Getty Images One week before IndyCar opens its 2013 season at St. Petersburg, a handful of drivers who competed in the 2012 season are racing in Sebring for the 12-hour race that opens up the American Le Mans Series season.
Ryan Briscoe scored the pole in the P2 class for Level 5 Motorsports. The 2012 Team Penske driver will share an HPD ARX-03b with Marino Franchitti, Dario’s younger brother, and Level 5 team principal Scott Tucker.
Meanwhile, defending IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay and 2012 rookie-of-the-year Simon Pagenaud share the second Level 5 HPD with Tucker, line up second in class.
Other drivers with recent IndyCar ties racing at Sebring this Saturday include NBC Sports IndyCar analyst Townsend Bell, Bruno Junqueira, an open-wheel veteran since 2001 and former Indianapolis 500 polesitter, and David Ostella and Rusty Mitchell who have raced in Indy Lights.
Bell starts a GT class Ferrari while Junqueira, Ostella and Mitchell compete in the one-make PC class.
Dario Franchitti and Graham Rahal have also made the trip to Sebring. Bobby Rahal’s ALMS team premieres its new BMW Z4 today with a two-car effort. They will start eighth and ninth in the GT class.
The 12-hour race starts at 10:45 a.m. EST and is streamed on the ALMS website, alms.com.
-
Bernie Ecclestone says the Williams team are still blocking efforts to allow Formula One teams to use old chassis from other manufacturers. Williams sees the introduction of so-called “customer cars” as a threat to them as they could be beaten to a larger share of the prize money by other teams using year-old chassis from…
-
The Monaco Grand Prix has traditionally been a “one-stop” race but Pirelli expect drivers will have to make more than one visit to the pits on Sunday. Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said “strategy will become even more important than usual” at Monaco because of the difficulty of overtaking on the narrow, two-mile track. All…
-
Charlie Kimball has the potential to surprise at this year’s Indy 500
May 20, 2013, 6:00 PM EDT
Getty Images
The Indianapolis 500 is so much more than just a race for the IndyCar community and the state of Indiana at large. According to Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing’s Charlie Kimball, the month of May is its own season. “There’s winter, spring, May, fall, and Colts season,” Kimball said Monday in Milwaukee for Indy 500…
-
Indianapolis 500 polesitter Ed Carpenter is better than you think
May 20, 2013, 4:00 PM EDT
Getty Images
Throughout his career, Ed Carpenter probably has been derided more than any other male driver in IndyCar racing. And that’s a damn shame. Carpenter’s a throwback in the modern IndyCar series. He’s a pure bred oval racer, born and raised on the dirt tracks of Indianapolis. A true Hoosier, he’s a Butler graduate with a…
-
The weekend roundup: In other news beyond F1, Indy, NASCAR
May 20, 2013, 3:00 PM EDT
This weekend may have been the busiest for series not called Formula One, IndyCar and NASCAR. F1 and the two domestic North American sports car championships, GRAND-AM and the American Le Mans Series, were all off. But here’s what else was going on around the motorsports world this weekend: The Australian V8 Supercars made their…
-
Getty Images
It’s been six years since an American has claimed victory at the Indianapolis 500. Back in 2006, Team Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr. beat Marco Andretti to the checkered flag by .0635 of a second in the second-closest finish in Indy history. Since then, two Brits (Dario Franchitti – 2007, 2010, 2012; the late Dan Wheldon…
-
AP
It’s hard not to feel for Michel Jourdain Jr. this Monday. Jourdain was the only driver who failed to qualify for this year’s Indianapolis 500, as he battled an ill-handling car all week for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Jourdain is one of the nicest, most genuine people in the IndyCar community, and he has been…
-
Getty Images
Bernie Ecclestone believes BMW could make a return to F1 in the near future as Honda are doing. Ecclestone told City AM newspaper he would be “surprised” if BMW did not revive their Formula One effort. “I think they could come in,” he added. “The amount of money they spent was not significant in the…
