Photo: Wes Duenkel/Ford
***The 13 Autosport crew pulled an all-nigher to get its Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R back on track for Friday’s final practice session ahead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona after the car caught fire during refueling in Thursday’s night practice. There was no damage sustained to the engine according to a GM spokesperson.
***Matt Bell set the third quickest time in the GTD class in the session, in the same driver lineup that won last year’s race in class. “The boys and girls worked all night and haven’t gone home,” said team owner/driver Orey Fidani. “They took the whole car apart overnight and put it back together for today. I think it’s a perfect car and we’re ready for the race. We want to go out and win this race for them.”
***A 15-minute practice for FIA Bronze-rated drivers preceded the final session this morning, which was unofficially topped by Chris Cumming (LMP2), Kenny Habul (GTD Pro) and Ryan Hardwick (GTD).
***IMSA’s managing director of engineering Matt Kurdock confirmed to Sportscar365 that the Balance of Performance in both GTP and GTD Pro/GTD this weekend has been established according to each cars’ homologation parameters, not taking into account any previous track-based data due to a combination of Evo jokers for all LMDh cars, Evos for three of the ten GT3 models and all-new or updated Michelin tires for both classes.
***Kurdock indicated plans to return to a rolling race average beginning with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring in March. Click Here to read further insight into IMSA’s data collection process in an exclusive Sportscar365+ feature.
***With unseasonably warm temperatures forecast for the race, Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid, who doubles as the race strategist on the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, predicts that Michelin’s new-generation Soft tire in the GTP class will not play as much of a factor as originally anticipated.
***Per a competition bulletin from IMSA, teams can opt to use the Soft tire between 5 p.m. on Saturday through 10 a.m. on Sunday, with the Medium compound having no restrictions during the entire race.
***Diuguid said: “We’ll see what the track temperature gets down to. I think there will be some Soft usage for sure but more of a result of how many Mediums people used during the practice sessions, rather than it being the preferred tire at that point.”
***Porsche Motorsport boss Thomas Laudenbach indicated the German manufacturer is “committed” to continue past next year with the factory Porsche Penske Motorsport program in GTP. “Like Roger [Penske] said, if we race, we race together,” Laudenbach told invited reporters in a media roundtable on Friday. “Yes we are committed to carry on after that.”
***Sportscar365 understands that Penske holds a contract with Porsche through the end of the 2027 season, although it also had the same deal for the WEC, which was dissolved early at the end of last year.
***Reigning GTP champion Matt Campbell, who is currently only confirmed for the first two races of the season as the third driver in the No. 6 Porsche, admits it’s been a strange experience not having longtime friend and co-driver Mathieu Jaminet in the team. “Obviously I don’t have ‘JamJam.’ That’s the weirdest part about everything. But we’ve been messaging throughout the week.”
***Jaminet, who has signed for Genesis Magma Racing in the WEC, is missing his first Rolex 24 since 2021. The Frenchman teamed with Campbell and Felipe Nasr for GTD Pro class honors in the race in 2022, which was the first of Nasr’s three class wins in the race.
***Nasr is seeking to join both Peter Gregg (1973, 1975, 1976) and Helio Castroneves (2021-23) in winning the race overall for three consecutive years.
***While having struggled for pace so far this week, WRT team principal Vincent Vosse has remained upbeat ahead of the Belgian squad’s GTP debut with its two-car factory BMW M Hybrid V8 operation. The Nos. 24 and 25 entries qualified ninth and tenth, prior to the post-qualifying penalty from the initial pole-wining No. 31 Action Express Racing Cadillac V-Series.R.
***Vosse said: “Coming to the U.S. is obviously a big challenge for us. We only had a few months to prepare, but we’re here to take it on. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the first part of the race unfolds. As I often say, it’s almost like a 22‑hour race followed by a two‑hour sprint at the end, where we often see some spectacular finishes. I’m very looking forward to it.”
