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GTD Pro and GTD teams penalized for tire usage infractions

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Richard S. James | January 24, 2022 9:01 AM ET

A few GTD Pro and GTD cars will not start the Rolex 24 where they apparently qualified after they were found to be outside tire usage requirements in the Rolex 24 qualifying race.

Following post-race inspection, the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche and the No. 97 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GTD Pro entries, along with the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche GTD car, were given the time equivalent of drive-through penalties for for failing to operate within parameters defined by Michelin and IMSA.

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Teams were given a warning in-race for the first infraction before penalties were applied for a second. The No. 79 Porsche finished second in GTD Pro, while the No. 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche was third in GTD.

In a tech bulletin issued prior to the start of the Roar, Michelin outlined certain requirements on cambers and pressures. Negative camber beyond 3.5 degrees is prohibited, and the bulletin specified what minimum stabilized pressures had to be for given camber ranges, starting at 29psi.

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IMSA can kick a few people out when they have a full entry list

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...w-you-out.html

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emailBy Marshall Pruett | January 26, 2022 11:05 AM ET

NTT IndyCar Series star Colton Herta has raced the world’s fastest open-wheel cars, competed at the other end of the speed spectrum in touring cars with one of his father’s Hyundai Veloster N TCRs, and won a prized Rolex watch as part of BMW’s M8 GTE Rolex 24 At Daytona class-winning GT Le Mans effort.

Prior to the invitation from DragonSpeed to drive its ORECA 07-Gibson V8-powered LMP2 entry, prototypes were missing from the 21-year-old’s list, and after sampling the car last weekend at the Roar Before The 24, he’s become a big fan of the formula.

“It’s really cool and the car’s really interesting, a little different than what I expected,” Herta told RACER. “Not in a negative way. But it’s a fun car to drive, and really different to anything I’ve raced around here in Daytona. Coming from GTs, I’m not used to approaching cars so fast and passing them so easily. And the naturally-aspirated V8 engine is really cool. Nice throttle response, and it’s loud. I’m enjoy it so far.”

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Herta’s sharing the No. 81 DragonSpeed car with fellow IndyCar drivers Pato O’Ward and Devlin DeFrancesco, along with sports car and team veteran Eric Lux. Among the foursome, he’s trying to overcome his lack of prototype experience as quickly as possible ahead of this weekend’s 24-hour race.

“It’s a lot more nimble than a GT car or TCR car, has a lot more downforce, stops a little bit better than the GT cars, goes a little bit sooner than the GTs, there’s more power, so just overall, it’s a different party,” he said.

“Some stuff that might be similar from the GT stuff is braking points, and how I’m releasing the brake into the corner and such. So I found, like with the BMW M8, with the LMP2 car, you can’t carry that much brake pressure into the corner. But that’s where the similarity ends. They are pretty different cars.

“On the braking, too, I’m still getting used to the closing rates on the GT cars and how much later we can brake, or how much more rolling speed I can carry over them in the corners, so there’s some stuff that I still don’t quite understand. It’ll be something where, once get 20 consecutive laps under my belt in the first part of the race, I’ll understand a little bit more on where I can attack; where I can really maximize the advantages of the car versus the GTs.”

Another aspect of the DragonSpeed’s Rolex 24 LMP2 program that Herta’s been enjoying is the reunion with O’Ward, his 2018 Andretti Autosport Indy Lights teammate who races for the rival Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar team. The pair are expected to fight over IndyCar titles for many years to come, but in this temporary reunion at Daytona, the duo have turned the clock back to their Road To Indy days.

“Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun,” Herta said. “We’ve jumped right back into to where we left off after the Indy Lights season. So there’s still a competitive rivalry that we want to go faster than each other in the LMP2 car, but not to the detriment of the team.

“It’s been cool to see where he’s better than me in the car and where I’m better than him, and just overall, how we’ve related to feedback and how we feel the car is doing and what we need to do better. So yeah, I’ve enjoyed working with Pato again a lot.”

