very similar to the program that we’ve been running the last few years, so it made sense to go with LMP2.”

Creech continued on the Future of the Program

“We have a lot of crew members who have worked on the Ligier LMP2 car, so the changeover won’t be difficult at all. Our engineers are working to get all the data we need to start a testing program – the lead time to get a Gibson lease engine is long so hopefully we can get something going before that. We’ll look to get as many miles as possible over the winter to get completely up to speed on everything before Daytona.”

No official driver lineup has been release. We don’t anticipate this decision being made until the team has had some time to shake down the car.

Lamborghini S.p.A. has unveiled their SC63 LMDH Prototype car. The SC63 will compete in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup Events in 2024. The review came with great anticipation as rumors have been flying of the design of the car all year. Lamborghini will partner with the Iron Lynx Racing team as an extension of their previous collaborative efforts in the GTD and GTD Pro IMSA classes. The development of the car is part of the clean energy initiative to develop more sustainable race cars. The SC63 will feature a 3.8-liter twin turbo V8 hybrid engine.

From the press release, “The SC63 is the most advanced racing car ever produced by Lamborghini,” says Stephan Winkelmann, Lamborghini Chairman and CEO. “The opportunity to compete in some of the biggest endurance races in the world with a hybrid prototype fits with our vision for the future of high-performance mobility. The SC63 LMDh is the step into the highest echelon and into the future of motorsports for our Squadra Corse.” Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr added, “Motorsport is, to us, a valuable and demanding proving ground for our technology. The SC63 is an exciting challenge from both a technical and a human standpoint. The development of our internal combustion engine, aerodynamically efficient bodywork, and the overall technical package is a process that has pushed us to constantly raise our own standards.”

What’s Next for the Lamborghini SC63 Project?

The car will compete in the GTP class of the 2024 IMSA Sportscar World Endurance Cup Championship. Lambroghini will also enter the car in the FIA WEC 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Hypercar class. IMSA reports that Lamborghini factory drivers Mirko Bortolotti and Andrea Caldarelli. Former Formula 1 drivers Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat are also linked to the project. An official driver lineup has not yet ben announced. The SC63 will begin on-track testing year as the team will set its sites on the Rolex 24 at the beginning of next season.

Images Courtesy of Lamborghini S.p.A.

The #60 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura ARX-06 with drivers Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun survived multiple yellow flags to win the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP). The win marks the teams second win pending any further investigations since the team won the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway earlier this year. The win at CTMP did not come without drama. In the last hour and a half of the race there were 4 incidents that resulted in cautions on track. The race ended under a yellow flag after an incident with the No. 01 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with 5 minutes remaining. All GTP cars on grid completed 120 laps with the exception being the No. 01 Cadillac.

The Meyer Shank Racing drivers had the following statements for IMSA.com:

Tom Blomqvist – Meyer Shank Racing No. 60 Acura ARX-06

“The racing gods were looking down on us a little bit today. We rolled the dice (with pit stop strategy) to try and go long, and the only way we were going to win that race was if the yellows kind of played into our corner. Thankfully, they did.”

“I’m just so happy for the guys. They’ve worked their back sides off all year long, really. This car has been a lot of work. We haven’t had the greatest run of recent races, so to get the pole yesterday and finish the job off today is just amazing.”

Colin Braun – Meyer Shank Racing No. 60 Acura ARX-06

“I’ve just always loved this place and it’s got a great rhythm to it. When you kind of get that confidence that it’s going well, you can go out and attack straight away, and when it works, it keeps the confidence high.”

“Everybody did a great job. The Acura cars have been fast all week, and our team specifically worked hard. Those yellows played into our favor and I still had a bit of fuel to save, but I knew if I could get a good jump and kind of push hard and build a gap for a lap or two, I could settle in and hit the fuel number. It was a lot of fun.”

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 took second place securing a 1-2 finish for Acura. Driver had the following words, “Before the race, the theme of the weekend was we need to put together a weekend like we are used to and just get back to normal. It just so happened the No. 31 had a bad day and the points came together. We’re happy about that, and happy to get back on a roll of positive momentum. We’ll take a second place to the sister (Acura) car very happily and try to build on that for Road America.”

The No. 25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 shared by Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly claimed their 4th podium finish in the last five races. RLL racing is 10 points off of the GTP championship lead.

