SRO America, NOLA: Saturday Paddock Notes

Good morning from NOLA Motorsports Park, where the busiest day of the weekend is upon us: GT World Challenge America and GT4 America will have qualifying in the morning, and then run Race 1 in the afternoon.

Darker clouds are looming over the west end of the circuit, in line with the forecast of probable rain and thunderstorms – which were forecast for this afternoon. As I walked back to the media centre, I could feel the slightest drops of rain while the TC America cars were preparing to qualify.

It’ll make for an interesting day of on-track action with qualifying still set to be run in dry conditions (at least for the moment) and a likely wet set of races!

RealTime Racing lost most of Practice 2 yesterday due to a fuel system issue. Speaking with driver Michael Cooper this morning, he gave assurances that the issue on the #43 Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 has been resolved, and that he and Erin Vogel will be able to get through the rest of the weekend.

Save for this development, and a technical waiver allowing Turner Motorsport to run the race without their secondary intake manifold pressure sensor due to supply chain issues, it’s been pretty uneventful in the GT World Challenge America garage this morning as the teams prepare to qualify starting at 8:35 AM local time.

The same, however, cannot be said in GT4 America – which is now down to 31 cars.

The #60 Dexter Racing Ginetta G56 GT4 of Ben Anderson and Matt Rivard (seen above, with its rear end stripped out) has been withdrawn for the rest of the weekend. The team suffered a mechanical failure yesterday, and did not participate in Practice 2.

Due to a lack of replacement parts to solve their undisclosed issue, the Am Cup winners at Sonoma Race 2 will take no further part in this weekend.

According to an official notice, Rooster Hall Racing driver Todd Brown has been withdrawn for the rest of the weekend under force majeure following administrative checks, leaving co-driver Johan Schwartz to run both races by himself.

Schwartz will start Race 1 from the back of the grid, but will take part in Qualifying session 2 and will start Race 2 from whichever position he qualified in. The #80 Rooster Hall BMW M4 GT4 will also have to serve an additional ten second penalty on top of their 84 second minimum pit times, as compensation for running both races with just one driver.

Speaking with a member of Rooster Hall Racing, they said there is a chance that Brown may take part in Race 2.

Conquest Racing with JMF Motorsports have changed chassis due to an engine problem on their primary #34 Mercedes-AMG GT4.

Their backup car is the silver and orange #35 Conquest Racing Mercedes-AMG GT4 that was driven by Manny Franco and Josh Hurley in Sonoma. It has already been re-numbered, and took part in both practice sessions in the hands of Gavin Sanders and Michai Stephens.

And, as was the case at Sonoma, paraplegic driver Tim Horrell will qualify the #10 Fast Track Racing BMW M4 GT4 in both sessions and will be the starting driver in both races. This reasonable accomodation is expected to be made for all subsequent races.

While TC America is out of our scope of coverage, we’d be remissed not to note the presence of Ryan Eversley in the SRO America paddock for all events this year!

Eversley, one of sports car racing’s foremost driver/podcasters, is serving as the driver coach for LA Honda World driver Spencer Bucknum – the grandson of Honda F1 great Ronnie Bucknum, and son of former American Le Mans Series and Indy 500 driver, Jeff Bucknum.