MP 1688: The Week In Sports Cars Sebring Reflections

Welcome to the weekend sports cars part of the Marshall Pruitt podcast series and brought

to you as always with the help and assistance of our good friends at the Justice Brothers

and Toronto Motorsports.com. Now, like any good adult party, this is a three-handed game.

So it's going to be me, Graham Goodwin. It's going to be him over there. You can't see

him. I can. Stephen Kilby.

How are you Graham?

I'm fine, shush. And pointing a lot further over there, Jonathan Grace. Jonathan, welcome

to this week's edition. We can see you, the listener can't. You look remarkably chipper

for somebody that's just dragged themselves through a hectic week at none other than Sebring

International Raceway.

Well, thank you, Graham. It's good to be here. Hardly dragging, too. Sebring's one of the

best ones of the year. It's one of those races that it's in a part of Florida where there's

not much else to do other than go to the racetrack, but there's always plenty of action at one

of, I think, is the best racetracks in the country. And it is always one of the best

race weekends of the year. I think this year was no exception. We saw a race that was largely

called procedural for most of it and then fireworks at the end, as you'd expect from

Sebring. But RJ O'Connell and I were on the ground and I think we had a heck of a time.

Well, RJ, yourself, helping us to launch the brand new YouTube channel for Daily Sports

Car. Keep an eye on lots of new content coming from the team around the world on that. But

it's already beginning to get up and running with a great preview from the pair of you,

a wrap up of that race. Get from you, Jonathan, some shorts coming along side a cracking piece

with the new Temur Arria. We'll talk a little bit about that. And another of the big talking

points, by the way, in the lead up to this race, what I think is a really special commemorative

throwback livery from Porsche Penske Boatsport.

Yeah, it looked great. It did. And it harkens back to 1996, the 911 GT1. This was fitting for

the mobile one 12 hours of Sebring because it was a mobile one inspired livery. And we first

saw it back at the 24 hours of Le Mans. They did a great rendition of it on both the six car

and the seven car differentiated with some different color shark fins. And I think it's

pretty fitting that they finished one too as well. And the cars looked spectacular. They

weren't the only special liveries on the grid, but I think they were certainly some of the most

eye catching. Also, of note, they're celebrating a 30 year relationship between Porsche and mobile

ones. So a special on a lot of different fronts, but I think anyone that was a fan of the GT1

era was absolutely chomping at the bit to get into the autograph line, get into the paddock

and see it. I know I certainly was. I know RJ and I ran down there a second we got to the track

to try to wait and see it come off the truck, but the cars looked absolutely fantastic.

I think we should start when we're talking about this race weekend and the races, you

rightly say one to finish for Penske. I think that's the place that we jump in on this because

coming out of that race, I think that was probably the biggest storyline was just how

dominant of a victory it was. A little sprinkling of controversy, sprinkling of needle between

the two crews as well. Jonathan, were you there at the press conference? Did you see

the sort of interaction between the two Penske crews? I heard it just a little bit. I snuck

in right at the end. RJ was privy to all of it, but I read the transcript script and gone

back and rewatched the zoom of the full thing. It was palpable tension between Philippe Nasser

and Kevin Estre. They were the two doing battle out on track at the end. Estre in the six,

Nasser in the seven, Nasser ended up finishing ahead of the six, but there were team orders

that were at play. They were obeyed at times. They appeared to be disobeyed at others. Of

course, we won't know because we weren't on the pit stand, but Kevin Estre certainly did

not look too, too happy with Philippe Nasser. Nasser appeared to make a move on the inside

at turn 17 late in the race after the cars were initially asked to swap positions. The

six and the seven car were out front pretty much the whole race. PPM looked like they

were trying to set the order in one way. Nasser, I think, had other ideas. Again, that's speculative

because we don't know for sure, but that's what it appeared to look like. But what I

can tell you is that there was definitely tension. I would love to be a fly on the wall

at the Porsche Penske factory when they're debriefing between the two cars and drivers.

It was a team one, two, but I think there were some tensions involved as well.

The reality, though, is, look, in terms of a lot, what's going to be a long season, that's

a good thing. There's a bit of spice. There's a bit of fan interest in actually another

story line. That was a story line at the front of that race. And I agree with you, dominant

stuff, again, from Porsche Penske Motorsport. And in a race where there's a lot of prediction,

and let's mention it first last and once about the BOP situation, not favoring Porsche and

still dominant, what was happening behind them, though, is we saw a bit of spice between the

Caddies. And it was Wayne Taylor racing that initially crossed the line to complete the podium,

but it didn't stay like that.

No, and you feel for them because throughout the season, all the way back to last season,

we've been talking about the fact that Wayne Taylor needs a good result. They've been knocking

on the door. They have been right there. And whether it's bad luck or execution or what

have you, the results just haven't quite come. And this looked like it was going to be a

breakthrough weekend. The 10 car ended up crossing the line in third. They were so, so

happy, Graham, on the podium. I was standing in Victory Lane and watching the three of them.

