Well, welcome to, well, that's the month in sports cars because it's been a few weeks since we've actually done this, but welcome to the weekend sports cars part of the Marshall Pruitt podcast. Before we get stuck in, here's a little bit of a message from our sponsors. Time to say a big thank you to our show partners on the Marshall Pruitt podcast, starting with FAFT Technologies. Small to print composites manufacturing company, they're specializing in medium to large-scale automotive, motorsports, and military applications. Visit FAFT Technologies dot com, it's P-F-A-F-F Technologies dot com to learn more about their services and how they can benefit your business. Next, it's the Justice Brothers, makers of premium additives, lubricants, and cleaners and servicing the automotive and motorsports industries for more than 85 years. With victories in all of the biggest North American motor races, including the Indianapolis 500, but 24 hours a day toner, the Justice Brothers products are truly race-proven, learn about their vast history, and range of offerings at justicebrothers dot com. If you're fond of awesome motor racing collectibles, including FAFT Motorsports McLaren, Gear, and Goodies, pay a visit to torontomotorsports.com, and finally, we have a new online merchandise home for the podcast, ThePruitStore.com. All the show stickers, models, racing memorabilia, trying to sell, and put towards our fun to buy a house, is now live and rocking, ThePruitStore.com. Well, it's another UK-based weekend sports car, with apologies from both Marsha and myself, with travel schedules and other shenanigans that have been intervening, it's been little wee while since we've been managed to get online together, Marsha or Pruitt this weekend is in Indianapolis, I'm Graham Goodman, and with me in the DSC headquarters at the bottom of my garden is Stephen Kilby, DSC's news editor and racer dot com's WC correspondent afternoon Stephen. Hi Graham, how's it going? It's brilliant, as you well know, because obviously we talked before we stopped for this record, but that's fine. We're just getting our bearings after a record breaking, almost back-to-back WC double weekend, just before we get travelling again with the European above the series and the lead up to the end of the season, a season that's just gone by in a flash, but what we're going to do for, about an hour or so on this show, is run through some of the happenings, the ups, the downs, the shenanigans of the firewood insurance championship, the MC Sports Car Championship, the Intercontinental GT Challenge and other good stuff, because there's been, as Marsha would say, if he was on the show, a heck of a bunch of stuff going on, pretty much most of it, pretty good, I think that's fair to say. We're just back about a week or so ago from Fuji in Japan, one of our favourite flyway races, if not favourite flyway flight, because it's a long, long way and it's not very convenient in terms of, anything, not very convenient in terms of not feeling completely wasted when you get back, but we are back and it was quite a race. It was an amazing race, I thought, one of the standout races in, what has been a pretty standout season, Graham, Porsche winning and hypercar, and he's doing so by the way, the number six car becoming the first car in seven races to win a second race. Yeah, and sport that one, yeah, and lotterra, estra, Vantor basically putting one hand on the trophy, they're almost there now. So past his best estra, 80-year-olds, lotterra and second best Vantor, yeah, yeah, another poor performance, and then really pure luck, wasn't it? It was a good performance, you know, back-to-back good performances for them of course in Japan, they took the lead at the start last year and it took four hours for Tota to get that done last year, with Tota. You've floated. Well, yeah, not only failing to finish for the second time ever at Tofuji, finishing off the podium for the second time ever, and it was a penalty for one car and sort of suicide for the other, self-inflicted double gunshot wound with Gamimi Kobayashi making an absolute hash of an attempted pass on Matt Campbell, you know, we heard Matt on the radio saying that wasn't even close. It wasn't. It wasn't nowhere near close and big damage for those cars, but let's talk about some of the talking points before we get into where the championship stands, stunning pole position from Cadillac and from Alex Lynn. Yeah, a really strong performance and I mean all the Cadillac racing guys in work could probably get bored of saying it, but what a great qualifying we had today. It's just never gone well in the race as of this year and again after a really nice start from Alabama and for a brief period you're thinking, oh, they could either get first or a very least a podium fell apart again, didn't it? Yeah, well, two major problems, isn't there clash that saw damage wheel and puncture clash with a BMW I think, and then in a Tossle as the car was moving back up the order with was it Charman Aisley? I think it would make Schumacher. Okay, well either way won the Alpeins. Alabama moved wide in avoidance as the Alpeins came to duck out from behind LNGT3 car, got onto the marbles, made a substantial contact with the barrier and was, I think it's fair to say, unwise enough to try to drag that car back. It was a spirited drive back to pit lane? Yeah, I think it possibly will look back at that and think, yeah, maybe shouldn't have bothered. One come on hanging off the car, front body work, meaning that he couldn't see anything. He did make an impact with some of the safer barriers in the run off at turn 10, his attempt to get the car back did get the car back but it was done. That's