Road Atlanta Wednesday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***Teams unloaded Wednesday in preparation for the start of on-track activity tomorrow. A total of 37 cars are set to take part in the season-ending TUDOR United SportsCar Championship round, with the Starworks Motorsport Riley DP and Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT America again no-shows, as expected.

***The DeltaWing debuts new rear wings this weekend, attached to the rear deck of the Prototype contender (pictured above). The team completed an encouraging test at Road Atlanta earlier this month, without the latest updates, running within the pole-time from last year’s race.

***The team has yet to confirm its 2016 plans, with one option being a switch to the new DeltaWing GT race car, which will be on display alongside the road car concept in the vendor village this weekend.

***Billy Johnson has been a late addition to the Turner Motorsports BMW Z4 GT3 this weekend. The Silver-rated Ford/Multimatic development driver joins full-season drivers Markus Palttala and Mike Marsal, plus BMW factory driver Andy Priaulx.

***BAR1 Motorsports’ lineup this weekend features a bad-boy lineup of Todd Slusher and Tomy Drissi, alongside Marc Drumwright and Johnny Mowlem. Slusher was suspended by IMSA for one race following his practice accident at COTA, while Drissi is serving a one-year suspension in Trans-Am for his actions in race last month.

***Starworks Motorsport’s two-car lineup is still in flux, according to team owner Peter Baron. Alex Popow is currently listed to join Renger van der Zande and Mike Hedlund in the No. 8 car, while Sean Rayhall, John Falb and Scott Mayer are listed in the No. 88 car but Mayer broke his hand last night and may be ruled out from driving.

***Porsche North America has reinforced its driver lineup, with Fred Makowiecki joining Joerg Bergmeister and Earl Bamber in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR and Richard Lietz in the championship-leading No. 911 entry of Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy.

***Betty Cantrell, Miss America 2016, will serve as Grand Marshal for Saturday’s race. The former Miss Georgia was the first native from the Peach State to take the national title since 1953.

***While teams were greeted to chamber-of-commerce weather today, rain is in the forecast for the remainder of the weekend, which will likely impact TUDOR Championship practice, one way or another.

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