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Continental Tire Keys to the Race: COTA

Continental Tire Keys to the Race: COTA…

Photo: Scott LePage/IMSA

Photo: Scott LePage/IMSA

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship heads to Circuit of The Americas this weekend for the penultimate round of the season, as part of the Lone Star Le Mans event with the FIA World Endurance Championship.

Continental Tire Keys to the Race: 

Race: Lone Star Le Mans

Track: Circuit of The Americas

Length: 2 hours, 40 minutes

Entries: 40 cars spread across four classes: 8 cars (P), 9 cars (PC), 9 cars (GTLM), 14 cars (GTD)

Schedule:

Thursday, Sept. 15 (all times CT)
Practice 1 – 10:25-11:25 a.m.
Practice 2 – 4:35-5:35 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 16
Practice 3 – 9:10 – 10:10 a.m.
CTSC Race – 12:40 – 3:10 p.m. (2 hours, 30 minutes)
Qualifying –  3:45 – 5:15 p.m.

Sat, Sept. 17
Warm-up – 8 – 8:20 a.m.
Race –  11:35 a.m. – 2:15 p.m. (2 hours, 40 minutes)

Previous Winners: Chip Ganassi Racing (P), CORE autosport (PC), BMW Team RLL (GTLM), Riley Motorsports (GTD)

Previous Polesitters: Scott Pruett (P), Chris Cumming (PC), Patrick Pilet (GTLM), Dion von Moltke (GTD).

Driver Insight: – “I enjoy the track at COTA and I think the Audi should go quite well there. I think we might struggle in a couple of corners but the nature of the circuit is that it’s such a long circuit with so many different corners that I think there are enough corners that will play to our Audi’s strength. So overall I think we will be quite strong. The car also seems to be quite good in the heat and the Continental Tires also seem to do well with the Audi in the heat so I think that will help us there as well, so I’m pretty excited!” – Robin Liddell, No. 6 Stevenson Motorsports Audi R8 LMS

Drive Times: Minimum: 60 minutes for PC Silver/Bronze drivers;  45 minutes for GTD Silver/Bronze drivers; Maximum: None

Tires: Continental Tire “Black” for P, PC and GTD. Multiple tire brands/compounds for GTLM

Pit Stops: 40-45 minute stint length for P, PC; 50-55 minutes for GTLM, GTD

Weather: Partly Cloudy, High: 90 F, 20 percent chance of rain

TV: Saturday Sept. 17, 12:30-3:30 p.m. ET (FOX Sports 2)

Radio: Complete session-by-session coverage on IMSA Radio

Spotter’s Guide: Click Here

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

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