Cadillac. So, yet more flashes of potential but without the result, the pace of the car deserved. Two other standouts before we get into the gut of the fortunes of the title contenders. Both Alpeins ran in podium positions until one of the two cars of 35 car got a penalty, yet the six car then cycled round into a podium scoring position and that car is in certainly in six hours and we'll see whether or not it's the same as the case at Bahrain in eight hours is looking like a contender. Oh, 100%. The progress since Le Mans has been just an upward curve, isn't it, for them, really? Every weekend they look more and more competitive on Saturday and Sunday and once again the results came like they did at Kota and with some standout drives, Malaysia is looking fantastic. So, I'm lazy but Mick Schumacher, I thought that was the first time we've properly seen what he can do in a hypercar and he looked really at home in the car at the end of the race when there was a podium place to fight for, he was a joy to watch, that battle with Norman Nato which lasted about half an hour was genuinely epic. But by the way, Norman Nato, the only driver in world sports cars, named after a defence treaty organisation, so, you know, until we get to one called Iron Curtain, or whatever, that's going to stay the same. It was a great drive from Mick Schumacher, let's wait and see, hashtag wait and see, that makes any difference to what may or may not happen for him coming into 2025. That was Alpine and, you know, you've spoken a couple of times to the higher ups at Alpine, pretty clear that all the doom and gloom mongers around, you know, was Alpine going to be one and out? Absolute nonsense, they're in it for the long term, they've put in a management strategy for the engine, they know what the problem is with the engine/turbo set up for that car and there will be an upgrade for 2025. Yep, so yeah, it doesn't look like it's going to be in time for a bar in there just isn't the time, but we're targeting Qatar next year for when we see that car with its full fix, which hopefully, going through the first half of next season, should see them competitive at the moment, they hope for the full 24 hours this time. So that's Alpine with a plan and with Pace, and that plan by the way you reported from Bruno Fama, still extends to potentially a customer or semi-customer car, trying to find a home in the midst of this export-scarce ownership. Yeah, I think it'd be a factory effort, but it would be via a service provider like the majority of the, well, like all of the current IMSA factory teams are out there. So Fama interestingly kind of said they have got a team, they've spoken to the team, but essentially the entire operation is on hold while they work out what the future is for the brand in a roadcar since is in North America. So essentially, it's all paused until they work out when and if they're going to start selling cars out there and they'll use that for 2025. It doesn't look like it at this stage, certainly. We just have to wait and once they make a decision on whether they're going to start selling cars in North America, then more start to hear more, but it sounds like everything's in place to press the button pretty shortly after that sort of decision was taken. The other team that's a manufacturer, a team that really came to the fore, having struggled at the start of the season, I've shown flashes of pace, but this time in a full dry race sustained pace, one of the two BMWs. Yeah, another really encouraging weekend for the end of the year, I mean, the weekend encoder was good for them, but the result didn't show it because of the way that that race ended and a couple of penalties and it got a bit sloppy. But throughout the weekend in Fuji, the M hybrid V8 was quick, qualified in the front row, was strong throughout the race and was just always in podium places basically for the entire six hours and that's fantastic for a brand that, you know, through the first half of the year, you're beginning to wonder where's this going to go because it isn't a new car like the Alpine, like the Lamborghini. This is a car that's already done on season racing, so once you got through Le Mans and the results hadn't come yet, you start to think, oh, RWR2, you're going to be able to turn this around, but it does look like it's coming and it's coming very fast. So when we come to one of the things, I think we've been discussing one of the potential knock-on effects of that, WRT is relative success, but second place for that car at Fuji, which is the first podium for being the first podium for our penalist, who would have thought that? You've been good cars, and by the way, one place off the podium, per show. Yeah, I mean, all of a sudden, the end of the race, having been pretty anonymous, it has to be said through the first four hours, as the race is off and going, you see, the last hour, everything just changes all the time, you've got penalties flying in, you've got people making bold moves, you've got accidents, you've got fogors, yellows, you've got all sorts going on, and it was Mick O'Henson, I think, in the car at the end, just suddenly found pace as the conditions evolved towards the end of the race. And it was one of the quickest, if not the quickest driver on the circuit for the final half an hour, and as the field was bunched up for that late-race safety car, they had a chance, and they almost, I mean, you said it on the commentary in the sort of final 10, 20 minutes, it's like, are we going to get a poser podium? Like, you could see him in cash, every time he had that shot from the exit of turn one, you could see every lap the poser was gaining, it was great to see, like, it's another program