Today’s Schedule:

7:30 a.m.-4 p.m.: Public gates open

8-8:20 a.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Warm-up

9:40-10:20 a.m.: Porsche Carrera Cup Race 2 (40 minutes)

10:40-11:30 a.m.: Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America Race 2 (50 minutes)

Noon-12:50 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Pre-Race, Open Grid, Fan Walk

1:10-3:50 p.m.: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks Race (2 hours, 40 minutes) NBC, Peacock

Toay begins a new era for IMS as sports cars begin what should be a longer run than the three years of Grand AM had in the early 2010s. The series has been fun to watch on track the last two days.

As I watched practice yesterday morning, I thought how proper it looked to have sports on the road course. These machines just looked like they belonged here.

Last night’s Michelin Pilot Challenge turned out to be a heck of a race. The last hour featured fierce battles for the lead in both classes. There was a lot of contact between the leaders, but it was mostly hard racing. Daniel Morad won the GS class. Mikey Taylor won the TCR trophy. Robert Wickens lost the lead with just three laps to go, and finished second, less than a second behind Taylor. It was great to see Wickens racing at IMS again.

The track looks great at night. like that the entire track isn’t lit. I felt there was the correct mix of lighted and dark areas.

Notes

Following the warmup, there will be a special demonstration run with the last Ferrari to win Le Mans prior to this year, and a 1966 Ford GT.

I thought the grid walk before the race yesterday afternoon seemed less crowded than usual. I discovered the reason. Virtually everyone had crowded around the car of Robert Wickens. Several Indycar drivers were there, including Alexander Rossi, Marus Ericsson, Felix Rosenqvist, Jack Harvey, and Conor Daly.

I will try to have a quick pre race post and then a post after the race. Enjoy the race.