-
Getty Images
Pastor Maldonado has high hopes about his return to Monaco for this weekend’s grand prix. Maldonado has a strong record on the demanding Monte-Carlo street track from his junior career. He has not scored there in his two previous F1 visits, though he came close in 2011 before a controversial collision with Lewis Hamilton. “I…
-
Editor’s Note: Two of racing’s biggest events take place on Sunday – the Monaco Grand Prix, which airs live on NBC Sunday at 7:30 a.m. ET, and the Indianapolis 500. One family has a particular interest in both races. They will be the squads that form the Franchitti/di Resta clan. Guest contributor Andy Hallbery, a…
-
Bernie Ecclestone has rubbished the charges of bribery being levelled at him in Germany. Ecclestone told his biographer Tom Bower in an interview for the Sunday Times: “I still don’t know what the German prosecutors think.” “I wish I was guilty – it would be much easier,” he added. “The charges are a complete load…
-
Getty Images
Former McLaren technical director Paddy Lowe will make an early start for his new team Mercedes after a deal was struck between the two teams. Lowe will begin work for Mercedes on June 3rd after McLaren agreed to allow Lowe to join them before his contract expired at the end of the year. McLaren are…
-
Getty Images
- If you’re into numerology, it would appear that the number four is playing a role in how this 97th Indianapolis 500 is playing out so far. The field for this year’s running features four former winners of the “500″ (Dario Franchitti, Helio Castroneves, Scott Dixon and Buddy Lazier), four rookie drivers (Carlos Munoz, A.J.…
-
AP
For the first time since 2011, four female drivers will be racing at the Indianapolis 500. Today, three of them — Dale Coyne Racing’s Ana Beatriz and Pippa Mann (pictured), as well as 33rd and final qualifier Katherine Legge from Schmidt Peterson Pelfrey Motorsports — joined KV Racing Technology’s Simona de Silvestro (24th position) on…
-
AP
With roughly 15 minutes remaining on Bump Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the seemingly inevitable decision was made by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to stop the desperate effort to get Michel Jourdain, Jr. into the 97th Indianapolis 500. But while the call may have been inevitable, it was no less harder to take for…
-
AP
A grueling month of May for rookie driver Conor Daly got better on Sunday as he was able to make the field for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500, sticking his No. 41 A.J. Foyt Racing Honda on the inside of Row 11. Daly put up a four-lap average of 223.582 miles per hour in the opening…
-
AP
With about 20 minutes remaining in Bump Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Katherine Legge was strapped into her No. 81 Schmidt Peterson Pelfrey Motorsports Honda, ready to defend her spot on the 33rd starting position for the 97th Indianapolis 500 if necessary. Turns out she didn’t have to bother. Legge’s four-lap average of 223.176…
-
Hinchcliffe aims for third win of season at Indianapolis (VIDEO)
May 19, 2013, 5:18 PM EDT
Getty Images
As James Hinchcliffe tweeted after his dramatic victory in the most recent IZOD IndyCar Series race at Sao Paulo, Brazil, “I don’t always finish races, but when I do, I prefer to win.” “Rollercoaster” may be the optimal word to describe the Canadian fan favorite’s season so far. It began at St. Petersburg, Florida with…
-
Walker: Getting fans “re-ignited” is IndyCar’s biggest challenge
May 19, 2013, 4:10 PM EDT
Getty Images
Five years after open-wheel racing unified in North America, the IZOD IndyCar Series continues to face a uphill climb in regards to growing its mainstream presence. The split between the series (then known as the Indy Racing League) and Champ Car that lasted from 1996 to 2008 had a disastrous impact on the sport, causing…
-
Getty Images
With his fourth NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race victory in hand, Jimmie Johnson now looks to re-assert himself as the king of NASCAR’s longest challenge — the Coca-Cola 600. Johnson, the five-time Sprint Cup champion, won three consecutive “600s” at Charlotte Motor Speedway from 2003 to 2005. But the 1.5-mile oval outside the Queen City has…
