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By: Marshall Pruett | October 11, 2019 11:00 AM


If 2019 has held any significant surprises in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and IMSA’s various training series, it’s been the lack of drama associated with the major change from one sole supplier to another.

After taking the reins from Continental Tire, Michelin’s first year as IMSA’s exclusive tire partner has left the French firm with armfuls of track records and accolades during a busy season that began in January. Michelin’s wide-scale introduction to IMSA has not been perfect, but the seamless transition onto its tires has given the series and its participants a sense of confidence that was not always present prior to the handover.

The immense task of preparing to outfit myriad new models, all without repeated failures and high-profile mistakes on public display have, at least through the races leading into Saturday’s 10-hour championship finale, been one of the most impressive stories of the season.

“Even though we have the Motul Petit Le Mans to go, we are fully in our post-mortem for Michelin’s debut season,” Chris Baker, Michelin’s North American motorsport director, told RACER. “We’ve been conducting both product performance reviews and operational reviews during the period since we got back from Laguna Seca, and that’ll continue right up through November.

“Because what we’ve learned is to always be sensitive to the fact that what you hear or what you believe might be different than what folks actually meant. But I’ve got to be honest in saying that I’ve generally received positive input from people.

“Occasionally I’ll get, ‘You may want to consider X next year, or have you thought about Y?’ That’s all fair stuff. I would say that our general assessment is we make our way through our internal post-mortem, is that it’s been a successful year.”

Spanning all the IMSA series carrying Michelin’s products, 78 track records have been set in 2019. Baker is more impressed by the performance levels found by IMSA’s teams and the brand’s tire engineers that generated the newfound speed.

“For me, that sort of result is a demonstration of not only product performance, but how we work with folks in the paddock,” he said. “Because what we learned over time, over many years in the game is you can have the best tire in the world, but if you’re not properly exploiting it, you’re not going to go any quicker than you did before.

“So I considered the fact that this happy circumstance that here, near the end of the season, we’ve got a bunch of lap records, is a combination of inherently decent product performance and our engineers and motorsports tire specialists’ ability to communicate with crew chiefs to understand input from drivers, and to translate that into guidance. That leads to a quicker tire-vehicle combination.”

Michelin previously supplied tires in GTLM, but this year every car in the WeatherTech paddock wears French shoes. Image by LePage/LAT


Michelin’s profile in IMSA prior to 2019 was limited to the GT Le Mans class, where every title-winning car used its product since the WeatherTech Championship began in 2014. Adding the other classes and series under IMSA’s control made ramping up Michelin’s tire production and support team a monumental task to execute.

“We were all in, because we didn’t know any better; here we’d gone from at most nine or 10 cars and now we had a hundred-plus cars,” Baker admits. “You couldn’t walk in the Daytona paddock without bumping into someone from Michelin, so late in the season, I would say the last third or so, we’ve tried to refine our footprint both operationally in the paddock and in terms of balancing our teams’ needs.

“Sometimes there’s too much help, right? So we’re trying to make sure that our approach is the appropriate one concerning guidance, because we want folks to seek us out and to ask for our help concerning how to make these tires work to their maximum, but we don’t want to be in their way.”

Amid the many positives, the struggles faced by Michelin have been embraced by Baker and his team as items of exceptional value.

“Now let’s be honest, we knew going into the 2019 season that we were going to get a knot on the head here or there, and that reared its ugly head at Watkins Glen when [the Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR] class cars, which in our simulations and our experience around the world today, had represented dang near zero challenge for us, turned out to be one of our problem children,” he says.

“We learned we were putting extraordinary loads on the outside left-front tires, and we had to get up on the wheel and find a solution for that race working with the teams. And when confronted with an even worse situation of the same type at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, we had to fix that. Had to completely fix it. I’ve got to tell you, that period right there in July was…

“I mean, I’m gratified by the lap records. I’m gratified by the fact that folks seem to be generally appreciative of us being around and not in their hair. But I’m probably prouder of the problem-solving that went on during the Watkins Glen and CTMP period with TCR than I am anything else. Really just a great bit of collaborative problem solving within our own team, and with the teams on pit lane. It turned out the way it ought to turn out, with yet more lap records and that sort of thing, and folks having safe races.”

