24h Le Mans
After Lime Rock and its ultra-short circuit, it's time for the American Spa-Francorchamps! The four classes will come together again next weekend at the Road America circuit, ninth round on the 2016 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar.
When mentioning Wisconsin, bordered by Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, to an American, two things come up: the famous Road America circuit, with its 6.515 km and 14 turns, located at Elkhart Lake, halfway between the cities of Milwaukee and Green Bay. And the other is the American football team the Packers, based in Green Bay and home of famous quarterback Brett Favre, who brought the Packers to victory at the 1996 Superbowl.
This Great Lakes region was a part of Louisiana, at the time still called New France, which Napoléon Bonaparte ceded to the young United States in 1803 and which extended to New Orleans. The city of Green Bay was founded in 1634 by a certain Jean Nicolet, not to be confused with Jacques Nicolet, founder of OAK Racing and Onroak Automotive, designer of the Ligier JS P2 the Michael Shank Racing team will enter next weekend.
As many as 44 cars (17 prototypes and 27 GTs) will be on the starting grid, and once again all eyes will be on the GTLM class (equivalent of LM GTE Pro at the 24 Hours of Le Mans) in which the five manufacturers entered will fight neck and neck. Indeed, only 27 points separate the leader, Chevrolet, entering two Corvette C7.Rs, and the last BMW - and the winner gains 35 points. Ford, winner at the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in June, is looking for its fourth victory this season, whereas the champion Porsche will be defending its title, and Ferrari will try to score a first win with its new 488.
Competitors will take the track for the first time Friday, August 5th at 12:10 p.m. (there is a six-hour time difference between England and Wisconsin in the Central time zone) for a one-hour free practice. After two other sessions, the drivers will head into qualifying on Saturday at 2:50 p.m. (15 minutes for each class), then the race of two hours and 40 minutes on Sunday, August 7th at 3:05 p.m.
Translation by Nikki Ehrhardt / ACO
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