Road Atlanta Friday Notebook

Photo: Jurgen Tap/Porsche

***Motul Petit Le Mans pole-sitter Tom Blomqvist believes Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season finale could come down to an Acura vs. Cadillac vs. Porsche battle, noting both of his rivals’ long-run performance. “We’ve also got a really fast car, especially in the night,” he said. “It’s difficult to get a read on what everyone was doing in practice but I think it’s going to be a good fight tomorrow.”

***It marked the fourth GTP pole of the season for Acura Meyer Shank Racing and the tenth top-qualifying run for the Acura ARX-06, breaking a tie with the Cadillac V-Series.R for most poles since the launch of the class in 2023.

***Blomqvist added: “You can see this year we’ve had a few pole positions. It’s definitely an area that our car seems to excel in. But honestly we’ve put a lot of work into making our car as good as possible in the race so we don’t really focus too much on qualifying. Around here it’s super important; we know we’re going to have some super stiff competition.”

***PJ Hyett’s third place qualifying run in LMP2 has extended his and AO Racing co-driver Dane Cameron’s points lead from 85 to 87 points over United Autosports’ Daniel Goldburg after edging out Goldburg by 0.262 seconds.

***The GTD Pro point gap between the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Alexander Sims and Antonio Garcia and Albert Costa in the No. 81 DragonSpeed Ferrari 296 GT3 has been reduced from 18 to 13 points following qualifying that saw Costa qualify fourth in class and Garcia in a distant eighth.

***Garcia said: “Not great. I would say that we did another test session in qualifying. We changed the car drastically in order to have more performance but it didn’t work.”

***GTD Pro is the tightest full-season drivers’ championship battle heading into tomorrow’s ten-hour enduro.

***With Philip Ellis qualifying fifth in GTD, the Mercedes-AMG factory driver and co-pilot Russell Ward will now need to only finish 18th or higher, out of the 19-car class, in order to claim back-to-back class titles on Saturday.

***Winward is preparing to run a second Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring according to Russell Ward, which would mark the first multi-car GT3 operation for the team’s Texas-based squad. “We’ve been trying to figure out a good time on when we’re going to do it, and we finally made the decision to do it,” he told Sportscar365.

***Ward wouldn’t rule out a potential two-car full season effort in the future, to mirror its GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and DTM campaigns. “Maybe there’s a potential to do something more in the future,” he said. “I don’t know. But for us, it’s a good opportunity, get all the equipment organized and get the other car prepped and get ready for a two-car program.”

***Steven Thomas revealed to Sportscar365 that he will step away from WeatherTech Championship competition after this weekend. The 58 year-old, who took six LMP2 class wins since debuting in the series in 2021, said he could potentially look at joining the European Le Mans Series instead.

***While having received a confirmed LMP2 full season entry by IMSA for next year, Era Motorsport has revealed that it is seeking a Bronze-rated driver for the 2026 season. Tobi Lutke contested all races except for Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this year where he was replaced by fellow Bronze Travis Hill.

***Team owner Kyle Tilley said: “As multiple-time winners of the coveted Rolex 24, we already have everything in place, the entry, the mechanics, the cars, and the infrastructure, so we can give the right Bronze driver a real shot at their dream season.”

***Among notable people spotted in the paddock this weekend include WRT’s head of operations Bernhard Demmer, as the Belgian squad prepares to take over BMW’s factory GTP effort next year, as well as former GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser, who has since left General Motors after 18 years to pursue new ventures.

***While not driving this weekend with his seat in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR Oreca 07 Gibson having been filled by Alex Quinn, Peugeot factory driver Malthe Jakobsen is on-site this weekend helping with the Stuart Cox-led squad.

***Both of the Team RLL BMWs are sporting “Thank You Team RLL” stickers on the in-car camera boards, to honor the team’s final race operating the factory BMW program following a 17-year-run in North America.

***Members of the Automobili Lamborghini team, meanwhile, have signed the roof of the Lamborghini SC63 ahead its final scheduled race tomorrow.

***Laurin Heinrich said solidifying third in the GTD Pro championship is “definitely” on AO Racing’s list alongside a class win heading into Motul Petit Le Mans. Heinrich and full-season co-driver Klaus Bachler sit fourth in the drivers’ standings, 66 points behind Ford Multimatic Motorsports’ Mike Rockenfeller and Sebastien Priaulx.

***Heinrich told Sportscar365: “We are out of contention for the title. In terms of the championship, we can still achieve P3, which would still be great to be on the championship podium, so that’s definitely on our list.”

***Porsche Penske Motorsport will reduce its driver lineup for next year amid its factory exit from the FIA World Endurance Championship next year according to Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid.

***Diuguid told Sportscar365: “We can’t carry eight [drivers] for a four-driver IMSA lineup. There are going to be some reductions. We’ll need a minimum of six people for the endurance races. That’s part of the consideration but it’s something we’ll look at, probably between now and Bahrain, and then the [Porsche] Night of Champions is when we’ll announce the driver lineups for next year.”

***When asked if Porsche will re-allocate some of its current LMDh drivers to GT3-only roles, or consider letting some out of their contracts, Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach said: “I think it’s too early to give an answer on that. Since it’s very fresh information and decision, of course we are in dialogue with our drivers. We talk to them and look at their situation and we look at what they want to do.”

***Diuguid indicated that Porsche Penske’s WEC headquarters in Mannheim, Germany could remain open to help supplement the WeatherTech Championship program. “Penske owns that facility,” he explained. “It’s not going to go anywhere. Right now we’re evaluating opportunities to keep the facility open and keep our connection with Porsche Motorsport there. What that means we don’t know at the moment.”

***There could also be some Porsche Penske WEC staff moving over to supplement the WeatherTech Championship effort according to Diuguid. “We’ve built a team of very talented people and they have a lot of experience over the last three years racing these cars,” he said. “It is a good opportunity to step up our level but both teams are already operating at a high level already anyways.”

***When asked if there is any possibility of running a third Penske 963 in some of the WeatherTech Championship enduros next year such as the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Diuguid said: “I wouldn’t say it’s ruled out but we haven’t really talked about it.”

***NBC Sports’ coverage of Motul Petit Le Mans begins on Saturday at 12 p.m. EST, with the first three hours carried live on network NBC and entire ten-hour race available on Peacock. Brian Till and Dave Burns will be joined in the booth by Calvin Fish and Townsend Bell, with Matt Yocum, Kevin Lee, Kristen Beat and Chris Wilner on pit lane.

***IMSA Radio’s broadcast team, which will also serve as the commentary for IMSA’s YouTube stream for international viewers, is being led by John Hindhaugh, Ryan Myrehn, Peter Mackay and Arjuna Kankipati this weekend.

Davey Euwema & Jonathan Grace contributed to this report

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