Indianapolis Thursday Notebook

Photo: Mercedes-AMG

***SunEnergy1 Racing by Akkodis ASP led the way in Thursday afternoon’s Paid Bronze Test, which preceded the start of official track action this evening. The Kenny Habul and Martin Konrad-driven Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo posted a quick time of 1:22.970, with a total of 13 cars taking part in the 30-minute session.

***SRO Motorsports Group is utilizing the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Grand Prix road course layout this year, which measures at 2.439 miles in length and comprises of 14 corners compared to the 2.589-mile, 15-turn layout that was used for the 2021 Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

***It has produced lap times that are more than ten seconds quicker than last year based on times from the test sessions.

***There have also been changes to the safety car, wave-by and pit lane procedures compared to the 2021 edition. Pit lane will remain open for competitors during yellows, while the minimum pit stop time for refueling is set at 92 seconds, measured from pit-in to pit-out.

***An updated Balance of Performance table was issued Thursday afternoon, which confirms the Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo’s specification. All the Prancing Horses in the field are 488 GT3 Evo 2020 models except for the No. 218 Andretti Autosport x Vital Speed entry, which is running to 2018 Evo configuration.

***AF Corse is ready to go with its new No. 51 Ferrari, which has been put into action following Pierre Ragues’ crash on the his out-lap on Wednesday that resulted in chassis damage. Daniel Morad also found trouble during the test day in the No. 77 Team Craft-Bamboo Mercedes, although the car only sustained minor front-end damage according to team director Darryl O’Young.

***After making its GTWC America debut last time out at Sebring International Raceway, Conquest Racing’s Manny Franco has decided to step out of the its Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 this weekend in order to “speed up” the team’s learning curve heading into next year. Franco and Alessandro Balzan teamed for fourth and second place finishes, with the entry having been upgraded from Pro-Am to Pro during the middle of the event.

***The Eric Bachelart-run organization has remained in the Pro class this weekend, with Balzan joined by Daniel Mancinelli and Silver-rated Cedric Sbirrazzuoli.

***The Indy 8 Hour is the first GTWC America race this year where Pirelli has not forced limited tire allocations due to global logistics and supply chain issues according to Pirelli’s North American motorsport manager Orazio Mastracchio, who revealed they had to air-freight 1,000 tires to the recent round at Sebring due to a sea-freight container being stuck in a port.

***Mastracchio said: “It’s been an added complexity to running a motorsport business, especially when we have factories in Europe, which now has an energy crisis. It’s not easy and doesn’t make our sport very easy to manage.”

***Teams can use a maximum of 12 sets of Pirelli PZero DHF slicks from the beginning of Free Practice, with an additional set of tires allocated for all cars that advance to the Pole Shootout.

***Christina Nielsen is taking part in only her second race of the year following her late call-up to replace the COVID-positive Sarah Bovy in Iron Dames’ GTE-Am lineup in the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa FIA World Endurance Championship race in May. The Bronze-rated Dane last raced GT3 machinery in the 2021 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in a Team Hardpoint EBM Porsche 911 GT3 R.

***Paddock rumors have indicated that newly crowned GTWC Europe overall champion Raffaele Marciello could be departing Mercedes-AMG for another manufacturer, in one of many driver shakeups set to unfold in the off-season in the GT3 racing world.

***Winward Racing hasn’t yet made a “firm decision” on whether it will undertake a full season IGTC program in 2023 according to team principal Russell Ward, who cited the “pretty difficult” schedule at the beginning of the year with the Rolex 24 at Daytona one week prior to the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour and the Kyalami 9 Hour just two weeks later.

***Ward said they plan to “lean the program out a bit” next year by only contesting a few GTWC America races alongside its full-season return to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and new single-car Mercedes-AMG GT4 effort in Michelin Pilot Challenge. “We definitely want to fill the racing calendar with a couple more races but we haven’t really nailed anything down yet,” Ward said.

***DXDT Racing team owner David Askew believes that IMSA’s decision to reverse course on having a Bronze-rated driver mandate in its GTD class next year has been a benefit to the GTWC America paddock.

***Askew said: “I think it potentially would have taken a lot of people from SRO over there just to do it. Looking at it, it was kind of exciting to me initially but really thinking about it now, I think [IMSA] made the right decision because it’s a pro series and you’re racing with much faster cars.”

***While keeping the door open for a customer GTD program in the WeatherTech Championship, Askew confirmed that DXDT will return to GTWC America next year with a largely unchanged two-car Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo effort in the Pro-Am class.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John