that there's lots of question marks over what's the ceiling for it, and they'll have come away in courage, I don't think they're under no illusion, the job is not done, and they've got loads of work to do, and they still feel the need to upgrade the car at some point, but they'll, at least, have left Fuji pretty happy with that. But they've got a reliable car at least, so what that left us with, because there's been some notable teams we have not mentioned, is BMW in second place, Alpine in third and I think seventh, Peugeot in, sorry, third and, yes, seventh. Peugeot is in fourth and eighth, the two Hertz team Jota cars in fifth and sixth, so both Hertz team Jota cars, both Peugeot and both Alpines, plus the BMW, plus the winning Porsche, finished ahead of all three Ferraris and both Taeotas. I mean, if you'd have said this time last year, that's going to be your top 10 for Fuji next year, who would have guessed that? No, that seems almost inconceivable. Even on Saturday, you're starting to think, oh, surely to it, we're going to take this. Their form here is so good, they've won every year but won at Fuji, and even in the race, the pace was there for the seven and the eight, and they were coming into it and you thought, okay, by the end of this race, they'll have this cracked and they'll take the lead and they'll strategize their weight at the front, but it just fell apart, didn't it? And Ferraris also briefly looked good in the middle of the race when they had fresh tires and Nicholas Nelson at the wheel in the 50, fell away as well, didn't it? Well, it fell off a cliff at the end and it cost them dearly in terms of the championship hunt. Before we talk though about the other championship contenders, because we are now down to three, but boy oh boy is Porsche close right now. Quick word for Lamborghini, because that car was quick again at the start of this race. Did falter. I am slightly concerned about the level of commitment we could be seeing here for Lamborghini moving forward in WC. They've had a tricky year both in Illinois GT3 and in hypercar, but the hypercar is showing signs of pace, not yet reliability. Yeah, I mean, it's still not a world beater of a car, but we're seeing now what I think Lamborghini would have hoped we'd seen in the first couple of reasons, because they did lose so much development time with that car and they, a bit like Alpine, didn't get as much development running as they'd liked before when we're getting the car, and have just gone with it and started racing. And Daniel Kviet was just shocked to have got the car in hyperpole. He didn't expect it at all and at times in the race before they retired. It did look relatively quick. I mean, it fell away at the start in the kind of the melee, but as a whole, it just feels like the entire field's bunching up, doesn't it? And we are getting this fruit machine of results where it's not just the same two or three teams up the front and everyone else fighting for fifth and sixth. It is now... You've got to deliver. Yeah, everyone's got a great race, which is exactly how this should be. Absolutely right. You've got to deliver the car. The cars are getting closer to their performance envelope and they keep it there longer. So the tyre life and the energy management is better from more. And what this race lacked was an absolutely reliable, instant-free run from some of the major players. And that meant that we got the top 10 completely shaken up, but it's eight hours and points and a half, 150 percent of points to finish. But it's going to be the number six car that goes in, I think, 35 points ahead of the 50 Ferrari. 37 points ahead of the number seven Toyota. So what that means is three points and their home. Yeah, it's barring a retirement game on. If that car retires, then all of a sudden Ferrari and Toyota are going to have to start running to try and get as many points as possible to try and close that gap and essentially you're going to need to win that race. But yeah, they're pretty much there at home and dry but Porsche and it has been a remarkable turnaround and it looks like that's going to be bookended with a strong start to season and a strong finish. Yeah, doesn't it? I mean, Ferrari, unhappy, they're unhappy all weekend, basically. Though at times they did have pace, they couldn't sustain that pace for whatever reason. If you were to ask them, they wouldn't tell you because they're not allowed to, that they were a little concerned about BOP. There aren't noises that perhaps the pendulum has gone too far in favor of the LMDH cars. It's also not a circuit that suits the 499P. No. It's not, that sector three is where their hemorrhage time with that car because it's just, it's not as good through tight and twisty corners. It's better through fast flowing sections of track, which is why we see it so strong at places like Le Mans. Just the nature of the circuit suits it more. The hope is they'll be better by range, especially with the Joker, and it's such an aggressive track on tyres and brakes, and that is where they've found gains. And hopefully if this Evo Joker has worked, that should give them a lot better of a chance to get a big result to end the season. But it is the place we've seen cars in breaking trouble before. Yeah, excuse me. And that leads us with total. It'll be bitterly disappointed, but I'm afraid some of the damage there was self-inflicted. You're seeing what Toyota can do when they're under pressure, and the pressure's on in that race, and in front of their home fans, they needed a big result to close the championship up, and just on this occasion didn't go their way at all, and pretty much entirely down to the road making. But I like this. We've seen Toyota