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Intercontinental GT Challenge

Indianapolis Friday Notebook

John Dagys’ Friday notebook from Indianapolis Motor Speedway following Pole Shootout…

Photo: John Dagys

***Craft-Bamboo Racing, AF Corse and SunEnergy1 Racing by Akkodis ASP all lost their post-qualifying appeals, having alleged that Qualifying 1 did not run to the minimum of ten minutes of green run time and the results therefore should have been calculated by the average from Q2 and Q3 and not all three sessions. The four cars from the three teams did not set a time in Q1 prior to the session-ending red flag.

***Section 42.21 of the Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS sporting regulations reads: “If any one of the qualifying periods (Q1, Q2 or Q3) does not take place in its entirety, or is canceled before all drivers have the opportunity to qualify, the qualifying results will be based on the average time from each car based on the periods which have been completed.”

***In an unprecedented move, the Nos. 75 and 77 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evos and No. 71 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 were lined up by the teams on pit lane prior to the start of Pole Shootout, while appearing to force the stewards’ hand in making a decision. The session was ultimately delayed by 15 minutes, with officials ordering the teams to stand down and not participate in the session.

***Craft-Bamboo team director Darryl O’Young told Sportscar365: “We’ve come a long way for this race and we just wanted a fair shot at qualifying. I feel like we didn’t get that chance. We were essentially promised ten minutes of running in qualifying. We did get a red flag during the session but it ended up being seven minutes of running.”

***The red flag in question, which was caused by an accident between the No. 91 TR3 Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Jeff Burton and Tristan Vautier’s No. 9 US RaceTronics Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, resulted in Burton losing all lap times, receiving two behavior warning points and the car being forced to start tomorrow’s race from the pit lane.

***Vautier told Sportscar365 that he had nowhere to go when Burton spun and rejoined the track, in what stewards deemed was an unsafe re-entry. “It’s a shame because I had a purple sector one,” said the Frenchman, whose Mercedes sustained considerable front-end damage in the impact.

***The No. 94 BimmerWorld BMW M4 GT3 lost its place in the Pole Shootout and will be forced to also start from pit lane due to Bill Auberlen’s incident with the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 of Miguel Molina in Q3. Auberlen was deemed to have caused two collisions in the session.

***It promoted the No. 38 ST Racing BMW of Nick Wittmer to the Pole Shootout, with Wittmer qualifying tenth. The Canadian team was informed about its promotion just minutes before the start of the session.

***SRO Motorsports Group has yet to publish a grid for the race as of 8 p.m. ET on Friday.

***The No. 63 DXDT Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo has gone to a spare chassis following engine damage stemming from an incident on Thursday evening when Patrick Assenheimer hit a curb while avoiding another car. As a result of the change, the Pro class entry missed qualifying and is set to start from the rear of the field.

***Drivers got their first-ever laps in the night at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during Thursday’s Free Practice, with Vautier stating that the track is “doable” and not any different to other circuits with limited lighting. Unlike previous years that ended at 6 p.m., the race will take the checkered flag at 8 p.m. in full darkness.

***While the drivers and teams’ titles have already been clinched in the Pro class, Lamborghini currently holds a 44-point lead over Mercedes-AMG in the GTWC America manufacturers’ championship, with a maximum of 50 points on offer this weekend.

***Mercedes-AMG’s head of Customer Racing Stefan Wendl does not consider the IGTC manufacturers title to be a foregone conclusion, despite his company’s huge points lead. “With two races to go, there are still a lot of points to gain,” Wendl said. “It seems that one manufacturer, Ferrari, has picked up the battle. It’s quite a message that they have entered four [Pro] cars here to have a good race against us, and we take it seriously.”

***Despite Mercedes-AMG being in contention for the DTM title at this weekend’s season finale in Hockenheim, Wendl is on-site at Indianapolis showing his support of SRO’s globe-trotting GT3 series.

***The date of the next year’s SRO America season-opener at NOLA Motorsports Park is under review according to series president and CEO Greg Gill. NOLA is currently scheduled for Feb. 24-26, which falls before the SRO’s Balance of Performance test at Paul Ricard, which is required in order to certify new cars or Evos to race.

***The NOLA date also currently clashes with the Kyalami 9 Hour, which several SRO America competitors, including K-PAX Racing, are looking to participate in as part of a full-season IGTC campaign.

***Gill told Sportscar365: “It’s a really good question that we’re asking ourselves right now and what’s in the best interest of the competitors. We’ve been talking to the manufacturers and competitors this weekend. No changes at this time but it’s obviously an issue we’re very concerned with.”

***IGTC’s Pro-Am Challenge is set to be renamed next year to avoid confusion between the Pro-Am class, which is a different classification. Several Bronze-rated drivers contested the TotalEnergies 24 Hours of Spa in the Gold Cup but were still eligible for Pro-Am Challenge points, which led to questions from points leader Kenny Habul.

***The Craft-Bamboo Mercedes is a different chassis that the team utilized in the race last year, although both are owned by Lone Star Racing. O’Young told Sportscar365 that its car this weekend previously had only 600 kms of running on it before arriving at The Brickyard.

***Craft-Bamboo is hoping to have a Mercedes-AMG factory driver for next month’s Macau GT Cup, which will run for the second consecutive year as a national race without FIA GT World Cup status due to the pandemic.

***O’Young, who finished second in Race 1 of the Thailand Super Series Singapore Grand Prix support event last weekend, said: “It’s still a little bit up in the air in regards to some of the entry requirements [for Macau]. We are facing very short timelines these days.”

***SRO America’s eSports championship is being contested on-site this weekend with two events for the ROG Invitational. Race 1 took place this evening while Race 2 gets underway at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday.

***The No. 96 Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 is running in a zebra-themed livery this weekend as part of its partnership with eSports team BS+Competition.

***Coverage of the Indy 8 Hour gets underway Saturday at 12 p.m. ET with live streaming available on SRO’s GT World YouTube page. Bob Varsha joins Ryan Myrehn and Calvin Fish in the booth with Amanda Busick on pit lane. Next-day coverage will be aired on CBS Sports Network on Sunday in two segments at 12 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. ET.

Daniel Lloyd contributed to this report

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

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