From Indianapolis to Road America

IMSA

Aug 1

21 cars were participating to IMSA’s two-day sanctioned test (July 29-29) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in preparation for the upcoming TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks September 15-17.

The nine GTPs fastest lap were within 0.570 seconds with De Philippi fastest and Jaminet getting his Porsche #6 in ninth.

A Pair of BMWs Top the Timesheet

The summer heat was certainly a treat for Indianapolis-based BMW M Team RLL, which saw its cars atop the timing screen at the end of Saturday’s action. Connor De Phillippi ran a series of laps in the 1-minute, 14-second bracket in the #25 BMW M Hybrid V8, culminating in a 1:14.655 lap (117.612 mph) in the final half hour of the afternoon session. Source: IMSA

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #25 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 at Indianapolis.

Jesse Krohn was very close with sister car #24 in 1:14.758, 0.103 second slower than De Philippi.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #24 BMW M Team RLL BMW M Hybrid V8 at Indianapolis.

Cadillac lay foundation for the September race

The #01 Cadillac V-Series.R, co-driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, and the Grand Touring Prototype championship-leading #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R with Pipo Derani and Alexander Sims sharing time behind the wheel totaled 453 laps.

Sebastien Bourdais with the #01 Cadillac V-Series.R recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 14.809 seconds (117.370 mph) – third overall – while Alexander Sims with the #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R posted a best lap of 1:15.039 (117.010 mph) during the four sessions - sixth overall. Source: Cadillac Racing

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #01 Cadillac V-Series.R

Renger van der Zande: "It’s special for us with the Ganassi team and their families living here close to the Speedway. I’m happy that we are testing and trying things on the car that we’ve had on mind but couldn’t try because of limited time on race weekends. From that perspective, it’s already very successful and we seem to have some speed in the car as well. I think in GTP at the moment that it’s clear that the cars are very equal in lap times, so small differences can make for a step forward in qualifying for the race.”

Sebastien Bourdais: “Obviously it’s great to be back here at the Speedway. It’s going to be a great event for IMSA and something that everybody wants to be part of. Indianapolis is a great motor racing town, and it was very much desired by the crowd to put something together here. It’s a different setting as far as the racetrack is concerned compared to most of the other places we go. It’s very heavy braking, a quite long straight line and kind of a lot stop and go areas where the heavier sports cars are put to the test, so it’s good to be able to come and test and try different things and pick options. Because once you come for race weekend, everything happens so fast. You are limited on the number of tires, you are limited on time, you have two drivers going in the car. So testing here is critical for tuning the cars and get ready for the race.” Source: Cadillac Racing

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R was sixth with Alexander Sims setting seventh fastest lap.

Pipo Derani: “It’s the first time here in a long time for IMSA and the first time for the GTP cars, so we’re trying to understand what we need. We have a race coming up soon and we’re in the fight for the championship, so you want to take advantage of a couple of days’ testing. The weather is very hot and likely quite different from what it will be in mid-September, but nevertheless a test that is valuable to us for information so that we can get here with a good and strong car straight out of the truck.”

Alexander Sims: “It’s been a very constructive test. The car has worked well and we’ve learned a lot by being able to have lots of continuous running and do lots of setup adjustments and things with the systems. This is my first time here and I got dialed into the track quite quickly. It’s not one of the more demanding tracks from a sort of braveness point of view, but nevertheless it’s very technical and you have to find a good rhythm. It’s tough to know what the weather conditions will be in seven weeks when we’re back, but the fundamentals of what the track requires from a setup point of view are there, so it’s helpful to be able to run through those in our Cadillac V-Series.R.” Source: Cadillac Racing

Meyer Shank faster than Wayne Taylor Racing in Acura club

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #60 Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06 was fourth with Colin Braun while teammate Tom Blomqvist was setting the sixth fastest lap.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-06 was seventh with Filipe Albuquerque setting eighth fastest lap.

Porsche Penske Motorsport within 0.360 from BMW

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #7 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 was fifth with Matt Campbell.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #5 JDC Miller MotorSports Porsche 963 was eighth with Tijmen van der Helm 10th driver’s fastest lap.

📷 © Courtesy of IMSA. #6 Porsche Penske Motorsports Porsche 963 was ninth with Mathieu Jaminet (12th fastest driver)

IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship have little time to regroup before heading to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, site of the IMSA SportsCar Weekend, August 3-6. The IMSA SportsCar Weekend race for the WeatherTech Championship take place Sunday, Aug. 6.

Combined sessions results by Driver Fastest Lap