controlling WC races for years and years and years, and they've been waiting, and they were telling us for years, they're waiting for competition, and waiting for competition. Now it's here. Now they've been put under immense pressure by multiple manufacturers every weekend. I still think, top to bottom, it's the best car in the field, it's the best team in the field, just the experience they've got, and they've got the driving talent. But we are seeing the cracks starting to show, and it's better for the championship to see just how much better some of these other teams are getting. It's the progress is remarkable, isn't it? Top to bottom. It's a delight to see. It's a straight answer, and we don't talk a lot about BAP, let's talk a little bit about that. I don't see very many problems across the field. Ferrari and Toyota are the ones in the background that are making noises about it. I can understand why. I'd like to see a little bit more reasoned conversation about it, rather than just the odd sound bite here and there. Before we move on, by the way, congratulations to her team, Joe, said they've got one more race with their Porsches before they switch over to being the factory Cadillac operation, but they clinched their back-to-back hypercar World Cup, not a title they're particularly pushing for, but they'll take that with that shadow of a doubt. Yeah, I'm beating the AF course of 83 cars, especially after it's running at co-totes. It's not no competition in that class, is it? When, you know, flashes to have pace from Proton. Great to see, by the way, that some of our pressroom competition finally caught up with the story you wrote way before Fuji as to what Proton are likely to push for next season. They are going to be asking, see whether or not there might be space for a second privateer 963 for themselves, making it clear in conversation with both you and I, that one of the things that's happened since the deal with Cadillac and her team, Joe, that's freed up the driver market somewhat, there might be a more commercial opportunity that might have a knock on effects for Proton with the IMSA program that may become just the insurance cup effort for Proton in 2025, but there's still work to be done, and we wait to see just exactly what places are going to be available. In the future, it's going to be even more pressured, and that's because, literally as we arrived at Fuji news breaking, that we were expecting some of this, we've not got much in the detail, but more really good news, the top class of insurance racing, we believe in both WC and IMSA with Hyundai confirming that they're going to bring the Genesis brand, the Halo brand, to international insurance racing with an NVH spec car. What do we know? What do we know, first of all? We know they're coming now, which is something we didn't know two weeks ago, which is, and again, we've got multiple brands that have kind of been in and out of the room a meal for years now, and a lot of them have kind of held off pressing the green line. I just did take that one off on the chart on the wall, script up Hyundai, now, we did think Genesis might be the IMSA program, but actually, that both WC was surprised, I think, to most. Yeah, but we also should mention that they haven't actually announced where they're going to race yet. They've been very coy about that. It's all it was was a very short statement, so we're coming. There's no date to when we're going to see the car, testing and then racing, there's no championship, there's no service providers, how the team's going to look, how many cars, we don't know anything. It will be two cars in the WC, we don't know how many, but it will be an IMSA, so it will be both, and it'll probably be 26. But aside from that, we don't know anything. What we do know, as we've already written, is that a number of significant people from the Hyundai family are looking for accommodation both commercially and personally in the Paul Rickard area, and that means it's definitely oracle. It's an oracle-based car without a shadow of a doubt. We also know there's been a bit of a clear-out at base, so I'm told dozens of people from Hyundai, Germany, are down the road, told that the TCR program will continue for now at least, that the WRC program will continue for now at least, that the administration and the marketing communications side will stay in Germany, but their operating base will be in the south of France, and if that's just for an IMSA gig, that's an awfully long commute. Yeah, 100%, 100%. So that's great news, not the only manufacturer that we are hearing background chatter about. More of that as and when we get the opportunity to do so, but I can tell you for the purpose of just dropping this pebble in the pool that it was at least one of the manufacturers that have been whispered about, that there's taking steps towards confirmation, so there is definitely more to come and probably more beyond that. That's sort of hypercar, okay? Well, there's one more kind of strand you haven't mentioned, which is the other little hypercar nugget that you spotted in the paddock. Oh yes, yes indeed, Rodin. So Rodin motorsport, Nate Carlin, so now bought by the New Zealand operation, it spots their founder making his way up and down the paddock on Thursday, that's a food she didn't seem after that, but I'm aware, having spoken to a number of people in the paddock, that they are in an active search for a car. Now, I'm not yet going to go into the brands that were spoken to, but those brands were multiple and it was more than two, and this is a team looking for a car and a program to put together, so this is, you know, they wrote an operating up to including F2 at the moment. I've been