You could tell this was a shift in the team and the morale and the spirit. And then, gosh,

about one one o'clock local time in the morning, we got word from IMSA that the 10 car had failed

post race technical inspection for being a foul of the camber angle amount on the car. There's

kind of a matrix of tire pressures and camber angles. And these things, RJ O'Connell was kind

of running me through exactly how that works. But either way, the result is the 10 got dropped to

the back of the grid and the 31 Cadillac was promoted. And that's the Cadillac of the three

factory supported caddies that has kind of been the car at the point. And the final results sheets

will reflect that even though it was a really, really good effort for the 10.

What do you think about curing BMW for the weekend? It's kind of hard to read expectations wise. I

feel like the BMW RT guys were kind of managing it, weren't expecting much. Acura though, I kind of

was by the time we got mid race, I was kind of a bit disappointed that they just they kind of fell

away. I expected them to be a bit closer. What did you think?

Yeah, you know, I would agree. We talk about racing at night and it tends to favor the cars that

have turbochargers on them, that colder, denser air. And, you know, even though it was warm and

seabring, it was a pretty picturesque weekend, to be honest, that there was nice and cool. You

know, the porches have always favored that. I think the Acura is as well late race restarts at

Daytona, at Seabring, at Petit Le Mans. But in talking to some of the Myers-Shank racing folks

before this weekend and midway through this weekend, even right up until the start of the race,

they were not terribly confident about the overall pace in the car. And I think actually the

results of the 60 car finishing fourth was higher than they thought they were going to. I think

they said their pace throughout the weekend didn't look terribly encouraging. And they were

always kind of floating around the top six, the top five. So I think the 60 car finishing there

was good. The 93 actually ran up front ahead of the 60 for most of the race. They finished in

six. But as far as the two BMWs go, the 24 car was set to finish fourth. It had a spin late in

the race, ended up with the top five. That, the car of Dries Vanthor, Sheldon Fandelinde, and

Robin Freins, the 25 car further down the order. But, you know, it was kind of a quiet and

unremarkable weekend for BMW M Team WRT. And I think there's a lot of expectation with WRT

coming on board that those results would be a little bit better. I think Myers-Shank racing and

the Acura AR-XO6 is also a team that's in need of a good result. But I think this weekend in

Sebring and the way it shook out was maybe a little better than they initially thought it would

be.

Well, they're walking on, pick the problem that is how to beat Porsche Benzky Motorsports. And

yeah, obviously, there's two big races this season where they've not managed to unpick that

problem. We want briefly to L&P to what a result for United Autosports, a one, two for them.

Phenomenal. They were at the sharp end, Graham, right from the beginning. Funny enough, in the

post-race press conference, it was asked, you know, it looked like the cars made contact at

times, did they? And Paul the rest said, yeah, we made contact quite a few times in the last

half hour. The two and the 22 were absolutely going at it. It's hard to pick up two on the

camera angle because, you know, I don't envy the director who's in the chair having to cut that

show with four classes and all four battles for the lead are so, so tight as they tend to be at

sea bring. But it was it was a great show for United Autosports. There was a couple L&P two

incidents early on in the race. Parker Thompson in the 52 car was one that took out one of the GTD

front runners early in the race. The tractor speaker a little bit. It was it really, really heavy

hit. Parker tipped the cap to sportsmanship wise because he immediately when he was asked about

it on the broadcast said, hey, that was completely my fault. It was a silly move. I went over and I

apologize to every member of the crew I could find the 52 ended up continuing on the dragon speed

car remarkably got back out on track. But it was it was United State a one to finish. Actually,

their first one to finish since they've been competing in the Weathertech Championship, which

is hard to believe, but the the two and the 22 looked very sharp GTD pro. Monty, big result for

Monty, their biggest result in the United States. And certainly an IMSA racing in the history of

ever on the weekend, they chose to miss what was a very high profile and a less race to the

Nurburgring. They come home with a big piece of silverware, Steve. Yeah, well, there's kind of

two ways of looking at it. There's the it's only taking them two races in GTD pro to get their

first win in a class that's so hotly contested with manufacturer teams. There's the other way

looking at it, which is this is Monty. This is a Monty Porsche with pro drivers. They know what

they're doing. And anyone who's not seen them racing like in full song, like the Nurburgring

24 hours, or or WECC recently, you know, well, it's just no surprise, is it that Manta have come

on so strong. But I do think as well, I've mentioned a racing were right there. And actually,

it's a very with Roxy is a very good benchmark just to show how good a racing are, that they're

right there with the Manta guys essentially developed the car. It's just an unbelievable

result for them. But they weren't the only cars in it wasn't complete Porsche dominance. There

was a show in from Corvette towards the end, they kind of came on strong. There were a handful of

disappointments, I think in there, one being RISI again, getting involved in that massive shunt at

the final corner, which could have essentially ruined what could have been a decent result for

them. But GTD prior think delivered plenty of plenty of goods.