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RACER’s 2022 Rolex 24 At Daytona resource guide

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | January 27, 2022 3:28 AM ET

It’s time to launch the eighth season of IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Daytona International Speedway where 61 cars are preparing to earn overall and class honors at the 60th Rolex 24 at Daytona. Be sure to follow @RACERmag on Twitter for photos, videos, session reports, and feature stories throughout the event.

IMSA RADIO: Click here

ENTRY LIST: Click here

WEATHER: Click here

SPOTTERS GUIDE: Click here

IMSA LIVE TIMING & SCORING: Click here

WEATHERTECH CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT SCHEDULE:

Thursday, January 27 (all times Eastern)

11:05 a.m.-12:35 p.m., Free Practice 1

3:20-5:05 p.m., Free Practice 2

7:15-9:00 p.m., Free Practice 3

Friday, January 28

11:20 a.m.-12:20 p.m., Free Practice 4

Saturday, January 29

1:40 p.m., Race Start

Sunday, January 30

1:40 p.m., Race End

TV TUNE INFO (all times Eastern):

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Wet first Rolex 24 practice topped by O’Ward in LMP2

Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Richard S. James | January 27, 2022 1:21 PM ET

The first official session for the Rolex 24 at Daytona featured heavy mist and wet conditions with limited running that saw Pato O’Ward in the No. 81 DragonSpeed USA OTRECA LMP2 car set the 1m49.251s fast time at the very end of the session as the track began to dry out a bit. Only 47 of the 61 entries ventured out to test in conditions that are not expected to appear during the race.

Earl Bamber was the fastest of the DPi runners, second overall, in the No. 02 Cadillac Racing Cadillac with a 1m49.267s. The conditions left the GTD runners high up the list of time, with Mathieu Jaminet topping GTD Pro in the No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3R at 1m56.784s, while Luca Stolz was at the head of GTD in the No. 75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes AMG GT3 with a 1m58.419s lap. Matthew Bell was quickest of the LMP3 field with 1m59.223s in the No. 13 AWA Duqueine.

Guy Cosmo is out of the No. 32 Gilbert Korthoff Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT, replaced by James Davison.

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Kobayashi tops rain-interrupted second Rolex 24 practice session

The teams have two more testing opportunities today, one at 3:20 p.m. Eastern that will feature 15 minutes at either end with less traffic to deal with. The classes with amateur drivers get 15 minutes at the beginning without the pro classes on track, and the pros get theirs at the end. That session could possibly see conditions similar to the first, but the two-hour night practice at 7 p.m. Eastern is expected to be dry.

Speaking of the weather, the word for the weekend is cold. The practice days and BMW M Endurance Challenge for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge will see a lot of cool and wet conditions, while Saturday will dawn dry, but downright cold. While the teams may get some dry running this afternoon and evening to prepare for race conditions, nothing will prepare them for the cold they’ll experience during the race. The temperature during the 24 isn’t expected to get above 50 degrees F, and will be below freezing in the middle of the night. With no tire warmers per IMSA rules, the first laps on fresh tires will be challenging.

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Jarvis, retooled MSR Acura seek Rolex redemption

Richard Dole/Motorsport Images
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emailBy Marshall Pruett | January 27, 2022 3:48 AM ET

Meyer Shank Racing’s return to prototype racing in 2021 came after a four-year absence from IMSA’s top WeatherTech SportsCar Championship class, and as the Ohio-based team learned, its DPi rivals weren’t ready to make life easy on the No. 60 Acura ARX-05 program.

MSR owners Mike Shank and Jim Meyer watched as Acura stablemate Wayne Taylor Racing took the Rolex 24 At Daytona on its debut with the ARX-05, and the trend continued as JDC Miller Motorsports won Sebring with its Cadillac DPi-V.R, Chip Ganassi Racing got its first win in Detroit, Mazda Motorsports took Watkins Glen, and eventual DPi champions Action Express Racing added its name to the win column at the second race at The Glen.

