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Part 2GT Le Mans
Using the same Petit Le Mans reference points, BMW’s 1220kg minimum weight for its M8 GTE and Corvette’s 1240kg for its C7.R are unchanged. Two models will gain weight as Ferrari’s 488 GTE goes from 1265kg to 1270, and the biggest leap lands with Ford’s GT, up 20kgs from 1265 to 1285. Porsche’s 911 RSR is the sole GTLM car to carve weight, cutting 25kgs from 1265 to 1240.Corvette has lost some power with a decrease in airflow to its naturally-aspirated V8 as its Petit air restrictor total of 31.5mm has been narrowed to 30.6mm. The other naturally-aspirated engine, Porsche’s flat-6, is unchanged at 32.2mm.Of the three turbocharged models, BMW’s twin-turbo V8 has gained boost from 5000rpms to its 7000rpm redline, Ferrari’s twin-turbo V8 has not been altered, and Ford’s twin-turbo V6 has lost boost from 5500 to its 7200rpm limit. Similar to DPi, fuel capacity changes are relatively small, and each stop has a minimum time of 34 seconds.GT Daytona
Finally, with the same October benchmark in place, starting minimum weights for 2019 fluctuate a bit. Acura’s NSX GT3 is down 10kg from 1330 to 1320. Audi’s R8 LMS GT3 has grown by 20kgs from 1320 to 1340. BMW’s M6 GT3 hasn’t changed, but Ferrari’s 488 GT3 has gotten lighter with a 20kg decrease from 1345 to 1325. Lamborghini’s Huracan GT3 is up five kilos from 1300 to 1305, the Lexus RCF GT3 has gone in the opposite direction with 20kgs coming off to make its former 1380 a slimmer 1360. The Mercedes-AMG GT3 is downsizing by 15kgs from 1390 to 1375, and Porsche’s 911 GT3 R holds station at 1285kgs.Power modifications start with Acura’s twin-turbo V6, which loses small amounts of mid-range boost to its 7500rpm peak. Of the two other forced-induction GTD cars, BMW’s twin-turbo V8 has not been touched with boost alterations, but Ferrari’s twin-turbo V8 is down some boost from 5500 to its 7500rpm redline.Of the non-turbos, airflow has been improved for the Audis with a move from 39mm openings to 40. Lamborghini has lost 1mm in a decrease from 39 to 38, and Lexus has gained 1mm from 39 to 40. No changes have been levied for the 36.0mm assigned to Mercedes-AMG or Porsche and its 43mm restrictors. As well, no changes to maximum RPMS for any of the GTD models have been outlined for the Roar.In line with the other classes, small fuel capacity changes have been implemented and a minimum pit stop time of 40 seconds will be used.

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So why would this team leave IMSA?
Maybe they got tired of getting screwed over.

Changes ahead for Magnus Racing?
Image by Galstad/LAT


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By: Marshall Pruett | 6 hours ago


The most fun team in motor racing is rumored to be pondering its place and continued participation in the sport.

Sources indicate that Magnus Racing, founded by driver/owner John Potter, informed its team of potential changes to its ongoing presence in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and as a result, has encouraged its staff to search for new opportunities after the October 12 season finale at Petit Le Mans.

More IMSA!

PRUETT: Policing IMSA's new radio rules

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Making its debut at Grand-Am’s Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona in 2010, the Utah-based team made waves with its irreverent approach to public relations and a knack for winning big GT races, including the 2012 Rolex 24, the 2014 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, the Rolex 24 in 2016, and the California 8 Hour in 2017.

Potter’s longtime co-driver Andy Lally is among those who could be on the hunt for a new home once the team completes the upcoming GT Daytona races at VIR, Monterey, and Road Atlanta in the No. 44 Lamborghini Huracan GT3.

Reached for comment, a Magnus representative said Potter denies any claims the team is shutting down altogether at the end of the season.

If Potter and Magnus were to exit IMSA after 2019, it would make for the third significant loss of pro-am owner/driver programs, adding to the planned departure of Jon Bennett’s CORE autosport Nissan Onroak DPi entry, and Ben Keating’s Riley Motorsports/Keating Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3 effort in GTD.


Andy Lally, John Potter, Magnus Racing, IMSA

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So now IMSA wants you to tell your competition how many tires you are taking on
and in how many laps you are going to do that?

So your competition will know when
to come in and block your pit?

So your competition will know if they should get in,
refuel and get out so they end up in front of you?

IMSA says that you cannot use a phrase for the first time
that you have not been using regularly before?
--------------------------------

Maybe IMSA should just decide in advance who is allowed to win a race in advance
of dropping the flag, and if you are not the one they pick, you can pack up and save the cost of tires and fuel.

