| With Three Races in Two Continents Over Four Weeks, IMSA Drivers, Teams Stretched to the Maximum June 17, 2025By John OreoviczIMSA Wire Service |
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – We should all be so lucky to get paid to travel the world, driving or working on race cars. It all seems very glamorous on the surface, but the reality isn’t that simple – especially for those contesting three races in two different championships spread over four June weekends spanning Detroit, the Circuit de la Sarthe in France, and Watkins Glen International. A total of 62 drivers are doing the endurance race “double” of this past weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship 24 Hours of Le Mans and then this week’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen to resume the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season. Some 21 of those also did the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic a week beforehand, and so those drivers along with dozens of mechanics, engineers and team management figures departed for France immediately after Detroit. Logistics Lowdown Planning the team and crew logistics is half the battle, as Cadillac key figures Action Express Racing director of team operations Chris Mitchum and Wayne Taylor Racing vice president and general manager Travis Houge explained. “One thing that’s unique this year is once the Detroit race is over, the Detroit racecar is going to go to Le Mans and be a program spare. Hopefully, we won’t need anything from it. Then that car, which never sets foot on Le Mans property, will be air freighted back after the Le Mans race has started and meet us at Watkins Glen and become the spare at Watkins Glen to the other primary car. So that that’s kind of the dance of the cars,” Mitchum said. “I’d say the biggest change for us from year one is really the amount of equipment that we’re able to sea freight over so far ahead, bringing costs down. Also, it gives you a level of comfort to know we don’t have a long list of things that have to come over in suitcases from Detroit. We are pretty much to a point where the program from a core infrastructure with our partners, the time that we’re spending with the Wayne Taylor Racing entry and how unified we are, has changed completely from year one.” |
| Houge noted one key difference between the two Cadillac Racing teams is the nearer Indianapolis shop location for WTR, post-Detroit and pre-Watkins Glen. “Crew-wise, it’s a lot more moving pieces with two cars,” Houge said. “We’ll have essentially three groups of people. The group of people (at Laguna Seca May 11). And then we have our Le Mans team and our Watkins Glen team. The guys that are going to Le Mans, they’ll do Detroit. They’ll leave Detroit, drive to Indy, get a night at home and then get on a plane. Halfway through the event of Le Mans, we have the other portion of our team join us over there to do the race weekend. “So, there’ll be a group that stays back, they’ll build the cars for Watkins Glen and then half of that team will stay to finish that prep, get loaded, get the trucks ready to go. The other half of that U.S. team will come over and support the race. And then everybody that’s over there for the race will fly back and head straight to Watkins Glen. “The one thing that we have that I’m going to say is a luxury versus AXR is they have to do Detroit and go straight over. Because we’re so close to Indy, I can let the guys drive home after the Detroit event, get one more night at home, one more morning with their families, and then get on a plane. We’re actually on the same flight over as AXR on the next day. When you’re doing something this long and we’re on the road this much, it’s one little night that goes a long way.” Driver Double Discussion Most drivers doing the double have had the luxury of competing in the same car – if not the same exact car number or driver lineup – across both championships. That eases some stress in a stressful time of the calendar. “It’s very stressful to be in that phase of the year that we’re starting right now, so it’s important to keep the right mindset and keep yourself focused on the job, especially for the mechanics and engineers to be flying in and out,” said Felipe Nasr, who along with Nick Tandy in the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 competed in pursuit of the endurance “Triple Crown” in the same season. Tandy added, “The travel days become longer, and the days when the boys are prepping the car become longer. But once race day begins, the adrenaline takes over, no matter what you’re doing. We all know you’ve got to put in the hard hours and the hard work to be as well prepared as possible for race day. So, let’s go do it.” |
| The same applies to Roman De Angelis, who is part of the full-time driver lineup for the Aston Martin THOR Team IMSA program and raced the same team’s No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie at Le Mans. This is De Angelis’s first season in Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) prototypes after several successful campaigns with the Heart of Racing Team brand in IMSA’s Grand Touring Daytona (GTD) class. “It was more weird for me last year because I was jumping from an LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) car to a GT3 car,” De Angelis said. “That was a little odd, but obviously this year I’m going from the same car to the same car, and I don’t think it will be that bad. Everything is the exact same, so I don’t have to worry about switching what buttons control what and things like that. “I think the biggest thing is just recovering,” he added. “I’m going back home to my family in Canada for a few days and I’m just going to try to relax and try to reset and sleep and basically do nothing. I think that’s the hardest thing, is making sure you’re recovered.” That’s an assessment shared by Dries Vanthoor, who competes full-time for BMW in both IMSA and WEC championships, across two different teams. “After Le Mans or any of the 24-hour races, it’s tough physically,” said the Belgian. “For the day after or two days after, you feel a bit sore. You’re tired and want to relax. But at the end of the day, we need to perform. That’s our job, and we have to make sure we have trained enough to do it. I think it should be fine – just make sure you rest enough.” Jack Hawksworth competed at Le Mans in a Lexus RC F GT3 almost identical to the No. 12 Lexus he drives for Vasser Sullivan Racing in IMSA’s GTD class. He said the biggest adjustments are the adaptation to a different tire brand at Le Mans instead of the Michelins used in IMSA, along with variations in the rules and procedures, some that are Le Mans specific. Like his English countryman Tandy, Hawksworth relies on race day adrenaline to power through. “It’s crazy, but I just love racing,” he said. “For me, the Monday after any 24-hour race, you’re kind of shot, but then Tuesday morning I’ll wake up and be back with full focus on this. We’re doing well in the IMSA series this year (Hawksworth and Parker Thompson are second in the GTD standings), so I’m sure I’ll be excited to get to Watkins Glen and keep it going.” Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen airs live on network NBC at noon ET and streams live, flag-to-flag, on Peacock domestically and IMSA.TV and IMSA’s Official YouTube channel internationally. |