Where Michelin’s predecessors were extremely sensitive when it came to acknowledging any shortcomings with its tires, IMSA’s new partner welcomes the discussions. Pre-Petit Le Mans testing saw a number of tire failures with DPi entries, and with an unexpected problem to solve, Baker’s team dove into the issues and found answers.

Supplying DPi tires created a new set of challenges, which Michelin was quick to tackle in collaboration with the teams. Image by Levitt/LAT


“So let’s talk about this continuing learning process,” Baker says. “Which of course we dealt with again at the test at Road Atlanta recently. Road Atlanta did some repaving patches in some of the areas that had been problematic in times past in terms of the surface breaking up during the race. Well, come to find out that our required operating conditions for tires tested earlier in the year at Road Atlanta, the same kinds of DPi tires that we’ve been supplying all season, was being subjected to 12- to 14-percent greater loading.

“Once again, we had to make an adjustment, and in this case, it had to do with camber settings. We had to make a very tiny adjustment in the hot inflation pressure, because as most turners know, it really is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Amazingly enough, tires operated at 95- to 98-percent of their ultimate capacity will go almost forever in terms of structural endurance. But you get them at 99- or 100-percent, and you’re on very shaky ground. And that’s exactly what happened at the test at Road Atlanta.”

Closing the season with a timely need for revised DPi tires wasn’t in Michelin’s original plan, but the quick turnaround, where teams have had new tires for the opening day of practice and reported no problems, has been emblematic of the brand’s dedication to IMSA.

“So we made the adjustment after day one and during the afternoon of day two, flawless runs with Acura Team Penske, Mazda Team Joest, and JDC-Miller Motorsports,” Baker continues. “So once again, you always look for the kick in the pants, and when you get it, you try to solve the problem, respect the facts, and that’s exactly what happened.

“And secondly, perhaps as importantly, we’ve brought a new solution for the prototypes in both LMP2 and DPi. It’ll be a solution that’s where both the medium and the hard will be very familiar to the teams in terms of overall compounding, but the internal structure is a little bit different. It aligns well with what we are doing for the 2019, 2020 WEC season and we had good results with that.”

By Monday, Michelin North America’s motorsports department will be back on the task of distilling the knowledge gained in Year 1 to improve upon their tires and processes in Year 2.

“I’m encouraged for the classes that are using our tires that were deployed for the first time on a large scale this year in IMSA,” Baker says. “We’ve learned a lot in every class. That’s part of what happens when you make a lap of a championship season. Use the example of IndyCar, where the tire provider makes a few tweaks every year based on their learnings. Well, we’re in a similar situation. It could be which type of tire to use at a given track, or it could be adaptations to the tires themselves, such as we’re doing with prototype.”


Michelin, IMSA, Insights & Analysis

 

PRUETT: IMSA’s Season of Change

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By: Marshall Pruett | October 12, 2019 10:11 AM


I’ve been dreading the arrival of October 12. Just past 10 p.m. tonight in Georgia, a wave of changes will begin, and by the time silence washes over the Road Atlanta circuit early Sunday morning, some of my favorite cars, teams, and people will be gone from IMSA’s paddock.

The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is facing a worrying trend with the departure of some high-profile privateers.
Maybe racers are getting tired of crap from the officials.

CORE autosport’s Jon Bennett from DPi is hanging up his helmet. With his exit from the cockpit comes the end of CORE’s time as a prototype entrant; it’s Nissan Onroak DPi (pictured at left, above), along with co-driver Colin Braun and his father, race engineer Jeff Braun, will wake up as newly unemployed members of the sports car community. Fortunately, the rest of the crew members on the Nissan DPi program are expected to be reassigned elsewhere within CORE’s racing endeavors.

