But will anybody be paying attention while the
Indianapolis Colts play the Chicago Bears at Lucas Oil Stadium at 1:00PM the
same day?
For those of us reputedly in the minority, and
Jonesin’ for some more racing action instead of Football, Ralf! This weekend
features Sports Cars racing upon Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s (IMS) 2.439-mile,
14 turn permanent road course. With 56 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship
entries set to take the Green flag at 8:40AM Pacific this Sunday.
As the race switches from last year’s return to
Mother Speedway with a two hour, forty minutes sprint race, to a full six hours
endurance race format.
IMSA rules allow for both it’s premiere GTP and
GTD Pro classes to run with only two drivers for the six hours IMS endurance
race, which the majority have opted for. Therefore the only current IndyCar
driver on tap will be Romain Grosjean.
As Grosjean, along with His regular Iron Lynx
compatriots Matteo Cairoli and Andriea Caldarelli will pilot the NO. 63
Lamborghini SP63 IMSA GTP entry. Which is only contesting the five Michelin
Endurance Cup rounds this season, having last raced at Watkins Glen this July.
The only other two GTP entries opting for three
drivers vs. two are the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac with former IndyCar driver Tom
Blomqvist. And Alession Picariello behind the keyboard of the No. 5 Proton
Competition Porsche 963.
Whilst reportedly, the only taker in GTD Pro
for three Hotshue’s is the No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 entry with Neil
Verhagen joining regulars Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow.
Eleven GTP entries will be joined by 12 GTD Pro
and 23 GTD entries.
While the LMP2 class downsizes three entries to
a total of 10, the fewest cars of the four IMSA categories participating.
One of these three LMP2 runners is DragonSpeed
moving to field a Ferrari 296 GT3 in the GTD (Daytona) class for Henrik Hedman,
Rasmus Lind and Ferrari Saloon Bad Arse Toni Vilander. As Lind is a former Indy
Lights driver.
Another GTD entry of note is the iconic #43
Andretti Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R entry featuring Jarett Andretti; son of
the late John Andretti. Partnered by Gabby Chaves and Scott Hargrove.
The race will be available on a multitude of
platforms this Sunday including Peacock, IMSA Radio and NBC. As Big NBC will
air the second half of racing between Noon-3:00PM, (Pacific) with the first
half of the race on Peacock.
Whilst Arse-sumedly the entire race will be available on IMSA Radio for those of us visually challenged whom prefer to hear John Hindhaugh and Jeremy Shaw calling the action…
