Tuesday PM Paddock Notes

There are – at least – 10 GTP cars on site this weekend – Porsche have their test 963 here as a spare, or source of spares, for the Rolex 24, the car parked by the Penske transporters in the paddock this afternoon.

Here are a couple of paddock teasers:

Which two stalwarts, both of whom are old enough to know better, are understood to have got a little physical on pitlane over the Roar weekend, whether on-track issues or off-season machinations are at the heart of things here’s hoping tempers cool before we get back to on-track running.

There are several LMP2 Oreca 07s here that are with at least their second owners – At least one is understood to have been received by its new team with several aspects of the car understood to have been significantly out of compliance with the regulations, the presumption being that its previous owners raced the car in that state!

There are a number of two car teams here, plus three outfits that are looking after a trio of cars in the full Rolex 24 field – Riley Motorsports with the #74 LMP3 Ligier and the pair of Porsche GTDs they are preparing with Kellymoss, Iron Lynx with their trio of Lamborghinis and AF Corse with the #88 LMP2, #21 Ferrari and the #47 Cetilar machine.

It’s also a major test of the much expanded product portfolio and customer support efforts required from Oreca who, alongside support for the whole 10 car LMP2 entry and their chassis responsibilities for the two Acuras, have powertrain responsibilities with the full LMP3 field and the custom debut for the new Ferrari 296 GT3s which are assembled by Oreca and supported by their newly expanded customer support network.