IMSA / Laguna Seca – JDC-Miller : "We’re here to learn all the stuff we don’t know"

The timing was hardly less tense than the one Hertz Team Jota had to deal with in the WEC before Spa-Francorchamps. This weekend's fourth round of the 2023 IMSA season marks the first competitive appearance of a privateer Porsche 963 across the Atlantic, in this case the JDC-Miller MotorSports car.

Before heading to Laguna Seca, the German car was driven for a few dozen metres in the team's workshop car park in Savage, Minnesota. “It’ll be nice when the green flag flies on Sunday and we can relax and just start doing our thing,” Church, the team’s managing director, admitted on the IMSA official website.

The first free practice session was more of a shakedown than anything else, which is why the time was not very convincing, 2.8 seconds behind the #7 963. Tijem van der Helm did not complete a single lap, whilst Mike Rockenfeller completed 17.

“For this weekend, we want to make every session and run as many laps as we can,” Church said. “I mean, it’s a test weekend – just get a feel for everything and like I keep telling the guys, we’re here to learn all the stuff we don’t know. There’s a lot of things that we don’t know that we don’t know, so we’ve just got to go and run and figure it out.”

With a wealth of experience including a win at the 24 Hours of Daytona and another at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mike Rockenfeller is sure to be a valuable asset to the small entity that will win the 2021 12 Hours of Sebring.

“Honestly, I think we can feel as winners if we do every session (this weekend) more or less on time, if we have no big issues and we stay on track,” Rockenfeller said. “If we finish the race, I’m happy. I go home happy because we will learn a lot.”