Weather already a major factor this weekend at Road Atlanta

Four caution flags in the first 25 minutes, including one for a spin before the green flag – that should give you an idea of the soggy conditions at Road America for the Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge race, that is going on now as part of the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Petit Le Mans.

And with the possibility of hurricane-related rain Saturday, the 10-hour TUDOR Championship finale could well be who gets lucky with tire choice on pit road, and who gets lucky on the track to avoid the sort of disaster that befell John Pew in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Honda Ligier in Thursday’s late practice, when he hit standing water on the front straight and crashed hard enough to put the car’s participation in jeopardy.

At the moment, it looks like the Shank Racing entry will make the field, due to an all-night thrash to repair the carbon fiber tub. Right now, said a team spokesman, they’re just rounding up enough parts to hopefully keep the car going for 10 hours.

With over two hours remaining in the Continental Tire Challenge finale, Jade Buford is leading GS in his Ford Shelby GT350-C, and Chad McCumbee has his Mazda MX-5 out front in Street Tuner.

We’ll have more later.