Disappointment for a Ferrari GTD pro. But Jonathan, late race drama that saw victory coming

from another Ferrari in GTD.

Absolutely, Grammy at GTD was a barn burner towards the end. It was so so close, but it was a daring

move from Antonio Foucault, who took the number 21 of course, a USA car to victory alongside

Simon Mann and Lila would do Lila would do by the way, the first woman to win in class at

Sebring in 10 years time, which is pretty remarkable. Wow. But either way, Foucault doing it in

true Foucault style was fighting with the number 27 harder racing team, Aston Martin, Tom Gamble,

just had a little bit of a bobble through the S's and that was it. And Foucault did what Foucault

does. Another surprising one was the number 120 right motor sports car with Calamilot in at the

end. Calam needs no introduction to his driving talent snuck that car onto the podium with a

last lap pass. And I think the 120 crew was absolutely elated. They had a lot of pace throughout,

but didn't quite look like they were going to get it done. There was a lot of shuffling in the GTD

order. It was nearly a humongous result for gradient. They did their last stop with just a little bit

more time on the clock than they would have liked. They had to peel into the pits for fuel right at

the end, but the 66 nearly pulled off an absolute blinder. 13 Autosport looked to run in the top

five for just a just a little bit there. They still won the bronze cup and the Bobbitt can award as

well. But either way, GTD, I think one is as it was at the Rolex 24, one of the most exciting classes

at the end of the race.

While we're on the subject of GTD, we can't forget the fact that this was a massive week for Lamborghini.

In two ways. One, we got the news of who's replacing Rufemur as the head of the motor sport

program. And that's a Joe Reggiani. But two was obviously the debut for the Temorario GT3. And

Jonathan, you got a really close look at it. You spent some time with Faf. We've seen it race. It

finished. It wasn't the most remarkable performance of a debut car I've ever seen, but it was very,

very solid, very strong. They'll be very happy with it. Tell us everything about that Temorario

GT3 in that week, because I think it's definitely worth mentioning.

Oh, it absolutely is. I think we could do a whole twist episode just on everything that we learned

about the Temorario. But Steve Bordellotti and Faf were very kind. It kind of took me into the

tent, showed me around the car. We have a short about the car on YouTube and our social media

platforms you can look there too. But it looks great. It's in the iconic Faf colors. It's a

departure from the V10 that we saw in the Huracan. It's a turbocharged V8. Steve Bordellotti is

saying that he actually quite likes the sound. I'm excited. It's definitely different. It's a

little quieter, but it's a really good turbo V8. I quite like it. I think the car looks the part.

Steve's saying that they were aiming for a top five. That wasn't the results at the end. They

finished 10th in class, but did a pretty nice job throughout the race. They finished the race,

which the same goes. 12 hours at Sebring is 24 hours just about anywhere else. So finishing on a

car's debut in one of the most difficult tracks and one of the most difficult races to win on the

calendar, I think, is an accomplishment in and of itself. And let's not forget, this is the first

GT3 car that Lamborghini has built from the ground up and they've trusted Faf to run it. They've

done a nice job of that. The support there on site from Lamborghini Squadra Corsa was mighty. I

suspect this car will get up to speed quite quickly as the season goes on. So wrap up then. Can't

leave the 12 hours at Sebring for 2036 without pointing out one, two for Porsche in both pro

classes. That is some result for the manufacturer. There's been such a huge part of that event and

of endurance racing as a whole. But by no means, by the way, the only headlines in sports going

endurance racing this week. And for me, this before we leave IMSA, we've got to talk calendar. We've

got to talk. Yes, we've got to talk about the crowd kept hearing that it might have been a record

crowd at Sebring. What anecdotally, was it a record crowd? Did they actually release a figure

like they did at Daytona?

So we don't have an actual figure. We don't get them attendance wise for NASCAR property events. So

that's NASCAR races or IMSA events. But it was confirmed by John Dunant, who is of course privy to

those numbers. This was the largest 12 hours of Sebring crowd we've ever had. And I can tell you

just from walking around Green Park, walking through the gridwalk, what have you, it would be

hard to argue with that. There were more people here than I've ever seen at Sebring. And it was

pretty, pretty cool to see the camping scene is like nothing else you've ever seen anyone that knows

Sebring or has walked through Green Park. The fans and attendance were awesome. It was once again,

really difficult to get through the gridwalk. And I love to see that because it means people are

excited about IMSA and about this race. This is not an easy race to get to either. You have to

really make an intentional effort to get to Sebring. And a lot of people did this year. And that was

really cool to see. As for the calendar, good to see another very early call. And date equity,

again, a big feature of it, a few very subtle changes in terms of the overall packaging of the

calendar. But I would guess pretty well received in the paddock. Yeah, it absolutely was. It's a

stable calendar. You know, I think the big change is Lime Rock. And we can get to that in a second.

