And it’s got nothing to do with the long forgotten
MSR Tyregate fiasco…
Full disclosure, obviously I scribbled this
awhile ago, immediately after the race. In order to have something to post on
No Fenders when I’d originally planned to procrastinate upon having thoust
Confuzer’ in the shop for a tune-up…
Yet the joke’s on
me once again, thanks Microsoft! Having pulled the proverbial plug upon Mwah
Wayback on Thursday, September 24th, but I digress…
By Gummit’, where’s ‘Ol Forrest Gump when Yuhs
need Him, Eh? As you’d have thought I would have been “Jazzed” up over tuning
into a fall motor race, now that IndyCar’s gone into its ridiculous six months
winter hibernation, Yawn!
This summer, when trying to listen online to le
24 Heurs du Mans, all three of my web browsers gave me serious alerts for
Hackers possibly targeting my machine after having clicked on the RS2 radio
feed via IMSA Radio, Say What! And since these warnings failed to go away, I
had to scramble to learn another way to listen to IMSA Sports car races, Sigh!
My latest website is MyTuner Radio, which works
fine, with the exception of the volume being constantly wonky all race long,
Urgh! As the volume went up ‘n down repeatedly as I had to keep jacking up the
volume to hear the muted tone of John Hindhaugh, whilst Ryan Marin was shouting
at me! Not to mention pitlane reporter ArJuna’s interviews starting off loud
and then diminishing – before returning to the booth had their sound level too
loud, Oh Never Mind!
Thus, naturally this makes following a race
annoying to say the least! And I don’t know if it’s a broadcast problema or my
Spectrum internet provider’s?
It’s odd how Deflated I felt at race’s end. As
I like both Jack Achey-Breaky’ Aitken and Laurin Heinrich equally. With these
two protagonists vying for the Drivers title. Yet I find myself wanting
Heinrich to win over Aitken for reasons unknown. Other than He seems to have
had the better season, with three wins vs. Aitken’s two.
Yet Aitken’s been more consistent, winning at
Detroit and Watkins glen. Along with a total of seven podiums; four runner-up
and one third place finishes prior to Road Atlanta’s season finale. With his
Road America contretemps with Porsche’s Kevin Estre netting an eighth-place
result.
Heinrich, who’s raced in three different
Porsche’s, has six podiums. Having won the first two events aboard the No. 7 Porsche
Penske Motorsport entry. (Daytona-Sebring) And then securing the first customer
Porsche win with JDC Miller Motorsport at Laguna Seca; one runner-up and two third
place finishes. While a sixth and 11th at Long Beach and Detroit blot his
copybook. Being 147 points behind Aitken entering Petit Le Mans.
As Heinrich needs a miracle to win the title,
since basically if Aitken and Co. finish ninth or better at Road Atlanta, I
believe He wins the championship.
Actually, Aitken effectively clinched the title by
qualifying ahead of Heinrich at Road Atlanta…
Although I don’t want Penske to win every race,
following Sebring, IMSA slapped the maximum allowable penalty of 45 kilos,
approx. 100lbs of additional ballast to the 963 Panzerwagens, Youch! And the
Porsche’s haven’t been able to win since.
While if I put my tin-foil hat on, it’s a bit disconcerting
that the (AXR) Whelen Engineering Caddy’ with ties to IMSA’s owner NASCAR is
leading the points battle…
Yes, I was happy that Sheldon van der Linde
passed Earl Bamber for the lead with five minutes remaining, and scored BMW
Team WRT’s debutante IMSA GTP victory! But I was hoping more for Heinrich to
pass Bamber for second, which didn’t happen.
A similar feeling swept over Mwah for the
outcome of the GTD Pro category. Yeah, I was happy that Dennis Olsen held off
Nicky Catsburg for the win in the No. 64 “Darkhorse” Ford Mustang after Bangin’
doors with the Corvette. But I’d wanted the young lion Nikita Johnson on the
fuel-save of his life to claim victory instead.
Reigning Indy NXT champion Johnson was trying
to score Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s (RLLR) maiden GTD Pro win with its NO.
59 factory McLaren 720s on an audacious fuel strategy. With John Hindhaugh
noting Johnson had come up just five seconds short! And if the last lap had
been 1:18 vs. 1:23 – requiring another circuit round the Speedway, Johnson
wouldn’t have needed to pit for a splash of fuel with one-lap remaining…
Yet IndyCar driver Christian Rasmussen proved
it was possible to go exceedingly long on a tank of racing petrol. As the Dane’
stretched his No. 18 ERA Motorsport Oreaca’s fuel load, winning the LMP2
category for his third win on the Brickyard’s permanent road course.
Cannot recall hearing of such a rule before.
But the dominant GT Daytona (GTD) class winners Windward Racing had to drop to
the rear of the field after failing to return to the pitlane during the
reconnaissance lap before the pits closed prior to race’s start.
Although Russell Ward drove towards the front.
One could say this violation enabled the No. 96 Turner Motorsports BMW M4 Evo of
Patrick Gallagher and Robby Foley to hang on for the win, barely ahead of
Windwards’ No. 57 Mercedes at the stripe!
The win was Turner’s first in two-plus years,
last winning at Road America in August, 2024.
And even though it was an entertaining race, I just didn’t feel any euphoria after a three hours cruise of the volume constantly going up-down-up like a raging sea with Gilligan at the tiller…