to Carlin, I've been in prototypes before. Absolutely, and I've been rumored to be looking at IndyCar as well, so is this WC, at the moment I believe that's where their preferred program would be, might they go to emcere, they might. Might be forced to, but there's no space. But then you get into the next part of these things, which is this growing debate with the number of factories that seem to be, you know, forming an oddly queue, is what next for private or hyper cars? We've had Piafion talk about the Asian Le Mans series as potentially an opportunity to grow the number, particularly in a market place that we know favors brands over the likes of Hurricane Leisure. There's no apparent plan for the European Le Mans series yet, so what that leisure moment with, a rapidly closing door in the F.I. Ability Jones Championship, a welcoming embrace from emcere, but with limited opportunities to get those cars to Le Mans, which is obviously a big selling point, and the potential, you know, carrot on the stick of a future in the Asian Le Mans series, for some overall of the above, and potentially additional newbies. So it's going to be interesting when we finally get to sit down with one of the senior leaders from LMEM and the WEC to ask that question about, particularly about privateers, and about how it is they want to build in the resilience that you inevitably need in, we hope, a number of years time, when the manufacturers have their head turned by the next big thing, because let's face it, they always do. So that's going to be an interesting question. The other part of this equation, though, is we'll get to what we talk about the other half of the grid at Fuji, because we said after coder, and frankly, after interloggers as well, LMGT3 is beginning to come alive, it took another step forward. Yeah, another really good race, and I think the difference between the last couple of races, and maybe the first two or three races of the season, is that the bronze drivers in the field are really starting to get their head around the cars as a collective, and it's making a massive difference to the way that the race is planned out, because the field just isn't a spread out midway from a race lane to a race, and we're starting to see teams, especially in races like Fuji and Kota, where the climb is hotter than other places, where they're gambling a little bit on driver strategy, and keeping their bronze drivers out of a car early in the race, which is not what would have happened anywhere in Europe, where you just put your bronze in at the start, get their time done as quickly as possible, and see where you are. Now, we saw it with James Cottingham sitting out for a long time, and seeing lights of pure racing, keeping Maliki in for well over two hours, because they're confident in his abilities. So it was really entertaining. Really. So with three standout performances, I think, to flag up. First things first, congratulations to the 54 Ferrari crew, not only Ferrari's first win, but their first podium of the year in London GT3, which is extraordinary. Real shame from front of our radio, who put the other car, the 55 car, on pole, but then sort of... Ran in GT expect, and they're for the race. Yeah, but then, yeah, it suffered an ABS failure. So no ABS on that car, which was meant that that was a bit of a bow tanker for it. In third place, on his second podium of the year, the 46 WRT BMW, and a standout drive from Valentina Rossi in that car. That's really good. Took the fight to the other silvers at the top of each other in the car, and looked absolutely stunning. Yeah, really getting stuck in, producing quick lap times, and his racecraft and GT3 car just goes from strength to strength, doesn't it? He just looks completely comfortable with it now. It's really nice to see him. Well, who knows what he can achieve at Bahrain in the finale? Really unlucky, I thought, when you look at the potential pace and what was happening at the end of that race, should have kind of would have been on the podium. The 81 TS port Corvette, if you look at the gap at the end of that race, and the delay that that car suffered when Charlie Eastwood was punted off, I think, by an helping the final turn, very late in the race, that car could have very least have been a podium contender. That's the 59 United McLaren. I could the 59 McLaren, but they, I think they took a bit of a gamble on the tyre allocation, and at the end of the race, it's Gregoire Saucy, wasn't it? The thing just fell off a cliff like Froco dropped down through their top 10. But we've not mentioned it, champions, the first champions, indeed in LM GT3, for Montypeur racing carrying 40 kilos of success ballast, and they played strategy to absolute perfection. Yeah, they were nowhere on pace all the way through the weekend, through qualifying, qualified outside the top 10, and it, speaking to them during the weekend, it was very much a, we'll do it we can, but we're just here to score as many points as possible and just kind of limit the damage on the championship gap, and just make sure that we can either seal it this weekend, or at least come get to the point where when we turn up a Bahrain, all we've got to do is go round and round and round to seal it. And instead finishing us on the podium in a second. Remarkable run again. It was pace from Milliken, who, as you said, the captain of the car, the Joel Stern put an absolutely amazing silver ranked stints. And what that saw was the car cycling up the field, as others put in a different pit stop strategy, and then when we got a safety car, they're in the right place. You're in the right place, right? Massive break. I got a massive break and led the race. And, you know, I