Imsa 2023

[rfuerst911sc]

Yeah that was ugly ! Took out the top three cars .

[CurtEgerer]

So who's left? 1. Cadillac 2. BMW 3.?

[GH85Carrera]

Bizarre finish. Only two cars left in the top class! Automatic 1&2.

[pwd72s]

If I were writing headlines:

A NASCAR finish at Sebring!

[rfuerst911sc]

On a positive note the Pfaff Porsche won GTD Pro .

[CurtEgerer]

The takeaway is that all 4 GTP manufacturers were competitive and running on the same lap after 12 hours. If the 3 leaders had not crashed out, the race would've gone down as one of the best 12 Hours ever. Still not sure why the Porsches seemed to come alive at night - better on colder tires?

IMSA may have created a monster. Record crowd at Daytona and again at Sebring. I've never seen so many at Sebring. On raceday, they actually had to close the infield and open a new area in the paddock for those with infield parking passes. Next year? More manufacturers coming into GTP and there will be at least 6 963's in the field. Not so much looking forward to the Long Beach dog & pony show in a few weeks - street circuits and endurance cars do not belong together. But after that, it's a proper schedule: Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen, Mosport, Lime Rock, Road America, VIR, Indy, Atlanta.

[rfuerst911sc]

The Porsche and Acura drivers involved in the crash both agree it was hard aggressive driving . Nothing intentional by either driver . It's good that they reviewed replays and came to that conclusion . Still sucks for the teams and the fans .


https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/albuquerque-jaminet-view-collision-as-racing-incident/

[CurtEgerer]

The ultimate problem is traffic. WEC did not have this with only 37 cars and 3 classes (the GT class was weak, at best). IMSA had 53 cars and 5 classes, resulting in a far more entertaining race. I love multi-class racing but wonder if there is a limit to field size for a given track.

[red 928]

WTR out of the race and whelan engineering wins.
Beautiful karma.


This was a manufactured problem.
IMSA, in an attempt to draw more fan interest and make more profit,
plays yellow flag games that let lapped cars end up on the
lead lap only seconds behind the leaders.
Over and over

slower cars should not be allowed to fall behind,
they all belong on the lead lap with 10 minutes to go!
what could go wrong?

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, the yellow flags lasted way way way too long, and too often. The biggest reason I record the race, and watch it delayed is to fast forward the endless yellows, and the stupid interviews. Show the dang race!

And letting lapped cars get that laps back is just silly. They get to be back on the lead lap even after they broke down and had a long repair? It is nuts, and just the "everyone gets a trophy" mentality. The people that run a perfect race, no break downs, no off road trips have a car that had several long pit stops for fixing issues right behind them. I hate that.

[rfuerst911sc]

I thought there were way too many commercials ! Yeah I get it you have to pay the bills . But way too many in my opinion . I thought overall the announcers did a decent job .

[Deschodt]

Can someone explain how uncompetitive the 963 was at WEC on friday and almost won the race at IMSA the day after? Isn't is the exact same spec ? Not looking great for Le mans !

[CurtEgerer]

Are they letting lapped cars to unlap themselves under yellow???

As far as the 963, yeah identical cars. Both Penske but separate teams, separate garages. But obviously, there's close communication. WEC qualified in the evening and IMSA qualified the next day in daylight but temps were about the same. And Cadillac WEC vs IMSA teams were fairly consistent in qualifying. It's a mystery, although the 963s had pace at night for some reason. Oh well, Porsche will figure things out before Le Mans.

[CurtEgerer]

So I just looked at the IMSA rules and I don't think anyone 'unlaps' themselves. What does happen is if the safety car comes out and you are stuck in line with your Class leader somewhere behind you, you are given a pass-around to get in line behind your class leader. But if you were a lap down, you are still a lap down and in the same running order as before the yellow. So it does group all the classes together but doesn't wipe out any lap deficiency. Yes, you are closer to the leader and have a better chance to unlap yourself when it goes green like any yellow flag. Am I reading this wrong?

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

So I just looked at the IMSA rules and I don't think anyone 'unlaps' themselves. What does happen is if the safety car comes out and you are stuck in line with your Class leader somewhere behind you, you are given a pass-around to get in line behind your class leader. But if you were a lap down, you are still a lap down and in the same running order as before the yellow. So it does group all the classes together but doesn't wipe out any lap deficiency. Yes, you are closer to the leader and have a better chance to unlap yourself when it goes green like any yellow flag. Am I reading this wrong?

you can get your lap back if your class leader comes in to pit during the yellow, and you stay out.

[URY914]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

So I just looked at the IMSA rules and I don't think anyone 'unlaps' themselves. What does happen is if the safety car comes out and you are stuck in line with your Class leader somewhere behind you, you are given a pass-around to get in line behind your class leader. But if you were a lap down, you are still a lap down and in the same running order as before the yellow. So it does group all the classes together but doesn't wipe out any lap deficiency. Yes, you are closer to the leader and have a better chance to unlap yourself when it goes green like any yellow flag. Am I reading this wrong?

I think it is more about sorting the faster cars from the slower classes. Traffic is always the biggest complaint from the drivers and this is hoping to help with that.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

you can get your lap back if your class leader comes in to pit during the yellow, and you stay out.

Good point. Although it's the same as under green depending on how far back you are and length of pit stop. Certainly an advantage if you were at the tail end of the lap before the yellow. The problem at Sebring every year are the laps in the dark. There's almost no lighting and the few lights that exist tend to make it worse because you're going dark to light to dark quickly. These type crashes like we saw at the end don't tend to happen in daylight. But I would hate for them to install lights around the track. I guess it's just part of racing at Sebring, like the bumps.

[CurtEgerer]

Ford was testing their 2024 Mustang GT3 R at Sebring today. It will run in IMSA and WEC next year. It sounds very, very strong. Motor built by M-Sport in UK (they primarily build Ford rally cars). 2024 Corvette GT3 R also testing. And the Toyota WEC Hypercar team stuck around and tested for a couple of days.

[URY914]

A lot of talk about the Mustang on line.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by URY914

A lot of talk about the Mustang on line.

I do like the sound of their flat crank V8 👍