COTA WEC Wednesday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***Thirty one cars are set for this weekend’s Six Hours of Circuit of The Americas, including a handful of driver changes since the last round in Mexico City two weeks ago.

***Both Anthony Davidson and Benoit Treluyer, who elected to sit out Mexico due to injuries, are expected to return to the wheel of their respective LMP1 machinery.

***Treluyer, who is recovering from a back injury, completed a bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles with Audi co-driver Marcel Fassler last week. They completed 469 miles in five days, including a 113-mile trek in a single day.

***Manor has continued with a single Oreca 05 Nissan, featuring the return of Roberto Merhi, while Fernando Rees makes his first start since Le Mans in the No. 97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, filling in for Richie Stanaway, who is on Australian Supercars duty at Sandown.

***Kevin Estre, meanwhile, fills in for Patrick Long in the No. 88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR, which is also coming off a class victory last time out.

***All of the Oreca 05 LMP2 cars have switched to AP brakes, from its homologated Brembo package, after receiving a safety waiver in the wake of a series of brake failures from the previous supplier. The change affects all Oreca 05/Alpine A460 cars, both in WEC as well as the European Le Mans Series.

***The No. 97 Aston Martin is running in Valero colors for the first time since the season-opener at Silverstone in April. The Texas-based energy corporation has been a team sponsor with Aston Martin Racing for the last several years.

***While the Ligier JS P217 will begin testing next week and is set to be presented during next weekend’s ELMS race in Spa, the Oreca 07 will not hit the track until mid-October. An ORECA spokesperson told Sportscar365 that they wanted to take extra time to make final updates to the design and are confident of its on-track performance.

***The first Oreca 07 cars will be delivered to customers in November, along with upgrade kits to transform existing Oreca 05s to the 07. Should they commit today, new customers would expect deliveries of mid-January for ELMS/WEC teams and mid-December for IMSA teams, in time for the official Daytona test.

***Signatech-Alpine has been linked to a switch to Dallara LMP2 chassis next year. The Philippe Sinault-owned team has held a long relationship with the Italian constructor through its European open-wheel programs. ART GP, meanwhile, could also opt with a Dallara next year for its proposed WEC program.

***Three drivers are pulling double duty between the WEC and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races on Saturday: Ryan Dalziel (Tequila Patron ESM/Visit Florida Racing), Richard Bradley (Manor/Starworks Motorsport) and Ricky Taylor (Larbre Competition/Wayne Taylor Racing).

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