Imsa 2023
 

Ohhhh, some racing drama beyond F1...

https://www.motorsport.com/imsa/news/daytona-24-penalty-meyer-shank-hit-50k-fine-200-point-penalty-infraction/10441507/

Ha! Just saw that. Cheaters never ... scratch that .... often win! :D

Unrelated (I think!) Acura was hit with a fairly large BoP weight increase for Sebring.

What is the infraction ? They lied about tire pressure ? I am confused 😋

Basically, yes. They have to run a minimum tire pressure. They were below it, but their engineer falsified the data to show they were above the minimum.

Got it . Thanks

In a way that's reassuring. They were blowing off the competition - maybe now we'll see Porsche & Cadillac closer... BMW seemed pretty far behind.

Next race is Sebring . That track will test every nut and bolt she is a rough mistress 😋 . I am looking forward to Porsche and Cadillac to step up . BMW are no slouch they will get their act together .

It will also be interesting to see WEC vs IMSA lap times. The WEC Prologue is this Sat/Sun at Sebring. First time on track together for Ferrari, WEC Porsche, Peugeot, Toyota, Glickenhaus, WEC Cadillac and now, Vanwall (with Jacques Villeneuve as one of the drivers). I'm assuming WEC and IMSA have separate BoPs, so even though the cars are theoretically equal, they really aren't. Might be a tire difference too?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678319053.jpg

That sounds like a lot of penalties and dismissals compared to other motorsports?

Found this on line....

"The limit is on hot pressures, IMSA is actually pretty lenient on tire pressure so this must’ve been pretty bad. Roughly: each stint once your tires reach “operating” temp the pressures have be over a certain pressure (1.9Bar usually). Teams also generally get one warning per race. With extenuating circumstances (sensors going bad, slow leak or puncture from contact, etc) they’ll also let it slide.

Generally the engineers will decide based on data from practice what cold pressures they need to run based on track temperature, ambient when setting, stint length, how hard that specific driver works the tires. The current Michelins just get faster and faster the lower you go so the goal is always to be right on that 1.9bar. A single engineer could totally have messed with the computer and then just told the crew guys what to fill to without anyone else knowing what was going on. I doubt he’s the only one who knew but it was probably his idea/execution. Honestly wouldn’t be that hard to do in the Bosch software either."

They were fast at the Roar too. I wonder if HPD checked that tire pressure data too. If they did and found no discrepancies, then Shanks actions for the 24 are more puzzling. If you are already the fastest, why cheat?

Good info Paul. Heard a rumor that IMSA 'allowed' Honda to find and report the infraction for Honda to save face.

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Taylor's Acura (same car) finish a relatively close second without the cheating ?

If so, maybe the pressures didn't change the dominance of the Acura that much. If I was #2 though I'd sue to get my drivers the trophy. This "keep your watches" but lose all your points is BS.

Also "the one guy was fired" because he was all alone in knowing about this - sure, right, I believe that ;-)

You're right. The other Acura and both Cadillacs were within 10 seconds or so. I'll bet the tire pressure thing was only during certain stints. Meyer Shank had fastest lap also and it would be interesting to see what the tire pressures were and when.

Also, I wonder if they shot themselves in the foot with this because they were handed a BoP weight adjustment for Sebring and beyond - maybe as a result of fast laps with the low pressure tires?

Re: Sebring - it's been a nightmare to get into the infield on Friday and Sat. Miles long backups. Much quicker to park in the free areas outside and walk in. They are trying to streamline it this year by not selling tickets at the entry gate. That has always been the holdup. Theoretically, they should just be quickly scanning tickets to keep things moving.

I think the severity is due to the fact that
they not only broke the rules, they
intentionally lied about it and forged official docs to cover their tracks.
I wonder if they learned that from Wayne Taylor racing
Seems things like this tend to "follow" Castroneves.


I gotta say though, their statement was class all the way.
And smart.
Probably the only way to keep acura on board as
I bet they were not too happy about this.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678439907.jpg

I'm failing to read any 'class' in admitting their team cheated after they were caught cheating :confused:

The statement is all about saving MSR's ass and keeping their partners on board, HPD and Accura should ditch them just on principle

Lucky to have worked with a few senior HPD guys, they're as straight as they come, they'll be gutted they've got mixed up in a cheating scandal

Nothing to add other than I’ve got to get to one of these races.


