58th Rolex 24 at DAYTONA

Just wondering how the Shrub liked getting pasted 76 times by the leader.
 
What a performance by WTR and Rahal.

Dragonspeed in LMP2 dominating for a back to back wins. Harrison Newey wins with Dragonspeed as well! I wonder if Adrian would be interested to race along with his son?

Another great Rolex 24, hopefully I will be able to partake in the festivities next year. Bring on Sebring, I should be there for that.
 
So I'll be there in 2021 to cheer on Corvette with Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr, Jimmie Johnson driving. I kid, I kid.
 
only 6 cars not running at the end. Really amazing. I can remember a race or two when
almost half the field was in the garage by the end. Let the motorsports year
commence! Congats WTR!
 
donthaveanickname said:
Nürburgring, Spa, Zolder, Dubai...
And don't forget the 24h cross-country skiing event here in Saxony.
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I am so sorry I am a novice sports car fan... I had no idea Spa had a 24 hour race holy cow. Do many drivers and teams that compete in the Rolex 24 compete in that??? I remember watching it when its been on TV but not knowing much of whats going on. Spa is a part of the WEC right?
 
Snappy D said:
I am so sorry I am a novice sports car fan... I had no idea Spa had a 24 hour race holy cow. Do many drivers and teams that compete in the Rolex 24 compete in that??? I remember watching it when its been on TV but not knowing much of whats going on. Spa is a part of the WEC right?
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Nope, the WEC race is only six hours.
The 24 hour race is GT3 only, had around 70 teams competing last year.
 
I am almost intrigued of a NASCAR endurance race for real. Maybe not take the place of the 600 because thats the "Endurance race" of NASCAR but something early in the offseason at Daytona. A 12 hour race. I'd so be down for that but dont know how realistic it is.
 
Snappy D said:
I am almost intrigued of a NASCAR endurance race for real. Maybe not take the place of the 600 because thats the "Endurance race" of NASCAR but something early in the offseason at Daytona. A 12 hour race. I'd so be down for that but dont know how realistic it is.
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The 500 miles of Sonoma as a part of the west coast swing was my suggestion.

btw. The 24h Series (GT3, GT4 and Touring Cars) also runs 24-hour-races at Portimao,. Barcelona and COTA.
 
Snappy D said:
I am almost intrigued of a NASCAR endurance race for real. Maybe not take the place of the 600 because thats the "Endurance race" of NASCAR but something early in the offseason at Daytona. A 12 hour race. I'd so be down for that but dont know how realistic it is.
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Run it instead of the All-Star.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Run it instead of the All-Star.
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I seriously love this idea. Bravo. The 24 Hours of Charlotte on the Roval (instead of what would be the All Star Race) I don’t know how teams could compete...maybe two entries per team. For instance 2 Camaro’s for Hendrick they have current drivers and past drivers team up. I really love your idea, I think it’d be a winner.
 
Snappy D said:
I seriously love this idea. Bravo. The 24 Hours of Charlotte on the Roval (instead of what would be the All Star Race) I don’t know how teams could compete...maybe two entries per team. For instance 2 Camaro’s for Hendrick they have current drivers and past drivers team up. I really love your idea, I think it’d be a winner.
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While I'd love it, I see plenty of problems. The smaller teams probably couldn't afford to participate, and their hardware wouldn't last. There's also the problem of coming up with enough drivers.

I think 6 or 8 hours about the most we could expect for a Cup race.
 
I've always wanted to see a multi class NASCAR race, put the Cup cars, Xfinity cars, trucks, and mods out there
 
Charlie Spencer said:
While I'd love it, I see plenty of problems. The smaller teams probably couldn't afford to participate, and their hardware wouldn't last. There's also the problem of coming up with enough drivers.

I think 6 or 8 hours about the most we could expect for a Cup race.
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I think it would be great but it will not happen.
But as a pipedream I would want it at Watkins Glen.
They would have to detune the engines to last.
Tires would have to be hard with a long life to make the tire bill more manageable.
Maybe 3 set of soft tires could be allowed to be used at strategic times.

I think the shortage of drivers is a bonus, a great agent for driver development. Somebody new would be getting an opportunity in a Cup car.
 
Snappy D said:
I’m kind of lost on this why is the IMSA/ACO agreement such a big deal? I thought the teams racing in the WEC already race in races like LeMans and Daytona?
https://us.motorsport.com/wec/news/imsa-aco-convergence-prototype-rules/4676453/
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GTLM, P2, and P3 classes are eligible are eligible on both sides of the Atlantic. The big rift is in the top prototype classes. No DPI from over here can run there, and no LMP1 can run in IMSA. The ideal is to have one top prototype class so everyone can race everywhere.

I have yet to read the final agreement, but apparently we are going to have both hypercars and DPI V2,0 racing, here and there. We can take our cars to Lemans and they can bring their cars over here. The only potential problem I see is the chassis manufacturers might not be able to meet demand.

I caught a lot of the race, and really enjoyed it. There wasn't as much wheel to wheel as we usually see but we also have very few yellows to bunch it all up. Considering that, the finish was actually closer than it looked.

I read awhile back that Mazda was going to give Joest the axe and turn the entire program over to Multimatic right after Sebring. Seems like that might not be the best move when the everything is really coming together.

Penske didn't feature very well, but only half of that was their fault. Helio got punted off and the other car had ride height problems (it was 3 am, I was cat napping, and only heard half of it) but before that both cars were running well. Seems like Penske inherited Mazda's luck.

All the Cadillacs featured strongly, and right now I'de say they have the favorable BOP. I believe all the DPIs were running at the end, and only Helio's car was completely out of contention. I think that's pretty remarkable.
 
My guess is WEC will either leave Sebring for IMS or add IMS as a second event in the States. IMS technically already has an endurance race starting this year, the Indianapolis 8 Hours, part of the same Intercontinental GT Challenge that namely includes the Bathurst 12 and Spa 24. But the way it's been talked about so far it sounds like Roger is gunning for either an IMSA or WEC event and IMSA has much more schedule stability at the moment and really can't afford to expand the calendar any further.
 
Snappy D said:
I’m kind of lost on this why is the IMSA/ACO agreement such a big deal? I thought the teams racing in the WEC already race in races like LeMans and Daytona?
https://us.motorsport.com/wec/news/imsa-aco-convergence-prototype-rules/4676453/
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The only technical regulations IMSA and the ACO share at the big boy level are LMP2 and GTE (GTLM here in the States). There's also LMP3 as Doc mentioned but they run in their own series here, IMSA Prototype Challenge, and the other ACO-affiliated series European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. DPi are beefed-up LMP2 cars that haven't been eligible to race at Le Mans or other ACO events, and LMP1 is way too technologically advanced and expensive to be run in the States.

To replace LMP1 the FIA and ACO came up with what's currently just labeled Hypercar, which will slash budgets from LMP1 levels but still is too expensive for most OEMs to want to join and certainly a non-starter for IMSA. Most OEMs have also stated a desire to be able to build a single car they can run all over the world again instead of being beholden to one series and only select crown jewel events. So while Hypercar got commitments from Aston Martin, Glickenhaus, and Peugeot to join Toyota it still wasn't to the degree the FIA and ACO desired. All of this considered, ACO and IMSA have been working together within the past year or so on ways to converge Hypercar and DPi 2.0 (was set to debut in 2022). I think it turned out better than people expected or hoped for, with the two agreeing on a single common formula to run in the top class of each around the world.

It sounds like in the WEC they'll have to BoP the new cars against Hypercar when they debut but it wouldn't be surprising to see Hypercar just peter out and die now that this news broke. Peugeot is already supposedly shifting their plans away from Hypercar to LMDh, and it shouldn't be an issue here since I doubt any of Toyota/AMR/Glickenhaus want to run here anyways.

Like Doc said I think a lot of the issue will be whether or not four chassis manufacturers is enough to accommodate all of the OEMs who'd want to play and finding a spec KERS vendor who can support all of those entries too.
 
I planned on watching a replay but youtube decided to be a bitch and plastered the results and spoiled it for me.
 
FLRacingFan said:
think it turned out better than people expected or hoped for, with the two agreeing on a single common formula to run in the top class of each around the world.
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They could have come up with something simpler and cheaper, but at least we have a good start.

It sounds like in the WEC they'll have to BoP the new cars against Hypercar……………
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While optimistic, I am skeptical they can fairly BOP cars that are so vastly different. They haven't been able to do it with the Toyota and privateers.

...........it wouldn't be surprising to see Hypercar just peter out and die now that this news broke.
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The hypercars were starting to look cool (especially the Peugeot), but I'de be ok with them petering out and the prototypes being the stars of the show.

I think a lot of the issue will be whether or not four chassis manufacturers is enough to accommodate all of the OEMs who'd want to play...…….
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I am a bit surprised Ginetta was not invited to play after all they went through to support WEC, but maybe they can be added if there is demand. I'm also skeptical anyone would buy a Muttlymatic because outside of Mazda, no one is running one anywhere in the world.

…........finding a spec KERS vendor who can support all of those entries too.
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I don't see any need to male the cars more expensive, complicated and temperamental. It's not going to make the racing any better so I see it as a waste.
 
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