IMSA 2024

Doc Austin said:
I don't see many WEC teams coming over if they can't score WEC points.
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Daytona and Sebring stand alone as races where the wins take precedence above all else and the points don’t really mean anything. It’s the same for Le Mans. Wouldn’t be any different than existing teams that come from elsewhere to run LMP2 or GTD just at the Rolex, or IMSA teams that go to the French countryside in June.

Doc Austin said:
Please elaborate. That's the first I've heard of that.
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2025 will see - at minimum - Cadillac, Porsche, BMW, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin compete in both series. Four under the LMDh formula and Aston using LMH. And it’ll be all but the latter that race in both this very 2024 season.
 
In addition to ‘Rexy’ in GTD Pro, AO will enter their full season P2 as ‘Spike’ the dragon.



Proton added Romain Dumas and Alessio Picaroello to their GTP for Daytona and confirmed their #55 Mustang GTD entry will expand from Daytona-only to full season.

 
I like it, but I get Barney the Dinosaur far more than Spike the Dragon.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I don’t want to rehash the same stuff all over again but I do get why WEC moved on from Sebring, why creating a new dual weekend at Indy is ultimately more additive than tacking onto an existing weekend, and why a combined race is pretty much wholly unfeasible. I don’t have many complaints on the schedule front.
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It’s a decent schedule, but lacking Lime Rock Park (GTD Pro/GTD) for sure 100% & another rotating track like Utah/Mid-Ohio/NJMP/NOLA. (LMP2/GTD Pro/GTD).

I think the 6 Hour Battle at the Bricks is a nice event for the track, just wish IRP would take over the Xfinity race & they could bring some sort of sports car event the day before the Brickyard such as Trans-Am.
 
Some more GTP driver confirms today. Farfus is kinda old at this point (and better in GTs anyways) so I like Krohn stepping in for the full season.



 
Has nothing to do with 2024 but I didn't see a random sports car thread. The narration is annoying and not all of his facts are great but I found it interesting to see the weird rovals that were raced on in the 90s and 2000s.

 


Las Vegas, Kansas, Charlotte seem to be the most possible at hosting a Roval race. Iowa Roval would be funny.

If they did add another race besides Lime Rock Park, I would hope it’s Utah/Mid-Ohio/Kansas Roval/Barber.

Ozark International Raceway just opened but has safety issues to host sports car racing I think.
 
I've been to so many sportscar races at Daytona I've lost count. Besides the appeal of being Daytona, it's an interesting, demanding layout. I've seen the Ford v Ferrari races, the 917s and 512s, the AAGTs the GTPs and even the original DPs. There is so much history at that place it's a must see for sportscar fans, and with the current cars it's way past spectacular.

Most of the rovals are not that interesting and some are downright awful, but they always produced a pretty good show. They have fallen out of favor simply because they don't draw in big crowds. Daytona does, of course, but places like Homestead were always ghost towns. I'de like to see Homestead come back because it was always like a short track with turns both directions, but right now it doesn't make sense and we have too many other venues that get big crowds.

The best suggestion I have is a double header at the Petite with Weather Tech on Saturday and Indycars on Sunday. That would set both series apart in the world of motorsports as a weekend of speed orgies.
 
Initially Grand American ran ovals because the France family owned a bunch of them. Once we got the merger, along with that came Road Atlanta, the Glen, Mosport and the rest of the current schedule. The rovals were included in the beginning because the Frances needed those dates so what little money was made stayed in the family, and they were cheap to operate because otherwise they would have just sat there between Nascar dates. Once the classic tracks came back, there was no room on the schedule for them.

Either way, they were fun, and they were different from the usual sportscar venues. I kind of miss them, but we will always have Daytona.
 
Doc Austin said:
Most of the rovals are not that interesting and some are downright awful, but they always produced a pretty good show. They have fallen out of favor simply because they don't draw in big crowds.
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I'd like to see IMSA take another run at Charlotte. Fans are turning out well for NASCAR, most of those races have been good, and people are now familiar with the layout.
 
Doc Austin said:
Initially Grand American ran ovals because the France family owned a bunch of them. Once we got the merger, along with that came Road Atlanta, the Glen, Mosport and the rest of the current schedule. The rovals were included in the beginning because the Frances needed those dates so what little money was made stayed in the family, and they were cheap to operate because otherwise they would have just sat there between Nascar dates. Once the classic tracks came back, there was no room on the schedule for them.

Either way, they were fun, and they were different from the usual sportscar venues. I kind of miss them, but we will always have Daytona.
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I found the Kansas Roval to be entertaining very easy track maybe they should go back to Lime Rock Park & a rotating schedule (1) of: Charlotte Roval/Kansas Roval/Utah (Miller)/Mid-Ohio.

 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'd like to see IMSA take another run at Charlotte. Fans are turning out well for NASCAR, most of those races have been good, and people are now familiar with the layout.
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Admittedly the new Charlotte Nascar course is much better than the one ALMS ran on. I don't know if the market is there, but maybe if they had a few cup driver guest appearance that would be a big boost. A few years about we had a bunch at the Rolex and they packed the place.
 
