Road America Thursday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams unloaded at Road America on Thursday afternoon, ahead of the start of on-track action tomorrow. Sunday’s two-hour and 40-minute race marks the only four-class sprint race of the season and the first time all categories are will be in action since the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen in June.

***Kenton Koch has replaced Mike Skeen for the next two WeatherTech Championship races in the No. 32 Korthoff Preston Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. Koch, who has served as the team’s third driver for the Michelin Endurance Cup races, effectively swaps places with Skeen, who will be back in the car for the final two races of the season.

***This weekend marks the 300th event start for a Corvette Racing-related entry in the program’s 25-year history. The program, which has expanded to customer entries for the first time this year, has accumulated 132 victories worldwide, including 115 in IMSA competition.

***Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti’s Filipe Albuquerque said he’s expecting a “more forgiving” track this year, with the same level of grip but with additional passing opportunities following last year’s fresh repave that led to a largely single ideal lane for competitors.

***Albuquerque, who tested at Road America last month, said: “I think it’s going to be a bit better. It didn’t seem to be so narrow-lined that we saw as well in Laguna. Last year was tricky, as at the moment you had a lock and wheel you could never catch any more of the car and you’d go to the grass. It seems like it’s more wide, the line. The more cars drive around that asphalt, it’s just better.”

***It has been revealed that the race-ending wheel issue for the No. 10 WTRAndretti Acura ARX-06 at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen was triggered by contact with the No. 7 Team Penske Porsche 963 of Dane Cameron earlier in the race that led to a cracked wheel nut.

***Albuquerque confirmed that he’s currently contracted to WTRAndretti and not Acura, but said that nothing is fully “defined” for 2025, which will see the Wayne Taylor and Michael Andretti-owned team switch to Cadillac, although not yet officially announced.

***Sportscar365 understands that Louis Deletraz also holds contractural ties to WTRAndretti, with Ricky and Jordan Taylor currently employed by Acura.

***Ross Gunn said he will be getting his first laps in Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH car “pretty soon” with the Aston Martin factory driver expressing hopes of being part of the program in 2025.

***Darren Turner, Mario Farnbacher and Harry Tincknell handled shakedown duties of the LMH car at Silverstone and Donington Park last month. Heart of Racing will need at least eight drivers for the program when factoring in its mandated two-car FIA World Endurance Championship program and expected single-car effort in the WeatherTech Championship.

***Gar Robinson enters this weekend seeking his third consecutive Road America class win, after picking up honors in the now-defunct LMP3 class in both 2022 and 2023. Robinson and co-driver Felipe Fraga currently leads the LMP2 standings in his No. 74 Riley Oreca 07 Gibson.

***Another driver seeking a Road America three-peat is Felipe Nasr, who won the race in 2021 for Action Express Racing, skipped the 2022 event due to his Porsche Penske Motorsport testing commitments before returning to victory lane last year alongside Matt Campbell.

***Nasr currently leads the GTP drivers’ championship alongside new-for-2024 co-driver Dane Cameron in the No. 7 Porsche.

***This weekend will mark Pipo Derani’s 75th IMSA race. The Brazilian, who will depart Action Express Racing at the end of the season, has yet to announce his 2025 plans, although is believed to be remaining in the GTP class.

***AO Racing, with its newly re-liveried ‘Roxy’ No. 77 Porsche 911 GT3 R, visited Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee on Wednesday to meet with patients and families facing childhood cancer. The event was organized by the Austin Hatcher Foundation, an official charity of IMSA.

***Tonis Kasemets is making his LMP2 debut this weekend, subbing for Lance Willsey in the No. 33 Sean Creech Motorsport Ligier JS P217 Gibson alongside Joao Barbosa. Willsey has missed the Road America races the last two years due to family obligations, which saw the team claim LMP3 pole honors with super-subs at the wheel.

***Kasemets turned his first laps in the car during a test at Road America last week. “This is a little bit of a different animal,” he said. “I’ve never driven an LMP2 car, but I love the class. So this will be a new chapter, a new vehicle to try. But luckily, I’ll do it in the Road America, which I know really well.”

***Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle hasn’t ruled out utilizing third drivers for next month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which becomes a six-hour Michelin Endurance Cup race this year.

***Kuratle said: “We could but we don’t have to necessarily do that. It’s something we’re discussing. Indianapolis is not so much on our focus now. What we’re concentrating more is on next year’s driver lineup and therefore we may anticipate some or we have some drivers doing the Road Atlanta race towards the end of the year.”

***Sportscar365 believes there’s likely to be at least one change to Porsche Penske’s full-time WeatherTech Championship driver lineup, with additional adjustments rumored for the team’s WEC program.

***Former American Le Mans Series competitor Liz Halliday competed in the Paris Olympic Games in the Equestrian events. Halliday finished 19th in the individual finals earlier this week, as one of only two American riders in the field with her horse, Nutcracker.

***Sunday’s race returns to a more-traditional 2 p.m. CDT start time due to the lack of available live cable or network slots because of the Olympics. Last year’s Road America race started at 10:10 a.m. CDT, prior to both the second Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and two-hour Michelin Pilot Challenge races that day, due to TV considerations.

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