Watkins Glen Saturday Notebook

Photo: John Dagys

***Both the No. 66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 and No. 99 Hardpoint Porsche 911 GT3 R missed qualifying after Kyffin Simpson and Katherine Legge collided in final practice on Saturday morning. The Acura sustained significant left-front damage, with the chassis frame rails and splitter needing repairs. 

***Hardpoint’s Porsche, meanwhile, primarily had damage to some mechanical components. Both GTD class entries are expected to return to action in time for tomorrow’s warmup.

***The No. 48 Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson underwent an engine change prior to Saturday morning’s final practice session. A front braking issue caused Kobayashi to qualify 46th overall and last among the cars that took part in qualifying.

***New qualifying track records in DPi (Tom Blomqvist) and LMP3 (Nico Varrone) has resulted in Michelin surpassing 200 race and qualifying lap records. Blomqvist’s 1:29.580 lap time became the 201st record broken since Michelin became the Official tire of IMSA in 2019.

***IMSA has gone back to split starts between the DPi and GTD Pro classes after opting for a combined group start in the last few races that featured between two to four classes. All five categories are back in action for the first time since the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March.

***Porsche Motorsport North America President and CEO Volker Holzmeyer revealed that the price of the Porsche 963 is $2.9 million. Holzmeyer told Sportscar365 that its level of customer support for the LMDh program will be significantly more than seen in GTE and GT3 and is on par to what the German manufacturer provided with the Porsche RS Spyder.

***Paddock rumors have indicated that the second wave of Porsche LMDh customer cars will likely be announced within the next few months. Sportscar365 understands that an undisclosed European-based team is poised to operate the second IMSA car alongside Saturday’s confirmation of JDC-Miller Motorsports.

***Proton Competition, which is known to have pursued an IMSA allocation, is understood to not be the second customer Porsche LMDh entrant in the WeatherTech Championship.

***Holzmeyer said Porsche could look to expand its customer inventory with two additional cars in both the IMSA and WEC in 2024. A total of four customer cars — split evenly between the two series — will be allocated next year, although a Daytona debut for the privateer entries is ‘in question.’

***It has been revealed that newly minted Porsche LMDh factory drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell turned their first laps in a LMP2 car during Team Penske’s test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last October. The identities of the drivers had been unknown until this point.

***Also revealed is that Penske’s first race with a LMP2 car, at Petit Le Mans in 2017 ahead of its factory Acura DPi program, was actually a JDC-Miller-owned Oreca. “We were the importer of record,” said team co-owner John Church on the car. “We worked with them at the wind tunnel and whatnot. We’ve got a lot of friends there from the past and hope we can continue to work well in the future.”

***Despite IMSA and Michelin putting a focus on the supply of tires for race events, a number of teams completed private tests at Watkins Glen, including Meyer Shank Racing, Wayne Taylor Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing, JDC-Miller, Risi Competizione, Riley Motorsports, Tower Motorsport, Era Motorsport, AF Corse and Magnus Racing.

***Of note, Ryan Hunter-Reay, who is understood to already have a contract with CGR for 2023, shared testing duties alongside full-season driver Earl Bamber in the No. 01 Cadillac during its two-day test.

***WTR, which heads into the weekend second in the DPi standings, hasn’t won at Watkins Glen since 2011 when Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor swept both the Six Hours and NASCAR weekends in their Chevrolet-powered Dallara DP.

***Both Acura DPi squads as well as both CGR entries have opted for two-driver lineups this weekend compared to the three drivers in the two Action Express Racing Cadillac DPi-V.Rs and JDC-Miller’s Cadillac. 

***Ricky Taylor said that while it’s “nice to have the third guy” in for the Endurance Cup from a points perspective, a two-driver lineup for a six-hour race “keeps it simple.” He added: “If you’d say the driver was a robot, you’d just have one driver!”

***While the DPi class has seen a 25 kg swing in minimum weight in favor of the Cadillac since the last round at Detroit, the Cadillac (945 kg) and Acura ARX-05 (930 kg) cars are at the same weight levels as last year’s race. IMSA implemented a track-specific Balance of Performance process that started earlier this season.

***Inception Racing is taking a “race by race” approach for the remainder of the WeatherTech Sprint Cup season according to team manager Bas Leinders, who confirmed to Sportscar365 they will skip next weekend’s round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park due to a busy month of July that includes the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Monza and the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa.

***Unlike the some teams in the WeatherTech Championship paddock, Leinders confirmed that every member of the UK-based squad are fully vaccinated for COVID-19, which is a requirement of non-residents to enter the U.S. and Canada. Multiple IMSA teams are set to skip CTMP as a result of the vaccination requirement. 

***Leinders said Inception is currently “undecided” on the following round at Lime Rock Park and said it will be a decision ultimately made by Brendon Iribe. Jordan Pepper and Frederik Schandorff have been sharing the co-driver seat in the No. 70 McLaren 720S GT3 for the Sprint Cup rounds.

***NBC Sports’ coverage of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen will be streamed in its entirely on Peacock starting Saturday at 10:30 a.m. ET., with coverage on USA Network beginning at 2 p.m. Kevin Lee will be joined in the booth by Calvin Fish, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe, while Brian Till, Dillon Welch and Hannah Newhouse in pit lane.

***IMSA Radio’s expanded lineup sees Joe Bradley join Shea Adam in pit lane, with John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw in the booth atop the grandstands.

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