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Alonso on Pole for Sebring 1,0000

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Good morning from Sebring. Last night Fernando Alonso won the pole for tonight ‘s 1,000 mile World Endurance Championship event. He and the other Toyota Gazoo car will start on the front row for the 4 o’clock race. The race has an eight hour time limit if the winner has not completed 1,000 miles.

Qualifying for the 67th 12 hour Sebring race is this morning.

Some Nice Changes

The one lane vehicle bridge in the infield is no more. I was happily surprised to find a 2 lane bridge with a pedestrian walkway on one side.

The track appears to have added some lighting . Not sure is this was a request from WEC .

WEC Paddock the WEC paddock was like

The WEC paddock is like no other I’ve seen. Each car is housed in a large tent. Outside each carsc space is a small pylon showing the teams results for the sesson.

The entry to the paddock has an arch with a changing LED display showing the season’s race results.

Each team has an office across from the car area. It is a temporary rectangular structure of a good size for meetings.

This paddock was quite a contrast from the IMSA area.

Back with a new IMSA update later.

I am unable to post photos.

 

Ben Hanley Looks for a Solid Weekend

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Ben Hanley eagerly anticipates his first Indycar weekend at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The driver oft he number 81 Dragonspeed entry, the newest car in The NTT Indycar Series paddock, told The Pit Window the team has no major expectations except to have “Solid results and concentrate on getting a good race car Sunday. ”

Hanley, 34, from Manchester, UK, won the LMP2 pole for Dragonspeed at the Rolex 24 in January. He has open wheel experience driving in the GP2 series.

Hanley said the Indycar is similar to  the  prototype he drives in IMSA and the WEC, perhaps a little heavier on the downforce. He is eager to drive in traffic. Although there were other cars testing at Sebring with him, he realizes this weekend this will be different.

He has not run on the alternate red tires and won’t until Friday afternoon’s practice session. I asked Hanley what he expected from the tires.

“Hopefully stickier, ” he said. He is eager to see how the tires will change as the track changes throughout the weekend.

As for overall team goals for their five races in 2019, “We want be in it for the long term.   Just put our heads down and go to work.”

Quick Thoughts on the Rolex 24 Qualifying and Practice

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Just a few notes about the first two days at the Rolex 24:

One of the reasons I love going to this race is seeing friends from Indy who come down for the event. It’s great to catch up with them.

The Ford GTLM cars are gorgeous in their throwback liveries. Unable to post current pics until Sunday. Watch some of the coverage on NBCSN if you haven’t seen this yet. The other throwback dressed cars are great too, but Ford/ Ganassi did an outstanding job with the them.

Seeing a 26 year old track record broken yesterday was incredible. Kind of sad that Dan Gurney’s car no longer holds the top spot, but holding a record for more than two decades is quite an accomplishment.

Is LMP2 really its own class? They qualified in the same session with the DPi cars and no P2car was awarded a class pole. IMSA needs to decide if a class with just four cars is worth it.

Watching this morning’s practice from the oval turn 3/4 banking really shows the speed difference between the cars. The GT cars look very slow compared to the prototypes.

I met a man yesterday who is attending his 35th consecutive Rolex 24. To me that is equivalent to at least 50 Indy 500d. Today I met someone at their 50th straight Rolex. I can’t even begin to figure how many 500s that equates to. Going to this race takes a huge commitment.

Sunday look for quick thoughts on the race here, and look for my full weekend wrap-up on Wildfire Sports Monday.

Wickens Clarifies His Injury

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In a statement from Robert Wickens today he clarifies exactly what his injury is and explains what may happen in time