TUSC: AXR, Spirit of Daytona off to Roar-ing start in weekend test - MotorSportsTalk

Action Express Racing and Spirit of Daytona Racing swapped the top spots between the morning and afternoon sessions of the first day in the Roar Before the Rolex 24.

The No. 5 AXR Corvette DP (pictured, from last year), with drivers Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi and Sebastien Bourdais, was fastest over SDR in the morning with a lap of 1 minute, 38.630 seconds around Daytona International Speedway’s famed 3.56-mile road course.

But in the afternoon, the No. 90 SDR Corvette DP of Michael Valiante, Richard Westbrook and Mike Rockenfeller moved ahead of AXR on the time sheets with a lap of 1 minute, 38.898 seconds.

Third-place in the morning session went to the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP (Wayne Taylor/Max Angelelli/Ricky Taylor/Jordan Taylor), while P3 in the afternoon was claimed by the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Corvette DP (Alex Gurney/Darren Law/Jon Fogarty/Memo Gidley).

As for how the former P2 cars fared against the Daytona Prototypes, the No. 1 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b (Scott Sharp/Ryan Dalziel/David Brabham) topped out in the afternoon with a lap of 1 minute, 40.006 seconds.

But while that was the quickest lap set by a non-Chevrolet entry across both Friday sessions, it still lagged behind the top time set by AXR in the morning by a margin of almost one and a half seconds.

Here were the other class leaders on Day 1, split by morning and afternoon sessions:

FRIDAY MORNING

Prototype Challenge: No. 54 CORE Autosport Oreca FLM09 (Jon Bennett/Colin Braun/Mark Wilkins) – 1:42.468/125.073 mph

GT Le Mans: No. 4 Corvette Racing C7.R (Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner/Robin Liddell) – 1:45.743/121.200 mph

GT Daytona: No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS (Spencer Pumpelly/Nelson Canache/Tim Pappas) – 1:48.444/118.181 mph

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Prototype Challenge: No. 87 BAR1 Motorsports Oreca FLM09 (Sean Rayhall/Doug Bielefeld/Chapman Ducote) – 1:43.322/124.039 mph

GT Le Mans: No. 911 Porsche North America 911 RSR (Nick Tandy/Richard Lietz/Patrick Pilet) – 1:45.564/121.405 mph

GT Daytona: No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Audi R8 LMS (Pumpelly/Canache/Pappas) – 1:47.981/118.688 mph

The TUSC contingent will have four practice sessions tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET, 1 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. ET, and 6:30 p.m. ET.

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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.”