Ben Keating’s Keating Motorsports entry in GT Daytona is also set to turn its final laps as the passionate Texan departs Riley Motorsports with co-driver Jeroen Bleekemolen to try their hand in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Bennett and Keating could be joined by Magnus Racing’s John Potter, whose plans for the future remain intentionally vague after his team was encouraged to seek other employment opportunities if they arose.

As sports car racing’s canaries in the coal mine, its pro-am driver/owner group is a vital indicator of a series’ health. Consider me concerned.

Another, long-rumored change was confirmed in the last week as Action Express Racing announced the unlikely return of the No. 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R. Despite AXR’s flourishing, five-year relationship with sponsor Mustang Sampling, the underpinnings of the car’s financial support have fallen to the team’s silent owner, IMSA co-founder and current NASCAR president Jim France.

Uncertainty for the Mustang Sampling/AXR Cadillac. Image by Michael Levitt/LAT


Talk of significant cutbacks within NASCAR, and therefore IMSA, and a need to trim any and all unnecessary expenses, have been mentioned as the reason behind the change in support for the No. 5 entry.

With a sizable sponsorship gap to fill — DPi annual budgets have risen to IndyCar-like levels, with $5 million mentioned as a target to hit — the likelihood of finding what’s missing in time to continue racing with AXR’s championship-winning veteran Joao Barbosa and relative newcomer Filipe Albuquerque was deemed highly improbable. Albuquerque was confirmed as the new co-driver of the sister No. 31 AXR Cadillac funded by Sonny Whelen at the four long IMSA races in 2020.

The fate of Barbosa, a three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona winner and back-to-back IMSA Prototype champion from 2014-2015, and the crew for the No. 5 entry following Petit Le Mans is unknown.

IMSA will welcome a new president shortly after the championship celebrations conclude. Scott Atherton, whose work has come to define North American sports car racing since Bill Clinton was in the White House, is stepping back to focus on his family. He’ll still pop up from time to time as IMSA makes use of his exceptional experience in negotiating with the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Decades of front-engine factory Corvette race cars will be relegated to history as Corvette’s C7.R, with its bassy V8 motor, are readied for the mid-engine, high-revving C8.R.

Fans feeling nostalgic about Corvette’s upcoming model shift will need to prepare for a bigger change as Jan Magnussen bids farewell to the program after 16 seasons. His departure, as RACER wrote in June, might not be the only alteration to the team’s familiar line-up.

Unmistakable sound of Porsche’s 911 RSR gets one last blast today before offseason changes. Image by Jake Galstad


Porsche’s first-generation 991-based 911 RSR is also due for a refreshing, with a new chassis featuring side exhausts coming in January. For those who love the unmistakable scream delivered by the current 911 RSR through its rear-facing exhausts, it will be heard for the last time at Petit Le Mans.

Ford’s four-year GT program also reaches its swansong, although as Ford Performance boss Mark Rushbrook told us, one or more of the factory cars could pop up in the hands of privateers at selected endurance races.

IMSA’s gathering this week in Road Atlanta also marks the culmination of its 50th anniversary celebrations. All of the throwback liveries, visits by legendary drivers and team owners, and general reverie for the series’ incredible past reaches its culmination.

It was a wonderful season to look back at all IMSA has achieved and take stock of where it’s headed. Once it arrives, the 51st season will herald more adjustments than its founders could have foreseen.


Action Express, Colin Braun, Petit Le Mans, Porsche, IMSA, Insights & Analysis

 

A Privateer P1 has taken a WEC pole... now what?

We moved him to the back of the pack...time to add more weight to "fix" him so he can't win over the factory entries.
We can't let those independent punks get in front of the factory money. Little bastard.....
Image by LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey | November 9, 2019 7:07 AM


Rebellion Racing became the first ever privateer LMP1 team to set pole for an FIA WEC race today in Shanghai, and the first team to take pole in a non-hybrid LMP1 car since the inaugural FIA WEC race at Sebring 2012. It’s a landmark result for the Swiss-flagged team and its Gibson-powered R-13, but the speed shown in qualifying won’t necessarily translate into a victory.

