IMSA 2020

I feel like Mazda threw everything at the engines knowing that it was a short sprint race and the higher humidity lets you run alot more cylinder pressure....
 
Magnethead said:
IIRC they run the lighting at 25% for sports cars, to put emphasis on the headlights and drivers.
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Yep they just covered it, I should've waited lol. Just seems even less lit than it was in January but it could be due to the lack of stuff going on in the infield too.
 
dominating performance by Mazda and Lexus. Corvette just did the right fuel map and got lucky-ish.
 
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Lexus need a full Pro factory program, maybe LMDh in a few years, or Hawksworth is going to get a factory drive somewhere else. Wire-to-wire domination from the Lexuses.

Corvette haven’t won in ages it feels like. Really good second outing for the C8.R.

Kudos to Mazda on the 1-2 but how about Sebastian Bourdais? Took the #5 from 6th to 3rd in the back half of the race and was within a few seconds of the #77 at the end.

The firework show was awesome as usual.
 
The #5 had a crazy race. At one point early during pit stops he jumped up in the lead
for a few laps then dropped back down in back of the class by more than a minute. I thought
they might be toast. When the 7 Acura detonated and Sebas jumped in, something happened.
I cant put my finger on it , but I suspect they had a wicked strategy from the beginning. One
of those "lets do the opposite of the field" strategy. Maybe not having many ( or any ) cautions
is what worked in their favor. I really need to watch this race again to see if I can better pinpoint the
5's turn a around. I think for now, I will see if Dagys has a report at 365.

You guys were lucky to be there !
 
FLRacingFan said:
Lexus need a full Pro factory program, maybe LMDh in a few years, or Hawksworth is going to get a factory drive somewhere else. Wire-to-wire domination from the Lexuses.

Corvette haven’t won in ages it feels like. Really good second outing for the C8.R.

Kudos to Mazda on the 1-2 but how about Sebastian Bourdais? Took the #5 from 6th to 3rd in the back half of the race and was within a few seconds of the #77 at the end.

The firework show was awesome as usual.
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Now if I'm not mistaken, Lexus is doing what Toyota asked them to do. Win and win often, I would love to see a full-blown pro program from Lexus. Hawksworth is a beast and Aaron Telitz is pretty good as well, I'm not even sure if Telitz is a full-blown factory driver for Lexus. They were a great combo yesterday in the GTD class and smoked that field.

That was a much needed sigh of relief for Corvette and they got there 100th win (Damn, got to witness history). That was pretty darn cool.

Mazda has these sprint races down pact. They are extremely fast in anything under 12 hours, they can turn up the wick a bit on the engine and it really showed. You can tell how much Mazda puts into the chassis and aero of the car. I mean, I thought the Caddilac was good through turn one, but holy **** they were tossing that Mazda into turn one without a lot of brake. That car was absolutely planted.

Bourdais is Bourdais, I think he has found a new home in Wayne Taylor Racing and I hope GM continues to back him. Bourdais will be a driver hitman for them, I can see him over in the US with WTR and replace Magnussen as the "Super Veteran Shoe" in the 24 Hours of LeMans. He's about as smooth as they come in endurance racing and can get the most out of anything.
 
Treacherous wet start and changing light conditions...…….not a great way to go racing, but not a single incident all race. Kudos to all the drivers for using their heads and everyone having a clean race. Well done.

Once the Mazda got out front the outcome was pretty much sealed unless they blew up, but that's sure happened before. The GT action was just sizzling. Overall, not a memorable race, but they can't all be outstanding. It was great just to see the cars going around., Next week will be better.

Can't wait for next weekend.
 
Kiante said:
Now if I'm not mistaken, Lexus is doing what Toyota asked them to do. Win and win often, I would love to see a full-blown pro program from Lexus. Hawksworth is a beast and Aaron Telitz is pretty good as well, I'm not even sure if Telitz is a full-blown factory driver for Lexus. They were a great combo yesterday in the GTD class and smoked that field.

That was a much needed sigh of relief for Corvette and they got there 100th win (Damn, got to witness history). That was pretty darn cool.

Mazda has these sprint races down pact. They are extremely fast in anything under 12 hours, they can turn up the wick a bit on the engine and it really showed. You can tell how much Mazda puts into the chassis and aero of the car. I mean, I thought the Caddilac was good through turn one, but holy **** they were tossing that Mazda into turn one without a lot of brake. That car was absolutely planted.