But on the WeatherTech side, very stable. I think the thing that's most often well received is just

how much of an effort IMSA puts into putting this calendar out so darn early. You know, I know we're

not used to getting calendars this early in the last couple of years. IMSA has been the first one to

do it just about every year. And it's really nice. I think it's a good position for IMSA to be in

because everyone else effectively has to build their calendars around it or with it. But, you know,

John Dunan and the whole team puts a lot of work into getting in contact with organizers and track

presidents early to make sure this happens. And for us, it's nice because we can start to plan that

much earlier as well. But yeah, I think there's a lot a lot of good points this year. I think we're

seeing one of the biggest changes, which is a six hour race at Road America. And we're going to

continue to see that going forward too.

It's worth saying, I think that's that change in the timing of announcement came after a couple of

years where IMSA took some flak for apparently clashing with other races made pretty clear in

the background. No, no, no, those dates were well known. Just because we finally announced our full

calendar late does not mean to say they were not known within the race organization community. So

I think a bit of a statement here in terms of that change. And effectively, what John and the

IMSA team are doing is putting down a marker and saying, Well, okay, fine. You want to soak up the

criticism. That's our line in the sand. There's our flag on the top of the mountain. Let's see what

you guys can do with it. It doesn't give a great deal of opportunity for people to beat them to

the count. But good to see that you mentioned Lime Rock. I think that pretty much welcomed across

the board by the fans. Great to see a famous, you know, older IMSA venue back on the calendar,

albeit not with WeatherTech.

That's true. IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge is going to go there. So we won't get GT3 cars, but GT4

and touring cars. Anyone that's watched a Michelin Pilot Challenge race will know how exciting and

how action packed they are. I think that the fans going to Lime Rock Park are going to have a heck

of a weekend because there'll be a lot of racing there, but it'll be headlined by IMPC. And I think

it's a very welcome one as well. It's one I'm certainly going to try to sneak to because I've

never seen Lime Rock. And even just talking to RJ, who that's his local track, he was talking it

up and how cool of an experience it is to watch a race in such a beautiful part of the country. I'm

Mercedes-AMG. Let's start with another brand new car unveiled this morning officially as we record

this podcast. And in fact, two new cars, one road car, their Black Series, the AMG GT Black Series

as they're calling it at the moment. And the other the GT3 version of that, it is very much an

immigration special. It is the fourth iteration of GT3 car from Mercedes-AMG, follows on from the

iconic Gullwing-Doard SLS GT3 onto the original AMG GT3, then the Evo version of 2020. That car

still are forced to be reckoned with, as we'll talk about in a moment, but certainly not as

ultimately competitive, perhaps, and falling a little bit behind the technology trail, and in

fact, no longer a production car from Mercedes-AMG either. So this is their response to that. No

details as yet of the technology package or the technical package for that car. We can say looks

like pretty extreme aero on that car. And whilst in the slightly camo livery, we've still seen the

cars in it, it disguises some of that. I think what we're going to see when you see an undisguised

car, heavy rear aero without a shadow of a doubt. I think some clever stuff at the front of the

car too. We wait to see just exactly when they will debut that car, but 2027 season looking

most likely. I mean, Stephen, you've seen the same pictures I have, immediate response. My immediate

response for it is it remarkably doesn't feel like they even need to bring a new car because the

current one just wins everywhere all the time still. It's a great position to be in. They're

coming into this with a position of strength. It's not like they've got no customer teams left and

everyone's abandoned them because the car, the old, the current cars hold, they've got an extreme

car coming, which they're going to retain. I would imagine the majority of their customer base

and sign up plenty more customers for it because what they've been able to show with the current

program, certainly since the MG GT3 came on off the SLS is the customer support superb and the

car is just an all rounder. It's just good everywhere it goes. And so if it can live up to

that all for it, I can't wait.

And it marks a very specific change for the background story for Mercedes MG customer racing as

well, Stephen, because this is going to be the first car designed and built in-house not by HWA

who've built to this point, every GT3 car, every GT2 car and every GT car that Mercedes MG have

had, that's done. And this will be the first product of the new FWD racing company in-house

concern, bringing in the whole of their support package, the whole of their parts supply package.

And now with this new car, when that comes on stream, the whole of the build as well.

Yeah, there's a lot of parallels there with what Lamborghini's actually doing when moving from

the Huracan to the Temerario, as we said, moving it in-house, controlling the project entirely

themselves. They're clearly hugely supportive of customer racing going forward. They believe in

GT3 racing and its future. And I've no doubt they're going to get all the success.

No, you mentioned success of the current car, the GT3 Evo. There was briefly a headline that went

around the world about that car, because NLS2 this weekend, several store lines to do with that,

but you cannot ignore that by far internationally the biggest. Well, I'm going to ask you because we

were watching at this side of the the pond, Jonathan, I take it that headline reached the

United States as well, Max Verstappen starting in the NLS.

Well, not just starting for a moment, he won the darn thing. I mean, it was it was incredible.

