Pagenaud, Pigot star among IndyCar drivers at Petit Le Mans

By Oct 3, 2016, 10:55 AM EDT
Photo courtesy of IMSA
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The five-pack of Verizon IndyCar Series drivers competing at this year’s Petit Le Mans – newly crowned series champion Simon Pagenaud along with Spencer Pigot, Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Ryan Hunter-Reay – had interesting days at the office on Saturday.

The battle between Pagenaud and Pigot in the second half of the race over podium positions proved one of the highlights of the race.

Pagenaud didn’t even get into the No. 31 Action Express Racing Corvette DP until more than six hours of the 10-hour IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race were complete. When he did, he found himself racing Pigot, who was in his second Mazda Prototype of the day, this time the No. 70 car after the No. 55 had electrical issues and retired in the third hour.

Pigot, who has taken to the prototypes like a duck to water this year, passed Pagenaud not once but twice during the race. And he’d also battled intently with Ricky Taylor, his longtime friend in Orlando and occasional “karting driveway” rival.

The No. 70 car was poised for an overdue first podium finish of the year before heartbreak struck in the final 15 minutes of the race; a broken fuel injector contributed to a fire and a retirement for the car Pigot shared with full-season drivers Tom Long and Joel Miller.

It was a tough end for the last race of the current generation Mazda Prototype – which was homologated as a Lola B12/80 chassis and marked the last ever professional start for the venerable British constructor Lola Cars, which began in the 1950s before ending as a company in 2012.

“It was a joy to drive the car. Everything was working great. The engineers did an awesome job with the handling, and the Mazda engine was working fantastic for me,” Pigot said afterwards.

“I just had a lot of fun out there. I was able to battle with a lot of good guys – Simon [Pagenaud] and Ricky [Taylor]- back and forth a lot. It was clean, good hard racing. The team definitely deserved to be on the podium. They worked incredibly hard. It’s a shame what happened to the 55 car early in the race but everyone was out supporting the 70 – and that’s what Mazda’s all about. It’s a big family and I wish it had ended a little bit different.”

Pagenaud, meanwhile, had to account for the long wait time before his opening stint. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering/Team Fox entry finished fourth on the day, but one spot ahead of the sister Action Express car to secure Dane Cameron and Eric Curran the full-season championship.

“It was long. I hate waiting! But that’s part of the job what you do as the third driver,” Pagenaud told NBC Sports post-race. “It wasn’t easy because I had the sun coming down going into the night. Not an easy stint. Simon the engineer put me in a good situation. It paid off.”

The other three IndyCar drivers didn’t get their usual chance to start as much.

Sebastien Bourdais was part of the sister No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT that finished second in GT Le Mans in the car he shared with Dirk Mueller and Joey Hand.

A broken waste gate pipe slowed the progress of the No. 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT shared by Scott Dixon with full-season co-drivers Richard Westbrook and Ryan Briscoe, who were going for the championship. That car finished seventh.

A forgettable season for Visit Florida Racing was hamstrung by engine issues, and left Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 90 Corvette DP car he shared with Ryan Dalziel and Marc Goossens seventh in class.

Ford Mustang GT3 test has Austin Cindric dreaming of Daytona: ‘I want to drive that car’

By Mar 22, 2023, 2:30 PM EDT
Cindric Ford GT3 test
Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
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Austin Cindric wasn’t the “mystery” test driver behind the wheel of the new Ford Mustang GT3 at Sebring International Raceway, but the Team Penske driver desperately wanted to be.

Ford CEO Jim Farley, an amateur sports car driver himself, made the big reveal via a Tuesday tweet that provided the first video evidence of the GT3 Mustang on track.

“I’ve watched the video in question about a million times,” Cindric said Wednesday during a Ford Performance Zoom news conference to promote NASCAR’s first road course weekend of the season at Circuit of the Americas. “Definitely exciting times for sure. I want to drive that car. It suits my experience level and also the relationships that I have.”

Ford will enter the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next season with its GT3 Mustang, entering a two-car factory effort (that will be managed by Multimatic) in GTD Pro and making customer cars available in the GT Daytona category.

That increases the likelihood of seeing more NASCAR drivers crossing over to IMSA. Cindric has been the only full-time Cup driver in the Rolex 24 at Daytona the past two years, but Ford Performance global director Mark Rushbrook has said the GT3 Mustang will provide more opportunities.

Ford has used its GT4 Mustang as a NASCAR driver development tool in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge with Harrison Burton and Zane Smith combining to win the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in January.

“We’re excited about the Next Gen car and the new architecture there and the similarities between that car and GT3 and even GT4 cars,” Rushbrook said at the announcement of the Ford GT3 program in January 2022 at Daytona. “We think it’s a great opportunity and to do be able to do that in a 24-hour race and get NASCAR drivers even more time is something we need to consider taking advantage of that opportunity.”

Given his sports car background, Cindric probably still would be in the Rolex 24 regardless. He has eight IMSA starts since the 2017 season opener at Daytona, racing a Lexus RCF GT3 and Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT category. The 2022 Daytona 500 winner made his second LMP2 start this year with Rick Ware Racing.

But Cindric’s preference naturally would be in a Ford, particularly with sports car racing enjoying convergence and crossovers in both GT and prototype racing.

“It’s an exciting time in GT racing, just as it is now for prototype racing with a lot of new regulations and manufacturers building new GT3 cars,” he said. “And also the opportunity with WEC (the World Endurance Championship) and Le Mans and how that all lines up for that category of car. It’s definitely an exciting time. I want to be as much of a part of that as possible.”

Though those odds seemingly will increase with multiple Ford entries in the Rolex 24 field next year, Cindric said NASCAR drivers still have to put in the networking to land rides as he has in recent years.

“Now how (the GT3 Mustang) relates to specifically NASCAR drivers and how often they want to be in the Rolex, could it be an influence? Absolutely, as far as the tie-in with the manufacturer,” Cindric said. “But the challenge and the drive and the logistics of getting an opportunity for a race like the Rolex 24 will be just as challenging as it always is to find your one-off ride for the race. At least from my experience, that’s what I still anticipate.”

It turned out the “mystery” test driver wasn’t from NASCAR (Farley revealed the driver to be 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Joey Hand after a fan asked whether it was Joey Logano).

But Cindric believes there could be more Cup drivers — and perhaps himself — behind the wheel of Mustang GT3s in the future.

“There’s definitely more of a pathway than I think there would be before as far as Ford drivers are concerned,” he said. “Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to drive that thing. It’s obviously a great looking car. That’s the first box you’ve got to check. And it’s cool (to have) a guy like Jim Farley, no doubt he’s a racer just as much as he is steering the ship for Ford. It’s cool to see he’s just as excited as the rest of us about it.”