Barcelona Friday Notebook
Photo: Laurent Cartalade/MPS Agency
***Friday’s one-and-only Free Practice session for this weekend’s European Le Mans Series season-opening 4 Hours of Barcelona saw drama from the start when Alex Quinn was forced to pull his No. 27 Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 Gibson off-course after encountering an oil leak, resulting in a lengthy red flag period and an extended session. The car, however, is expected to be back in action on Satuday.
***The afternoon’s Bronze Driver Collective Test, meanwhile, also saw a red, but in the closing minutes when the No. 63 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Ameerh Naran stopped just past pit-out with a suspected mechanical issue.
***ELMS cars and drivers assembled for a group photo on Thursday evening (pictured above), with the front row led by the respective defending class champions in LMP2 (Panis Racing), LMP2 Pro-Am (AO by TF), LMP3 (CLX Motorsport) and LMGT3 (TF Sport).
***A total of ten drivers competing this weekend will be heading directly to Imola for the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue on Tuesday and the season opener on April 19: Seb Priaulx, Paul Loup-Chatin, Esteban Masson, Malthe Jakobsen, Charles Milesi, Antonio Fuoco, Mathys Jaubert, Charlie Eastwood, Davide Rigon and Richard Lietz.
***It is a particularly busy next few weeks for sports car racing globally, with NLS3 and the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS six-hour season opener at Paul Ricard set to take place on Saturday, followed by Sunday’s SUPER GT season opener at Okayama.
***In addition to 6 Hours of Imola next weekend, the GTP and GTD classes of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship are in action at Long Beach, while the N24 Qualifiers are set for a pair of four-hour races next weekend as well.
***Former Bentley Racing head of customer racing Tom Hodgson has joined United Autosports in a newly created director of customer racing position for the Anglo-American squad, which ramps up to operating the factory McLaren Hypercar program in the WEC next year. Hodgson most recently served as team manager of the Verstappen Racing GT3 effort.
***The Genesis ‘Trajectory Program’ has continued for a second year, but only with drivers, as Hypercar test and reserve pilot Jamie Chadwick returns to the IDEC Sport-run LMP2 operation alongside newly appointed trajectory members Laurents Horr and Valerio Rinicella.
***A Genesis Magma Racing spokesperson confirmed to Sportscar365 there will be no crew or engineering crossover with its new debuting Hypercar program, with the car entirely run by the French squad. The No. 18 Oreca, is back in traditional IDEC colors although is sporting a small Genesis Trajectory Program sticker.
***Of note, Genesis WEC Hypercar drivers Chatin (IDEC) and Jaubert (Kessel Racing) are in action this weekend and set for parallel full season ELMS campaigns in LMP2 and LMGT3, respectively.
***By comparison, the Ford Racing-injected No. 9 Proton Competition Oreca entry, featuring Ford Hypercar drivers Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller, is running very much under the radar with a Proton livery and no Ford graphics on the car.
***Ford Racing Hypercar program manager Dan Sayers is on site along with Venture Engineering operations director Adrian Perkins and commercial director Andy Williamson, plus Ford’s two Hypercar race engineers Leena Gade and JP Sarrazin.
***Sayers previously told Sportscar365 that he doesn’t want the LMP2 venture to be a distraction to the testing and development of the yet-to-be-named LMDh car, which is slated to hit the track early in the third-quarter this year.
***Several top-flight prototype drivers were seen in discussions with Sayers in the paddock on Friday, alluding to the possibility that the ‘Blue Oval’ has not completely finalized its six-driver roster for its Hypercar debut in the WEC next year.
***While retaining the same LMP2 Pro-Am title-winning lineup from last year, the No. 99 AO by TF Oreca is a brand new chassis, which Louis Deletraz shook down at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire, UK last month.
***Porsche contracted driver Harry King is making his LMGT3 debut, driving the ACO-spec Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo for the first time compared to the same model that’s run in the WeatherTech Championship, also with torque sensors, and without torque sensors in SRO Motorsports Group-run championships.
***King told Sportscar365: “It’s my first time in LMGT3. There’s a few more systems to optimize and to work with the team. Ultimately a team like Proton Competition have a lot of experience with Porsches and with endurance racing. I’m influencing a little bit but I think they know the right way to go forward with things.”
***King, along with several other full-time or regular WeatherTech Championship drivers, including newly named JDC-Miller Motorsports pilot Laurin Heinrich as well as Deletraz, will miss the next ELMS round at Paul Ricard, which clashes with the WeatherTech Championship race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
***AO team principal Gunnar Jeannette told Sportscar365 that Deletraz’s replacement for Paul Ricard has not yet been decided. The Swiss driver, however, will be able to do the second IMSA/ELMS clash as it’s the GT-0nly round at Virginia International Raceway, unlike King, who will be unable to race at the 4 Hours of Spa due to his season-long IMSA GTD Pro drive with AO.
***Felipe Fraga, however, will prioritize his ELMS season with CLX Motorsport, with the Brazilian set to miss the Laguna Seca and VIR rounds. Myers Riley Motorsports team boss Bill Riley told Sportscar365 that his replacement driver will be announced shortly.
***It’s currently unclear if Valentin Hasse-Clot, who is entered for next weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with Van der Steur Racing, will prioritize his IMSA GTD drive or continue for the full season in Racing Spirit of Leman’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, amid the upcoming two clashing weekends.
***Porsche factory star Heinrich, meanwhile, told Sportscar365 that he could also end up missing the final two ELMS races, which clash with the Suzuka 1000km and Indianapolis 8 Hour presented by AWS Intercontinental GT Challenge rounds. The German driver is understood to be one of Porsche’s nominated full season drivers in SRO’s globe-trotting GT3 series.
***Heinrich is making his ELMS debut this weekend with High Class Racing. “I’ve known Anders [Fjordbach] for quite some time now,” he told Sportscar365. “We met in 2024 when he was also doing IMSA and I was as well. I found out he has his own team so I started following it. I looked at my schedule this year to see what I could do and add some races. As soon as I found out that Anders is fielding a Porsche in LMGT3, I contacted him and we found a good deal.”
***Heinrich said he was particularly impressed with the team’s second place overall finish in the recent Meguiar’s Bathurst 12 Hour, in a Bronze Cup class Porsche “They had an impressive race and I think it also put the team on the radar of many GT fans,” he said. “High Class is known for prototype racing but it was big for them to get good result in a big GT race, especially as a Bronze Cup car, it was pretty impressive.”
***Free Practice 2 kicks off ELMS track action at 10:10 a.m. CET tomorrow, followed by qualifying at 3:30 p.m. CET (9:30 a.m. EST), which will be streamed on the new WEC+ platform, free-of-charge, which also includes the two-hour Michelin Le Mans Cup race as well, that’s slated to start at 6:15 p.m. CET (12:15 pm EST).
***Unlike last year when streamed via YouTube, all action on the new service will not be geo-blocked, allowing U.S. and Canadian viewers to watch ELMS weekends for free, while opting to purchase packages for the WEC rounds.
Finlay Ringer contributed to this report
Source: Sports Car 365