The new ‘success handicap’ system, which ACO sporting director Vincent Beaumesnil told RACER at the preseason Prologue test “is expected to produce different winners over the course of the season,” is having an undeniable effect on the two Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs’ level of performance, after a win apiece for the No. 7 and No. 8 to open the season. But is it enough to nullify the hybrid-powered P1’s inherent advantage through traffic during the race?

Over a single lap, the LMP1 privateer cars have proven time and time again to be quick when the conditions are right. The SMP Racing BR1 was strong last year at Le Mans, the No. 6 Team LNT Ginetta looked set to split the Toyotas during qualifying at Fuji and the Rebellion R-13 took pole by over a second in Shanghai. The pace of the Toyotas looked significantly off this afternoon — the faster of the two, the No. 7, was 1.3 off pole and just 1.4s ahead of the LMP2 polesitter.

But, throw slower traffic into the mix and a lengthy stint, and even with the previous artificial advantage Toyota had in the pits now gone, the TS050 HYBRIDs will be able to pull away every time. This is because, in simple terms (the car’s superior development program and the team’s budget aside), the hybrid boost that the cars produce gives them punch through traffic that the non-hybrid cars cannot match, which is a huge advantage during a race.

The Toyotas’ straight line handicap will be compensated for by its advantage in traffic. Image by JEP/LAT


Down the lengthy straights in China at the Shanghai International Circuit, the Toyotas are significantly slower when it comes to top-end speed — around 13km/h (8mph) down through the speed traps compared to their privateer rivals. What they lose down the straights, though, they gain back and more through the corners.

The four-wheel-drive Toyotas are also kinder on their tires, giving them an advantage towards the end of a stint, which multiplies during lengthy races. The only saving grace here for Rebellion and LNT is that it’s another four-hour race rather than a six-, eight-, 10 or 24 hour race.

Toyota is well aware of all this, and predicted (correctly) that a privateer car would snatch pole on Friday, although the Japanese team fully expects to have the edge in the race. If it does, then there is reason to believe it can go on to win every race going forward this season, as currently the two Toyotas’ are pegged back as far as they can be by the success handicap regulations. The maximum handicap has been achieved by a combination of a 40% reduction in hybrid power, 7.5% drop in fuel energy and a 28kg minimum weight increase to the car.

What do the P1 privateer drivers think? None of them are under any illusion that Toyota will just roll over tomorrow. The expectation is that it will, at the very least, be a close one.

Senna and Menezes got to celebrate today, but will it last? Image by FIA WEC


“I’m happy with that (qualifying performance), though if we re-did it there is probably another half a second in there. I think everyone would say that though,” Menezes told RACER.

“When we’re all struggling with the success handicap it’s going to bring our pace down. The LMP2 cars are so close this year it’s crazy, but I guess it’s down to the tire manufacturers, who have done a great job to step up the performance this season. In the race, over the course of a stint, we’ll pull away.

“Ginetta, although they didn’t have the maximum qualifying pace, we know they have a lot of torque and power. It’s difficult to race with them when they’re ahead of us. We need to stay ahead at the start and create a barrier to the Toyotas.

“They (Toyota) don’t have the one-lap pace, though they have less tire deg with all-wheel drive, so I think for the fans that this will be the first time in a long time that we see an interesting battle in the LMP1 class. You never know with Toyota, but I believe they’re giving all they’ve got. For the first time in a long time they’re seeing what it feels like to be on the other side of the fence. It’s not fun for them, but we’re enjoying it!”

More Le Mans/WEC!

WEC’s Brazilian round at risk

AF Corse loses Shanghai win

Rebellion takes Shanghai victory

Menezes’ teammate in the No. 1 Rebellion, Bruno Senna, echoed his thoughts, although he knows that if the team should have a big result tomorrow, the pendulum will swing back the other way in Bahrain next month.

“After a lot of races in a tough position, the regulations have come our way, finally,” Senna said. “This track is the best case scenario for us — it suits our car — but we want to be on pole every race. It would be nice if they could find a formula that works, to make the cars run together rather than have one team disappearing. We want to go racing.

