Sebring Thursday Notebook

Photo: Jordan Lenssen/Porsche

***The No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 missed the second IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship practice session as it underwent repairs following Danny Formal’s accident in opening practice for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

***Trent Hindman told Sportscar365 the team deliberately elected to skip Practice 2 in order to not rush repairs, with the car expected to return for tonight’s night practice, which gets underway at 7:45 p.m. EST.

***The GTD entry will face a further setback on Friday, as it will lose its fastest qualifying lap due to causing a red flag.

***IMSA President John Doonan said the moving of the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen back to the last week of June, its traditional date, for the 2026 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season was made due to network TV considerations.

***The moving of the race could potentially create a clash with the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa next year, should SRO Motorsports Group’s centerpiece event remain with the same date as in recent years. Doonan said it moved Watkins Glen off the Spa weekend this year because of an available network NBC slot as well.

***Doonan said: “My hope is we’re giving everybody a long enough runway that they can plan and making sure we avoid as many conflicts as possible. This schedule doesn’t happen overnight. There are a lot of all-nighters by our staff putting together the sanctioning agreements and working with our partners.”

***While Mid-Ohio will remain the only headline Michelin Pilot Challenge race next year, Doonan said they’re considering expanding to a potential second standalone event in the future, having come close to striking a deal with Lime Rock Park for next year.

***He said: “We’d love to get back to Lime Rock. We had deep discussions with Dickie Riegel and his team. You’re 100 percent right, we’re doing the one at Mid-Ohio. I thought it worked incredibly well last year. We want to continue to look at those weekends where we can feature Pilot Challenge and some of the others. It makes a really nice operation and event for the promoters.”

***Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports driver Nicky Catsburg has expressed concern on IMSA’s new-for-2025 restart procedure for the GTD Pro and GTD classes, which are split up. The new format made its debut in January’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, resulting in a contact-heavy conclusion to the race.

***Catsburg said: “With GTD Pros all together, I predict mayhem. If IMSA keeps officiating like they do now, I predict that people may just ram each other off. That’s something that I really hope does not happen. Because you’ve survived for 11 hours and then in the end you are just waiting to get smashed. That shouldn’t be. I hope they officiate this a bit stronger or they try and set the tone in the drivers’ briefing to put more emphasis on it. You want a nice show but I also want fair racing so let’s see.”

***A total of 48 drivers are required to complete laps in tonight’s practice in order to be eligible to drive in periods of darkness in the race. Click Here for the list.

***Heart of Racing Team will be completing a 24-hour simulation test with its Aston Martin Valkyrie next week at Sebring, in preparation for the car’s debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The team has its test car on-site, which is still sporting its camouflaged-style test livery.

***Team principal Ian James confirmed the LMH-based car only has minor differences between its IMSA and WEC specifications. James told Sportscar365: “As far as I know, there’s a slight difference in aero, in terms of a few widgets here and there. But 99 percent they’re identical.”

***The Valkyrie marks the first-ever prototype built to the FIA and ACO’s LMH set of regulations to be competing in the WeatherTech Championship, more than two years after the platform’s eligibility in the GTP class.

***James said: “IMSA has been amazing, to be honest. They’ve welcomed us with open arms and are doing everything in their power to make it an easy transition. Obviously it’s a little bit of learning on their side as well as for us. But it’s been nothing but positive. I’ve grown up with IMSA and that’s definitely the team’s home as well. I’m very proud to bring a LMH there and I think the crowd at Sebring is going to love it.”

***While running as a non-hybrid, driver Ross Gunn revealed that the car has the ability to pull away from he pits on battery “e-drive” similar to the hybrid LMDh cars. “It’s different to the hybrids but so far the function of it has been OK and we’ll keep trying to improve the performance of it so we have quicker launches,” said Gunn.

***Gunn revealed that he did not take part in last month’s two-day IMSA-sanctioned test at Sebring due to an undisclosed injury, although the 28-year-old Aston Martin factory driver was back at the wheel in the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener in Qatar.

***James has ruled out seeing a second Valkyrie in the WeatherTech Championship later this season, indicating that the WEC’s two-car mandate in the Hypercar class this year has stretched resources. “Going to two cars in WEC strained us a little bit,” he said. “At this stage, that (two cars in the WeatherTech Championship) would definitely not happen.”

***All IMSA support series, including Friday’s Alan Jay Automotive 120 Michelin Pilot Challenge race, are being streamed live on YouTube without geoblocks for the first time. It comes in addition to the races being available on Peacock in the U.S. and on manufacturers’ official YouTube channels.

***Ken Breslauer, the author, all-around motorsports enthusiast and the recognized expert on the history of the Twelve Hours of Sebring, will be signing copies of his acclaimed book “Sebring 1983 – The Warhorse and the Hitchhiker” on Friday. Breslauer will have copies available for signing in the Hall of Fame building between 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST.

***Longtime Sebring area broadcaster Barry Foster, meanwhile, has published “Sebring: The First Decade” in the first of a series of books chronicling the famed race. The 162-page paperback book is available on Amazon, as well as at Barnes & Noble.

***Operation Motorsport has embedded a U.S. combat veteran with Meyer Shank Racing this year. Nolan Yuke, a lifelong IMSA fan who was deployed four times to Iraq and Afghanistan, served as a driver for a high-ranking official and also had duties in keeping supply routes safe while in battles. The organization has also continued to work with Michelin Pilot Challenge teams KohR Motorsports and Czabok-Simpson Motorsport.

***Entries for the inaugural North American CrowdStrike Veterans Race of Remembrance powered by AWS opened on March 1. The enduro, open to GT4 and TCR machinery among numerous other sports and touring car platforms, is scheduled to take place over Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 7-9, at Virginia International Raceway.

***MSR damper technician Casey Gewertz, who had worked on both of the team’s IndyCar and WeatherTech Championship programs, passed earlier this month. The team is running a tribute decal on both of its Acura ARX-06s this weekend.

Davey Euwema contributed to this report