***IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship groups unloaded Thursday at Watkins Glen Worldwide, in preparation for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen, which is able to characteristic a capability 56-car subject.
***Numerous drivers and groups are coming off the 24 Hours of Le Mans final weekend, together with all three total winners and 4 further class victors. Nicklas Nielsen is with LMP2 squad Richard Mille AF Corse whereas his Ferrari AF Corse co-drivers Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina are in Ferrari 296 GT3 entries from Cetilar Racing and AF Corse, respectively (pictured above).
***Oliver Jarvis and Bijoy Garg, who received LMP2 with United Autosports, in the meantime are in Pfaff Motorsports’ McLaren 720S GT3 Evo in GTD Professional and United’s LMP2 entry, respectively, this weekend.
***Moreover, Ben Barnicoat and Nico Varrone, who shared an AF Corse Oreca 07 Gibson to LMP2 Professional-Am subclass honors, are right here this weekend for DragonSpeed and Vasser Sullivan, in LMP2 and GTD Professional, respectively.
***The GTP class will characteristic a second three-driver lineup in spite of everything, with affirmation that Tom Blomqvist will rejoin Pipo Derani and Jack Aitken within the No. 31 Motion Specific Racing Cadillac V-Sequence.R. Blomqvist was not initially slated to contest the race in line with the staff’s director of race operations Chris Mitchum, though was drafted again in after shedding his NTT IndyCar Sequence trip with Meyer Shank Racing.
***Blomqvist mentioned: “After a tough previous month for me personally, to be returning to a championship that I really like competing in makes me very motivated and I can’t wait to get again within the paddock and hit the bottom working.”
***The opposite GTP class entry with a three-driver lineup is the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, which sees Phil Hanson rejoin full-time pilots Richard Westbrook and Tijmen van der Helm.
***There have been notable modifications to the three.45-mile circuit since final yr’s race, with the addition of a rumble strip in Flip 1 and an extra “sausage” curb on the Bus Cease chicane, which was constructed following mouthpiece information from NASCAR driver Kyle Larson. The addition was met with combined reactions in pre-event testing.
***GTD Professional factors chief Seb Priaulx mentioned in a pre-event IMSA Zoom name that the modifications produced faster speeds by means of the Bus Cease for the production-based vehicles, which use the curb, whereas prototypes are understood to be staying away from the brand new additions.
***Ricky Taylor mentioned: “I feel for the GT guys, a few of the Tremendous Trofeos had been nonetheless going all the way in which to the wall, so I feel for them it didn’t change a lot. However for the prototypes, we had been already going round it, and even that first aspect of the present curb that’s nonetheless there, it’s just about the identical. That’s all we had been ready to make use of earlier than and that’s all we’re going to maintain utilizing, a minimum of from once we examined.”
***Taylor revealed that three of the 4 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti drivers haven’t pushed the Acura ARX-06 within the rain earlier than. Louis Deletraz was the one one to have skilled the LMDh automobile in moist climate situations. Forecasts name for rain and thunderstorms all weekend, combined with near-oppressive warmth and humidity in Upstate New York.
***GTP groups are utilizing Michelin’s onerous compound slick tire for the primary time this season, which has been met with combined views. A number of drivers, together with Renger van der Zande, have been vocal towards its use as a result of period of time wanted to construct up temperature. This significantly appears to impression the Cadillac GTP automobile essentially the most.
***IMSA and Michelin decided the tire specs primarily based on a number of standards together with observe traits, forecasted ambient temperatures and different components. The onerous compound is ready to even be used at Highway America and Indianapolis, with the category returning to the medium, in addition to probably the smooth for night-time working, on the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Highway Atlanta in October.
***The GTD Professional and GTD courses, in the meantime, predict significantly sooner lap instances this weekend, in dry situations, with the new-for-2024 Michelin Pilot Sport Professional GT H1 compound, which accomplished a gaggle take a look at with a number of groups at The Glen following final yr’s race as a part of the tire’s growth course of.
***Vasser Sullivan’s Parker Thompson mentioned: “Probably the most fascinating a part of that is to see how the brand new Michelin [Pilot Sport Pro] tire impacts Watkins Glen. It seems prefer it’s going to be lots sooner this yr than it was years prior.”
***AO Racing heads into the weekend looking for its third consecutive GTD Professional class victory, with Priaulx and Laurin Heinrich having prolonged their championship result in 84 factors over Vasser Sullivan’s Barnicoat and Jack Hawksworth following victory final day out in Detroit.
***Priaulx mentioned: “It’s superb. We’re a one-car staff and all these producer guys with large entries like Corvette, Lexus, these guys are on the prime of their sport for a few years. We’re a privateer staff just about and really new. To win these large races like this simply exhibits how onerous they’re working.”
***The No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 of the all-American lineup of Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow and Neil Verhgan is sporting a particular stars-and-stripes livery this weekend.
***Each of the AO vehicles have additionally included the American flag into its distinct season-long liveries, in recognition of the nation’s independence day on July 4. The six-hour race sometimes falls nearer to the vacation than this yr, which was moved up by one week to keep away from a conflict with the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa.
***Sportscar365 understands that Spa and the Six Hours of The Glen are set to conflict subsequent yr, with IMSA transferring again to its conventional date on the final weekend of June, as introduced in March throughout its 2025 calendar unveil.
***WeatherTech Championship rivals have a single 90-minute follow session on faucet for Friday, from 1:25-2:55 p.m. EDT.