Road Atlanta Wednesday Notebook

Photo: Jonathan Grace

***The entry list for Saturday’s Motul Petit Le Mans has dropped to 43 cars following the withdrawals of three LMP3 cars as well as the No. 59 Crucial Motorsports McLaren 720S GT3 and the aforementioned Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 Gibson.

***The Duqueine D08 Nissans from Muehlner Motorsports, FastMD Racing and Forty7 Motorsports are all no-shows. Kyle Marcelli, meanwhile, has been added to the No. 76 AWA Duqueine alongside Anthony Mantella and Josh Sarchet in place of Wayne Boyd, who was one of three LMP3 drivers initially slated to pull double duty prior to Forty7’s withdrawal. Boyd is now not slated to race at all.

***Muehlner, however, is still entered for the final IMSA Prototype Challenge race, which sees 15 LMP3 entries for Friday morning’s 90-minute contest. The series will transform into the VP Racing SportsCar Challenge next year, in a shift to dual sprint races with LMP3 and GT4 machinery.

***Changes have been made to the WeatherTech Championship paddock, with transporters now staged directly behind the pit lane (pictured above) instead of previously having space for pedestrian and equipment traffic. The traffic zone is now in the center of the paddock, mirroring where the LMP3 competitors are set up.

***Weather forecasts for Saturday have improved, with Atlanta no longer bracing for a direct hit from Hurricane Ian. While forecasts yesterday called for upwards of 3 inches of rain on race day, it has since diminished to 1.6 inches, which could still impact the running of the race. IMSA has continued to monitor the situation, with twice-a-day-meetings, but has so far made no changes to the event schedule.

***There have been upgrades to portions of the 2.54-mile circuit’s drainage since the rain-shortened 2015 race, including the replacement of a 6-foot tall drain at the Esses that had been previously damaged and led to portions of the track flooding.

***While the drivers’ and teams’ titles will go down to the wire between Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing, Acura will clinch the DPi manufacturers’ title once the green flag waves on Saturday. It will mark the luxury automaker’s third IMSA manufacturers’ championship in five years of prototype competition, the other two coming in 2019 and 2020 when Team Penske was in operation of the Acura ARX-05 cars.

***Pfaff Motorsports, which will lock up the GTD Pro title also by just starting the race, could become the first team in WeatherTech Championship history to win six races in a ten-race season. Felipe Nasr returns to the lineup alongside champions-elect Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet.

***Pfaff, along with GTD entrants Wright Motorsports and Hardpoint, will be looking to give the Type 991.2 Porsche 911 GT3 R a winning send-off, as Petit Le Mans will mark the car’s final outing in WeatherTech Championship competition before being replaced by the all-new Type 992 Porsche 911 GT3 R next year.

***Since its debut in 2019, Porsche customer teams have scored 14 victories and nine championships in the GTD and GTD Pro classes. Seven victories have come this year with five GTD Pro class wins from Pfaff and two GTD wins from Wright.

***Maxime Martin, who will exit his role as an Aston Martin factory driver at the end of this event, has remained in the No. 27 The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 this weekend after initially planned to contest the race as the team’s third driver in the GTD Pro class entry.

***Silver-rated Tom Gamble, who joined Roman De Angelis and team boss Ian James for the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, has been promoted to the No. 23 car alongside the full-season pairing of Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas.

***De Angelis, who currently leads the GTD points standings, told Sportscar365: “Having had some success with Maxime, we just figured it would be best to keep him in the car with me. He’s done an amazing job. We’ve had a pretty good bond over the season. So it was best to keep him in the 27 to help us fight for a good result.”

***Both Ryan Dalziel and Jan Heylen have credited recent findings in their respective cars for helping get their championship pursuits back on track. The No. 18 Era Motorsport Oreca 07 Gibson sits second in the LMP2 title race while Heylen and co-driver Ryan Hardwick are third in GTD, 57 points behind class leader De Angelis.

***Dalziel said: “We had a little bit of a slump in the middle of the season where we couldn’t figure out something that was wrong with the car. Eventually, we went to a test and found something pretty major right before Road America. That was little bit of a redemption for us.”

***Following confirmation of TDS Racing’s first full-season LMP2 entry in the series next year, Sportscar365 understands that additional European teams, as well as a NASCAR organization, are also plotting programs in the Pro-Am-enforced prototype ranks in 2023, which is expected to see continued growth.

***The FIA has confirmed that more than 100 drivers’ ratings are under review for 2023, amid a SRO Motorsports Group-led overhaul that has changed the grading qualifications.

***Among notable drivers taking part this weekend that are under review include: Marvin Dienst (currently Silver), Anders Fjordbach (Silver), Robby Foley (Silver), Richard Heistand (Bronze), Malthe Jakobsen (Silver), Erik Johansson (Silver), Ben Keating (Bronze) Steven McAleer (Silver) and Seb Priaulx (Silver).

***LMDh testing has continued with BMW M Team RLL having been at Watkins Glen International with its BMW M V8 Hybrid following its public debut at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles last week. The German manufacturer will be joined by Cadillac and Acura for a three-day scheduled IMSA-sanctioned LMDh test at Road Atlanta that’s scheduled to kick off on Monday.

***It will mark the Cadillac V-LMDh’s return to Road Atlanta since suffering a crash here in August, in what is believed to be have been the first on-track accident for a LMDh car in testing.

***WeatherTech Championship track action kicks off Thursday at 9:50 a.m. ET for a 90-minute session followed by two additional practice sessions during the day. Qualifying is currently scheduled to begin on Friday at 3:40 p.m. ET on Friday.

***A total of 53 drivers are required to take part in night practice tomorrow in order to be eligible to drive during “periods of darkness” in the race. Click Here to view the list.

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