“Maybe tomorrow we will win, that’s the best case for us; we just want a good race. We know that when we come to the next race in Bahrain, that Ginetta could be very strong if it goes our way tomorrow, and we will be very weak.”

In the Team LNT camp, a front-row grid spot is a mark of real progress for the British team, which only has two races under its belt with the G60-LT-P1s. No. 6 driver Charlie Robertson told RACER he too feels Toyota will still provide stiff competition, despite its cars being pegged back.

“We will celebrate these moments,” he explained, “but none of us are under any illusions that taking steps forward in this company is a massively tough thing to do.

“We know that Toyota are more than capable of producing a race pace that’s going to be tough to beat, with or without the success handicap. Nobody here has any doubt whatsoever that they are going to be the team to beat here — and for that matter everywhere else.”


Rebellion Racing, Success Handicap, Toyota, Insights & Analysis, Le Mans/WEC

 

Surely it isn't because IMSA disqualified both Fords at Lemans 24 hours......
for one reason or another.......see threads above.....

Ganassi confirms IMSA exit

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emailBy: Marshall Pruett | December 3, 2019 3:22 AM

Chip Ganassi Racing’s hopes of returning to IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in support of a privateer Ford GT program have come to an end. Intensive efforts by Ford Performance to sell its factory GTs to independent owners, with CGR co-drivers, pit crew, and Blue Oval technical support attached, took place throughout the 2019 season, but did not find the requisite buyers.

Owner/driver Ben Keating purchased a GT and used it to compete at Le Mans in June, but did so with Riley Motorsports running the car on the Texan’s behalf.

“Chip Ganassi Racing has represented three manufacturers: Lexus, BMW, and Ford, in its 16 straight years of Grand-Am and IMSA racing, and we’ve won the biggest races and championships for all three,” CGR managing director Mike Hull told RACER. “But our team, without continued manufacturer support, will not be racing in the 2020 IMSA series, which includes the Rolex 24 at Daytona and Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.”

More IMSA!

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Tower Motorsports by Starworks adds to growing IMSA LMP2 field

The Heart of Racing confirms IMSA Aston Martin GTD program

As some of the former FCGR drivers received their racing gear and personal belongings in the mail in recent weeks, the chances of reuniting at Daytona in January for the season opener and again at Sebring for Round 2 appeared to evaporate.

The Rolex 24, in particular, will run for the first time since 2004 without a CGR entry. It scored the first of three consecutive overall Daytona victories in 2006, and added three more in 2011, 2013, and 2015. Daytona class wins in GT Le Mans with the Ford GT were added in 2017 and 2018 prior to the four-year program reaching its end in October.

Although its participation in IMSA has come to an end, CGR’s name continues to be mentioned as a potential partner for a number of manufacturers who’ve expressed interest in building and entering cars for the series’ 2022 Daytona Prototype 2.0 regulations.

Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford GT, IMSA, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

 

Step up sucker.......and tape a jar of vaseline to the roll bar.....

Tower Motorsports by Starworks adds to growing IMSA LMP2 field

Image courtesy ORECA
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emailBy: Graham Goodwin | 19 hours ago

Tower Motorsports by Starworks is the latest team set to join a booming LMP2 entry for the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship with a campaign likely to be focused on the four-race Michelin Endurance Cup.

Canadian racer and 2018 ELMS LMP3 champion John Farano is the lynchpin around which the effort has developed, likely to involve a new ORECA 07 Gibson (photo above) and Peter Baron’s Starworks outfit, running under the Tower Motorsports by Starworks banner. Ryan Dalziel looks set to be confirmed as a full-program driver alongside Farano, the pair to be joined by four-time Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 winner Nico Lapierre for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

More IMSA!

Long, Hardwick for 2020 Wright Motorsport GTD return

The Heart of Racing confirms IMSA Aston Martin GTD program

IMSA, NBC confirm 2020 WeatherTech coverage plans

Starworks returns to LMP2 for the first time since its title-winning (and Le Mans class-winning) 2012 FIA WEC campaign with an HPD ARX-03b. Since then, the team has found success in Daytona Protoypes, the PC class in IMSA competition, and latterly in IMSA GTD.

