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Entry Lists: IMSA at Road Atlanta

This weekend, IMSA’s top series will wrap up their seasons at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The exceptions to the rule are single-make series. Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and Ferrari Challenge North America finish their seasons overseas. Mustang Challenge finished up last week on the undercard of the Indianapolis 8 Hour.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans

For the 27th Annual Motul Petit Le Mans Saturday (Oct. 12), there are 54 teams entered, a full capacity grid. That is two more cars than last year, but last year’s race also saw a couple of withdrawals prior to race day.

The GTP class has 10 cars entered, down from 11 in Indianapolis. Lamborghini Iron Lynx is not entered with their Lamborghini SC63.

All of the teams have three-driver lineups for this weekend, as opposed to four three-driver lineups in Indianapolis.

For example, Scott Dixon is back with Chip Ganassi Racing, while Brendon Hartley with Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Global. There are no new drivers in the class.

In the points, Penske Porsche Motorsport’s Dane Cameron and Felipe Nasr have a 124-point lead over teammates Kevin Estre and Mathieu Jaminet. That is mostly due to a penalty that was assessed after Indianapolis.

The LMP2 class has 10 entries, the same as in Indianapolis. Unlike Indianapolis, there are a couple of driver changes.

Tower Motorsports announced Wednesday morning that Frederik Vesti is in the fold for this weekend, replacing Charlie Eastwood, who has a family issue that is forcing him to miss the weekend. In a press release, Eastwood stated that he was “gutted” to have to miss the race.

Vesti finished second in the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2023 and earned a role as Mercedes’ official reserve driver. He’s been keeping busy this year in the European Le Mans Series with COOL Racing. He’s currently 15th in points with a best finish of second at Paul Ricard. It should be noted that this move is not noted on the official entry list.

Also, Lilou Wadoux is back with Richard Mille AF Corse, replacing Dylan Murry. Wadoux missed Indianapolis due to a conflict with her full-time SuperGT ride at Sportsland Sugo, where she finished second in the GT300 class.

Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports’ Nick Boulle and Tom Dillmann have a 98-point lead over Riley Motorsports’ Felipe Fraga and Gar Robinson. Effectively, with qualifying points added in, Boulle and Dillmann could win the title by finishing fifth or better.

The GTD Pro class has 13 entries, the same as in Indianapolis after The Heart of Racing’s second car switched classes. However, SunEnergy1 Racing, which competed in both the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks and the Indianapolis 8 Hour is not entered.

In their place is DragonSpeed with another new entry. At Indianapolis, this team competed in the GTD class using No. 56. Now, they’re using No. 82. Toni Vilander is the only listed driver at the moment. The other two drivers are listed as TBD.

Iron Lynx also has a completely different driver lineup for their No. 19. The lineup of Mirko Bortolotti, Jordan Pepper and Franck Perera will drive the team’s Lamborghini in place of Luca Engstler and Maximilian Paul.

Outside of those teams, third drivers are also back in the fold. Julien Andlauer is back with AO Racing, while Neil Verhagen is with Paul Miller Racing. Daniel Juncadella, Kyle Kirkwood and others will be racing as well.

In the points, AO Racing’s Laurin Heinrich has a 99-point lead over The Heart of Racing’s Ross Gunn. It’s a similar circumstance to LMP2. A fifth-place finish would likely be enough to win the title for Heinrich, who just missed out on overall honors in the Indianapolis 8 Hour due to a post-race time penalty.

See also
Team WRT Wins Indianapolis 8 Hour After Wright Penalty

In GTD, there are 20 entries, down from 22 in Indianapolis. As noted above, DragonSpeed has moved to the GTD Pro class. In addition, Kellymoss with Riley’s No. 90 is not entered.

There are two driver changes of note. Alessio Rovera has rejoined Triarsi Competizione, replacing Riccardo Agostini. Klaus Bachler is back with MDK Motorsports/High Class Racing in place of Brendon Leitch.

Winward Racing’s Philip Ellis and Russell Ward have a 222-point lead over Turner Motorsport’s Robby Foley and Patrick Gallagher. The championship is not over, but the Turner boys would need a lot of help to win the championship. It would likely require the Winward Mercedes to fail to finish as they would likely win the title with a finish of 17th or better.

The Motul Petit Le Mans is scheduled to go green at 12:10 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Coverage will begin live on NBC at Noon ET and air there for three hours. At 3 p.m. ET, the race will be exclusive to Peacock. At 6 p.m. ET, USA Network will join the broadcast and run through the finish.

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Motul Petit Le Mans Entry List

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge FOX Factory 120

For Friday’s (Oct. 11) IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, there are 33 teams entered. This is flat with Indianapolis.

The Grand Sport class has 21 entries, up one from Indianapolis. The Lone Star Racing Mercedes that finished fifth a couple of weeks is not entered.

In their place are two more cars. One is the return of Hattori Motorsports, but with an all-new driver lineup. Gabby Chaves and Zach Veach, both former INDYCAR drivers who shared an Acura for Racers Edge Motorsports in last weekend’s Indianapolis 8 Hour, will drive.

The other new entry comes from Goldcrest Motorsports. They will field a Porsche for Tom Long and Jim Jonsin. The team name may not be familiar to race fans, but they’ve always had a behind-the-scenes presence in IMSA. It’s been a very long time since they’ve fielded an entry under their own name.

Driver change-wise, Jenson Altzman has another new teammate this weekend. Sam Paley will make his Michelin Pilot Challenge debut in the No. 13 Ford Mustang GT4 in place of Nate Cicero. Paley is a regular in Mustang Challenge, where he finished third in points this year with a weekend sweep at Road America.

Finally, Valentin Hasse-Clot is back with van der Steur Racing this weekend in place of Alex Premat.

Points-wise, TeamTGM’s Matt Plumb has a 110-point lead over Rennsport One’s Trent Hindman and Stevan McAleer. That means that Plumb would have to finish sixth or better Friday to guarantee the title (with two wins to one, Hindman and McAleer have the tiebreaker).

In TCR, there are 12 entries, down from 13 in Indianapolis. Road Shagger Racing and HART are not entered this weekend.

Baker Racing, the father-son team of Dean and Sam Baker from Canada, are back this weekend with their Audi.

Points-wise, it is not much of a championship race here. On the strength of four wins, JDC-Miller MotorSports’ Chris Miller and Mikey Taylor have a 150-point lead over Bryan Herta Autosport’s Harry Gottsacker and Robert Wickens.

With a 12-car entry, Miller and Taylor won’t clinch the title by starting, but it isn’t far off of that. Gottsacker and Wickens can only win the title if either Miller or Taylor fail to reach the 40-minute minimum drive-time, or if Miller and Taylor finish last while Gottsacker and Wickens win.

IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge FOX Factory 120 Entry List

The FOX Factory 120 is scheduled to go green at 12:45 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. Coverage will stream live on Peacock starting at 12:40 p.m. ET.

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

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Bruce merchant

The title of the article is “Entry Lists”. So nowhere in the article are there entry lists. The links to entry list are broken – “Not Found”. Get with it.

Last edited 3 months ago by Bruce merchant