Bourdais is Bourdais, I think he has found a new home in Wayne Taylor Racing and I hope GM continues to back him. Bourdais will be a driver hitman for them, I can see him over in the US with WTR and replace Magnussen as the "Super Veteran Shoe" in the 24 Hours of LeMans. He's about as smooth as they come in endurance racing and can get the most out of anything.
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Tristan Vautier actually had a lot of quick laps in the #85 last night too, Chris Miller just doesn’t have the pace as the lone silver in DPi. If they can get creative with the driver strategy like CORE did with Colin Braun and Jon Bennett I could see both JDC-Miller cars being threats for race wins, although I’m not sure what exactly their plans are for the Banana Boat. I know they want to run Vautier as much as possible but have only confirmed their Road America lineup as well as Loic Duval for the enduros.
 
Am I the only one who feels a little weird looking forward to the 12 hours of Sebring in July? What's going to be odd is seeing that place empty, but we went through that before with the '97 Octoberfest.

What can we take away from Daytona? First, I think the Mazda advantage is a little too much. I expect they will add 10-20lbs to the cars for next weekend. If they don't, Mazda is going to run away with it, that is, if they maintain reliability. Mazda deserves a bit of success after all they have been through, but I don't think it should be handed to them with a favorable BOP. It's not off all that much, but they do have an advantage.

I think Penske needs to find a solution for their cars burning up the tires. They were really fast but always fell off a cliff once the tires got old. They struggled with this all of last year and I'm surprised they never found a solution. Funny thing is, I've never seen any Oreca in P2 have this problem, so why is Penske's Oreca based car doing this?

Caddy overall seems to have really solid teams, including it's privateers. I'de look for JDC Mustang Sampling to have a surprising run at Sebring. I have to admit a bit of bias toward Caddy because they have really stepped up providing cars while Acura and Mazda are hoarding theirs.
 
Doc Austin said:
Am I the only one who feels a little weird looking forward to the 12 hours of Sebring in July? What's going to be odd is seeing that place empty, but we went through that before with the '97 Octoberfest.

What can we take away from Daytona? First, I think the Mazda advantage is a little too much. I expect they will add 10-20lbs to the cars for next weekend. If they don't, Mazda is going to run away with it, that is, if they maintain reliability. Mazda deserves a bit of success after all they have been through, but I don't think it should be handed to them with a favorable BOP. It's not off all that much, but they do have an advantage.

I think Penske needs to find a solution for their cars burning up the tires. They were really fast but always fell off a cliff once the tires got old. They struggled with this all of last year and I'm surprised they never found a solution. Funny thing is, I've never seen any Oreca in P2 have this problem, so why is Penske's Oreca based car doing this?

Caddy overall seems to have really solid teams, including it's privateers. I'de look for JDC Mustang Sampling to have a surprising run at Sebring. I have to admit a bit of bias toward Caddy because they have really stepped up providing cars while Acura and Mazda are hoarding theirs.
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The race next weekend is another 2:40 sprint li Daytona last weekend, the 12 Hours became the season finale in November. I agree it’ll be interesting though, very hot and slick if it doesn’t rain, and changing conditions like last week would certainly be fascinating with how much twister the track is.

I agree Mazda has had the best pace over the two Daytona races, I’m interested to see how that translates at more of a downforce track. Daytona and Sebring have different power/weight baselines although I haven’t looked in a while to see what they are. Cadillac do seem to strategize better and typically get better over the course of a run. Stephen Simpson should be alongside Vautier in the #85 next week so the Banana Boat has a better shot.

I'm not really sure what the deal with Penske Acura is. They got a title last season but they haven’t won any major events. I expected more results out of the program by now.
 
FLRacingFan said:
The race next weekend is another 2:40 sprint li Daytona last weekend, the 12 Hours became the season finale in November.
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Oh, damm. You're right.

I agree it’ll be interesting though, very hot and slick if it doesn’t rain, and changing conditions like last week would certainly be fascinating with how much twister the track is.
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We haven't had a lot of rain this summer so far, at least not where I live. We're overdue for a good soaking.

I'm not really sure what the deal with Penske Acura is. They got a title last season but they haven’t won any major events. I expected more results out of the program by now.
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I've never heard of any Oreca burning their tires off, so it's almost certain they have a damper problem. I don't think all the bumps at Sebring are going to help with that, but we will see.

I have not heard of any BOP changes coming, which is a bit disappointing. I still think the Mazda advantage is a bit too big.
 
29 on the entry list this weekend (8 DPi/5 LMP2/6 GTLM/10 GTD)

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Menezes/Pigot is actually a good fight. P2 is slowly coming back, and from what I remember seeing not too long ago several ELMS teams and a couple of WEC teams are evaluating programs over here next season.
 
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