***Lamborghini factory driver Mirko Bortolotti, who is making his debut with Pfaff Motorsports this weekend, is related to team manager Steve Bortolotti, through their grandfathers, it has been revealed.
***Steve Bortolotti said: “In 2019, in my first year at Daytona, I tracked him down and said we have the same last name and it’s not exactly common. My grandfather was born in Canada, my great grandfather left Italy in the late 1800’s to come to Canada to farm. Essentially my grandfather and Mirko’s grandfather were cousins. We both have blue eyes. As soon as I learned from what area in Italy he is from, I told my father and he said we’ve got to be related.”
***Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo told Sportscar365 that it has been surprised by the unanimous positive feedback the Prancing Horse has received from drivers and engineers alike regarding its Evo update for the 296 GT3 ahead of the car’s competitive debut at Daytona this weekend.
***Cannizzo said: “We were expecting good feedback, but when it’s positive from every source, it makes us very proud. It’s not easy to develop a competitive car, but at the same time, we are always trying to improve areas which are maybe not the proper weak point, but we can still see a way to improve. It’s not easy, because when you change a car that is working well, you risk doing the opposite, so I’m happy it worked in a positive way.”
***Ferrari’s top qualifier in GTD Pro was the No. 033 Triarsi Competizione car that will start fourth, while the best of the GTD cars, the No. 21 AF Corse entry, was sixth in its class. “We are the best car on the infield, but clearly we are lacking some straight line performance that will make our race difficult,” said Cannizzo. “We will try to manage the package we have with some clever strategy and see where we arrive at the end.”
***Head of Mercedes-AMG Customer Racing Stefan Wendl says the five customer teams, spread across GTD Pro and GTD, are in a significantly better position than one year ago, when the German manufacturer was left scrambling with torque sensor-related issues at the Roar Before the Rolex 24.
***He told Sportscar365: “Last year in the Roar, our struggles with the development of the driveshaft and everything last minute, we really had good work from our teams to make it happen for the race. This time I feel better prepared. Also when I look into the faces of our drivers and our team chiefs, I think there’s a little bit more confidence and I hope they can make a successful race this time.”
***Wendl acknowledged that development work continues with the successor to the current Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, which is believed to be set to debut in 2027, although he fell short of confirming a timeline. “Week by week we’re moving forward going testing and developing. We’re making progress and everything is on plan,” he said.
***Heart of Racing has yet to determine Tom Gamble’s replacement in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo for the two clashing WEC weekends in Long Beach (Imola) and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Interlagos) according to team principal Ian James, who indicated that new recruit Eduardo Barrichello will undertake a full season in the GTD entry.
***James, however, revealed that Barrichello could still fit into the team’s newly expanded two-car LMGT3 lineup in the WEC, with FIA Bronze-rated driver Gray Newell so far the only confirmed pilot. “We’re still figuring the second car out to be honest,” he told Sportscar365. “We have a lot of options, but [Dudu] is definitely a strong Silver we have in our lineup, that’s for sure.”
***Rolex 24 class pole-sitter Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi, who are completing the lineup in Heart of Racing’s GTD entry this weekend, will return to the team’s No. 27 WEC car alongside James in an unchanged lineup.
***United Autosports team principal Richard Dean has clarified the full-season driver lineups for its two WeatherTech Championship LMP2 entries, which will see Paul di Resta return to the No. 2 Oreca 07 Gibson for the full season, except for the clashing WEC weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and newly named McLaren Hypercar driver Mikkel Jensen in for all seven rounds in the No. 22 car alongside Phil Fayer.
***Dean indicated that di Resta’s replacement for CTMP has not yet been announced although said it will be in the “group of people” that are part of the Anglo-American squad’s lineup for this weekend that includes Ben Hanley, Gregoire Saucy and Michelin Endurance Cup drivers Hunter McElrea and Rasmus Lindh.
Jamie Klein & Gary Watkins 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
