- Monday was the first day of manufacturer testing of GTP cars at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The track was open for 10 hours of activity. BMW turned in the most laps with their BMW M Hybrid V8, but
struggled for pace early.
Acura's ARX-06 was quick early on, but their day came to an early end at 2:09 p.m. ET when Tom Blomqvist spun off into the gravel in turn 5. It appeared that the incident was due to a parts failure. Blomqvist was ok and the car was not significantly damaged. However, they chose not to run for the
rest of the day after that point.
Cadillac's V-LMDh didn't get on-track until nearly 5 p.m. ET due to a host of parts that needed to be installed on the car. Sebastien Bourdais and Pipo Derani turned dozens of laps in the car and appeared to be fairly close to the Acura's pace. No official lap times were released, but using very unofficial methods (meaning, the Stopwatch function on an iPhone), Frontstretch timed Bourdais as setting a lap at 128.319 mph around the 2.54-mile road
course.
- Wayne Taylor Racing announced their 2023 driver lineup
Monday. Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor will return to the No. 10 Acura ARX-06 full-time. They will be joined by Louis Deletraz in the three longer endurance races (Daytona, Sebring and Road Atlanta) in 2023. Deletraz comes to the team after running for Tower Motorsports in the LMP2 class this past season.
The lineup will be
complete with Brendon Hartley at Daytona. Hartley made his debut with the team last weekend at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.
Photo is courtesy of our own Phil Allaway.
