IMSA: Sebring Friday notebook

MARC MILLER UPDATE

CJ Wilson Racing driver Marc Miller was released from the hospital after suffering a frightening head-on impact with a bridge abutment during Friday's Continental Tire Series race. The team's ace PR man Declan Brennan confirmed the Mazda MX-5 pilot suffered a broken ankle and ribs in the crash. Adding to his discomfort, Miller also received a spider bite Thursday night and has a nasty welt to go with his list of injuries.

SEBRING DELTAWING DWC13 IN CAR

Watch the DeltaWing DWC13 try to match the pace of the pole-winning No. 5 Corvette DP as driver Andy Meyrick pushes the unique prototype to its limits at Sebring International Raceway in this exclusive for The RACER Channel.

SURPRISE FROM HPD

RACER has learned that Honda Performance Development technical director Roger Griffiths, who was an integral piece of Honda's sports car and Indy car programs, not to mention its success in both realms, tendered his resignation on Thursday. According to HPD, a replacement for the Briton has yet to be nominated.

AIM AUTOSPORT FERRARI F458 IN CAR

Two-time Grand-Am Rolex GT champion Jeff Segal pedals Aim Autosport's No. 555 Ferrari F458 GTD entry around Sebring International Raceway during night practice and takes The RACER Channel along with him.

SPIRIT OF DAYTONA CORVETTE DP IN CAR

Spirit of Daytona driver Michael Valiante takes The RACER Channel for a fast and punishing ride around the 3.7-mile road course in his No. 90 Corvette DP.

GIANT RACE-ENDING CONTINENTAL TIRE SERIES CRASH

Two major crashes forced the Continental Tire Series race at Sebring to end under the caution flag. The No. 05 CJ Wilson Racing Mazda MX-5 driven by Marc Miller was spun into a bridge abutment, destroying the front of the car before it flew across the track. Miller has been transported to a local hospital for evaluation, yet was awake, alert, and complaining of back pain, according to the team.

Under the same caution the No. 84 BimmerWorld Racing BMW F30 piloted by James Clay suffered a brake failure entering Turn 3, who drove across the grass to alter his trajectory to hit with the side instead of the front. Clay was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

ALL GO FOR RISI

Risi Competizione has repaired their damaged Ferrari F458 in time to make a run for the pole today. The defending 12 Hour class winners have been fast so far—could they steal the top starting spot?

SEBRING MICHAEL SHANK HIGH DOWNFORCE REVIEW

The RACER Channel and Michael Shank Racing bring you the latest tech video from the 12 Hours of Sebring describing the new high-downforce body package for Daytona Prototypes.

PAT LONG INTERROGATES HIS PORSCHE TEAMMATES

Hand factory Porsche driver Patrick Long a microphone and he's bound to have fun with his friends and teammates. The RACER Channel goes for a ride with the American as he pushes Michael Christensen and Wolf Henzler out of their comfort zone at Sebring...

ANOTHER DRIVER RATING CASUALTY (From DailySportsCar.com)

The issue of IMSA driver rankings has been an ever present this weekend at Sebring with several drivers, and teams, expressing their discontent at revisions to the rankings for a number of talented young drivers, and more particularly at the extended lines of communication at IMSA over the decision making and appeal processes.

Thus far the race has lost Billy Johnson and Kenny Wilden as their ranking counted them out of contention at Turner Motorsport and Scuderia Corsa respectively.

Now Patrick Lindsay at Park Place Motorsports has confirmed that it is a further issue of driver ranking that has counted Connor de Phillippi out from his team's line-up, the offsetting of required driver seat times meaning that the talented young American becomes an impossible piece to fit into the jigsaw.

The net result of that is that we effectively lose another car, the No. 73 Porsche will race with Kevin Estre, Patrick Lindsay, Jim Norman and Michael Vess whilst the sister No. 71 car will likely 'start and park', according to Lindsay. Jim Norman's name is still on the No. 71 car but the final decision on that front is being made as this piece goes to press.

There's still another piece in the GTD Porsche picture to fill, Muehlner Motorsports still do not have a third driver for their No. 18 car with Earl Bamber named in both Nos. 18 and 19.
That question was answered by the team this afternoon as the No. 18 has been withdrawn due to heavy contact last night.

