By alley - Sep 14, 2016, 2:12 PM ET

IMSA: Lone Star Le Mans Preview

The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race weekend at Circuit of The Americas gets underway on Thursday. Be sure to follow

@RACERmag

for regular updates on Twitter, and RACER.com for photos, videos, session reports and feature stories.

IMSA RADIO: Click HereENTRY LIST:

Click Here

TICKETS:

Click Here

WEATHER: Click Here
SPOTTERS GUIDE:

Click Here

IMSA LIVE TIMING & SCORING:

Click Here

WEATHERTECH CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT SCHEDULE

Thursday, Sept. 15 (all times Eastern)
11:25 a.m. - 12:25 p.m., Free Practice 1
5:35 p.m. - 6:35 p.m., Free Practice 2

Friday, Sept. 16 (all times Eastern)
10:10 a.m. - 11:10 a.m., Free Practice 3
4:45 p.m. - 6:15 p.m., Qualifying

Saturday, Sept. 17
9:00 a.m. - 9:20 a.m., Warm-up
12:35 p.m. - 3:15 p.m., Race – Lone Star Le Mans, WeatherTech Championship, 2 hours, 40 minutes

TV TUNE-IN INFO

POINTS OF INTEREST

WELCOME BACK AGAIN

With IMSA’s steady rotation of classes skipping certain events throughout the year, this weekend’s race at COTA will mark the first outing for the Prototype and PC classes since Road America on August 7. GT Le Mans and GT Daytona were in action at VIR on August 28, which means half the series is still somewhat warm from the Michelin GT Showcase and the other half is coming off an extended break heading into the penultimate round.

The good news is all four classes will be featured at COTA and at Road Atlanta for the season finale on Oct. 1, giving sports car fans the full IMSA experience before the checkered flag waves on 2016.

Forty-four entries were listed for COTA, but with the subtraction of CORE Autosport from PC, it’s down to 43 as Prototype (8), PC (8), GTLM (10) and GTD (17) are scheduled to take the start on Saturday. One or more subtractions could also take place before practice begins Thursday morning.

250 FOR MSR

Michael Shank will hit an impressive milestone this weekend when his Ohio-based sports car team participates in its 250th race. After building the team into a winning Formula Atlantic program, Shank was one of the early participants in Grand-Am’s new Daytona Prototype category, and while the turtle-like cars might not have been blessed with pleasing looks or an abundance of fans, they did propel MSR onto its current path.

“It’s hard to believe that we’ve made 250 car starts through the years,” Shank said. “It’s pretty incredible. In our first race, we finished fourth in the Rolex 24 with Kelly Collins, Cort Wagner, Mike Newton, Tom Erdos, and Brent Martini. We’ve had so many amazing drivers that have joined us since then, and it’s humbling to look back and reflect on all that we’ve accomplished together.”

MSR’s Ligier JS P2-Honda carried a livery honoring the late Justin Wilson for last year’s WeatherTech Championship event at COTA, and with something more positive to commemorate this year, the No. 60 prototype will feature

a version of the original 2004 Rolex 24 color scheme

that introduced the team to its new venture.

RICKY'S TEXAS TWO-STEP

Ricky Taylor will be a busy man this weekend as he pulls double IMSA and WEC duty in the Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP and Larbre Competition’s Corvette C7.R. It won’t be the first time he’s leapt from one car to the other at COTA; Ricky and brother Jordan raced a C7.R in the 2014 WEC event while sharing their WTR Corvette DP, and with Jordan focusing on only the IMSA portion of the Lone Star Le Mans weekend this year, it means Ricky will take part in a combined eight hours and 40 minutes of competition on Saturday.

“It’s definitely going to be an exciting experience again,” Taylor told RACER. “Racing in two very competitive classes means pressure to not sacrifice anything in either race and give it a 100 percent effort all weekend. Jordan and I did both races at COTA in 2014 and I think we pulled it off pretty seamlessly, with a lot of help from people on both sides. It took extra preparation leading into the weekend, physically, mentally, and logistically to make sure there is as little to worry about as possible during the weekend itself.”

Taylor returned to the Larbre fold at the most recent WEC round in Mexico, and is scheduled to continue with the France-based team for one more race after COTA.

“I really enjoyed being back with Larbre in Mexico,” he added. “The result was not what the team was hoping for but we showed potential for a strong result. With me coming back into the team, as well as our new race engineer getting on board, we can continue to build on our performance at COTA this weekend, and at the following race at Fuji.”

MISCELLANEOUS

Welcome back to Patrick Lindsey and Jorg Bergmeister after Lindsey left his Park Place Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R at home during the VIR round.
If the rumors are accurate, a news conference this weekend at COTA could also see the confirmation of MSR as Honda/Acura’s partner team with the twin-turbo V6 NSX in GTD next season.
Fans of the DeltaWing DWC13 prototype have two chances left to see the car in action within the WeatherTech Championship. The closed-top chassis made its race debut in 2013 at the COTA ALMS event.