- There are issues coming to the forefront in IMSA. Porsche teams were extremely unhappy with the Balance of Performance (BoP) of the new Porsche 911 GT3 R during the Rolex 24 at Daytona that rendered them uncompetitive.
The Porsche teams were roughly two seconds off the pace for the entire weekend, no matter what they did. Pfaff Motorsports managed to bite, scratch and claw to a fifth-place place in GTD Pro, but the other Porsche teams were at the back of either the GTD Pro or GTD classes.
The culprit appears to be a lack of power. IMSA mandated a 33mm air restrictor for the new car in December that robbed the car of top end speed. Recently, changes were made during an open test at Sebring, but the Porsches
were still well off of the pace.
Richard S. James of RACER is reporting that MDK Motorsports will likely withdraw from Sebring. Meanwhile, Ryan Hardwick released a statement Wednesday indicating that he will only compete in the Michelin Endurance Cup rounds for the rest of the year. Instead, he will compete in the first three WEC races for Proton Competition in preparation
for his first appearance at Le Mans.
- Aasco Motorsports announced Wednesday that their owner, longtime IMSA driver and car owner Dennis Aase died Tuesday night at the age of 81. Aase is likely best known as a racer with Dan Gurney's All American Racers in the 1980s. At the time he joined the team, All American Racers was racing Toyota Celicas in
the GTU class.
Over the next seven years, Aase ran successfully in the Toyotas. He earned his first class victory with the team at Riverside in 1983 alongside Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Whitney Ganz
in a six-hour race. Aase later won at Sears Point (now Sonoma) in 1984 and at Pocono in 1985 alongside Chris Cord.
In 1985, All American Racers debuted a new GTO-class Celica. Aase gave the car its first win at Laguna Seca, then won twice in 1986 (Road America and Watkins Glen). He repeated the
Road America and Watkins Glen wins in 1988.
Later on, Aase formed Aasco Motorsports, which was originally a race team itself. They competed in IMSA support series and in Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series. In recent years,
Aasco has operated more as a speed shop as Aase was beginning to slow down. Frontstretch sends our condolences to the Aase family.
- The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series announced Wednesday that this weekend's Tennessee Tipoff at Smoky Mountain Speedway has been postponed due to "an unstable weekend forecast, including the potential for thunderstorms, high winds, and
the possibility of heavy rains." The weekend was originally scheduled to be two nights of racing.
Now, the Tennessee Tipoff will be a one-night show on March 16 with $10,000 to the winner. It is effectively paired with the Shamrock 100 at Boyd's Speedway, which is a little more than 90 minutes away by
car.
