Indianapolis Thursday Notebook

Photo: Fabian Lagunas/SRO

***Thursday’s track action at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was largely washed out due to rain, which canceled several sessions, including second practice for Pirelli GT4 America, and only saw a handful of cars turn representative times in Free Practice for the fourth running of the Indianapolis 8 Hour powered by AWS. None of the eligible cars elected to take part in the afternoon’s Paid Bronze Test, meanwhile.

***Forecasts call for partly cloudy skies on both Friday and Saturday, although with cooler temperatures expected.

***Wright Motorsports is fielding two Type-992 Porsche 911 GT3 Rs this weekend, with the Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS Pro-Am championship-leading No. 120 car of Adam Adelson and Elliott Skeer a new-gen car for only the second time this season in Fanatec GT. Adelson is getting extra mileage in the car in the GT America powered by AWS practice sessions but is not expected to take part in the pair of 50-minute races.

***A previous-gen Type-991.2 Porsche, which runs to a different Balance of Performance, had been used as the No. 120 car for the majority of the Fanatec GT season except for Road America Race 2 when it put the Type-992 car into action following an accident for its primary car at the time.

***Racers Edge Motorsports shook down a new engine for its Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 after a problem during the second race at Sebring. The team did not take part in Wednesday’s paid testing, so its first running of the weekend came in Free Practice on Thursday.

***Racers Edge driver Mario Farnbacher told Sportscar365: “We have to do a shakedown and they just finished getting everything ready. We had a water pressure loss [at Sebring]. There was some leak in the water system on the formation lap. This was a big setback in our points to the overall leader.”

***One reason for BimmerWorld’s inclusion as one of BMW’s IGTC-nominated entries is that driver Chandler Hull is in contention for the German manufacturer’s in-house award, the BMW M Sports Trophy, and the IGTC carries significant weight in the points scoring.

***Hull could become the third consecutive American winner of the BMW M Sports Trophy, after Sean Quinlan in 2021 and James Clay and Charlie Postins last year.

***Laurin Heinrich is making his second U.S. race appearance this weekend. The DTM podium finisher won last year’s Porsche Deluxe Carrera Cup North America season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta and is excited to be back Stateside as part of the Huber Motorsport lineup.

***Heinrich told Sportscar365: “Last year I had an amazing time with 311RS – it was one of the most enjoyable times around a race weekend. I made some really nice friends and some of them visited me in Germany after. Indianapolis is the second track I’ve driven in the U.S. The racing capital of the world is really special.”

***Huber Motorsport is running the same Porsche 911 GT3 R that took the overall pole at the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa. The German squad is making its U.S. debut with Heinrich, Alfred Renauer and Antares Au. “It’s a big experience,” team principal Reinhard Huber told Sportscar365. “I like the U.S. and it’s a special event for us.”

***Huber told Sportscar365 that the Porsche was air-freighted to the U.S. from Luxembourg last Thursday due to a tight preparation window between its most recent ADAC GT Masters race at the Red Bull Ring two weeks ago. Its other chassis did an NLS race on the same weekend and will be used in next week’s GT Masters finale.

***Huber will make its third IGTC appearance of the year at the season-ending Gulf 12 Hours. Bronze-rated Au will be one of the drivers, while the car will be put in a container and shipped to the United Arab Emirates.

***DXDT Racing team owner David Askew revealed that he took a year off from racing to specifically concentrate on securing the customer Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R deal that will see his team campaign next year in Fanatec GT.

***Askew said the team is targeting a debut at the third round of the season at Circuit of The Americas in May with the cars, while starting the season with its existing Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo machinery, which it will also continue racing in Fanatec GT and GT America next year.

***He indicated that its existing driver lineups, consisting of Bryan Sellers/Scott Smithson and Corey Lewis/Jeff Burton will continue, with one pairing in a Corvette and another in a Mercedes for the season, alongside an all-new lineup for the second Corvette.

***Askew told Sportscar365: “The two teams we’re running this year, we anticipate will be running next year, starting in the Mercedes. Then one will move into the ‘Vette and one will probably stay in the Mercedes. It’s still kind of up in the air.”

***SRO America President and CEO Greg Gill heralded GM’s official return to the top series’ competition, but now in a customer racing capacity, after the previous factory Cadillac effort in the then-named World Challenge series, which came to an end in 2017.

***Gill said: “We’re moving forward with something at SRO we’re very proud of, and that’s customer racing. To see General Motors, Chevrolet and the coveted Corvette brand, creating this car as a GT3 is so exciting. We couldn’t be happier about it and more excited for the future, seeing what’s going to take place with this car in 2024.”

***The minimum pit time for stops including refueling is 101 seconds for the Indy 8 Hour, with so-called ‘jokers’ no longer permitted, in a change for this year.

***For cars found to be less than one second short of the minimum pit stop time, the amount of time short, multiplied by five, will be added to the next pit stop involving refueling, or the final pit stop of the race. Infractions that are one second or greater will result in a drive-through penalty.

***An accident in opening GT America involving George Kurtz and an unidentified Aston Martin Vantage GT4 has resulted in CrowdStrike by Riley going to a backup Mercedes-AMG chassis for the pair of 50-minute races this weekend.

***It is the second replacement chassis for the team in as many races after the Riley-run squad replaced its Fanatec GT entry following Kurtz’s massive accident triggered by Paul Kiebler at Road America.

***Pirelli has submitted a tender application for the next three-year tire supply deal at the Bathurst 12 Hour, according to the Italian company’s circuit activity manager Matteo Braga. Pirelli became the event’s exclusive supplier in 2017 on an initial three-year deal. It then supplied the next three editions up to this year, skipping the canceled 2021 race.

***Renowned motorsports broadcaster Bob Varsha will again complete SRO’s lineup for its streaming coverage of the Indy 8 Hour, joining Ryan Mryehn and Calvin Fish in the booth, with Amanda Busick on pit lane. Live coverage on SRO’s GT World YouTube page begins with qualifying on Friday at 3:35 p.m. EDT, followed by Pole Shootout at 6:45 p.m.

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