And let your guys take the day off to spend with their family watching NASCAR.
...........or taking their kid to the go kart track.
--------------------------------

Maybe you should check the Vegas odds as to whether IMSA will screw you over
during any particular race. Or is it every darn time!!!

PRUETT: Policing IMSA's new radio rules

Image by Galstad/LAT


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By: Marshall Pruett | 21 hours ago


In an ongoing effort to apply further control to its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, IMSA has released a new series of restrictions that will govern what can and cannot be said between its teams and drivers over the radio.

Initially revealed last week, and subject to a revision that removed the mandate for all communications to be carried out in English, IMSA has established a radio policy designed to strip out the use of code words and secret instructions shared between pit lane and the cockpit.

Among IMSA’s DPi teams, CORE autosport and Team Penske are known to regularly work from code-based dialogue as heard over their radio frequencies, and the practice has been common among factory GT Le Mans entries and teams in the other WeatherTech Championship classes.

Of late, as IMSA has applied an ever-increasing number of rules and limitations on its paddock, and, as variances in Balance of Performance results have been the subject of heated meetings between teams and senior members of IMSA and NASCAR leadership, the series has looked to radio communications as another BoP-related area to police.

Many teams and manufacturers have taken to using the live timing and scoring feed delivered to every timing stand (where lap information is often broken down into 10 sectors or more) and, through the aid of software, identify sectors where their car might be out-performing its expected pace.

With BoP serving as a cat-and-mouse game where teams do not want to reveal their true capabilities on the stopwatch in most instances, and with the series on the constant lookout for evidence of cars going faster than the BoP tables for that vehicle should allow, some teams have made use of the timing info and sector data to coach drivers on where to reduce their pace to avoid drawing the attention of IMSA’s technical regulators. By forbidding codes and veiled messages, IMSA believes it will curb instructions that lead to performance manipulations from the driver’s seat.

According to Rule 14.2.1, “All radio transmissions between the Team and Car or Driver must directly understandable in their meaning. Providing false or intentionally misleading information is a breach of the RULES and the use of code(s), cipher(s), disguised, misleading, or otherwise secretive language to attempt to influence the BoP process by manipulating the performance through Driver management or by any other means is prohibited and may be penalized per Art. 57. IMSA is the final authority with respect to radio transmission inputs and all related decisions. The 2019 IMSA Sporting Regulations and Series Supplementary Regulations for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship shall be updated with the information herein.”

Somebody will have the unenviable task of monitoring more than 1000 hours of radio transmissions at next year’s Rolex 24. Image by Galstad/LAT


To further support the new rule, IMSA has drastically reduced the number of sectors made available via telemetry to three, and removed trap speed figures as well.

Where the rule change impacts the entire paddock is the removal of much meaningful comparison data. With a great number of sectors to analyze, teams could parse and quickly react to small variances in speed related to the numbers produced by their rivals and ask their drivers to adjust accordingly before IMSA took notice of a routine occurrence.

What the rule does not change is each team’s ability to use the live telemetry coming from its car(s) and inserting as many artificial sectors into the data as desired. Although each team’s telemetry does not include the telemetry of its rivals, a trained race engineer will be able to replicate IMSA’s former sector-rich timing information and monitor any sector times and speeds that stand out as unusual.

Also, while considering the performance-information-capturing methods of old, tasking members of a team who are not bound to pit lane — possibly from the hospitality or PR staff — to go trackside with stopwatches and radar guns to document sector times and trap speed of the cars in their class, and convey that information to the timing stand to benchmark performance variances, can also help to circumvent the new rules.

In what might be the most fascinating aspect of Rule 14.2.1 to consider is its enforcement. Using the recent IMSA race at Road America as an example where all four WeatherTech Championship classes and 35 cars took part in the 2h40m event, the series would have 93 hours of audio to monitor, either via a vastly expanded race control staff listening to each car from start to finish during the race, or to comb through and possibly transcribe immediately following the race.

Adding to the complexity, IMSA would also need to learn the most common forms of instructions each team gave to its drivers before Rule 14.2.1 was enacted to therefore know if new and seemingly harmless instructions that come after Rule 14.2.1 are indeed forms of code.

For example, if a team has never made use of an ordinary phrase like, “I need you to push,” and begins using it — even with specific corners or sections added — it would not stand out as anything other than normal, unless IMSA’s radio police knew that, historically, Team X would not use terminology like “I need you to push.”

And, using such a phrase with specific corners included could be an instruction to do the opposite, the driver thereby dialing back by a tiny margin in areas where a BoP advantage has been recognized by the team.

Whether it’s “I need you to push” or “Our new fuel target is 2.3” or some other innocuous statement that wouldn’t sound out of place, but could hold an alternate meaning, there’s no reason to believe Rule 14.2.1 will stop anything coded or secret from being communicated.

If you’re a person of faith, say a prayer in January for the people who will be asked to monitor and flag more than 1000 hours of radio transmissions at the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

As one race engineer told me, “It’s unenforceable.”


IMSA, Insights & Analysis, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

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Toyota given additional weight penalty ahead of Silverstone

Image by Portlock/LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey | August 27, 2019 9:30 AM


Toyota Gazoo Racing will race at Silverstone with an additional weight increase of 14kg from the Equivalence of Technology values applied at last month’s Prologue test at Circuit de Catalunya as the FIA and ACO work to establish the baseline for the coming season’s EoT and LMP1 success ballast systems.

The change, announced in an EoT Bulletin on Tuesday, means that the minimum weight of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids sits at 932kg for Silverstone, 28kg up from the final round of last season.

As a result, the TS050s will be running 108kg heavier than the pair of Rebellion Racing R13 Gibsons, and 99kg heavier than the Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1s. (The non-turbo and turbo-powered non-hybrids still feature different EoT values).

More Le Mans/WEC!

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Maldonado out, da Costa in at Jota

“In light of data gathered in July in Barcelona, particularly regarding the hybrid cars, we decided to rework the EoT to ensure that we are leaning towards this broader target,” said a statement from the technical delegates of the WEC.

“We also introduced an LMP1 success ballast which is based on championship points and has been designed to create a thrilling championship, race after race. However, to implement work, we need a good EoT baseline.

“After careful examination, we decided that an adjustment of the baseline established for Barcelona was needed.”




Silverstone, Toyota, Le Mans/WEC

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Cadillac DPi gains BoP boost for Laguna so this time the other guys get screwed....

Cadillac DPi gains BoP boost for Laguna

Images by Michael Levitt/LAT


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By: Marshall Pruett | 7 hours ago


Fans of Cadillac’s IMSA Daytona Prototype international program should have a happier weekend ahead to look forward to at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Few of IMSA’s recent Balance of Performance changes have been as grand or overdue as the technical adjustments applied to the four Cadillac DPi-V.Rs teams in the field for the Monterey SportsCar Championship Powered By McLaren.

Winless since Long Beach in April, and coming off a rough stretch this summer where the naturally-aspirated 5.5-liter V8-powered prototypes have been unable to vie for victories, a sizable reduction in weight and welcome bump in horsepower should restore balance to the DPi class.

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Nasr returning to Action Express for 2020

With Cadillacs taking the first three wins of the year, the five-race stretch from Mid-Ohio in May through the last DPi round at Road America in August saw Acura’s ARX-05s take two on the trot and Mazda’s RT24-Ps claim the last three as the Cadillac contingent trailed well behind on raw pace.

Less weight and more power should make Cadillac DPi runners like Action Express stronger contenders at Laguna.


Thanks to carving 44 pounds from the Action Express Racing, JDC-Miller Motorsports, and Wayne Taylor Racing DPi-V.Rs, and allowing more air to reach the combustion chambers of their ECR-built V8s, the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship might have a bit of mystery as to which manufacturer will win on Sunday.

“We’re hoping it’s a step in the right direction,” JDC-Miller co-owner John Church told RACER. “It’s better than where it has been. We still don’t feel we’re getting everything we need, but when IMSA called to explain the changes, we understood where they were coming from and respect their process. I’m an eternal optimist and look to the best side of what can happen. It’s a step in the right direction.”

JDC-Miller driver Tristan Vautier is hoping to use the BoP changes to his favor and earn the team’s first win with Cadillac at a circuit he’s only navigated in open-wheel machinery.

“It seems like we are getting a little of bit of help BoP-wise, and that track is mainly medium-speed corners,” he said. “I have good hopes this should help us [to] be competitive. Tire management is going to be big because the track is very low grip and induces a lot of tire degradation. I can’t think of any corner that compares really — the Corkscrew is so unique. I’ve never been through it in a prototype car, so I look forward to seeing what it feels like! The track has many other very unique and interesting corners such as Turn 6, with the blind entry, and Turn 10 with that huge compression. It’s a really cool track.”

CORE autosport’s lone Nissan Onroak DPi, which has shown competitive pace at times with the Pro-Am pairing of Colin Braun and Jon Bennett, could also factor in Sunday’s 2h40m race being aired on NBC, making it a four-way contest for overall victory.