Road America Pre-Race Notebook

***As a result of their accident in the morning warmup, both the GT Daytona class-polesitting No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage and the No. 70 SpeedSource Mazda SKYACTIV-D diesel have been withdrawn. Sylvain Tremblay was bruised but otherwise OK after the accident; however the damage was deemed too much to repair before Sunday’s green flag. James Davison was also out and OK from his Aston Martin.

***The other car involved in an incident this morning – the No. 42 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan – had to embark on a thrash to make the grid itself. With the above withdrawals and OAK still making the race, the field will be 48 cars for today’s TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race.

***Flying Lizard Motorsports changed an engine overnight on the No. 35 Audi R8 LMS, driven this weekend by Dion von Moltke and Andrew Palmer. Per team manager Eric Ingraham: “We had a small engine fire yesterday, issues today were a couple of bad wiring connections related to the engine fire and subsequent engine swap.”

***Fall-Line Motorsports also didn’t qualify Saturday due to several mechanical issues; additionally, the team has made a last-minute driver change. Charles Espenlaub will replace fellow Silver-rated Charles Putman ahead of today’s race, alongside team debutante Marino Franchitti in the No. 46 Audi R8 LMS.

***Both the No. 35 and No. 46 Audis were able to make it out for laps in morning warmup; the No. 19 Muehlner Motorsports America Porsche 911 GT America, driven this weekend by Mark Klenin and Christian Szymczak, did not.

***No single car was able to complete more than four laps in Sunday’s morning warmup due to the pair of incidents. Jordan Taylor (P), Stephen Simpson (PC), Kuno Wittmer (GTLM) and Markus Palttala (GTD) led the time sheets.

***Several drivers have chances to defend wins achieved in last year’s Road America races, as both the GRAND-AM and American Le Mans Series events were held on the same weekend. Scott Mayer (DP), Bill Auberlen (GT), and Joel Miller/Tristan Nunez (GX) all won in Rolex and Bruno Junqueira/Duncan Ende (PC), Dominik Farnbacher/Marc Goossens (GT), Nelson Canache/Spencer Pumpelly (GTC) were ALMS winners.

***Although Sunday’s Continental Tire Road Race Showcase will go green at 1:15 p.m. CT/2:15 p.m. ET, the race will air on a same-day delay at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. MRN will have live radio to complement live timing & scoring on IMSA.com.