LMP3

Felipe Fraga made it 3 straight Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3) victories for Fraga, Gar Robinson and the No. 74 Riley Ligier JS P320. The No. 74 car held the lead for the majority of the race but briefly lost the lead only to reclaim it int he final minutes of the race. Fraga stated, “It was a crazy race. Today, I think they were a little bit faster than us, especially in the straights. … In the GT traffic I basically caught him like 2-3 seconds in two laps. Then I just had a gap, like he opened into the last corner and I think he didn’t expect me to try in the last corner, and I did it.” The move paid off. However with every winner there is the flip side to the story. Fraga made a late move on Garett Grist in the No. 30 Jr III Racing Ligier similarly to a move made at the 6 Hours of Glen. The stewards deemed no further action was necessary however Crist had other thoughts.

“It’s pretty clear what happened so there’s really not much to say, I guess. I mean, Watkins Glen I raced clean, here I raced clean…I guess we know how we can race, though. Three rounds left.”

GTD/GTD Pro

Corvette Racing continued its in class form extending their championship points with the No. 03 car. The car now sits in third place. The Pfaff Motosports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) finished second ahead of the WeatherTech Racing No. 79 Mercedes-AMG GT3. The No. 79 car is currently in second place in the championship behind the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan. In GTD the No. 01 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 took the win ahead of the No. 70 Inception Racing McLaren 720S GT3 EVO in second and the Team Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 in third.

The next race is IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America August 3-6 2023. Full race results from this weekend at CTMP are available below.

The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 secured pole position for tomorrow’s Chevrolet Grand Prix sprint race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The rival No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 finished P2 securing an Acura 1-2. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R finished third fastest in qualifying for the GTP class. All of the GTP cars in the session posted times with no major incidents on track.

In LMP3, Riley secured pole with the No. 74 car ahead of the No. 13 AWA Racing Duqueine D08. The Sean Creech Motorsport car was the slowest of the LMP3 pack. The No. 33 car finished last in class and running a best lap nearly two seconds slower than the group leader.

Vasser Sullivan continues dominant form in GTD Pro as the No. 14 Lexus RC F GT3 finishes first in class ahead of the No. 79 WeatherTech racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 and No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin. It was a good day for Vasser Sullivan and the Heart Racing teams in GTD as well. The NO. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin took pole with the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 car taking P2. Ahead of the No. 01 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3.

For more action from the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian tire Motorsports Park can be found at IMSA.

Full Qualifying Results are Below

The Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 was fastest on day one of practice. Rival Acura side Wayne Taylor Racing’s Konica Minolta ARX-07 ran third fastest setting a best time just under 8 tenths behind Meyers Shank. The Konica Minolta car ran 12 more laps in practice. Whelen Engineering ran second fastest and led the other Cadillac on grid who finished fourth fastest. The No. 24 RLL Racing BMW M was fifth fastest ahead of the No. 25 sister car that won the 6 Hours of Glen. Porsche continues to struggle with pace with all three cars (2 from Porsche Penske and 1 JDC) finishing outside of the top 5. Today will will see the cars approach race pace in practice 2.

Colin Braun of Meyer Shank Racing stated the following to IMSA.com, “We were just kind of in our race plan. We had made some changes to the car and just wanted to see what it was going to do. I had only done a couple laps in the car before the red flag, and I was just getting up to speed and figuring it out. It felt good, obviously. I just ended up getting a clear lap and I felt good about it.”

The No. 30 Jr III Racing LMP3 took pole ahead of the No. 74 Rile Motorsports Ligier JS P320 in second and the No. 13 AWA Racing Duqueine D08 in third. All of the LMP3 cars finished ahead of the GTD and GTD Pro class cars. Vasser Sullivan topped the GTD table. The Vasser Sullivan GTD Pro car finished second fastest in class behind the championship leading No. 3 Corvette.

Full Practice session results are available below.

Live coverage is available on Peacock and IMSA.com/TVLive. Sunday’s race airs live at noon EST on NBC.

The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship lands at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park this weekend for the Chevrolet Grand Prix. 4 classes (GTP, LMP3, GTD and GTD Pro) will race in the main competition. The full entry list can be found below. The Michelin Pilot Challenge and the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge will act support classes this weekend.

Canadian Tire Motorsports Park is a 4.529 mile road course that features 10 turns spread out over a number of elevation changes. The Chevrolet Grand Prix is a 2 hour and 40 minute sprint race. Action gets started at 9:15am EST July 7th 2023. For broadcast details in the United States click here: USA Broadcast Information. The first group up is the VP Racing Sportscar Challenge.

IMSA has released a Tourist Guide for those traveling to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The Sahlen’s 6 Hours of Glen weekend at Watkins Glen International was an event full of drama and chaos. The most pertinent being the race winners that crossed the finish line not being crowned the winners actual winners. During the post race inspection the IMSA stewards found that the No. 06 Porsche Penske GTP car had a skid block that measured at less than the permitted thickness per the technical regulations. The No. 06 Porsche subsequently got demoted to the bottom of the grid. The No. 25 RLL Racing assumed the position of race winner. Porsche Penske intend to appeal this decision after they carry out an internal investigation. The team released the following statement on their twitter account.

Whether the team has a case is yet to be determined. The race conditions were variable so we are not sure if this was taken into account in the penalty decision. The No. 24 RLL Racing sister car spun out and crashed on the opening lap of the race.

LMP2/LMP3

With qualifying abandoned shortly after the LMP2/LMP3 session began. The race was the first opportunity fans got to see the cars at full race pace. The No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR ORECA LMP2 07 and Era Motorsport dueled at various points in the race by the Crowdstrike car got the better of Era Motorsports as the 6 hour came to a pass. In third was the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA LMP2 07. All three drivers finished on the lead lap. In LMP3, Felipe Fraga in the No. 74 Riley Motorsports – WeatherTech Racing Ligier JS P320 topped the class ahead of the No. 30 Jr III RacingLigier JS P320 in second and the No. 17 AWA Duqueine D08 in third.

GTD/GTD Pro

Vasser Sullivan won in both the GTD and GTD Pro classes. Both cars completed 183 laps in the race. In GTD, the No. 01 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 finished second. Behind in third was the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R (992). In GTD Pro the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 finished second. The No. 03 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R GTD rounded out third place.

For more coverage of the race visit IMSA.

The Sahlen’s 6 Hours of Glen Qualifying session has been abandoned due to concerns surrounding weather. The rain has been on and off all weekend at Watkins Glen and this morning it fell in heavy fashion just after FP2. At the beginning of qualifying there was a large pile up involving multiple LMP2/LMP3 cars. The crashes resulted in the GTP qualifying session being abandoned. By rule the grid order was set by the current team championship standing. By default the Porsche Penske No. 06 car will assume pole position for the GTP class. In P2 sits the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac. Third on grid is the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 GTP car which ran 7th fastest in FP2.

LMP2/LMP3

Similarly to the GTP class the grid will be by championship standing. The No. 11 TDS Racing car will start from pole. Behind our pole sitter was No. 52 PR1 car. The Team will be busy becasue the car requires some work to get it race ready. The No. 08 Tower Motorsports car will start third. In LMP3 is the No. 74 Riley car will start from pole ahead of the #13 AWA machine. Third on the grid is the No. 85 JDC Motorsports P2 car.

The rain was the heaviest at the beginning of the session for LMP2/LMP3. A few cars came out on full wet tires but shortly after starting the session hydroplaned off of the track. The slide out led to a pile-up that ended the qualifying session. All drivers involved in the crash walked away uninjured in the incident.

GTD/GTD Pro

The GTD/GTD Pro classes are the only WeatherTech Sportscar Championship classes that were able to complete qualifying. In GTD, the No. 78 US RaceTronics Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 is on pole. The No. 12 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 finished in second. In third was the No. 83 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. In GTD Pro the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 296 GT3 secured pole ahead of the No. 63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2. The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 finished third fastest in class.

Racing begins at 07:00am tomorrow June 25th. For more information visit IMSA

This weekend the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship heads to Watkins Glen International for the Sahlen’s 6 Hours of Glen. This weekend’s endurance race will feature all 5 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar classes in the last endurance race of the season before the season finale, Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October. Earlier this month IMSA released the Balance of Performance guidelines for the race. You can find them below.

The 6 Hours of Glen will be the first time since the 12 hours of Sebring that all 5 WeatherTech Championship car classes will share the track. The full entry list has been posted. 57 cars have entered the competition. Action for the support series’ kicks off on Thursday with the MX-5 Cup.

Watkins Glen International – Watkins Glen, New York Broadcast Details
June 22-25, 2023

• Race Day/Time: Sunday, June 25 – 10:40 a.m. ET
• USA Network Coverage: LIVE – 2-5 p.m.
• Streaming Coverage: LIVE – Flag-to-flag beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Peacock (in the U.S.) and IMSA.com/TVLive (outside the U.S.)
• IMSA.com/TVLive Live Qualifying Stream: Saturday, June 24 – 1:15 p.m.
• IMSA Radio: Select weekend sessions live on IMSA.com and RadioLeMans.com; SiriusXM live race coverage begins Sunday, June 25 at 10:30 a.m. ET (XM 207, Web/App 992)
• Circuit Type: 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course
• Classes Competing: Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), Le Mans Prototype 3 (LMP3), Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO), Grand Touring Daytona (GTD)
• Race Length: 6 hours