Left as the last full-time DPi team to break through into victory lane, a frustrated MSR went into the offseason with designs on overhauling its season-long driver line-up, then spent countless hours dissecting all the areas where it needed to improve and returns to the Rolex 24 with one goal in mind.

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“There’s definitely pressure on myself and the whole team to win,” new MSR lead driver Oliver Jarvis told RACER. “But one thing that really attracted me is Mike is so passionate, and he wants to win so badly. Mike’s been very honest about the fact that the results weren’t what he wants. But what I love is he’s open about it, and also open about his expectations. Winning is really all that matters.”

Jarvis, who’s joined by fellow MSR newcomer Tom Blomqvist at every round and has the team’s IndyCar drivers Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud for the enduros, comes to the factory Acura program after years of helping the former Mazda effort to become regular winners in DPi.
Jarvis (right) and teammate Tom Blomqvist lend a wealth of experience to the MSR squad this year. Motorsport Images

While at Mazda, the Briton experienced fallow periods where — even when the vaunted Joest Racing team was hired to turn Mazda’s RT24-P — lofty expectations weren’t met with instant results. It’s here where the sports car racing veteran knows that a breakthrough DPi win for MSR early in the season could do wonders for its championship aspirations.

“You have to remember that the team has come into the top class from running Acura NSX GTD cars and had not run prototypes for several years,” Jarvis continued. “I went through that with Joest. Everybody thought Joest was gonna come in and put all of their Le Mans experience to work right away and Mazda would become immediate winners, but Joest hadn’t been doing prototypes for a while and as such, it took time for them to get to where they wanted to be.

“So I know from the testing we’ve done so far and the pace our Acura has shown, progress has been made. It’s encouraging for me and I know Mike is prepared to do whatever it takes to go win. So there is definitely pressure, but I think we’ve got everything we need, and like the Mazda’s story, once we get that first win, others will follow. The Acura is a phenomenal car to drive, and there’s no reason why we can’t go on and win more races and challenge for the championship.”

Meyer Shank Racing, Oliver Jarvis, Rolex 24, IMSA, WeatherTech Sportscar Championship

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Bourdais tops final Rolex 24 practice for Cadillac Racing Motorsport Images
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emailBy Richard S. James | January 28, 2022 1:20 PM ET

The final practice session before the start of the Rolex 24 At Daytona is in the books, and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams had good enough conditions, with only a bit of mist falling on occasion, to set some representative times if they chose.

Sebastien Bourdais was quickest overall and in DPi in the No. 01 Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing entry with a 1m34.732s lap, followed by Loic Duval in the No. 5 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac (+0.363s) and Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 48 Ally Cadillac (+0.503s). Every Cadillac was ahead of the Acuras, a reversal of most sessions from last weekend’s Roar.

United Autosports was at the top of the LMP2 field, courtesy of Phil Hanson in the No. 22 ORECA with a 1m37.639s lap. Rasmus Lindh was quickest in LMP3, turning a 1m44.015s in the No. 36 Andretti Autosport Ligier that’s on the class pole for the 24.

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The No. 63 TR3 Racing, the GTD Pro pole-sitting car, took its rather customary place at the top of the time sheet, Mirko Bortolotti just missing the 45s with a 1m46.085s lap. Julien Andlauer in the No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche that finished second in the qualifying race (but will start eighth due to penalties) was next, 0.249s back. Lexus posted a top-three time by Jack Hawksworth in the No 14 VasserSullivan machine, 0.287s back of Bortolotti.

The sole stoppage came as a result of the Alex Riberas pulling the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin GT3 to a stop on the backstretch with 10 minutes left in the session. Riberas reported an electronics problem.

Jan Heylen, fastest man in GTD on the first day of the Roar, was quick again in the No 16 Wright Motorsports Porsche with a 1m46.399s lap, the fourth-fastest time among all GTD cars. Raffaele Marciello was second in the No 75 Sun Energy 1 Mercedes-AMG that has been near the top for the duration of the event, 0.286s short of Heylen. Michael de Quesada was third, putting the Alegra Motorsports Mercedes-AMG near the top with a 1m46.856s lap.