Tower Motorsports by Starworks joins other ORECA-equipped teams PR1 Mathiasen, Performance Tech, Dragonspeed, and ERA Motorsport as well as Rick Ware Motorsport (Multimatic Mk.30) in IMSA competition for 2020. All are in either in for a full LMP2 season and/or the four Michelin Endurance Cup races.

Ryan Dalziel, Starworks, Tower Motorsport, IMSA, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

 

Porsche to end IMSA factory program

Image by Michael Levitt/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | 8 hours ago

Porsche will end its factory sports car racing program in IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the conclusion of the 2020 season. It signals the first loss among manufacturer racing projects from a steep downturn in auto sales due to the coronavirus, and came with limited warning outside the Porsche family.

“The decision to halt our factory involvement in the IMSA series was not an easy one for us,” Porsche said Motorsport VP Fritz Enzinger. “With a view to the current corporate situation in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, it is only logical for Porsche Motorsport to make a contribution to coping with the economic fallout. We’ve openly discussed our exit with all involved.

“At this point, we’d like to convey our sincere thanks to Jim France and the colleagues at IMSA for their understanding. Porsche belongs in endurance racing. We will work hard to ensure that this is only a temporary Auf Wiedersehen.”

More IMSA!

Porsche 911 RSR In-Car Audio, Monterey 2019

WeatherTech to support IMSA series' July 4 Daytona return

Porsche returned as a full works effort upon IMSA’s reformation in 2014 as the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am’s Rolex Series merged into a single championship. Run by North Carolina’s CORE autosport, the Jon Bennett-owned, Morgan Brady- and Michael Harvey-led outfit delivered three Manufacturers’ championships for Porsche and two Drivers’ titles over the last six seasons, along with 18 victories in IMSA’s fiercest class.

The German manufacturers’ decision strikes a worrying blow to IMSA’s GT Le Mans class after Ford wound down its factory program after the 2019 season. It left a total of six full-time cars to represent the all-pro category, with two cars apiece from BMW, Corvette, and Porsche, plus the occasional appearance from the single-car, independent Risi Competizione Ferrari squad in GTLM.

With no immediate prospects for a new manufacturer or privateer entry to fill Porsche’s void when the 2021 season begins in January, GTLM’s presence on the WeatherTech Championship grid could be limited to four or five cars, provided further withdrawals do not occur.

Among the only silver linings to consider, IMSA’s shortened schedule, which resumes from July-November, affords the dozens of CORE autosport mechanics and crew members the opportunity to finish the year running the Nos. 911 and 912 911 RSRs while searching for new employment. The likely downside they will face, with motorsports as a whole heavily impacted by shutdowns, pauses, and cancellations stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, is a limited number of available jobs.

“This has been an amazing seven-year partnership,” Brady said. “I’m extremely proud of everything we’ve accomplished. While we continue to prepare for the remaining 10 rounds of the IMSA Championship, we’re sensitive to how this departure will affect our team members and their families.”

Porsche makes use of a deep pool of factory drivers that it dispatches to various championships throughout the world; it’s unclear where the four full-time and two part-time GTLM drivers will fall in the company’s plans after the IMSA season finale in November at the Mobile 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Ongoing support of Porsche’s customer teams in the Pro-Am GT Daytona class, and IMSA’s training categories, will continue into 2021 and beyond.

Separate from Porsche’s on-track contributions to IMSA’s product, the brand’s off-track impact within the series is immeasurable. Including the vast popularity of its car corrals at most events, plus the advertising investments made by the company at the various circuits on the schedule and on television, Porsche’s looming absence as one of IMSA’s most ambitious promotional partners will hard to ignore.

As sports car racing’s most enduring manufacturer, the future is expected to feature a return at some point by Porsche. Facing similar economic concerns during the recession that began in 2008, Porsche ceased its championship-winning factory ALMS LMP2 program with Team Penske, opting to move to the far less expensive Grand-Am Daytona Prototype class for 2009 before departing altogether until announcing its union with CORE in GTLM for 2014.