MORE DAMAGE REPAIR FOR RISI

The poor Risi Competizione team must be having Rolex 24 flashbacks. A crash involving the newly-rebuilt No. 62 Ferrari F458 and the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 during Friday morning's practice session has the Houston-based crew stripping the back of the GTLM car as they conduct a thorough inspection of the damage.

According to the Risi team, "Gimmi Bruni said that he'd seen the No. 48 go off and start coming back towards the track. He braked hard to try and avoid that but the back of the Ferrari stepped out and Bruni went onto the dirt at which point the two cars hit."

The left of the Ferrari was hit hard, along with the rear subframe. RACER will provide an update once it is available.

CATCHING UP WITH KARAM

The RACER Channel spent a few minutes with defending Firestone Indy Lights champion Sage Karam who's adding a bit of sports car racing to his resume at Daytona and Sebring while continuing his search for a berth in the IndyCar Series.

LATE NIGHT

Most TUDOR Championship teams worked late into the night fitting race-spec engines, ancillaries and anything else that would improve their reliability. The other purpose for wholesale teardowns and rebuilds taking place after night practice concluded at 9:30 was one of limited time – today's morning practice session is followed by qualifying in the late afternoon, leading teams to extend Thursday to work until midnight or beyond so the new parts and pieces could be tested prior to time trials.

DALLA LANA DEBUTS

VERTICAL KEY TO SUCCESS?

Watching all three of Thursday's practice sessions from trackside vantage points gave me the chance to observe various handling traits. Of the 60 or more cars that turned laps, the wildest one to watch was the No. 02 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Riley-Ford EcoBoost DP. With Scott Dixon onboard, the car was something to behold through Turn 1 during the first practice session as the Kiwi kept his foot planted on corner exit as the rear of the twin-turbo V6-powered Riley bounced and rocked over the bumps and pavement seams.

Compared to the other Prototypes, the right rear of the No. 02 had a life of its own as it compressed and rebounded quickly throughout the cornering phase but, and this is the important part, it was completely controllable and extremely fast. The sister No. 01 Ganassi Riley-Ford DP also displayed the same user-friendly handling characteristics.

Leap forward to night practice, and the same bouncing, carving handling trait allowed Dixon and his teammates to carry ridiculous speed into and though turns 3, 4 and 5. Dixon's entry to Turn 3 was downright silly as he was able to throw the car into the corner and as he tracked out past the apex – the point where all of the extra speed would likely result in a big moment of oversteer – but the rear of the car held lap after lap.

It led to one conclusion: With so many cars and so much traffic to deal with, the No. 02 could have the right setup for the 12-hour race. Blindingly fast when they have clear track, soft and supple when they have to dodge meandering drivers – it's pretty much everything a driver could ask for at Sebring.

"There's more of a wider spread in this thing," Dixon told RACER. "You can get it sideways more, it can have more understeer, and it's not on a knife edge. That's really good, and it's a lot different than an IndyCar which is very precise and will bite you if it moves around anything like the DP. Whenever you get into a car like this, there's always more movement, everything happens a bit slower, and it's a lot of fun to control."

Dixon drove Acura's ARX-02a P1 car at Sebring in 2009, generating cornering speeds that were so incredible it seemed almost cartoonish, and compared the difference between Acura's aero marvel and the new high-downforce DPs.

"The simple answer is when I drove the P1 car, it must have had double the downforce, it was a lot lighter and similar power," he explained. "In the P1 car, you were flat through Turn 1. In the DP, we're shifting down two gears from sixth to fourth... The DP moves around a lot more and has a smaller tire than we had then, which makes the DP more arms and elbows to drive...it's a lot of work, but I love it."

The three-time IndyCar Series champion hopes the No. 02's handling will continue to make dodging traffic and easier task for his team than others during Saturday's race.

"Racing here is very different to Daytona where you've got a lot of straights, a lot of 90- and 180-degree corners, long braking zones, it's well lit, and passing is easy," he added. "Here, it's a lot different. There's stuff everywhere. There's guys on the right side of the track turning into a right-hand corner... Most of the time you hope the guy in front of you knows where he's going, but you end up most of the time driving defensively because you have no idea what's going to happen in front of you. And then you get into those halfway moments where you think they left the door open but they didn't and you're diving out of the way or trying to stop in time so you don't get hit. It's kind of mad out there, especially at night."