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Drivers, teams and suppliers bracing for a cold Rolex 24

Motorsport Images
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emailBy Richard S. James | January 28, 2022 2:53 PM ET

Most drivers and teams, after two days of mostly damp condition, are relieved that the forecast for the Rolex 24 At Daytona is for partly cloudy to sunny conditions. The corollary to that is that once the clouds clear this evening, it’s going to get cold. Really cold. Perhaps making for the coldest Rolex 24 ever.

Depending on which forecast you’re looking at, the highest temperature of the race will be about 50 degrees F (9 degrees C) about the time of the checkered flag. The low will dip to just below freezing around 7 a.m. Aside from concerns for keeping crews and drivers warm, the big concern over the weather for the Rolex is tires. While the out-laps are going to be tricky and cold tires will certainly catch some drivers out, there do not to be any concerns for safety otherwise.

“With what’s currently forecast, we’re still confident that the tires will perform,” said Hans Emmel, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship manager for Michelin. “Obviously, they could take a little bit longer to warm up to as the drivers come out on cold tires from from pits. Certainly a lot of teams will opt to double stint when and where they can to to put drivers back out on hot tires, or maybe change two tires and not change the other two, to give them some heat in the tires as they exit pit lane and go through the the infield section of the course.”

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Michelin’s bigger concern for tires, notes Emmel, is mounting the tires, which can get problematic when it gets too cold.

“If the temperatures get down to freezing, we’ve put in some provisions in our mounting facility to make sure that there’s sufficient temperature while mounting the tires. That’s really where some of the temperature can get tricky for us. So we’ve enclosed some areas and warmed some areas to make sure that when the tires come out of the truck — through the middle of the night, it gets it’s like an assembly line through there with teams bringing us tires back, new tires going on — we’ve put provisions in to make sure that mountability is not an issue,” he said.
Lower temps could make the process of inter-class lapping more problematic than usual. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

According to several drivers, it’s going to take most of a lap to warm the tires up enough so that they’re not sketchy, and up to three or four, depending on class and car, to get fully up to temperature. Not only are there likely to be several single-car incidents on out-laps as a result, but drivers will have to be quite aware of which cars around them may have just come out of the pits on cold tires.

“The difference of speed between cars that are on their out-laps and cars that are at speed is going to be huge,” explained No. 5 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac driver Tristan Vautier. “I mean, even in the infield, a GTD [on warm tires] is going to be quicker than a DPi getting out of the pits with four sticker tires. So all in all those situations you’re going to be exposed and if you come up at speed in a DPi on an LMP3 or a GTD with a low-experience driver on cold tires, it’s going to be very difficult as well. So it’s going to be a lot of of tricky moments.”

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IndyCar champ Palou finding fresh challenge at Rolex 24

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emailBy Richard S. James | January 28, 2022 11:04 AM ET

The Rolex 24 At Daytona is a magnet for drivers from other disciplines. For some its convenience, or a chance to stay sharp with a race in the middle of the off-season. For Alex Palou, the reigning champion of the NTT IndyCar Series, it was a must-do.

“The atmosphere is good, the track is really historic and for motorsport, I think it’s important,” said Palou as he prepared to race his first 24-hour sports car endurance race as part of the No. 01 Cadillac Racing entry. “I used to see this race as a kid on TV, so it’s pretty special to drive around here. And the car has been good, so I’m excited to go and race it.

“I like to race whatever, and so I would race every weekend if could. This is one of those events that you want to race and you want to win. I knew that there was the second car, so it was a great opportunity to join the team.”

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The Spaniard joins fellow IndyCar champ and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon in supplementing the full-time pairing of Renger van der Zande and Sebastien Bourdais. While he would have like to have had more track time at the Roar — a difficult task with four drivers — he has acclimated quickly.