Started on pole and then brought what it was really a remarkable car in terms of driver lineup.

That it looked great. He was in Mercedes AMG GT3 Evo, which I think says volumes about that

car's success now, that that was the weapon of choice for who is arguably globally right now,

probably the most well recognized racing driver of any kind. And it was just a tire infraction for

the amount of tire sets they used at the end that took the victory away. But the pace was

undeniable. I was having a ton of fun just watching online some of the on boards and some of the

clips that were being reposted of Max and company carving his way through the field. One heck of

a driver lineup as well. My gosh, I mean, you put those four in the car, something good is going

to happen. And I think for his participation in this year's Nürburgring 24, this bodes very well,

because the crowd on hand was incredible. I would love to see what the attendance number record

was for an NLS race, because this has got to be close to the photos from afar looked absolutely

incredible.

Don't you have Della put in a stint, didn't he? So too did Jules Guignol. It was, I have to say,

a very unwinward and when we're racing, we're running that car for Verstappen racing, a very

unwinward error, Stephen Kilby, seven sets of tyres used on race day that includes the qualifying

session, as opposed to the maximum of the six that should have been allowed.

Yeah, I wonder if we'll ever truly find out where the mistake happened. Was it within the

Michelin guys and their tire technicians that are embedded within the team? Was it somebody in the

team who made the error? Was it an RFID error? It's bizarre that you just thought it's not the

first time we've seen it, but you'd think with the amount of push behind that program, the amount

of exposure it was getting that they'd at least count the amount of sets of tyres.

Maybe just a little bit of external pressure told in terms of the way in which the team were

operating. There was such interest in it. I want to move on, though, and by the way, excellent to

see it. I'm a massive fan of world class racing drivers, world class talents being allowed to do

the things they're passionate about and more power to you, Max Verstappen.

The rest of sports car racing is going to look on that weekend at the Nevergreen 24s, potentially

a real moment because so many people for the first time are going to watch a GT3 race in May,

just to see how Max Verstappen does. Already the numbers have been further less, but for the

end 24, it's going to be huge. And that going to have knock on effects in IMSA, World Challenge,

in WEC, anywhere that GT3 cars are racing. For people who have only ever watched Formula

1 and have never seen a GT3 cup before, I have no doubt they'll finally enjoy it.

One thing I want to say because there will be people discovering endurance racing through this

and hopefully some of those will have discovered the weekend sports cars. Please, ladies and

gentlemen, stow your toxicity at the gate, not required here. You are very welcome in our part

of the sport. You're welcome to ask any question you like. There are no stupid questions. You're

welcome to bring your fandom with it. But the culture is very open to expressing ourselves

in terms of welcoming for new fans and new questions and new construct controversies. This

is a real life controversy that please, let's all be respectful of the fact that this is a

world class talent, choosing on his off weekend to come and play with our train set. And I think

that's phenomenal. I don't see any downside to that whatsoever at all. That's that storyline.

There's one other storyline, which I think it's fair to say went around the world as well. A

phenomenal coup from another German manufacturer to steal headlines on a day where you have to say

it was pretty near impossible to imagine they could do so. But stand up and be counted BMW and

motorsport. Yeah, that M3 touring is just all we mentioned it on the last weekend. Well, tell

us what that's about, because they may be the one person on the planet that didn't see it. Yeah,

it was an April Fools joke that they were going to do a state version of the GT3 car. And a year

later, they've actually gone and done it. They've made this car. They've given it an engineering

challenge in house to do it. And not only have they made it, it's a proper beast this thing. It's

finished in amongst the GT3 cars. Absolutely. By the way, behind the GT3 car driven by one of the

drivers that actually race the touring car as well. Yeah, yeah. So it's it is phenomenal. So

quick and looks like super imposing on track. I think it's just genuinely, I'll say right now,

that is the most awesome BMW race car for me ever. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, it's not. You're going to say the pro car. No, one pro car. No, I think there's so something

so awesome about that. No, it's this. This is awesome. I love everything about it. Which

generation are you? Yeah, the generation that's always right, Graham. But so they yeah. So no, I

loved it. I thought it was awesome. And I'm glad that not only did it look the part and, you

know, they got plenty of coverage about launching it, but actually when a race a race really

well, and it's going to race at the Nurburgring 24 hours, it is, it's going to have all sorts of

appearances, it's going to be a Merged. GP race, it's going to be a good with Vesemus B.

Look at the calendar of events it's going to be at. And if you can go see this thing is awesome.

Jonathan, I will say, regardless of what you think your favorite or the best BMW M race car of all

time was, I can say from walking up and down pit lane, a healthy dose of the M hybrid V8 mechanics

and technicians and engineers had the wagon had the M3 touring as their screensaver that weekend.

So I think there was there's a lot of love for this car to go around in any panic.