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The Porsche GT3R (and Ferrari and Lamborghini) got a favorable BoP adjustment after not really even being competitive at Daytona. These GT3 cars are overshadowed by the LMH/LMDh prototypes but are, essentially, prototypes themselves. They share almost nothing with their road-going counterparts other than the general body shape and number of cylinders.



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I don't know if it still the same but I know for many years Porsche was the only race car manufacturer to produce the car on the exact same production line as the road cars. And they sold enough customer cars for the race car production to be profitable. Every other race car maker has a separate race production shop that makes the race car only.

IMSA puts on a hell of a race. we raced in support once, it was amazing. one of the scariest races ive ever run actually.

it was back in the 4.0L NA GT3 RSR days ... holy **** best engine sound ive ever herd, ever.

Imsa 2023
 

I’ll have to check out the schedule.

EDIT: Watkins Glen in June and Lime Rock in July are both easy drives.

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I'm almost completed with uploading by Rolex pics. (Hey it takes time). There's a few short videos too.Have a look....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ury914/

Looks like I’ll be at Lime Rock. Paul Miller has a few dealerships in town, a friend is a long time employee and gave me some insights.


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I have Season pass for Lime Rock ...looking forward to this race

A detailed design analysis of the Ferrari 499P ....

Autoweek Walkaround 499P with Bill and Bob Riley

Here's some pics I took at the WEC Prologue this morning. First time these cars have been on track together. Always tough to tell who's fast because it's practice and you don't know what they're working on?? The 2 Ferraris probably did more laps then anyone else and looked fast. The 2 Peugeots did not seem fast and were getting passed by other Hypercars after coming out of Turn 7. The Vanwall (Gibson V8) was initially misfiring when trying to put the power down, but they fixed that and actually seemed quick toward the end of the 3 hour session. The Glickenhaus seemed to misfire but was fast anyway. The 2 Porsches and 2 Toyotas all seemed quick. There was one Cadillac but I thought there were 2 on track at one point?

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Thanks for the pics and update, Curt.

Its fantastic having so many cars in the top class.

i have always been suspicious of the FIA actually BOPing the LMDh's correctly.

they look pretty close honestly.

Yeah, except for the Vanwall (expected) and Glickenhaus (who don't seem to have done much testing or development over the winter). Cadillac fastest in the afternoon session. 2 more 3-hour sessions tomorrow. I read Villeneuve's best in the Vanwall was a 1:59 :eek: ... running with the GT3 cars. Is he past his 'sell-by' date? :rolleyes:

FYI: the outright lap record is 1:40.124 in 2019 by Fernando Alonso in the Toyota TS050. At night! That was a 1000HP car.

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I always go to the IMSA race at Watkins Glen !

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Cadillac isn’t messing around are they?

Ferrari has a solid debut, thats encouraging. I trust there is more speed in the 963, show it when it counts.

I do hope the Peugeot and Glickenhaus have more speed. You would think the bugs have been worked out of the Pug given they ran some races last year. The Glickenhaus has the most favorable BoP parameters.

Borrowed from an Autosport poster (whoever labeled the last column got it reversed)
https://i.ibb.co/WfPDXkT/wec-sebring.png

Toyota have had a 2-year headstart on the Hypercars and it shows. They will be the car to beat in the WEC. 1-2 in times for the weekend



http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1678658359.jpg

Think we're looking at the start of another golden era of sports car racing :cool:

At least I hope so!

Robert Kubica ran 1:50.827 in an LMP2 car - splitting the Peugeot 9X8 Hypercars :eek:

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-racing/a43280041/meyer-shank-racing-cheating-rolex-24/

A lot of information in this articale.

^^^ Wow. Not a good look for Meyer Shank Acura :( We'll know Thurs how they stack up after the BoP adjustments ....

Perhaps the rulebook should layout what the penalties for cheating will be ahead of time so the teams can weigh out they're options. I wonder if sponsors have any language in their contracts to cover it?