Le Mans Saturday Notebook

Photo: ACO

***The second day of scrutineering at Place de la Republique in Le Mans saw the final 23 cars go through technical inspection, headlined by Hypercar entries from Cadillac, Ferrari, Porsche and Toyota, as well as several LMP2 and GTE-Am teams. Fans were out in force on Saturday, with the city center packed with spectators getting an up-close look at the cars and the stars of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***A closing ceremony, meanwhile, saw eight cars, including the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R., No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and a replica of the 1923 race-winning Chenard & Walcker take to the streets for a parade. It was followed off by a launch party, also in the city center, to honor the volunteers, track marshals and community representatives that have donated their time for this year’s race.

***Porsche Penske Motorsport utilized tire warmers for the first time during a three-day pre-Le Mans test at Paul Ricard last month that was also attended by Hertz Team JOTA. The FIA and ACO re-instated tire warmers for this race only on safety-related grounds.

***Urs Kuratle, Porsche LMDh factory director told Sportscar365: “We were in the lucky position to still have tire warmers in the inventory [from the now-defunct GTE-Pro program]; we didn’t have to buy new ones like some other teams had. As soon as the decision was made that tire warmers would be re-introduced for Le Mans, we also brought them to the test.”

***Kuratle confirmed that reserve driver Matt Campbell will not turn any laps in tomorrow’s test day, despite already being on-site. Kazuki Nakajima, who is Toyota Gazoo Racing’s reserve, meanwhile, will get behind the wheel of the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid in place of Sebastien Buemi, who is on ABB FIA Formula E World Championship duty in Jakarta this weekend.

***Andre Lotterer said it was a “Porsche decision” for him to miss the Jakarta Formula E rounds and attend the test day instead, noting that the Porsche Penske effort takes priority. “Of course I would have liked to race, because this is a test. But you can’t be everywhere,” he told Sportscar365.

***The German is only one of two drivers to have contested the French endurance classic in a top class entry before with Porsche, alongside Nick Tandy. “The last time was 2017, so very happy to be back,” Lotterer said. “A super special place for me. I’ve been fortunate to win here three times. Almost four times, the last time I was here with Porsche. I did a couple of years with Rebellion and then Formula E. I knew Porsche was coming back and I was looking forward to this return.”

***The Cadillac V-Series.R is debuting an extra headlight cluster, as a safety-related update that will be seen on all cars for the remainder of the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship seasons according to GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser.

***Wontrop Klauser told Sportscar365: “We realized we needed to have a little bit more expansive light. We had a couple of dead zones; you could see it if you looked at videos of the cars running earlier in the season where there were just big black areas that the drivers couldn’t see anything, which posed kind of a safety risk. We didn’t adjust any aero surfaces and we kept the mass the same.”

***On Thursday, Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Lynn unveiled a Derek Bell-inspired helmet design that he’ll use in the race. Bell is a five-time Le Mans winner and will be present for Sunday’s test day according to Lynn, who is sporting a special helmet design for the first time in his career.

***Cadillac is making its Le Mans return for the first time since 2002 with a three-car effort encompassing the WEC full-season CGR entry as well as CGR and Action Express Racing’s IMSA WeatherTech Championship crews.

***AXR’s director of team operations Chris Mitchum told Sportscar365: “For us it’s pretty straightforward as it’s a one-off event, so you have plenty of time to plan and prepare. It wasn’t like we came from one race to the next race; this was very much a standalone approach. So far we’ve been good. I wouldn’t say we’ve remembered absolutely everything. But we staggered the team to come over, so maybe one or two bags of luggage were a little heavy.”

***While having initially assisted the NASCAR Garage 56 project, Mitchum confirmed that it’s “pretty much” an entire Hendrick Motorsports effort for the Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller and Jenson Button-driven Chevrolet Next Gen car.

***The Cadillac LMDh car will be available on new build of iRacing beginning next week. It joins the BMW M Hybrid V8 as the second LMDh offering in the popular sim. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced last week that the Cadillac is also coming to the soon-to-be-released Forza Motorsport video game.

***While not part of Corvette Racing’s lineup for Le Mans this year, factory drivers Antonio Garica and Tommy Milner both spent time on Chevrolet’s Driver in the Loop simulator with multiple sessions to test different configurations for the C8.R around Circuit de la Sarthe.  Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone all also had seat time in the sim, based at the GM Technical Center in Charlotte.

***Milner said: “Where I’ve been able to help at the sim is my knowledge from last year about what the car felt like and correlating what they have in the sim now versus what we had last year and made sure the preparations they are doing for this year are getting off on the right foot. They’re using every bit of information that they can get their hands on to improve the car to help Ben, Nico and Nicky be as prepared as possible for the race.”

***Ian James is making his first Le Mans start since 2006 when he finished third in LMP2 in Miracle Motorsports’ Courage C65 AER alongside Andy Lally and John Macaluso. The U.S.-based Englishman told Sportscar365 that it felt like his first time going through scrutineering on Saturday, some 18 years since his last appearance.

***James, who doubles as team principal for The Heart of Racing, said they’ve supplemented the largely Prodrive-run crew in the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE with four of its own staff from the U.S., including an engineer, to form a “cohesive” group for the remainder of the WEC season.

***The GTE-Am team, which is running under the NorthWest AMR banner having taken over the entry from the now-retired Paul Dalla Lana since last month’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, completed a two-day test at Monza last month James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas.

***James revealed it is the same driver lineup that the team would have run in the WEC had it secured its own full season entry at the start of the year. The Heart of Racing was instead placed as the first reserve for the championship.

***Esteban Gutierrez is keeping his expectations low ahead of his Le Mans appearance with Glickenhaus. “Our job is to maximize what we have and that’s what we’re going to do,” the ex-F1 racer told Sportscar365. “And enjoy the full experience of course.”

***The Mexican racer said he would “take a position after this race” when asked if he could do more WEC races with the American squad post-Le Mans. “They’ve done a pretty good job in a couple of races,” he added. “Last year when I was racing in LMP2 they were there. Now obviously the competition is a lot higher because we have many, many more cars. But it’s going to be interesting. The car is reliable and we all know Le Mans can bring a lot of surprises.”

***BMW M Motorsport shook down a BMW M Hybrid V8 last Friday in advance of Team WRT’s testing program for its Hypercar effort next year. Nick Yelloly was on driving duties at the German manufacturer’s test track. BMW has not tested in Europe since last August having focused all of its running since then on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

***BMW’s Hypercar testing is expected to start after Le Mans, as WRT’s prototype squad focuses on its LMP2 commitments this week. The first test was initially due to take place in May. “It’s not to do with the car not being ready,” BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos told Sportscar365 two weeks ago. “Everything is according to schedule. But we just have too many things going on at the same time.”

***A total of six hours of track action is on tap for 24 Hours of Le Mans competitors tomorrow, with the first session running from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. CET (4-7 a.m. ET) followed by Session 2 from 3:30-6:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. ET).  For the first time, a support race, the Ligier European Series, will be held in between the sessions.

Davey Euwema & Daniel Lloyd 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