[h=2]IMSA: Roar Before the 24 Saturday notebook[/h] Saturday, 07 January 2017


Marshall Pruett

TCR STUNNER
Audi's new TCR-spec RS3 LMS is on display in the WeatherTech Championship paddock. It also spent time in the Continental Tire Series paddock as well earlier in the day and was swarmed by interested parties looking to 2018 when the Street Tuner class is expected to embrace the TCR formula.

The RS3 LMS is expected to do a lap with one of the R8 GT3 LMS GT Daytona cars this weekend to give Audi's photographers a nice side-by-side promotional shot for future use.

OK FOR PT
The Performance Tech PC team made it out with its repaired No. 38 car after losing most of Friday with a hard crash suffered in the first session. The No. 38 was fastest in class when it returned for today's afternoon outing.
"It was good, and it was quick," said rapid Wisconsin product James French. "And we were able to get all of our drivers the laps they needed to run to satisfy IMSA's requirement, so that's a bonus."
French also said its likely the team will need to find a new fourth driver for the race.
MIXED MILNER
Changing conditions have led to modified run plans for some teams, including Corvette Racing. From 70 degrees and sunny on Friday to rain and clouds this morning to ambient temperatures in the 40s for the afternoon, Tommy Milner says the factory GT Le Mans program can always find something useful to accomplish, even when lap times are far from optimal.
"We've just been running to see what the car feels like," Milner said. "We did a lot of driver change practice when the track wasn't very good, and in the last session, we ran on Michelin's new wet tire to get some information—pressures, cambers, and all that—and then when the conditions were mixed, we switched to race running. It was still a little bit wet at the Bus Stop, so we were sliding a bit there, but it was dry mostly. We're hoping it's just cold tomorrow so at least it's consistent all day."

OLLY'S ODD COMPLAINT
Milner also mentioned his fellow IMSA GTLM champion and teammate Oliver Gavin expressed one of the stranger complaints heard from a race car driver.
"We feel good where the car is setup-wise and the changes over the winter have been good for the C7.R," Milner continued. "Oliver was complaining the car is too comfortable to drive! It's a good thing to hear about the car because it's the state it will run in the race, but it was a funny comment to hear. He said, 'the car is always hard to drive here...now it's too comfortable...'"
The defending Rolex 24 winners might have to stray from that comfort zone if more speed is required once the series returns for the race later this month.
"We can make it less comfortable to drive and it might end up being faster, so we can do that if necessary and then maybe Olly will be happier, but it will take seeing what everyone else is doing to know if that's the right direction to take," Milner added.
NISSAN TIMES 2
The No. 2 Nissan Onroak DPi will have spent most of the day in the garage while the sister No. 22 has logged the lion's share of laps.
The reason for its absence is an engine change (below), and with the newness of the car in mind—the first chassis arrived on Dec. 21—team co-owner/driver Scott Sharp says the Tequila Patron ESM crew have focused on completing the change and learning the best practices for a motor swap instead of rushing to get out. The No. 2 should be in action for the night session which closes Saturday's testing activities.

TRAP SPEEDS
The big trap speed numbers for Daytona Prototype internationals seen at the mid-December IMSA test are down at the Roar due to the Balance of Performance changes made between the events.
The 200.5 mph peak achieved by Ricky Taylor in his No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R last month set the tone for the new formula's speedy potential, but that number has been knocked down to 191.5 (so far) for the No. 10—which led the other DPis--in dry running on Friday.
The drop has been attributed to a tall 30mm Gurney tab added to the back of the Cadillacs through the BoP (below), and with the increase in rear downforce and drag, the parachute-like effects of the change are told through the decreased top speed.

With a need to run in low downforce and drag settings to maximize speeds on the long Daytona straights (seen below in December), the 30mm rear Gurney has cause an imbalance for the Cadillacs; solving the imbalance by adding more front downforce is the obvious solution, but that fix would increase overall drag and downforce, which goes against the need the aforementioned need to run in a slippery aerodynamic configuration...

Fastest of all on Friday was the No. 52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Ligier JS P217 WEC P2 with a 194.3 mph. Second went to Taylor at 191.5, third belonged to the Rebellion Racing ORECA 07 WEC P2 at 191.5, and among the remaining prototypes, the Nissan Onroak DPi was next at 188.4, followed by a Mazda RT24-P DPi at 187.6 and at the bottom, the Riley/Multimatic Mk 30 WEC P2 managed a 187.1 mph trip through the traps on the front straight.





VISIT FLORIDA REST
Rene Rast will be the busy man during the early portion of today's test for Visit Florida Racing. Renger van der Zande, one of the team's two full-time drivers, is feeling ill and will rest while letting Rast and Marc Goossens handle the team's Riley Mk 30 WEC P2. Along with most of the new cars in IMSA's Prototype field, the No. 90 Visit Florida entry has been dealing with small issues, including engine cooling.
A THING OF BEAUTY
The front suspension layout on Acura's new GT3-spec NSX is a beautiful thing to behold. The easy access for damper and spring changes, the nice machined billet control arms and the unobscured chassis mounts for those control arms is impressive.

SAFETY FIRST
The right-front suspension control arm breakage that halted the No. 70 Mazda RT24-P during Friday's session proved to be a rallying point for the teams using the Riley/Multimatic Mk 30 chassis. The two-car Mazda team, which uses the Mk 30 as the base for its RT24-P Daytona Prototype international, and the Visit Florida Racing team, which fields the WEC P2 version of the car, have kept each other abreast of any issues, and once the suspension breakage was found, the SpeedSource-led Mazda team alerted VFR. All three cars were grounded until new pieces could be fitted overnight.
On an unrelated but interesting front with the RT24-Ps, SpeedSource has made extensive use of 3D printing wherever possible on the RT24-P while the team finalizes the various ducts and components being tested. The rapid prototyping efforts allow the team to try different solutions at a low cost before selecting the best options and having them made from carbon fiber.

The team also reports its gearbox cooling issues, which slowed recent testing progress, has been solved.
NO GO
The transmission issues that hampered Ford's 2016 Roar Before the 24 event have made an unwelcome return. The No. 67 Ford GT has been down while the gearbox undergoes a serious inspection and diagnosis effort by the Blue Oval's factory team.
THE GHOSTS ARE BACK
Ford isn't the only works effort on the sidelines. Some of the electronic gremlins that parked the Cadillac DPis on the first day of the mid-December test returned this morning to vex the No. 31 Action Express Racing entry. The Whelen-sponsored car sat parked during the wet opening session as a result of its problems. It's expected to head out for the 1:05 p.m. session.