IMSA 2018

3:30pm: It's been a fiercely fought contest and no one seems to have a firm advantage. If any one car is the strongest right now, it would seem to be the #31 Whelen Cadillac, but then again, they may be the only ones showing what they have. No way to predict how this one is going to turn out.

The Mazda drivers say their car comes alive in the cooler night conditions, so they will be the ones to watch after the sun goes down.
 
#7 Acura is done. So much pace in that thing all week, too.

Action Express cars not playing together nicely...
 
Oh crap sorry, I did not see the chat here before I started a thread. Sorry about that.

Anybody know what happen to the Penske 7 ?
 
Hotrod said:
Oh crap sorry, I did not see the chat here before I started a thread. Sorry about that.

Anybody know what happen to the Penske 7 ?
Click to expand...
Ha, no worries. All I heard was an instant loss of oil pressure on the run out of the Tower Turn. It ground to a halt pretty quickly.

Not a good start to the Penske Acura program.
 
Pilet flying again closer to the end of the race.

Its like some of these drivers literally hit a switch in the last two-three hours of a race.
 
So next year , the WEC race will start after the 12 hour or the next morning? If anyone knows.
I think I heard right after.
 
I think a lot of us were worried that Penske and Joest would steamroller everyone. It may still happen anyway, but right now the original DPI teams have really got it going.

Another great result for the CORE autosports team. I love seeing the privateers in the fight.
 
Hotrod said:
So next year , the WEC race will start after the 12 hour or the next morning? If anyone knows.
I think I heard right after.
Click to expand...
It was originally planned to be two hours after the 12 Hours end, but they have a lot of WEC people there this weekend with a big logistics meeting planned today and it sounds like it'll be moved back at least a little bit.
 
It's a shame we will have all the IMSA and WEC entries in the same place at the same time, but they can't race each other. IMSA and the FIA really need to get together and come up with a set of rules that allows everyone to race everyone. Imagine what that grid would look like with a combined IMSA/WEC lineup.
 
Looks like the damage to the Spirit of Daytona Cadillac was worse than first thought they are going to miss Long Beach. Last year (when they were Visit Florida racing) the team destroyed a Riley chassis at Long Beach. I know Long Beach has got to be on the schedule to keep the manufacturers happy, but it sure is hard on cars.

http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/148270-spirit-of-daytona-to-skip-long-beach


I did not read anything about the Spirit of Daytona selling their Laguna winning Ligier P2 car, and if they still have it I wonder why they can't just run it. It looks like we are going to be down to 13 prototypes, which is still pretty good, but disappointing after Daytona's 20 car field.
 
Doc Austin said:
Looks like the damage to the Spirit of Daytona Cadillac was worse than first thought they are going to miss Long Beach. Last year (when they were Visit Florida racing) the team destroyed a Riley chassis at Long Beach. I know Long Beach has got to be on the schedule to keep the manufacturers happy, but it sure is hard on cars.

http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/148270-spirit-of-daytona-to-skip-long-beach


I did not read anything about the Spirit of Daytona selling their Laguna winning Ligier P2 car, and if they still have it I wonder why they can't just run it. It looks like we are going to be down to 13 prototypes, which is still pretty good, but disappointing after Daytona's 20 car field.
Click to expand...
Well that sucks. I really hope it's not an extended hiatus. They've gone through so many cars in just over the last year or so that it's got to eat into the budget, and with Visit Florida out for Matt McMurry's personal funding I wonder how much they can really afford. We saw what happened with Risi after their multiple incidents last year.

The Ligier was given back to Onroak and is at Onroak's U.S. base in NC from what I remember, unless it's gone to someone else already. I doubt they want to lease it for one race while they're working on the Cadillac.
 
FLRacingFan said:
The Ligier was given back to Onroak and is at Onroak's U.S. base in NC from what I remember, unless it's gone to someone else already. I doubt they want to lease it for one race while they're working on the Cadillac.
Click to expand...

They probably have a deal with Cadillac that precludes that anyway. I'm just bummed we are down a car, but I hate Long Beach anyway. One less car is just one less car that can get torn up. They always trash at least one car every year at that race. I don't think it's worth it.
 
Well this is sad. It looks like the Spirit Of Daytona Cadillac totaled it's chassis at Sebring. They may even miss Mid Ohio, but at least they are not talking about quitting: http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/148380-spirit-of-daytona-still-reeling-from-sebring-wreck

It is not so good that we lost two cars from Daytona. two more after Sebring, and now the SOD is going to be out for a few (if not more) events. We usually get at least one car destroyed at Long Beach, so there's that to not look forward too. Last year SOD Daytona destroyed a Riley and Action Express destroyed a Cadillac, so all I can hope for from Long Beach is we get out of there with the cars intact.

So right now it looks like 15 prototypes for Long Beach, which is actually pretty good, and probably the largest P grid we have ever seen there, but we don't want to lose any more cars. I hope they can have a clean race.

phpThumb.php
 
Doc Austin said:
Well this is sad. It looks like the Spirit Of Daytona Cadillac totaled it's chassis at Sebring. They may even miss Mid Ohio, but at least they are not talking about quitting: http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/148380-spirit-of-daytona-still-reeling-from-sebring-wreck

It is not so good that we lost two cars from Daytona. two more after Sebring, and now the SOD is going to be out for a few (if not more) events. We usually get at least one car destroyed at Long Beach, so there's that to not look forward too. Last year SOD Daytona destroyed a Riley and Action Express destroyed a Cadillac, so all I can hope for from Long Beach is we get out of there with the cars intact.