think on pace possibly could have just about hung on to that, but I think opted to put in a pretty conservative end to the race. And as the likes of the McLaren faded, they finished second place. They are champions. It's an extraordinary run. We will have more news about pure racing in the coming days on DSC and on racer.com. So watch this space about their plans moving forward. But they have been the standout crew of this championship. Yeah, you wouldn't necessarily have said it going into the season. We knew that Milliken was going to be strong. He's, you know, he's got form. And then in the Asian Le Mans series, just before the season started, I mean, the likes of you and I had discussed them when we were sitting in Abu Dhabi saying that this lot are going to be really strong. And GT3, I didn't expect this. They're wrapping up the title race early in the field that, you know, when you look at it on papers, is that strong? It's the likes of Klaus Backler that are really interesting because he just looks utterly world-class in LNGT3, doesn't he? Like to the point where you think, how has he not got multiple factory drives in where, under his belt and big race wins? Well, I said to Klaus at the end of the race, we had a long chat about it. And there's still the amount of them for a long time now. It was kind of, how has this happened? You had some glory years and then some real off-color years where nothing was coming his way. He just wasn't the name that was rising to the top of the tambola at Porsche. But now all of a sudden, he's their first pro LNGT3 champion. And you've got to say you'd expect good things to come his way now, 100%, 100%. He's been magnificent. So was Joel Stern. Very quiet. Has, you know, I think this is going to springboard him into a big future because he has been, he's not put a foot wrong all season. And he just looks absolutely metronomic when you put him in the car. It doesn't matter where he is in the race, whenever they put him in, he just delivers. What should I, by the way, that's pure racing will be making their LMP2 debut in the Age of the Monsters. And I'm told two things. I'm told it's a capacity grid. I'm then told by other teams that they've been told that might be an opportunity for an entry. So, but it watched this place. But it's a big 44 car grid been named for the opening races. We'd expect potentially to see more in the UAE. And as I say, talking to a handful of teams who are telling me they believe they might still get an additional car on that grid. Convincing, double figures entry in the LMP2 class with two new teams to P2, pure racing and RD racing develop, which is Roman Dimas team from both rally rate and rallying itself. Six cars in LMP3 and a huge bunch of GT3 cars, not LMGT3, for the Ocean of Monsters, which includes quite an interesting pair of cars handled by Urbamba Motorsport. They're looking after Lester Martin, which is a car they've handled in GT World Challenge Asia this year, but with a different crew and also a New Zealand flag to Lamborghini, the only one in the field. Lots of storylines to come from that. We'll confirm to you by the way that I'll be commentating that once again with sports car rated legend. Darren Turner. No. No, it's more famous than that. Gone guess. Ross Gunn. No. Ron Fellows. No. Not Harry Tinkle, either. Alex Bremble. Yeah, you could go for ages and ages should never get it. How far down the list do I have to go? Do you remember all of it, Gavin? See the guy that didn't win them on like 15 times. Didn't win them on 15 times, only one at five. It's not a great record, is it? It's not a great hit. At all. So, you know, other things, it keeps that one quiet, to be honest with you. So it talks a lot about the five, doesn't talk very much at all about the 50, which I find surprising. But next time I have him, you know, on camera, you can be reassured that I will be kind of plowing that furrow. I'll be tucking that thread. Yeah, yeah. A lot. The least deserving Corvette Hall of Famer of all time. So yeah, only G and myself will be commentating with a surprise pit lane reporter. Ooh. Watch this place. Are you over to say? No. No. Can't tell you. You'll never guess. It's not Darren Turner. No, it's not Darren Turner. It's not Russ Gunn, and it's not Johnny Adam Iver. Right. Okay. So that was Fuji. We move on. Two titles done, Hypercar World Cup for the privateer cars, LMGT3, done, but still just about alive is the Hypercar World Championship, the drivers and teams and manufacturers. The manufacturers is pretty close, actually. It is pretty close. So that could be quite interesting. That's one that, of course, the manufacturers are super keen on. We have, though, got a race this weekend, and it's an endurance race, and it features hyperco GTPs, and there's all sorts of story strungs there as well. And here's the Indianapolis, the 6,000 Indianapolis, because we've got two major endurance events in the coming weeks. Emsa are there this weekend. Is it the pretty young Grand Prix? It's the battle of the bricks. Yeah, battle of bricks. That doesn't mean they're going to be hurling bricks on each other. Let's hope not. But then after that, we've got the Indy 8 hours, which is the final race of the IGTC, the Intercontinental GT Challenge, SRO's global offering, 25 cars for that listed. Yeah, nice field, which is a nice field, principally Pro-Am, but a decent number of Pro-cars, and a bit of a shake up there. We'll talk about that one, maybe a little closer to the race. But for Emsa, wide open, it's an interesting time for Emsa. They're beginning to release details of their entry for next year. No major, major, major surprises. But, for that coming back, didn't say that coming. Didn't