Sims: DXDT’s Win Streak “Piles on the Pressure”

Photo: Mile Levitt/IMSA

DXDT Racing’s “phenomenal” win streak “piles on the pressure” for Alexander Sims, as he joins Tommy Milner and Alec Udell in their Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS title quest in this weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS.

The Englishman has been added as a third driver in the team’s No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, joining Udell and fellow Corvette factory driver Milner, who are riding an eight-race Pro class win streak to The Brickyard.

It will mark Sims’ debut with the David Askew-owned squad.

“I think those scenarios, they’re always really good fun,” he told Sportscar365. “You just plunk yourself into a new situation, for what will be a new team for me.

“I know some of the team members, just a couple of them that are there, which is nice. There will be some familiar faces.

“Obviously I know Tommy pretty well. It will be cool to slot into that environment. ”

Sims will be hoping to assist Milner and Udell to the Fanatec GT America Pro class championship, although the trio will need to finish ahead of the No. 120 Wright Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R, which currently holds a slim seven-point lead in the hands of Elliott Skeer and Adam Adelson.

“The run that they’ve had is just phenomenal,” said Sims of Milner and Udell’s eight-race win streak. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that happening in any sports car series, to have eight wins in a row is crackers.

“But it piles the pressure on for me joining them.

“It’s an eight-hour race, so the first priority in any longer race is to try and make the flag with a nice clean car and be in the fight come the end of the race if there’s any safety cars and things.

“The pace they’ve had has been phenomenal, so hopefully we can continue some of that and be right up in the front.”

With DXDT’s Corvette entered in the Fanatec GT Pro class, which requires a Silver-rated driver, compared to the IGTC Pro category, which has no driver rating requirements, Sims admitted that Saturday’s race could see a number of dynamics.

The class structure, however, is not too dissimilar to what he’s used to in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which has GTD Pro and GTD categories.

“The different classes of car, it’s something you’re aware of in the race to know not to fight people that you don’t care about too much,” said Sims.

“But at the end of the day, they’re all GT3 cars. If you’ve got the pace, you still want to get past whoever it is so they don’t hold you up, even if they’re not in your class.

“The overall win is something one would be very keen to try and achieve, if we’re in the position to fight for those front places.

“It doesn’t change anything right now. We’ll do the job that we need to do and try and execute as best as possible.”

Sims: Reliability the “Priority” to Success in Eight-Hour Enduro

While the Pratt Miller-built Corvette has shown pace in multiple championships this year, Sims indicated that reliability will be the first point of focus heading into the joint Fanatec GT America/Intercontinental GT Challenge enduro.

“We’ve learned about the car during the year, quite a lot.,” he said. “The Pratt Miller guys have been working really hard on improving the reliability side on a few of the key aspects that were a bit challenging at the start of the year.

“The speed of the car has never really been in doubt. It’s been phenomenally fast at some places that we’ve been to this year.

“I haven’t driven it on the Pirelli tire, so that might be a different feeling for me and the car but clearly Tommy and Alec are showing that it performs pretty damn well on the Pirelli as well.

“It’s an eight-hour race, so the priority is keeping the car in one piece and fingers crossed, with any car, that it’s reliable for those eight hours.”

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