So right now it looks like 15 prototypes for Long Beach, which is actually pretty good, and probably the largest P grid we have ever seen there, but we don't want to lose any more cars. I hope they can have a clean race.

phpThumb.php
Click to expand...
They sure did lose Visit Florida at the exact wrong time.
 
Action Express up front for now, and Cadillac 1,2 4 with Taylor breaking up the sweep. Mazda within .2. Looks like IMSA got the BOP better, but the P2 cars are still close to hopeless. Top P2 car is 1.5 seconds off, so this much is actually worse than Sebring.

However, as of this writing, it's still FP1, so anything can happen.


https://sportscarchampionship.imsa.com/
 
Just see if you can make it all the way through this article without having your head explode: P2 teams could turn the tables at Long Beach

Then, add in the P2 cars are still about a second and a half off the pace. When you see how complex the regulations are it's no wonder they can never get it right. IMSA has to juggle the tables every race and it's still a blowout between the factories and the privateers. If IMSA can't address this, I can almost see us losing P2 cars. They can go race in the ELMS right now with no changes, and contend for overall victory, so what's the point of running around 1.5 seconds off the pace racing to be best of the rest?

Of course, IMSA can hardly change the BOP in the middle of the weekend, or they risk getting it more wrong than they already have. I'm not being critic of IMSA as much as am being critical of apples racing oranges and pears and expecting them all to be the same.
 
I don't know if it's so much the BoP as it is the drivers and teams. Penske were the quickest at Petit Le Mans last year in an ORECA. Spirit of Daytona won Laguna Seca in a Ligier. Penske is obviously Penske and besides last year SoD have always flown under the GM banner so they know what they're doing. BoP is only to balance cars, not driver talent and team ability. All four of the DPis got pegged back from Sebring, and before that three of them (Mazda excluded) were slowed from Daytona - yet they're more dominant over the LMP2s than before. There is only so much IMSA can do to bring the two groups closer together. I think the DPi teams are just able to extract more of the cars' potential than the privateer teams can, and they can reach that potential quicker.
 
I considered that, but remember that United Autosports was also a second off the pace at both Daytona and Sebring. That's a good team with world class drivers, and they really should not be that far behind. That, and the CORE team has some class driers too, so they really should be in the lead fight. Some of the privateers should be legitimately off the pace for the reasons you said, but not everybody.

Whatever the cause, the privateers are getting thumped and it's bad news.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Nasr is going to be a superstar in IMSA if he stays long-term; I hope he does. He didn't get much of a fair shake at Sauber in F1.
Click to expand...

No one ever got a fair shake at Sauber!

Nasr looked set to bury the field, but the way the pit stops shook out it was impossible. Still, a really solid performance. The Mustang Sampling team picked up the pieces and ran with them, and it's looking like it's their season. Both Action Express cars are currently the class of the field.

Sadly the privateers were nowhere, and if IMSA wants to keep a big field they are going to have to address this.

In all, it was not much a race for the win, but there was good action throughout the whole prototype field, and the GT action was insane. I'm glad we had a decent race instead of tearing up a bunch of cars.

Mid Ohio should be pretty good too, a we don't have wait that long.
 
Doc Austin said:
No one ever got a fair shake at Sauber!

Nasr looked set to bury the field, but the way the pit stops shook out it was impossible. Still, a really solid performance. The Mustang Sampling team picked up the pieces and ran with them, and it's looking like it's their season. Both Action Express cars are currently the class of the field.

Sadly the privateers were nowhere, and if IMSA wants to keep a big field they are going to have to address this.

In all, it was not much a race for the win, but there was good action throughout the whole prototype field, and the GT action was insane. I'm glad we had a decent race instead of tearing up a bunch of cars.

Mid Ohio should be pretty good too, a we don't have wait that long.
Click to expand...
I think the privateers will be looking forward to finally getting to a "real" road course. The first three circuits are unlike anything else (besides Detroit) in terms of setup and driver challenge so I think they will fair better moving forward.
 
Looks like the BAR1 Riley Multimatic is officially out of the IM0A Weathertech series.

BAR1 planning next steps

This is disappointing on many levels. First, we lose a car, though the team is looking around and might be back I hope they can pick up a Ligier or something, and I believe the Visit Florida Ligier car is for sale. That car is sorted and a winner, so it would be a good way for them to go.

Secondly, this means Riley is now out of the series. As storied of a history as Riley has had in American sportscar racing, it's sad to see the car perform so badly (for whatever reason) that no one wants to run one.

Sadly the Riley hasn't done much since finishing 3rd in the 2017 Rolex, and on the lead lap too. This tells me the car can't be all that bad, though it has not had a decent result since. Visit Florida destroyed a Riley at Long Beach last year, and then really tore another up at Detroit. This put them and the Riley behind and they never recovered. The BAR1 car never ran with professional drivers, so who can say if the car is good or bad? I don't think it has gotten a fair shake, and sadly it may never.

I hope someone picks this car up and gives it a decent try out. We don't need to lose another American sportscar marque.

phpThumb.php
​
 
Please forgive this bit of self indulgence, but allow me to present my collection of sports prototype racing model cars. My last real job was building cars for some teams and drivers. It sort of turned into a hobby and grew out of control. My focus has shifted to model aviation and I would love to sell the whole thing. If not, I am willing to sell it piece by piece.

If nothing else, please enjoy the video.

​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom