Daytona 55 years ago ...

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I am looking forward to the race , planning on watching a good portion of it . Pulling for Porsche in all categories.

The LMP2 category is of some real interest this year as pointed out during the broadcast. We've got Colton Herta, Sebastian Bourdais, Paul DiResta, Ben Keating, Pietro Fittipaldi, Dane Cameron, Callum Ilott, Felipe Massa, Christian Rasmussen, and many others driving. The 2 United Autosports cars are owned by Zak Brown. Pratt & Miller (of GM/Corvette fame) are running an LMP2 this year. And, of course, we've got Spike!

LOTS of problems in the GTP field all week with the spec battery/hybrid unit. Sure hope it doesn't affect anyone in the race. Porsche Penske director said, "we're not sitting here with a warm fuzzy feeling about the race" :( They replaced both batteries this afternoon.

Battery/hybrid/torque sensor failures are the most frustrating of all failures. They're spec components and the manufacturers and teams have no control over their performance. Could IMSA follow the WRC and dump the stupid hybrid systems completely? Unlikely.

I sure hope battery/hybrid failures aren't the main story after the race . That would be a shame as Daytona is a great venue/event .

Checked in and staying not cold in the meeting tent. Meeting at 11:15.

So a stranger from NY bought my breakfast. He races and appreciates the volunteer race workers. Its humbling that people can be so kind.

And it's not completely out of the question that an LMP2 car could win overall :eek: :D

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Ugh ....... Diffey the screaming idiot is announcing 😕 .

Outlaps tonight, sitting here happy I don't have to do that...

Lamborghini GTP is out , some terminal failure .

Luckily, there are enough others with mics that the screaming is not consistent the way it used to be in Indycar :) Sucks that the Lambo dropped so early.

Well, that's going to thin the field a bit! :rolleyes:

Why so few Porsches in the GTD classes?

A little over 6 hours to go , still a ways to go . A lot can happen so the fat lady is still resting 😴

Good news is F.A. (bowling ball) finds the BMWs an easier target to hit than the Porsches today.

https://www.motorsport.com/imsa/news/albuquerque-was-a-bowling-ball-in-sebring-imsa-carnage/10445826/

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

Let's see if he picks up the spare!

Congratulations to Porsche Penske Motorsports , they ran a strong consistent race . Felt bad for Rexy .

It was funny late afternoon when they could go to the soft tires on the getting colder track. The GTP cars had to idle around corners. You could sense their urgency and caution to not screw up.
BMW's shunt with a half hour was big. They had pace.

Yep. Rexy just had his face torn off. That has to suck with just 30 minutes to go.

That was a great last hour of racing in all 4 classes (very nice of NBC/Peacock to occasionally interrupt their HIV and Ozempic drug commercials to provide a few minutes of race coverage! :rolleyes: ). Nice to see Ford win GTD Pro - if the decision hasn't already been made for a GTP program, I'll bet it has now.

and the winner is .....

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The Mustangs ran well , remember it's only their second year . Corvette was solid also . Shaping up to be a great year for all categories .

I wish teams would change their livery each year. Penske's 963's look the same as last year as well as the Mustangs. Other teams too.

And Townsen Bell and Diffey just need to shut up. They say more things that just don't need to be said. The difference between these clowns and the guys that announce the LeMans race is like night and day.

Too bad the Lambo GTP couldn't have lasted longer.

Nice to see the BMW GTP get some speed and the pole. Bobby Rahal walked pass my infield camp site last year and I recognized him and said hello. He looked over with a big smile and waved.

Lamborghini had a disastrous Rolex 24. Not one finished, GT or GTP! The Pfaff Lambo did look strong until they were taken out in that Turn 1-2 accident.

Speaking of liveries, the announcers' mentioned several times about the GTD-winning Corvette livery and that it was inspired by the John Player Special Lotus F1 cars. Huh? I saw it in person, did not care for it and did not connect it at all with JPS.

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Curt I agree with you. The Lotus was black with gold pinstripes. The vette was black with gold tape all over it.

^^^ That was a well-deserved salute to BMW's Farfus. Completely unacceptable driving.

Milner's interview after was all time class...

Good for Ford, it's a good looking car even thought I liked the green Porsche more. Never liked the platypus 963 but cool...
The problem with IMSA (and Le Mans) is that Damn BOP... If you so much as say the word they'll penalize you ;-) Hybrid equivalence makes it even trickier I guess... As a rule I much preferred when they had a couple of technical options for ALL and let you do whatever you thought of.. All these last minute +10KG -X joules just don't feel right. I always get the feeling those 24 (and 12h) races are "rigged" by whoever sandbagged best during the testing and quali.

It IS nice to see some racing again though !

I wouldn’t be surprised if the BoP fairies sprinkled something Fords way. The ‘stangs have to win right, and where better than the 24?

Very disappointing so little coverage on NBC/USA. The final hours that were to be televised on Sunday, got swapped for something else and didn't record.

Appears the 12 Hours of Sebring will not be televised, expect for Peacock or IMSAtv.

Watching this to see how the race unfolded.

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im totally here for a grudge match between RLL BMW and P&M corvette compared to the old ALMS porsche v corvette grudge match.

Wrong BMW-the cars in question were run by Paul Miller Racing.

And it was Porsche's 20th overall victory at Daytona 24 hour endurance race.

I don't think anyone likes BOPs, but it's the primary reason we're seeing incredible manufacturer participation (i.e., everybody's got a chance! And they don't have to worry about Porsche building a modern day 917/30 unfair advantage). So it's a trade-off for fans. Do we want close racing with many manufacturers or more open rules but only a couple of manufacturers?

While we're airing grievances .... let's talk about the "virtual energy tank" :rolleyes: This is an insult to fans and a complete charade :mad: There is no tank. There is no "replenishment" of energy during a pit stop. The car does NOT STOP if the "virtual energy tank" runs out (although there would be a penalty). I guess it's some sort of silly attempt to make the cars appear to be plug-in hybrids or something?? Come on IMSA and WEC, stop insulting us with this crap. If you want to continue requiring a hybrid, fine but just leave it at that. We don't need the dog & pony show.

yeah BOP is imperfect, but IMSA (and sports car racing in general) doesnt exist without. ie ... why would you even enter?

people say, awe, we want the engineers to battle it out! but in reality what they are saying, is we want whoever wants to spend more money to win. open rules racing isnt an engineering battle, its a money race.

and, i think reasonably so, companies want to know hey, how much does it cost to be within driver skill difference of winning? and the reality is that in an open rules set, that number is unknown, and could be 10x more than expected.

so yeah, id rather have the drivers, and the teams to be the determining thing as to who wins the race, rather than who could convince their board to blow more money on racing than someone else.

I wonder if the Lamborghini plug gets pulled this year due to budget concerns at mama VW ?

I was semi-serious about the BoP thing. But I would not put it paste the France’s to encourage some extra Ford love. Daytona BoPs are one-time, so we will likely see changes for Sebring.

I do think IMSA does about as good a job as you can do with the complexities of a BoP system. I would love to know what they found out with the new torque sensors.

This will be one of the most iconic motorsports photos ever.
It just speaks volume more than you can see.