say that coming. What's the bit Mustang do as well? I think they're come back as well, apparently. So, but this weekend, it's too hard of raising Aston Martin's in Pro. We've got Dragon Speed, making their debut with their GTD Ferrari. But in the background, there is trouble, apparently, for one of the major Emsa teams. And that was used breaking this week of an FBI raid on R&L. Now, this seems to be not linked in with their R&L BMWs factory partner, for anyone not. Yes, but in this case, it's to do with their, reportedly, their IndyCar efforts. And the allegation appears to be of potential industrial espionage that IP, data IP, came from Andretti with their engineer being re-employed by R&L. Well, okay. So, how serious of a defense do you think, do you think there's a lot of comment on line of our exciting odds? Should the FBI be getting involved in this? Yes, ridiculous. It is, isn't it? It doesn't matter that it's motorsport, it's still... No, absolutely, it's IP, isn't it? It is IP. And you just don't do that, it's a straight answer. But, you know, nothing at the moment's proven, investigation ongoing. But it has been a pretty tough year for R&L. And I think, I said earlier in the show, some reflection on the performance of the BMW and WC. It's got to be said, that's not good news for R&L. No, because they've had a lot longer with that car and they've not delivered the goods. They've had a couple of wins, but, beyond that, it just hasn't been able to sustain anything have they? And the reality is, there's a couple of wins when this big car is around them, and with a formula that does tend to... Well, the first one must provide disqualification, wasn't it, for the actual race, for the race? But it's also a formula with the sporting regs for Inza, that tends to assist a close finish. And if you're with the right field state on the right tyres, with a round driver, there you go, then it really is all bets are off. But R&L having a rubbish week, and let's hope for them that Indianapolis serves up better luck for them. Anything else you spot? I hope it's an event that's building, and that you see signs that the Inza race at Indianapolis is becoming more relevant, is becoming more popular. You went last year, Graham. I did, I did. Do you think it's an event with potential? I enjoyed the event. There were not as many people, though, as I was hoping to see. It's got to be said. They're welcome for those people who are exceptional. I think as a spectator experience, as in the welcome you get, it's very good. It's not the most picturesque of places to watch sports car racing. It needs something, and I'm not sure what that something might be. I do wonder whether or not a further investment in racing into darkness might be the thing. I certainly think it's cool to have the name of Indianapolis and everything that is in motorsport as part of the Endurance Cup, but I don't think making an Endurance Cup race is all of a sudden going to bring 50,000 more people there. They're going to have to do a lot more, but it's an odd one Indianapolis, isn't it? Because as a circuit, it's steeped in history, but sports cars, there's just not that much heritage there, and it's not that audience that you can just plumb into is there? No, it's a slow burn. If you like the marketing efforts, the digging deep and looking for a long-term future of these efforts, we talked about this at Kota. WC and Kota claiming 65,800 people at that race. Now, it doesn't matter what you believe or otherwise, there were certainly more people there at that race than I've seen before at a WC event by some distance, and they're committing to it next year, which will help that date equity thing around coming back to a marketplace, showing faith in that marketplace. There was marketing around the city. I think more can and should be done in terms of pushing it forward. I think we all enjoy going to Austin. It's a great city to visit, but maybe just something a little bit more, whether or not that's kind of city centre exhibition or a road run, whatever it is, something more is required just to break through. It's a party town, at least part of Austin, is the part outside your bedroom window certainly was. It's a bit of an enigma, isn't it? It could be, should be, a really great market for sports car racing. It's a motorsport, hard, isn't it, Indianapolis? But outside of the 500, it just doesn't have that draw, does it? So there you go, two enigmas, Indy and Kota, for two pretty different reasons for two different championships. But things are on the up and up. We are seeing numbers growing, more people than we've seen in many a year at Fuji, more people than we've seen ever, I think, for work at Kota. And let's hope that Indy can produce an uptick for the MSW sports car championships as well, because a lot of people are trying very hard indeed to achieve that. What else have we got to finish the show? I think we should talk about the news that broke just a few hours before we got a recording for this, which is about the rookie test at Bahrain. We see the rookie test where the first two drivers confirmed, Richard DeGiérrez and Gillian Omrion, two youngsters from the ELMS paddock, that I'm actually really, two French youngsters in the ELS paddock, who I'm really excited to see what they can do in, you know, given the chance to drive some significant cars, because they have been good. They've been very good in the ELMS. So DeGiérrez will drive the high guitar and Omrion will drive the LMGC3 car. I think that's going to be a pure racing car, yeah. So tell us a bit about the listeners a bit about Rachael DeGiérrez. Yeah, so he raced with Edec in ELMS, in LMP2, and I think at times during the season in a field