“They [the IndyCar and Cadillac DPi] are different and similar at the same time in terms of speed and the way it feels around the corners. You’re not going from a Formula 4 car to an Indy car, so they’re quite similar. But then the way they drive, it’s really, really different. Here you have power steering, the car is a bit longer and it feels a bit less reactive, and it doesn’t move as much as an Indy car. An Indy car, you have to drive it really aggressively, on the edge, and as soon as you get the DPi on the edge, it doesn’t really want to go there. So it’s a bit more calm, but it’s more challenging in other ways.”

Traffic is one of the chief differences. Palou may lap some competitors in an IndyCar race, but he’s not lapping several a lap, every lap, at radically different closing speeds. That, and driving at night in a car with headlights, are going to be new experiences for him.
Along with the driving characteristics of his No. 01 Cadillac, Palou has to get used to the ins and outs of multi-class racing. Jake Galstad/Motorsport Images

“It doesn’t help me having 61 cars on track, but it’s easy when it’s practice. Everybody’s more relaxed; you don’t care if you lose half a second. Nobody’s trying to block you. So I think it’s quite easy now and it’s actually fun. I know when it comes to the race and you’re battling with someone else and you lose that extra tenth, you’re going to get frustrated. But it’s 24 hours …. I think it makes it exciting and this is maybe a track where it’s quite good for traffic and you can manage it.”

While Palou is the new guy when it comes to sports car racing — notwithstanding a season in Super GT in Japan — there is no shortage of information available to him. The knowledge well is deep, with his co-drivers having eight overall or class victories at the Rolex 24 between them. So what piece of advice has stuck with him the most?

“They all say that it’s a 24-hour race, but it’s only a 30-minute race at the end. The 23 hours before you just need to make sure the car is good, that you put it where you want to be and try to push as much as possible at the end!”
The toughest and longest part is dealing with drunk-with-power IMSA officials to keep from getting disqualified because the officials don't know anything about cars and have never raced but we are not allowed to say that.

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Bus Stop at Daytona renamed Le Mans Chicane.
The corner workers called it the bus stop. IMSA officials said that cars should not have to stop to pick up passengers and that cars would go faster if it were called something zoomy with the word Le mans in it, and US drivers are no longer required to carry exact change.

Richard Dole/IMSA The styrofoam strips partly in the grooves will slow cars down say an IMSA official,
so therefore we don't make all cars carry extra weight.
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emailBy Richard S. James | January 28, 2022 1:40 PM ET

Competitors in the Rolex 24 at Daytona will be blasting through the tricky Le Mans chicane. The field at the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be streaming through the Daytona Chicane. Yes, you read that correctly.

In a joint announcement, IMSA, Daytona International Speedway and the ACO have announced new names for iconic turns at their iconic tracks, each intended to honor the other. The first chicane on the Mulsanne Straight at the Circuit de la Sarthe will be named the M-F''ing Daytona Bus Stop. The series of turns formerly known as the Bus Stop at Daytona International Raceway becomes the Le Mans Chicane. The new names are intended to honor the stability agreements and convergence in the top category of prototype racing. The curbs in the newly named Le Mans Chicane been painted alternating blue and yellow to mark the partnership and the curbs in the Daytona Chicane will be painted the same way. The Styrofoam strips are only being used by US IMSA officials.

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“The spirit of partnership between the IMSA and Daytona International Speedway team in Daytona Beach and the ACO in Le Mans has never been stronger,” said IMSA President John Doonan. “Between the historic convergence for the top category of prototype racing, the recent 10-year extension of the IMSA-ACO partnership and today’s introduction of the Le Mans and Daytona chicanes, together we are embarking on an amazing new era of sports car endurance racing unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Beginning in 2023, the cars racing in the top category in both IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, which will be called GTP, and in the World Endurance Championship an at Le Mans, currently known as LMDh and Hypercar, will be the same, allowing for more crossover in between. In 2024, the GT regulations are likely to converge as well, as the WEC is expected to use GT3-based formula for its GT categories.