Lime Rock Thursday Notebook

***The No. 58 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America has withdrawn from the weekend, having not made the trip to Lime Rock Park. It leaves the field at 17 cars, split between seven Prototype Challenge and 10 GT Daytona cars set for the Northeast Grand Prix.

***Stephen Simpson joins Mikhail Goikhberg in the No. 85 JDC/Miller Motorsports Oreca FLM09 this weekend. Simpson, who makes his first Lime Rock Park appearance this weekend, will pull double duty as he will also drive in the No. 37 MINI JCW for LAP Motorsports in the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge.

***JDC/Miller Motorsports will rotate its lineup for the remaining three races. Chris Miller (Road America) and Matt McMurry (Circuit of the Americas) will join Goikhberg the next two races, with Goikhberg, Miller and Rusty Mitchell set for Petit Le Mans, per team principal John Church.

***Conor Daly is driving once again for his third straight and fourth overall start with Performance Tech Motorsports in the No. 38 Oreca FLM09. Daly is set to be in for Road America and Road Atlanta as well, with COTA possible.

***Sean Rayhall will return for his second straight race with BAR1 Motorsports, now joined by Todd Slusher in the No. 16 Oreca FLM09. Slusher replaces John Falb, who raced with Rayhall at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

***Ahead of this weekend’s Northeast Grand Prix, Lime Rock Park and the TUDOR Championship hosted the “Racers in SoHo” block party on Greene St. (pictured above). BAR1 Motorsports’s car, the GTD class’ sole BMW Z4 GT3, Dodge Viper GT3-R Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 and Ferrari 458 Italia, and two Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge cars, a Porsche 911 and a Cayman, were on display along with some vintage cars for fans and observers to see.

***Jeroen Bleekemolen heads into Lime Rock after taking part in his first Palanga 1000km in Lithuania. He finished ninth overall in a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car co-driving with brother Sebastiaan, after getting pole and setting fastest race lap. He was delayed by a mechanical issue in the race.

***TRG-AMR North America tested earlier this week at Virginia International Raceway ahead of this race, along with Team Falken Tire and Wright Motorsports with one of its IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup cars.