IMSA 2022

I swear Albuquerque has made the ultimately race-winning pass on the 60 three or four times this season. The guy is so clutch under pressure.
 
Great race, great way to start the day. Jarvis somehow brings the wrecked 60 home under yellow, staying ahead of two Cadillacs and preserving critical points.

WTR heads into Petit Le Mans with the same 19-point lead they had last year before losing the title to the 31 in the last corner of the last lap. :oops:
 
It should be interesting to see who WTR and MSR bring as their third drivers for Petit as it’s seemingly more wide-open than expected at the beginning of the season. Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi have been in the 10 this year but apparently Filipe Albuquerque said on a podcast this week it’ll be a surprise as to who’s in it for the finale. MSR have run Pagenaud, Helio, and then Stoffel Vandoorne when there was the Texas/Sebring conflict. Big decisions to make.
 
FLRacingFan said:
It should be interesting to see who WTR and MSR bring as their third drivers for Petit as it’s seemingly more wide-open than expected at the beginning of the season. Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi have been in the 10 this year but apparently Filipe Albuquerque said on a podcast this week it’ll be a surprise as to who’s in it for the finale. MSR have run Pagenaud, Helio, and then Stoffel Vandoorne when there was the Texas/Sebring conflict. Big decisions to make.
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Has MSR been in contact with De Vries since his Sebring test? I think he's staying in FE, but I wonder if anything materialized past that?

Honestly, if I was MSR, I would get Helio back in IMSA at some capacity and get him out of the 06 car in IndyCar. Also, I did not think about Kirkwood being a possible runner, since he is moving to Andretti next year. He was impressive with Lexus, I wonder how he would fare in a DPi?
 
Kiante said:
Honestly, if I was MSR, I would get Helio back in IMSA at some capacity and get him out of the 06 car in IndyCar.
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I hope Helio doesn't stay in Indycar too long. I think right now is the right time to jump into sportscars.

Helio to Shank was a brilliant move for both of them. They got that 500 win, but everything since has been disappointing. Pagenaud isn't getting results either. Something is not right.
 
Kiante said:
Has MSR been in contact with De Vries since his Sebring test? I think he's staying in FE, but I wonder if anything materialized past that?

Honestly, if I was MSR, I would get Helio back in IMSA at some capacity and get him out of the 06 car in IndyCar. Also, I did not think about Kirkwood being a possible runner, since he is moving to Andretti next year. He was impressive with Lexus, I wonder how he would fare in a DPi?
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I read about a month ago de Vries is still on MSR’s radar, but yeah, I do know it sounds like he has a good chance to stay in FE and take one of the Toyota WEC seats too. He was incredible at Le Mans this year when he took over for an Am in LMP2 who was banned after multiple practice crashes. No prior seat time with the team before the race and wound up with the quickest lap average in the class the whole race. He’ll be great in whatever prototype he winds up in.

There are honestly tons of drivers ready for a call up from LMP2 right now. Hard to say who ends up where, I know Honda have their pick from IndyCar drivers too. Helio strikes me as a guy who maybe is a third or fourth for a big team in the enduros in the future, maybe as an LMP2 pro like Montoya is now.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I read about a month ago de Vries is still on MSR’s radar, but yeah, I do know it sounds like he has a good chance to stay in FE and take one of the Toyota WEC seats too. He was incredible at Le Mans this year when he took over for an Am in LMP2 who was banned after multiple practice crashes. No prior seat time with the team before the race and wound up with the quickest lap average in the class the whole race. He’ll be great in whatever prototype he winds up in.

There are honestly tons of drivers ready for a call up from LMP2 right now. Hard to say who ends up where, I know Honda have their pick from IndyCar drivers too. Helio strikes me as a guy who maybe is a third or fourth for a big team in the enduros in the future, maybe as an LMP2 pro like Montoya is now.
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I want to see Louis Deletraz, IMHO. He's been pretty damn good since coming over stateside this year. Sublime job in the LMP2 cars, for sure.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Helio strikes me as a guy who maybe is a third or fourth for a big team in the enduros in the future, maybe as an LMP2 pro like Montoya is now.
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If you look at Helio's recent record over the last two years, he has a championship and two Rolex. I think his poor showing in Indycars might suggest his time there is limited, but his IMSA record is fairly enviable
 
Doc Austin said:
If you look at Helio's recent record over the last two years, he has a championship and two Rolex. I think his poor showing in Indycars might suggest his time there is limited, but his IMSA record is fairly enviable
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Good point, but his recent success at the Rolex has been as a #3 and #4 for MSR and WTR. I think that’s an appropriate seat for his age. Manufacturers will likely continue to trend younger with the duration of the new regulations cycle and lock drivers down for 3-5 years. The Acura teams could stay a good spot for him since they don’t have a big factory roster and are more factory-supported than full-fledged factory teams, so WTR and MSR get more freedom on driver selection.
 
I heard yesterday that there is still a decent chance Chicago winds up getting added to the WeatherTech calendar as a GT-only event. Seems like a tight squeeze to me, sandwiched in between Watkins Glen and Mosport for three straight weekends. There are also TBAs on the MX-5 Cup and new VP Fuels LMP3/GT4 series, and Carrera Cup doesn’t announce their calendar until the big annual Porsche party in Germany in December I think.

It was also mentioned several manufacturers told the series they weren’t going to Detroit next year if it was on the calendar…not sure what that means. More teams trying to go to Le Mans that weekend? Not enough interest in the market to go for a shorter 1:40 race anymore? Idk.
 