Having attended a number of IMSA’s manufacturer meetings as the new-for-2022 LMDh rules have been formed, Porsche’s well-known interest in the next-generation hybrid prototype class could offer the brand a target to aim for in the near future.

Porsche, IMSA

 

Read the last 17 posts.

Porsche is not the only team fed up with getting screwed over by the officials.
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Since the IMSA officials keep screwing race teams to have "equality",

surely when all those officials are equally un-employed, they will all celebrate.

They got what they wanted.
---------------------------

Maybe IMSA should just give everyone a participation trophy.

And tell all of them that they won.
----------------------------

No one wants equality, except liberals.

People want to outdo the other guy, to excel, to win.

Liberals screw up everything that they touch.
------------------------------------
----------------------

 

IMSA lays out plan for racing return

Image by Dole/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | June 8, 2020 11:19 AM

The resumption of IMSA’s racing season will see its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship hold Round 2 at Daytona International Speedway on July 4 under new guidelines crafted in response to COVID-19.

The most notable adjustment comes in the form of a limit on the number of crew members permitted inside DIS to where 15 total credentials will be approved to support each entry. IndyCar, for the sake of comparison, allowed 20 per car Saturday at its season-opener in Texas. The final list of names submitted by teams will be reviewed by the series and an approved roster will be returned, with standard coronavirus screening questions to answer in advance of arriving at the track, and use of PPE will be enforced. IMSA also reserved the right to call for all approved personnel to be tested for COVID-19 prior to the race, provided testing is readily available.

More IMSA!

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Multimatic forms new Special Vehicle and racing division

WTR confirms Dixon for Petit, Sebring

As found at recent NASCAR and IndyCar races, on-site screening is required prior to entering the paddock, and once crews are inside the garages, an intensive and repetitive cleaning and disinfection regimen is mandated. Cars, equipment, working surfaces, and transporters are part of the regimen to start the event, during, and once the 2h40m race is completed.

IMSA has instructed its teams to work as contained units while separating themselves from other teams. The policy also applies to those in race control, who are not permitted to break the virtual seal of containment by visiting the paddock and returning to the booth. Spotters will also be isolated during the event.

With social distancing in mind, standard paddock-wide catering and hospitality gatherings have been banned; pre-prepared food, single-serve meals, and team-specific catering is allowed.

Guidelines on media attendance, including photographers and videographers, are expected to be distributed later this week.

IMSA

 

IMSA to allow limited fan presence at Daytona race

Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | 15 hours ago

Daytona International Speedway will allow up to 5000 fans to attend IMSA’s WeatherTech 240 At Daytona International Speedway on July 4. The WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event marks IMSA’s return to racing after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped its calendar clear from March through June.

“We’ve waited a long time to welcome our loyal race fans back to Daytona International Speedway and the Daytona Beach area,” said DIS President Chip Wile. “There has been a lot of work and extensive planning by our track staff, IMSA, government and health officials, as well as NASCAR to methodically bring fans back to our historic facility. Rest assured we will make sure that every fan in attendance is safe and can enjoy the excitement of the IMSA WeatherTech 240 At Daytona. Having the IMSA sports cars back for this summer tradition just got more exciting with fans here to see it.”

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According to DIS, tickets will be sold for “seating in the frontstretch grandstands, as well as a limited number of infield camping guests. All must be Florida residents and adhere to social distancing guidelines. The limited camping spots will be located in NASCAR Turns 1 and 2 areas of the infield. Those fans will be required to watch the race from their RV site.”

In concert with strict coronavirus-abatement guidelines for all IMSA competitors, officials, and media covering the event, DIS says, “All guests who attend the (event) will be screened before entering the facility; required to wear face coverings; and must maintain six feet of social distancing throughout the venue.”

For fans interested in attending the WeatherTech 240, DIS has published an extensive list of event protocols on its website.