They're all wrong. It's the BMW M1 Pro car. It's one of the world's most gorgeous race cars of all

time. I will give it this. I think it's phenomenal. I love it when our colleagues in this sport do the

brilliance that they can. Yeah, we were talking earlier about the kind of the throwback liveries for

Porsche. It's not the first, not the last big of the season. I'm sure of that. There's all sorts of

shenanigans going to be going on that from. But look, in no way am I being down on it. I think it's

phenomenal. And right here right now, a car that is set to race maybe as few as twice in endurance

racing is a sure fire all time crowd pleasing favorite. You are going to see it some amazing

events forever. That is going to be an all time BMW classic. And whoever got that program across

the line, I doth my cat to you. Absolutely fantastic effort from them. And you know, it hats off to

BMW for just having some fun too. Yes. Yeah. Yes. It's we need more of it. You know, the other

day, right now, this this this wacky old world that we've got, where we all worry before telling

on the news of an evening, in case we're coming away slightly more depressed than we even started,

and that would be something about Tom and Hotspur now, should we talk about Tom and Hotspur now

for Christ's sake, give me a break. It's just like a lift taking you home. They're going down. But

the final thing I want to raise is been a hot topic again this weekend. And it's a series that

we're not going to see for another eight months. Yeah. Yeah, about eight months. Asia Le Mans

series. I love talking about the Asia Le Mans series. Does it show? And again, hypercar. So

let's let's because there has been some we've written a little bit about it. Others have written

a little bit about it. Let me tell you where we believe we stand right now as much as I can. And

this comes with the caveat of I'm not going to tell you everything I know, or think I know. But

I'm going to make a couple of things clear, because I think there's been some misinterpretation

that has been lost, because some of these stories have been so rapid fire. To start with,

Ferrari, they've told us they're coming. Okay, I haven't told us how many cars they're coming

with. But my belief is that the cars that they're looking to run in the hands, remember,

pre-arranged teams are going to be the same cars that will be running in the if I would

endurance championship, we have not yet had a calendar announced for the Asia Le Mans series.

But that is logistically very doable. Is that three cars? Probably not. Could it be two? Could

very well be might it be one? It might be that's not done. But Ferrari have told us they intend to

be there and they've got interest from their customers. I'm fully well aware who they're

talking to. Okay, so that's where we are with that. Ferrari, we're in 123. We don't know. Persho,

here's where with some of the comments I've read online from journalistic colleagues, and for

that matter from fans, where I think there has been a bit of a misunderstanding about what we're

going to get coming forward. This is BBM Sports, Bob Berridge, Nick Manasian, and Steve Briggs's

organization based here in the UK, that you will have seen if you watch the nine X8 Pershos

from the start, they've had the BBM Sports logos on them. That's because of the ownership group

for those cars. Lots and lots of cars that you'll see racing in factory hands. And for that matter

in private earhands are owned by investors collectors. The first batch of those cars, which

were three, not two, but three of the tailless wonders, the original X8s are already with

BBM Sports at their DaVinci UK workshop. They are not necessarily and in fact are less likely

than they perhaps were to be the cars that they will eventually race. Their intention is to race

a Persho or maybe two. It is, I believe more likely that the second batch of cars that are

heading their way, which are 2024 spec cars. So effectively, pretty close to cars that

are going to be racing in 2026, but they are the more likely cars that will find their

way into the Asia Le Mans series. So how many? One, maybe two, we'll wait and find out. But

again, we don't know. BBM don't yet know, because there are two major things that need to work

their way through here. One is one of the regulations eventually going to be, and that's

important because that's got a massive impact on what the absolutely critical factor is

going to be, and that is budget. Third, Porsche. Here's where there has been some simple mistakes

made. We are fully well aware there are teams plural looking to see whether or not there's

a possibility of bringing Porsches to the Asia Le Mans series. We're aware that JDC

Miner is one of them. They appear not to have terribly much interest in the North American

marketplace from bringing them. We're very aware, spoke to Christian Reed and the Asia

Le Mans series this year, spoken to him since, spoke to him today. Those two cars, which

it's for him to confirm or deny it, may or may not be owned by collectors, both of them,

not sold, but were owned to start with by collectors. I believe that to be the case.

I'm not making a statement. I'm making a suggestion that those cars remain in the hands

of proton competition. They are both at the proton workshop. And the intention of proton

competition is that they are looking for potential customers in the Asia Le Mans series with

one or two cars and are keeping a weather eye on the potential to bring those cars back

to the FI World Endurance Championship, either in a form in which the factory allowed them

to do that as the lead entry or returning as privateer entries. They are all options

that are currently on the potential agenda for proton competition. That, all of it, from

the horse's mouth, Christian Reed, this morning.

Exciting that we have got a array of options, an array of scenarios coming together. The

best news, I guess, at this point, without knowing the number is there's interest and

people are working on programs, because when they first announced this intention to run

hypercars in Asia Le Mans series, there was wonder wherever we get any interest at all.