Acura reveal their ARX-06. A lot of sharper angles on this compared to the 05, as well as a new, bespoke 2.4L TTV6 revving up to 10k RPM. The 05 currently has a 3.5L TTV6 based off of the engine found in the RDX/MDX/TLX/RLX. I wonder if this one doesn’t share some stuff with the 2024 IndyCar engine. Years ago the ARX-01 debuted with a V8 that shared similar architecture with what was then the spec IndyCar Honda V8.

 
Doc Austin said:
I was just starting to like Belle Island and now they are going to replace it. Belle Island was turning into a decent permanent facility, and we have already lost too many of those.
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I agree, it is a bit better than across the island in Detroit. Admittedly there’s a lot of other stuff on the island as well that probably gets affected by Belle Isle still being a street course somewhat.

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Pardon my intrusion into the sports car section, but I need your collective advise. For as long as I've been a race car fan, the 24 at Daytona has been a bucket list trip, and I think the time is finally right to knock this one out. I am planning a trip to attend the 2023 running and am just wondering if there is any advise or information you could pass along to a sports car newb. This is one form of motorsport that I'm pretty ignorant in. Sure I know some the bigger names that attend and manufacturers, but past that I am pretty much a novice. It looks like the 2 day ticket comes with garage access which is something that I personally think is pretty cool.

My plan is to fly into Daytona the Friday before and fly home the Monday after the race, minimizing PTO at work. If you've attended, do you just power thru without a trip back to the hotel? I'm thinking a cooler in the car with food and drink and maybe a nap in the car could maximize my time at the track.

Sorry for the long winded questions, I just don't get these solo race trip opportunities very often, so I dont want to miss anything that I may regret later on. Thanks in advance.
 
Tim_Richmond_Fan said:
Pardon my intrusion into the sports car section, but I need your collective advise. For as long as I've been a race car fan, the 24 at Daytona has been a bucket list trip, and I think the time is finally right to knock this one out. I am planning a trip to attend the 2023 running and am just wondering if there is any advise or information you could pass along to a sports car newb. This is one form of motorsport that I'm pretty ignorant in. Sure I know some the bigger names that attend and manufacturers, but past that I am pretty much a novice. It looks like the 2 day ticket comes with garage access which is something that I personally think is pretty cool.

My plan is to fly into Daytona the Friday before and fly home the Monday after the race, minimizing PTO at work. If you've attended, do you just power thru without a trip back to the hotel? I'm thinking a cooler in the car with food and drink and maybe a nap in the car could maximize my time at the track.

Sorry for the long winded questions, I just don't get these solo race trip opportunities very often, so I dont want to miss anything that I may regret later on. Thanks in advance.
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Never been to Daytona, but you will be spending a lot of time in the garage area, get a good camera and shoot low 👍
IMSA Stevenson paddock HDR.JPG
 
If you decide to sleep in the car, do a trial run one night during the off season. See if the passenger seat offers more room to stretch out, or maybe the back of an SUV. Try some different pillow placements or an air mattress. Toss in a couple of blankets or even a sleeping bag; Daytona can get cold in late Jan. Bring a couple of empty gallon jugs with screw-on caps so you won't risk 'public urination' charges.
 
Tim_Richmond_Fan said:
Pardon my intrusion into the sports car section, but I need your collective advise. For as long as I've been a race car fan, the 24 at Daytona has been a bucket list trip, and I think the time is finally right to knock this one out. I am planning a trip to attend the 2023 running and am just wondering if there is any advise or information you could pass along to a sports car newb. This is one form of motorsport that I'm pretty ignorant in. Sure I know some the bigger names that attend and manufacturers, but past that I am pretty much a novice. It looks like the 2 day ticket comes with garage access which is something that I personally think is pretty cool.

My plan is to fly into Daytona the Friday before and fly home the Monday after the race, minimizing PTO at work. If you've attended, do you just power thru without a trip back to the hotel? I'm thinking a cooler in the car with food and drink and maybe a nap in the car could maximize my time at the track.

Sorry for the long winded questions, I just don't get these solo race trip opportunities very often, so I dont want to miss anything that I may regret later on. Thanks in advance.
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Weekend garage access included with the ticket is something new for next year, so definitely take advantage of that. It’s one of the coolest aspects of a race anywhere.

I’ve done it both ways, more recently staying in the hotel to get some decent sleep and wash up. But there’s a giant parking lot at One Daytona now where it’s easy to catch some zzz’s too. Better than sleeping in front of a Best Buy.

In my experience it’s always colder than it says with the breeze coming off of the coast, especially up in the grandstands. Compared to other 24H races, the time of year and amount of night running makes the weather pretty unique. This year was the first I couldn’t attend in over a decade but it was historically cold with high 20’s/low 30’s much of the race, plus wind chill, so you can never have enough layers.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
If you decide to sleep in the car,
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FLRacingFan said:
more recently staying in the hotel to get some decent sleep and wash up. ... you can never have enough layers.
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Regarding washing up if you stay in the car, baby wipes. Buy them, use them, love them. You can take an entire bath with as few as two of them if you manage them properly; ask any veteran with field experience. ;) A pack of gum makes a half-decent replacement for a toothbrush, at least for a weekend.

You can always leave extra layers in the car until needed. Yeah, you may wind up looking like the Michelin Man but there's little worse than trying to enjoy a race while your teeth are chattering.
 
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