Doc Austin said:
Initially Grand American ran ovals because the France family owned a bunch of them. Once we got the merger, along with that came Road Atlanta, the Glen, Mosport and the rest of the current schedule. The rovals were included in the beginning because the Frances needed those dates so what little money was made stayed in the family, and they were cheap to operate because otherwise they would have just sat there between Nascar dates. Once the classic tracks came back, there was no room on the schedule for them.

Either way, they were fun, and they were different from the usual sportscar venues. I kind of miss them, but we will always have Daytona.
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Yep, it’s kinda funny looking back at how goofy those older Grand-Am schedules were. In 2004 they ran Daytona, Homestead, and Watkins Glen race twice each, plus Fontana and Phoenix. At the same time the ALMS had a much more diverse calendar but didn’t have depth of competition and entries. Both were emblematic of sports car racing as a whole for the period, which had been trending downwards since the early 90’s and then finally fell off a cliff in the 2000’s. I think 2008 was when the tide finally started to turn for the better, and then especially in 2014 with the Grand-Am/ALMS merger and Porsche joining WEC LMP1.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Both were emblematic of sports car racing as a whole for the period, which had been trending downwards since the early 90’s and then finally fell off a cliff in the 2000’s.
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Probably because people were fed up with Audi domination and the DPs not being very attractive cars. It was a pretty dark time.

I think 2008 was when the tide finally started to turn for the better, and then especially in 2014 with the Grand-Am/ALMS merger and Porsche joining WEC LMP1.
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The real turnaround for me was 2018 when we had DPIs and P2 racing in the same class for the overall wins.
 
Doc Austin said:
Probably because people were fed up with Audi domination and the DPs not being very attractive cars. It was a pretty dark time.
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I think it was the general fragmentation and lack of cohesion after the fall of IMSA GTP and FIA Group C/WSC. Rule sets were all over the place, and it took a long while for that to be rectified.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think it was the general fragmentation and lack of cohesion after the fall of IMSA GTP and FIA Group C/WSC.
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The last GTP and Group Cear was 1993, so look how long sportscars were messed up by that. We had several false dawns over the last 50 years, but the Frances and the ACO alliance has worked far, far better than any of us ever expected. Let's just hope this time it stays fixed.

Rule sets were all over the place, and it took a long while for that to be rectified.
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They were hacking the roofs off of Camel Lights cars in 94! We thought that was going to be a really great era, but those cars were never as interesting as the coupes.
 
kkfan91 said:
So was I. I love original Daytona Prototypes. I also liked the COT which no one else likes.
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The very first GPs were kind of like ugly ducklings, but they raced so well I didn't care. I mean, it's ok. They weren't really pretty, but I never lost any sleep over it and Grand American was my favorite series right up until the merger. I preferred the ALMS concept, but someone was always dominating it and they never had enough cars.

The second generation DPs were much more appealing and the Corvette was especially pretty. I was sad to see those go, but what we have now is so much better. We have more cars, more manufacturers and better talent. Most importantly we have stability ....... .finally.

I'm not really a nascar fan, but I do find the playoffs to be wildly entertaining. I didn't care for the Karatamara (or Car of tomorrow outside of the south! :)), but then again I don't really like wings on GT cars either.
 
Gen1 and Gen2 DPs were some of the ugliest race cars I’ve ever seen, but the Gen3 (Corvette and Riley) were pretty nice.

Doc Austin said:
They were hacking the roofs off of Camel Lights cars in 94! We thought that was going to be a really great era, but those cars were never as interesting as the coupes.
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Seemed like that was en vogue during that time. The Porsche/TWR WSC-95 that won Le Mans a couple of times was a Jaguar with the top chopped off as well. And there were some exotic homologation specials/rule-benders like the Dauer 962, 911 GT1, CLK-GTR, GT-One, and R390.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Gen1 and Gen2 DPs were some of the ugliest race cars I’ve ever seen, but the Gen3 (Corvette and Riley) were pretty nice.
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Sorry. I thought there were only two generations, and admittedly the last cars were pretty pleasing.

FLRacingFan said:
The Porsche/TWR WSC-95 that won Le Mans a couple of times was a Jaguar with the top chopped off as well. And there were some exotic homologation specials/rule-benders like the Dauer 962, 911 GT1, CLK-GTR, GT-One, and R390.
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It was a freaked out mess. Sportscar racing history is full of cobbled together messes. We need to stop that. Now we have to get behind the convergence if for nothing else than stability.

This forum was dead for the last month, but now it's hopping pretty good. The Rolex must be pretty close!
 
Charlie Spencer said:
The whole site has been noticeably slow this off season. This the slowest I've seen in the ten years I've been here.
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I think people have lost interest in discussion forums because Facebook and twatter are so quick and easy. It is affecting RC plane forums too.
 
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