The postponement of the Firestone 600 from Saturday night until Sunday afternoon has caused some havoc with those Verizon IndyCar Series drivers who are scheduled to compete in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Drivers Scott Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais and Mikhail Aleshin are all set to compete in the legendary endurance race this year, as well as racer/broadcaster Townsend Bell, and all were set to fly out of Texas for France after last evening’s race, only for it to be delayed until today due to a wet track.
For Dixon and Bourdais in particular this is bad news, as they will now be unable to make it to Le Mans in time for the 5.10pm (local time) mandatory pre-event scrutineering session to their GTs for driver credentialing, safety equipment inspection and photographs, with both drivers part of the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT Le Mans program.
It is expected that an exception will be made for the drivers in question to attend scrutineering late, although Aleshin and Bell are under less pressure as their own scrutineering session is set for Monday.
“We’ve requested to have all of their gear inspected without them today, and when Scott and Sebastien get here, we anticipate sending them down to get their licensing completed on Monday,” said Ford Chip Ganassi Racing team manager Mike O’Gara to RACER.com.
“It’s a bummer for Scott because I wanted him to be part of all this from start to finish since it will be his first time, but we’ll be fine. The plane is still on stand-by in Texas, so they’ll be headed over here as soon as the race is over.”