Well, yeah, there was. And I think here's the thing. Where have we been with this? We started

out with Pierre Fion saying two to three cars he thought was doable. We then moved on to

Stephen Rotel, of course, Cupra Motor, with SRO of the Asia Le Mans series, to say that

he believed it might be more than that. We moved from there to several conversations,

some of which I was party to, I have to tell you, in the paddock that moved it forward

to a point where we were talking about, could it be five? Could it be seven? We then got

to the stage where people were talking 10 or even 12. I'm not aware of any part of the

maths at the moment that supports 10 or 12 cars. There's possibility that that might

happen. But we've certainly not yet come anywhere close to confirmation that numbers of that

kind of sorts are in any way deliverable. And as I said just a moment ago, with the regulations

not yet being clear and to be absolutely clear about this, that comes down to which of the

technical systems on the cars will they have to run with at the moment? It looks like all

of them. If that's the case, then that's going to make it quite pricey for some. And that

might well count some people out on the periphery. I'll say this much. That's what I'm prepared

to say publicly. There's more simple as that. Exciting. It's really exciting. Okay. And it

leaves both opportunity and challenge within the Asian Le Mans series coming forward for

2026, 2027. Yeah. So we look forward to the Asian Le Mans series. And then we look forward

to the candor being released and not too distant future to find out where we're going to be

going and in what order I think pretty probably pretty obviously the Asian Le Mans series are

hanging back to find out what happens in the Gulf region. That's smart. I think what you're

going to see when it comes forward, hoping that things don't change too much is I don't think

there'd be any surprises about where we going. There might be a few surprises about when we're

going there. That's what I'll just dip in at this stage. But that not yet confirmed. I've seen

several iterations of potential calendar as well. But that's, I think, good news.

For now, there's a couple more bits that we can throw into the mix. One of which is that Jonathan's

on a plane very soon going to Sonoma for the start of World Challenge America. That's a grid

that's come together with some nice names in it. He'll be part of the broadcast team, be on the

ground for us getting some insight, which I'm sure we'll share on the podcast when we join

again next week. We're finally reaching that point in season that we're growing where you go

from this massive gap in part because of the Qatar race. We should be in Qatar right now. Yeah, we

should be there right now too. Every weekend, there's multiple race championships on at the same

time. And that's great. I mean, it's going to be very exhausting, very tiring. But we're finally

getting there. And I'm just so excited to get to Barcelona. And I'm so excited to get to Iwala

for the start of the WEC season, because it does feel like a long time coming now. This might be

the last twist we do for the UK for the next month or so. And that's both slightly terrifying in

terms of, you know, looking at the calendar, we put together the Delhi sports car year planner.

And it's possibly the most terrifying document I've seen in some little time. But we're going to

have boots on the ground all over the place and the DSC Academy program. We've been quite quiet

about that in recent weeks, Stephen. But I can tell you right now, we're recording this in a hotel

room somewhere in the motorsport triangle in the UK. And that's because big things are happening.

We have a lot more to say about our plans with our trainee intake in due course, but some exciting

offers in terms of the coverage that they'll be giving us, the places we'll be able to take them,

the things we'll be able to teach them. I'm energised by it. You said about Jonathan with his

broadcast badge on for Esra America, you with a full team from DSC will be at Barcelona for the

prologue and the first race weekend of the LMS. I'll be there with Johnny Palmer. Steph Wentworth

on the broadcast side for that weekend between the prologue. Do you want to talk about actually on

the subjects of that? And you just you just kind of joke my memory is that in all of this in the

last week, the launch of WEC plus that streaming platform has happened. And that doesn't just

impact WEC, does it? There's LMS and Le Mans copies part of that stream. It's a shift. It's a

shift a policy from LMEM, which means that the Michelin Le Mans come up and the European Le Mans

series will no longer as a live product feature on YouTube. That will now come to the WEC plus

platform. I'm sure that the reckoning behind that is about getting people to sample the app

products, hoping that some of those will will take up the premium product that is going to be

WEC. That is going to be a paid platform, of course. And that is already live. And there's

already they're already beginning to populate the original content side of things. I think they've

just put our documentary on Genesis and their build up to joining WC's hypercar class. So we're

not at Emily yet. But if you want to get excited about the season, you can get involved in that

sign up and already start sort of viewing some of the content that they've got. It looks like

they've got some really nice plans to kind of make it sort of mini Netflix for sports car

racing. Let's hope so. I mean, you know, let's hope it works. The reality is they they were fully

well aware the previous platform to be blunt was not good enough. They're looking to make a big

step forward. There's new web platforms as well for both the European Le Mans series and for WEC

coming into this season. But we'll we'll wait and find out just exactly what the fan base find in

terms of the product in terms of the stability of that product and the customer service that went

with it. I think it's a it's a big move to make the change. It's the right move to make the change.

There will be disagreement about some parts of the strategy in terms of what goes where who's got

access to what. But there's definitely a step forward in terms of their their intent of delivering

the core product, which is of course the FI world endurance championship. And that Steven is just

three weeks away now.

