Imsa 2023

[CurtEgerer]

This is the last winning BMW prototype, the V12 LMR. I took this pic at Sebring around 2001 I think.

[William930t]

Watching the race I noticed the Porsche 963 repeatedly sparked (bottomed out) going through the esses. The skid plate infraction measurement was less than 1mm off. Rules are rules and spelled out in advance, but I wonder if this scraping had an effect of the skid plate. Also the Michelins had a problem getting up to temperature and pressure quickly and I am sure this affected ride height and balance a bit. Penske will appeal or blame the tires!

[URY914]

The winner should stay the winner and dock them points. IMHO

[wilnj]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

I'm going to call it for BMW in the 6-Hour race at Watkins Glen. They've been slowly improving in each race and have had impressive practice times all weekend. I think they're calling for intermittent rain, so it could be a complete crapshoot.

Originally thought you were referring to the GTD entry for BMW.

Fought back to 2nd place after being 3 laps back.

Paul Miller is my ‘home’ team. Was hoping to get up to Watkins to see the race but the sketchy weather kept me away. Lime Rock is their homecoming but I have family visiting and will miss that one too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Adrian Thompson]

Originally Posted by William930t

Watching the race I noticed the Porsche 963 repeatedly sparked (bottomed out) going through the esses. The skid plate infraction measurement was less than 1mm off. Rules are rules and spelled out in advance, but I wonder if this scraping had an effect of the skid plate. Also the Michelins had a problem getting up to temperature and pressure quickly and I am sure this affected ride height and balance a bit. Penske will appeal or blame the tires!

So it was a set up thing. They could have run more ride height and not worn it down as much.

Originally Posted by URY914

The winner should stay the winner and dock them points. IMHO

And look at the outcry when they did that for Daytona?

But I do agree more consistency is needed. It's hard to justify a team who obviously cheated keeping a win, where a team who arguably pushed too close to the edge on set up, get everything taken away.

[CurtEgerer]

^^^ My thought exactly Adrian. It seems to me that low tire pressure was a far greater advantage than a 1mm skid plate wear issue. But I don't know enough about either. Is it maybe that the skid plate wear sets a defacto limitation on spring rates (and/or ride height) in the car and that's why it is critical. i.e. - run whatever springs and ride height you want, but if your skid plate wears down, beware. I'm thinking maybe Penske ran soft springs with the rain forecast in mind (the rain never came).

I think IMSA was gun shy at Daytona, being the first race of the new GTP era.

Oh well, Penske is appealing the decision. Good to see BMW win though because all manufacturers have now won a race.

[CurtEgerer]

BMW is going to just keep getting stronger. WRT in Europe is the factory's chosen 2-car team in WEC hypercar for next year and are actively testing the sister cars.

[CurtEgerer]

Proton 963 livery for IMSA and WEC. Debut in IMSA is Road America.

[CurtEgerer]

FP3 Live now at 6 Hours of Monza. Also, IMSA at Mosport this weekend.

[astrochex]

Who is this Peugeot on top of the timing? Kudos to them for keeping their heads down and making progress.

[CurtEgerer]

^^^

and the brand new Proton 963 running very well yesterday and today - ahead of the Penske factory cars. But only qualifying will show true times.

[Heel n Toe]

Sunday Sunday Sundayyyy

IMSA at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on NBC - 12 PM ET

Pre-event entry list: https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2023/06/28/2023_IWSC_CTMP_PreEvent_EntryList.pdf

______________________________________________
Today: Qualifying 12:40 - 1:55 PM ET on IMSA.TV

More (including additional offerings if you have Peacock or Peacock Premium):
https://www.imsa.com/events/2023-chevrolet-grand-prix/

[CurtEgerer]

NBC/Peacock is just such an amateur crap show sometimes. What is with the audio on these IMSA broadcasts? It's like listening to the raw feed and all you can hear are the cars with some faint mumbling from the announcers in the background. Then at some point during the broadcast, somebody wakes up and figures out they forgot to flip a switch and it goes to normal. This happens all the time with them. Oh well, easy enough to mute them and listen to radiolemans.

[pwd72s]

Boy howdy on the audio...have to confess, not so crazy about Imsa since they went "green" with hybrids.

[astrochex]

Mosport sure is a purty track.

Simpson beats Penske, wow.

[CurtEgerer]

Pretty much disastrous for Porsche at both Mosport and Monza.

[Geneman]

curt. in the MPC race, the video or audio on peacock did not even start until the 3 or 4th lap..... totallly focin crazy. hate it.

[Deschodt]

BTW, quick comment on Le Mans 24 in person...

The wife used the trip as an excuse to book a castle nearby and invite 15 friends to share the costs, so that part was fun - highly recommended. Of course 13/15 did not buy tickets on time and they sold out fast, so that was less nice..

Le Mans in person is interesting... It's very cool to see the structures in person and experience the event live, but for those of us used to US events, it's nowhere near as approachable. Fences all over, very few vantage points where you aren't seeing a fence in your line of sight outside of reserved seating... Access to cars/drivers is more restricted than in the states too... So if you come in person, book a seat in a stand somewhere with shade (for rain too), or come to the week before the race and watch the parade in town, the qualy, etc... The race itself is a friggin' zoo !

Parking was impossible, lucky I had a friend locally who stored our car and gave us a ride. 350K people is a LOT of people and you are swimming in a sea of people going from place to place - I caught Covid shortly thereafter (for the 3rd time) and I doubt it's a coincidence. You'd think "hey it's a big track, spread out a little" but no. In reality the public - as far as I can tell, is pretty much concentrated from the end of the Porsche curves (so before the end of a lap) to the last turn before the first big straight... So I'd say 95% of the spectators are basically occupying 5% of space around the circuit - as far as I can tell you cannot go see the chicanes after the long straights, either that or it's a completely different mode of access but not from the main entrance. I did not see any shuttles to go there.. the paths just end.

The lines for the stores were huge, food and drink the same, there is lots to see and do aside from the race (the museum is incredible and free but also, lines for an hour) but by and large it's not super pleasant overall due to the crowd everywhere. I came once before for le Mans classic, and that is now 240K folks but over 3 days. You can pick a seat for free, access more stuff. If you come, I recommend coming for the classic le mans instead of the 24h race, which is easier to follow on TV at home anyway. Classic OTOH has was more free access to paddocks and you see more cars all over the place, like you would at rennsport, say.

Still an interesting experience, down to getting my US license taken away ("you cannot drive on french territory anymore for 3 months") by french gendarmes in a nicely setup speed trap.... (it's easy to be 40KPH over the limit.... if you drop the limit 40KPH and hide the sign right behind a truck I was passing), azzholes in reality because I slowed down immediately after when I saw the cones, but no points because they can't touch a US license. Wife had to drive rest of the trip !

All in all, I'm happy to have seen it and smelled the "merguez" - but you will get a much more personal experience and 10x better access in IMSA, at any track (I recommend laguna seca for visibility). The Nascar entry was insane and clearly wowed the crowd, you could hear it come from a mile away over all the noise of the prototypes...Lots love for the corvette also. The Ferrari was the crowd favorite, nobody there wanted Toyota to win, kinda funny...

So yeah in my book, Come for LM classic, not 24. Watch the speed traps, and get a booster shot ;-)

[CurtEgerer]

^^^ Excellent info! Thanks.

[CurtEgerer]

Lamborghini SC63 LMDh for IMSA and WEC next year finally unveiled. Twin-turbo V8. I was expecting a more radical design - this looks very conventional.