Road Atlanta Wednesday Notebook

***Setup took place on Wednesday for Motul Petit Le Mans, the season finale for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. The number of cars for the event has dropped from the previously announced 54 to 53, as an IMSA spokesperson confirmed to Sportscar365 that the No. 43 Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R has been withdrawn.

***Scott Dixon will be celebrating his 50th start in IMSA competition on Saturday, sharing the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R with Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande. His tenure, with was almost entirely completed with Ganassi includes three overall Rolex 24 at Daytona wins, an additional class win and a victory at Motul Petit Le Mans in 2020.

***Dixon said: “It’s kind of crazy to be honest. It’s not been a full-time thing, but I still remember it clear as day starting Daytona in 2004 with Scott Pruett and Max Papis. And what a wild intro that was to endurance racing. I had done Petit Le Mans back in 1999 with Stefan Johansson and Jim Matthews, which was a cool way to start in a Ferrari 333 SP. It’s kind of mind boggling that it’s 50 starts, and I’ve enjoyed every second of it.”

***Robby Foley believes that “anything is possible” in terms of the GTD drivers championship, which sees he and Turner Motorsport co-driver Patrick Gallagher trail Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Russel Ward by 222 points. Foley overturned a significant points deficit in last weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS to win the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am title alongside Justin Rothberg, also in a Turner BMW.

***Foley said: “It just shows anything is possible. More-or-less confidence, I don’t know. I always have good confidence in the team and our M4 GT3 that we can be there week in and week out. But it’s definitely a proof of concept that it’s not really over until it’s over. Given our track record at Road Atlanta, the car performs quite well at the track, I’m optimistic but also just looking forward to the race. We know we have to execute it. It’s just another race; you have to treat it like that and take care of the car and be there at the end. That’s the plan.”

***Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid revealed that the No. 7 Porsche 963’s power steering problems in the closing stages of last month’s Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a steering system fault triggered by the heavy rains during the early stages of the race.

***Diuguid said: “The good thing is that we were able to figure out exactly what happened. It’s something we haven’t been exposed to at all this year. Some water got where it wasn’t supposed to with the heavy rains we had and caused a steering system fault.”

***Andre Lotterer, who leads the Hypercar standings in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Porsche Penske, is serving as the team’s reserve driver this weekend. Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell have joined as the team’s third race pilots in the Nos. 6 and 7 cars, respectively.

***Campbell, Estre, Dane Cameron, Mathieu Jaminet, Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy all visited the Porsche Experience Center Atlanta for ‘Motorsport Day’ on Wednesday. The ongoing tradition offered employees of Porsche Cars North America to meet with the most public facing representatives of the brand, get autographs and enjoy a question-and-answer period hosted by John Hindhaugh.

***Tower Motorsports team manager Ricky Capone told Sportscar365 it had put Frederik Vesti on call as a reserve to replace Charlie Eastwood if needed, noting that the team was “committed” to Eastwood before the Irish driver pulled out of the race due to family reasons. Vesti was confirmed as Eastwood’s replacement on Wednesday.

***Meyer Shank Racing, which will return to series competition next year as a two-car Acura ARX-06 effort, completed a rollout of a brand-new Acura LMDh chassis at Paul Ricard earlier this month.

***Acura can become only the fourth manufacturer in event history to win the race in three consecutive years, having gone back-to-back over the previous two years. Peugeot (2009-2011) and Cadillac (2018-2020) most recently achieved that feat, while Audi went undefeated for nine straight years between 2000 and 2008.

***Twenty-three drivers that took part in last weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS will be in action on back-to-back weekends. Most of them, including Nick Yelloly, Philipp Eng, Patrick Gallagher, Robby Foley, Augusto Farfus, Neil Verhagen, Tommy Milner, Alexander Sims, Bryan Sellers, Philip Ellis, Kenton Koch, Connor De Phillippi, Adam Adelson, Elliott Skeer, Laurin Heinrich, Mikael Grenier, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli. Toni Vilander, are entered into the ten-hour WeatherTech Championship race. A further five (Loek Hartog, Jake Pedersen, Luca Mars, Trent Hindman and Gabby Chaves) form part of the support bill.

***The number of back-to-back teams sits at five: AF Corse, Lone Star Racing, Turner Motorsport, Wright Motorsports and RS1.

***VP Racing Fuels and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta have launched a hurricane relief fund for those impacted by Hurricane Helene. VP Racing will accept fans’ donations at its display in the Michelin Raceway Fan Zone. While supplies last, fans will receive a free Mad Scientist Koozie for each donation. Also, Michelin Raceway will be accepting a variety of relief donations at the information tents throughout the track grounds for immediate distribution.

***The relief funds come amid Hurricane Milton, a Category 4 storm, that’s set to make landfall in off the Gulf Coast in Florida early Thursday morning.

***This weekend marks the final races for two long-time motorsports PR representatives in Jackson Vice President John Love and Dan Layton, of American Honda/Honda Racing Corporation USA. Love, whose EMC PR firm handled Michelin’s PR activities prior to its acquisition by Jackson in 2019, is retiring, while Layton, who spent 30 years with Honda’s motorsports activities, is moving on to new endeavors.

***Jann Mardenborough was spotted in the Road Atlanta paddock on Wednesday. The British racer, who returned to active competition this year in the Intercontinental GT Challenge and British GT Championship, holds one previous WeatherTech Championship start to his name dating back to a 2014 appearance with Pickett Racing in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

***Official track action for the WeatherTech Championship kicks off with a total of three practice sessions on Thursday. Running starts at 10:40 a.m. EDT, followed by a Practice 2 at 3:20 p.m. EDT. The day then wraps up with night practice, starting at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

***IMSA has published a list of drivers that are required to take part in night practice in order to be eligible to drive during darkness in the race. Click here to view the full list.

John Dagys contributed to this report