Does it do we know, looking at the WC side of this move, leaving WEC, Elon Musk up to one side,

FP3 still going to be free as well. Yeah, so he's still going to have, if you just have a login,

you have Elon Musk, you have WEC FP3 as a kind of minimum. So yeah, one more story, I think to

cover before we sign off, and that is about Bruno Famham. Okay, yes, because we're on the subject

of ACO racing. So I think this is a good place to kind of end it. So Alpine came out first,

mentioned they've done a big endurance test at Motel Anargo with the 2026 spec A424. So that's

usually successful. We really, really hope that in the final year for that car, with its Joker

updates, that it's a successful season for them. It will be very emotional, I'm sure as we get

closer to that final race. And certainly when we get to their final month, a final home race. And

my hope, Graham, I don't know how we will have to wait a little bit longer, I guess, to find out

how much of a possibility this is. But my hope is that the car kind of hits the ground running, and

that maybe some solution can be found for it, not to potentially be a full factory program going

from, but, you know, stand up Signatech, would it be, it'd be awesome to see them carry on with

that car that they, they love so dearly.

It's a big bill to find the backing for, but you know, you have to say, if for me, in terms of the

people involved with the WEC, you've got the real drives trying to make it happen, Philippe

Signier is pretty high up on that list. But Bruno Fanman, by the way, picked up immediately

after leaving Alpine to come as the Deputy Director and Charger of Sporting. That is good

news, because it is fair to say that with so much going on, it's a bumper grid, again, for the

FI World and Jones Championship, with the pressures that only come with factory level

entries. With external pressures galore, and Alpine is a great example of that, with new teams

coming with Genesis Micro Racing this year, Ford and McLaren still to come amongst those so far

publicly declared, plus we've got a new ruleset coming for 2030, plus we've got new LMP2 coming

for 2028, all sorts of other things in the mix. There's no doubt in my mind that you're looking

at the potential for what is quite a small organisational team at LMEM and at the ACO, that

an injection of talent and resource and experience as Bruno's got. Bruno, for those who don't

know, previously as part of the senior management team at Persia on the turbo diesel days, went on

and had a spell at the FIA in the rulemaking side, particularly in the powertrain side of

things, then through to Alpine and now with the ACO. That, I hope, is going to be a little bit

like the cavalry coming over the rise and can give some of the guys that have been perhaps, you

know, filling too many shoes an opportunity to focus on one big project at a time, Steve.

Yeah, 100%. Let's leave it to Jonathan to sign us off for this episode. We mentioned, Jonathan,

that you're off to Sonoma. Let's dig in a little bit deeper with that. Tell us about the broadcast,

tell us how people can follow it, tell us why they should be watching GT World Challenge America

and you this weekend, but mainly you, and there's cars as well.

I think it's going to be a really great weekend. We've technically seen the beginning of SRO America

action with Toyota's GR Cup North America taken on the streets of Arlington, but this is the first

full weekend where we'll see GT World Challenge, GT America, GT4 America, TC America, GR Cup,

McLaren Trophy, what have you name them? They'll be there. It's, it's an gorgeous part of the

country and one of the most beautiful racetracks all around. I mean, for goodness sake, the sheep up

in the beautiful rolling hills of Sonoma are the ground's keepers. It's one to watch. It's a heck

of a crew that's behind the broadcast, behind putting this event on. I feel very lucky to be a

part of it. A huge thing as well. There'll be a cut down highlights package airing next weekend on

FS1, which I think is a humongous thing for everybody involved and I tipped the cap for them

making it happen. But for GT World Challenge America, quickly, I think if you're a fan thinking of

going to the event, it's a heck of a value. Get everyone there. It's very affordable. The access

is great. The racing will be really good. I think that the floodgates are open for a lot of new

teams to rise to the fore. We've had a lot of shuffling. A lot of teams have moved up to pro.

I think there's an incredible amount. Record 14 cars in pro AM and what's going to be a great

fight there. There's a lot of reasons to watch. I feel super lucky to be a small part of it, but you

should definitely be watching as well because SRO America is always a lot of fun and we'll break it

all down for you on next week's episode as well.

Brilliant stuff. Listen, good luck with that. The start of any season is always an exciting time.

Great to see cars rolling in a whole range of series and championships, which you and I as part

of the broadcast crews around the world and everybody at Delhi Sports Car, which of course

includes you too, are going to be a firm part of. For now, we're going to call it a night here

tonight. Thank you so much, Jonathan, for joining us from your home in the United States. Thank you,

Stephen Kilby, who's here in the hotel room at Silverstone and will be shortly starting on the

table full of stacks in the background. Again, with thanks to the Justice Brothers and to Toronto

MotorSports.com and to Marshall Pruitt for starting this great adventure some years ago. I've been

Graham Goodwin. They've been the guys I've just mentioned. This has been a week in sports cars

and we will join you next week.

MP 1688: The Week In Sports Cars Sebring Reflections

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