Tag: Porsche Penske

Friday Practice: Estre Leads in Penske Porsche

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From IMS: Still awaiting results for this morning’s practice.

 INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, Sept. 18, 2026) – Porsche Penske Motorsport led practice in the premier GTP class Friday during the first day of track activity for the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Kevin Estre turned the quickest lap of the 90-minute session, 1 minute, 15.764 seconds, in the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course. Estre will share the prototype sports car with Laurin Heinrich in the two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, which starts at 3:10 p.m. ET Sunday.
SEE: Practice Results

The speed of the No. 6 Porsche will be helpful for Heinrich, who is second in the GTP drivers’ standings, 118 points behind 2025 Battle on the Bricks winner Jack Aitken of Cadillac with just two races remaining this season. Porsche strategically moved Heinrich from JDC-Miller Motorsports back to the No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport car alongside Estre for this event to try and gain ground on Aitken.

Former NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver Tom Blomqvist was second today at 1:15.853 in the No. 60 Acura Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06. His teammate Sunday will be fellow INDYCAR SERIES veteran Colin Braun.Sheldon van der Linde ended up third at 1:16.088 in the No. 24 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8.Aitken’s teammate, Earl Bamber, was sixth quickest at 1:16.216 in the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.Less than six-tenths of a second separated the top seven cars in the 11-car GTP field. That should produce a taut qualifying session for the class at 6:05 p.m. ET Saturday.

Tom Dillmann was the quickest driver in the LMP2 class, turning a top lap of 1:16.545 in the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07.Dillman and teammate Jeremy Clarke have won the class in the last two races this season to pull to within 36 points of the leading No. 04 CrowdStrike Racing by APR shared by George Kurtz and Alex Quinn in what appears to be a two-car battle for the crown. Quinn was third in the LMP2 class today at 1:16.833.

LMP2 qualifying starts at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

Nicky Catsburg led the GTD PRO class at 1:23.567 in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.GTD PRO has an intense title race, as just 67 points separate the top five teams, each of which represent a different manufacturer (BMW, Chevrolet, Lamborghini, Porsche and Ford). Catsburg and teammate Tommy Milner are second, just 23 points behind the leading No. 1 Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 shared by Neil Verhagen and Connor De Phillippi. Verhagen could only manage seventh in practice today, with a best lap of 1:24.437

.Qualifying for GTD PRO begins at 5:25 p.m. ET.

Trent Hindman was quickest in the GTD class with a best lap of 1:23.630 in the No. 45 Wayne Taylor Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 he shares with Danny Formal.

GTD qualifying starts at 5:05 p.m. ET Saturday.

The Michelin Pilot Challenge series will conduct the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 120, a two-hour race at 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday with its two classes.Michael Cooper was quickest overall in practice today for the Grand Sport class with a top lap of 1:29.533 in the No. 44 Ibiza Farm Motorsport McLaren Artura GT4. Cooper also led the opening practice at this event last year. LP Montour led the Touring Car class at 1:31.826 in the No. 93 MMG Honda Civic FL5

TCR.Michelin Pilot Challenge qualifying starts at 8 a.m. ET Saturday.

Visit IMS.com for tickets and more information on the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. 
 

Rolex 24- Some Thoughts from Afar

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Six and a half hours of fog mad the finish closer than it should have been. Felipe Nasr and the number 7 Porsche Penske dominated the entire race from start to finish. Only body damage to the sister car, number 6, kept this edition of the Rolex 24 from ending in a 1-2 Porsche finish.

For Nasr and Penske it was three in a row, a rare feat in endurance racing.

Congratulations to the other class winners:

LMP2- Crowdstrike

GTD Pro Paul Miller Racing BMW

GTD Winward Racing Mercedes

IndyCar Drivers

Will Power had the best race among the IndyCar drivers in the field. The GTD Pro Merce3des team Power drove for finished second in class.

Other results:

GTP

Alex Palou- 5th

Colton nHerta 6th

Scott Dixon 9th

LMP2

Nolan Siegel 3rd

Kyffin Simpson 8th

GTD Pro

Power 2nd

Kyle Kirkwood 10th

GTD

Marcus Ericsson 8th

Scott McLaughlin 17th

Callum Ilott 20th

TV Coverage

I watched most of the race on Peacock The coverage was mostly okay. They seemed to do a more balanced job this year of covering all four classes, including the b collision in GTD late in the race while a battle for first overall was going on.

There were far too many commercial breaks, especially near the end of the race. When Leigh Diffey said they would go nonstop for the final 13 minutes, I thought, “How generous!”

With a six hour plus caution for fog, surely NBC/Peacock could have gotten in many of their breaks during that time.

I loved all the vintage clips the network showed this year. More of that, please.

On the other hand, the announcers seemed obsessed with mentioning A J Allmendinger constantly. Yes, he is a great driver. Yes, he has won the Rolex 24. I like A J. He is a really good guy. I just think the network should have just put him on staff if they want to mention him so much.

Final Thoughts

2026 was the first Rolex I have not attended in person since the pandemic. Since I closed Winter Headquarters late last year, I’m not sure when I will get back to Daytona.

The track announced record attendance, and I find that plausible. Each year I went, the crowd seemed larger than the previous year. The track is moving toward reserved camp spaces starting in 2027. I’m anxious to see how that works out.

I will try to get to Sebring, my favorite sports car race in North America.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some IndyCar happenings. Content days begin tomorrow, so there should be lots of news.

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@jsoupzzz24

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Le Mans Journal Day 8-Estre’s Last Lap Nips Cadillac

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Alex Lynn had to be feeling quite good. His final Hyperpole lap edged out Sebastien Bourdais by 0.018 seconds to take the top spot and give Cadillac a front row lockout. But Kevin Estre in the Penske Porsche had yet to complete his final circuit. Estre gaiuned enough ground in the second half of the lap to steal the pole from Cadillac. His margin over Lynn was 0.148 seconds.

Penske cars have now won poles at the Daytona 500, the Indianapolis 500, and Le Mans.

Team Jota number 12, driven by Callum Ilott, did not participate because the car was not ready in time following a practice crash.

In LMP2, the number 14 car from AO Racing, affectionately known as Spike, will start on pole for that class. Louis Delatraz, who drives for Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, looks for his first Le Mans win after several close calls. The car has been in the top three in the practice sessions.

GT3 honors go to McLaren number 70, Brendan Iribe gave McLaren its first Le Mans pole.

The 2024 Le Mans grid is quite deep in all classes. I’m looking for a very competitive race.

Le Mans Continues to Astound

I thought that after a couple of days here i would find this event to return to an ordinary race weekend. The surprises keep coming. I di not expect much from yesterday’s Hyperpole shootout, nor did I expect much interest from the fans. The session had the largest crowd of the week. I watched from the same spot as I did for qualifying, just before the Dunlop bridge.

Wednesday for qualifying the crowd was about four deep from the fence. Thursday fans stood at least eight deep. I have no idea how those in the back saw anything.

I also had a chance meeting with some fellow Indycar fans. I saw on social media that they were coming, but did not have much hope of ever seeing them here. Yet, we found each other. Meeting siomeone you know here is a totally random act unless a meeting point has been pre arranged.

Friday is the Drivers’ parade at Place de la Republique. It begins a 4 pm local time. I plan to be there by 2, just going by the crowds I saw at Scrutineering last week.

I do have some thoughts on the new Indycar television package and the schedule, which I will put in another article later today. The six hour time difference is both a luxury and a curse when figuring out when to post things. It is 1:30 am Eastern as I am writing this. I try to post around 6 am Eastern, as most of you seem to think sleep is more important than reading my blog.