Six hours complete at Le Mans - MotorSportsTalk

Racing with heavy hearts after the death of teammate Allan Simonsen in the opening moments of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Aston Martin Racing team is performing admirably as the race crosses the six-hour mark.

In the GTE-Pro category, the No. 99 Aston of Bruno Senna, Robert Bell and Frederic Makowiecki and the No. 97 Aston of Stefan Mucke, Peter Dumbreck and Darren Turner are running first and second in the class, ahead of the two Porsche AG Team Manthey 911s. The third GTE-Pro Aston, the No. 98 for GRAND-AM vets Bill Auberlen, Paul Della Lana and Pedro Lamy, currently sit seventh in the class.

“It’s not easy conditions out there,” Mucke told SPEED Channel after stepping out of the No. 97 following his stint. “We’ve had a lot of safety cars and a lot of dirt on the track…But so far, everything is running good. The team is doing a good job and I think we can be happy.”

As for the remaining Aston in the GTE-Am category (the class that Simonsen was racing in), the No. 96 of Jamie Campbell-Walter, Roald Goethe and Stuart Hall are eighth in the class.

Back up front, the Audi contingent has control of the proceedings, currently holding the top three positions overall with the No. 1 R18 E-Tron Quattro (pictured) of Benoit Treyuler, Andre Lotterer and Marcel Fassler leading their teammates in the No. 2 (Loic Duval, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish) and No. 3 (Lucas di Grassi, Marc Gene, and Oliver Jarvis) R18 hybrids. However, the No. 2 camp had a bit of a scare during the fifth hour when the No. 24 Oak Racing LMP2 Morgan-Nissan of David Heinemeier Hansson lost control in front of Duval at the Porsche Curves.

Fortunately for Audi, Duval was able to escape unscathed and continue on; he has since set his fastest lap of the race at 3 minutes, 23.269 seconds on Lap 86 around the massive Circuit de la Sarthe.

In the LMP2 category, the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca-Nissan of John Martin, Roman Rusinov and IndyCar part-timer Mike Conway led the race at the six-hour point, while in GTE-Am, the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Piergiuseppe Perrazini, Darryl O’Young and Lorenzo Case are on top.

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”