that is stunning, has shown real pace and ability. I think he's one of those underrated drivers. When you see all the star names in LMP2 in the ELMS, it's easy to overlook guys like Richard Jarrison, people like Vlad Longco, and some of these guys are actually putting in really big performances, and Edec have got a really good P2 team and have had a few good results this year. So yeah, interesting. He's only 21, they're both 21, so still a lot more to come from him, but I think he's got real promise, and these are really good opportunities, aren't they? Getting a hypercar at Bahrain, you're in front of a load of factory teams, you're all going to be looking at the lap times, you're going to be looking at the way you handle yourself, and if he puts in a really good performance, it will live long in the memory with some of the people who wield the power of putting together driver lineups. Getting on real meanwhile sits at the threshold of something quite extraordinary. We leave from a yellow next week for the penultimate round of the European Le Mans series, and he's flying pretty high in LMP3, top of the title standings with Viraj, and if he does that, that will be a pretty extraordinary run, because it will mean it should he score that title in 2024, it will be three consecutive titles, Leisure European series, where he won that title two years ago, Michelin Le Mans Cup last season, again with Team Viraj, and now in the European Le Mans series. That is the definition of the ladder, so it's then what next, well he'll test another GT3 car, and that could be quite interesting. You have to say Viraj are there with an O&P2 car available to them for 2025. What next is going to be at Bahrain with the spotlight on him, with that effectively that prize drive. The way these work, by the way, these two drivers are nominated by LMBN, have the organizers of both the European Le Mans series, and the Fi World Endurance Championship. So good to see them looking outside of the LMP2 squads. It's just good to see them looking at the Elem-S talent pool, because there's so much in there, if you were going to pick two drivers in it, you'd be really hard pressed to make a decision. There are so many good drivers in there, and it's nice to see that they're not just, I don't know, loving a couple of LMBG3 drivers in the hypercar and vice versa. They're looking at what they've got, if they're off of products, and rewarding people for showing talent, and got to say, leisure must be delighted, because they can valid, say with validity now, that they've had somebody rise from the Leisure European series through the Munk Up through Elem-S, and it's now getting picked to participate in a big WC test, which is just fantastic for a youngster. If anyone wanted to live that dream, it is possible. So that's the week in sports cars for the past two or three weeks, in fact, and looking forward to next week, as we said, off to Magello midweek, for the very first time that the Tuscan race track has owned by Ferrari, by the way, as well as the European Le Mans series. I'm looking forward to that thoroughly. We're not looking forward to the pizza and gelato, aren't you, Graham? Yes, and the racing, that mainly the pizza and gelato. But looking forward to something new, I think, is what really comes out of that. It's a full race card of series, with all three of the ladd of the Elem-S, and I think we've got Porsche Kruegerkup France there, as well. That might be right. But we've had Kruegerkup, along with a lot of the racing this season. That's going to be good to see. Patrick Peeley stepping in to the Vector Sport car, instead of filling up the trigger with lots and lots of driver changes. One to mark, though, and to say goodbye, and we should do that, and that is John Hartshon. John has been part of sports car racing as a true, gentle driver in all senses of the word, since I started writing at the top of this century. 70 years ago. 170 years ago, yeah. So John, big shunts at Spa in the Gen W car after being hit by one of the LNP2 cars. That's aggravated an old injury, and John, not in his first flush of youth, and neither am I, John, so I feel your literal pain, has decided to draw a veil over the remaining opportunities for racing this season. He finishes his sports car racing efforts in his mid to late 60s. Should we say that with a relatively new wife, who's utterly charming, and why wouldn't you want to spend more time with your lady, but having finished a fabulous fourth place overall in the LMG3 class at Le Mans this year, in that third bright yellow proton Mustang, a very late confirmation of John in that car. It shows that beyond the glittering successes that pro drivers can have, the amazing performances that you can see from teams up and down the grid in full pro and in pro-an racing, there's a pure amateur driver you can dare to dream. And that's exactly what John has done through this season and last season, and I think he wanted to thank, by the way, the management team that's been behind his plans this year, and that is, all of a given, motorsport management. I've never heard him before, but apparently he's quite a big deal in sports car racing. Thank you very much, Stephen Kilby. He has been Stephen Kilby, it says it on his name badge, and also so inside of all this clothing, by his charming fiance Carolyn, just in case he forgets both who he is, and in case the big boys don't have to steal his clothes again. I've been Graham Goodwin, this has been the week in sports cars, parts of the Marshall Pruitt podcast network, and with thanks, as always, to FAF technologies, to the Justice Brothers, and to Toronto Motorsports.com. We'll do a very level best to be back with you next week.
