Petit Le Mans - Live reporting from the VICI Racing pits

8:45 PM "The car has felt good today; it’s working really well and seems to suit the track, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and the race," says Marc, who is debriefing with Jason Myers from Kumho. "I like this track, it’s good for the driver. The team have done good. in getting the car well-prepared and working here, the tires seem to be ok here; in fact I think that the track comes towards us and it having fewer slower bends helps us a bit. The set-up is good, the RSR is working very well over the kerbs, and it grips tightly when it comes off the kerbs. With the new engine tomorrow and other parts we should be able to improve further. The team is working hard, we have ground to make up so hopefully we can turn in a good day tomorrow.”

8:40 PM "I’m pretty pleased with how today has gone," says Roland. "The night practice pace showed that we have got a good set-up together despite a lot less track time than the other teams have, so the changes we have made today have shown they have worked. The car looks quite good here, the drivers have all done very well, and Nicky and Francesco haven’t been here before so they have adapted well. We have got the car working well on the tires, so everything so far is good. Actually we used a very hard compound today as we wanted to continue the test program. We now have to continue to push tomorrow, and make sure we are fully ready for the race.”

8:20 PM During the red flag delay mild play was noticed in the left-hand-rear wheelbearing and to put caution first, especially as the team was happy with set-up direction, Francesco and Nicky are now running the required three tours of the track, an out lap, in lap, and flying-lap.

7:55 PM At this point Marc is 7th fastest on the GT2 timesheets and, importantly the second-fastest of the Porsche GT2 runners. An good performance bearing in mind our limited track time this week.

7:50 PM With the track now plunged into darkness Marc turns in a 1:24.908 (15), 1:22.315 (17) and a 1:23.033 (19) before pitting after 21 mins. Back out 2 mins later Marc turns in a 1:22.770 (26), 1:24.610 (28) and 1:23.313 (31) before the #21 Panoz goes off at turn 6, bringing out the red flag.

7:30 PM Nicky watches from the pitwall. Marc was first into the cockpit and he immediately reported himself happy with the set-up of the car. His first flying lap after 9 mins was a 1:26.283, which he followed up with a 1:22.20 (10 mins); now he's gone sub-1:22, with a 1:21.808 (13).

7:20 PM The night practice is mandatory for all drivers racing in the Petit Le Mans, allowing them time to acquaint themselves with running on this race track at night. Each driver has to accomplish at least one flying lap. The session schedule has been tweaked slightly; it would now start at 7:15 PM and finish at 9:00 PM. By the time the start of the session comes round the daylight is falling fast, the clear Georgia sky reddening as the sun began to set.

6:00 PM Before the night practice took place the gearbox in the #18 car was changed for a unit optimised to the track. Working quickly and efficiently this job is swiftly undertaken by the skilled mechanics.

4:40 PM After the opening session was blighted by red flags, the second session, which got underway at 3:05, saw the 38 cars taking part having a clear run. Track temperatures, were steadily rising all day and were recorded at 113 degrees as the circuit went green. The session is now over, with Marc and Francesco having got plenty of track time in.

11:20 AM The opening practice session is nearing the end. Like a conductor of an orchestra, Technical Director Roland Wall masterminds the team's functioning from his position in the pit lane. the activities revolve around him as he develops the strategies that will take us forward as a unit.

11:05 AM While Nicky is pounding away out on the track, team mates Marc and Francesco are watching from the pit wall. The three drivers each bring different strengths and compliment each other. They are as hungry for success as the rest of the team and are the perfect choice to push the development program forward.

10:45 AM With air temperatures of 65 degrees and track temperature at 79 degrees, there was just four minutes of green flag action before debris at turn 12 brought out the red flag again (10:45 AM). Three minutes later the track went green again and Nicky was soon into consistent lapping as he learnt the track.

10:15 Technical Director Roland Wall takes a brief break from the preparations in the pitlane to inspect the parts that have arrived for his remote-control helicopter. A recent convert to the joys of flying remote-control helicopters, even if it's in his garden; and as one would expect, Roland's machine makes full use of advanced composite technologies. Carbon-fibre rotor blades have now been added to the mix and a big grin is in evidence.

10:05 AM We're building quickly towards the first practice session of the day and the youngest of our trio of drivers sharing the #18 car over this weekend, Francesco "Franz" Pastorelli is in very good spirits. He's arrived fresh from testing the Ferrari 430 Challenge racer he will be driving in a program of late season sports car events in his native Holland.

8:30 AM Today's (Thursday Oct 2nd) action on track here will kick of with an hour long free practice session this morning open to all classes (10:30-11:30 AM) followed by another hour in the late afternoon (3:05-4:05 PM) which is again open to all classes. The day will wrap up with a further two hours of night practice (7:00-9:00 PM), again it will be open to all competitors.

7:30 AM The sun is rising quickly over a quite chilly Road Atlanta, and for VICI Racing the action at the ALMS' late season blue riband event starts right here. The famous 10 hour or 1,000 mile endurance race gets underway late on Saturday morning and we now have a long, tough build-up to the big race. And it all starts now.