2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - 12 Hours of Sebring!

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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Kinnikuniverse »

Toyota Gazoo Racing will run the traditional Red and White company livery for both #9 and #10, with Denso and other associate sponsors being featured.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

If you want to hire reserve or test drivers, you may do so.

Reserve drivers cost $1/race to remain on standby and get their normal per-race salary if used in a race.

Test drivers cost $1/test and gain the equivalent of one race worth of experience for every two tests. A young driver could get a decent amount of experience by testing in IMSA and running in a lower-tier 2021 series like Indy Lights, F3, or F4 - the same thing the Nighthawk Racing and Menlo Park Motorsports drivers did in 2020.

With the Penske-France merger taking place in 2022 and the introduction of the Tesla Trophy series, there will be a lot of open race seats in the United States.

(Like the 2020 IndyCar and Indy Lights series, the NASCAR series will be quick-simmed starting in 2022 to provide canon information until someone decides to take them over as a full-time series. The wiki will be updated (once edit access is available again) and there will be opportunities to put your fictional drivers in the series, but teams will be run via AI and there won't be detailed stories about each race.)
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Butterfox »

I want to ask Robert Kubica is he wants to be our official reserve driver for all cars (and give some nice PK Orlen money) If he refuses, i will make the offer for Rui Andrade and whatever obscure Angolan money he brings. I will ask for Norman Nato as test driver. (just keeping real life WRT drivers on my roster)
I don't know what i want and i want it now!
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Hermann95 »

Here are the wiki profiles of my two fictional drivers I'm using:
https://formularejects.com/wiki/John_Davis
https://formularejects.com/wiki/T.K._Wolf

I'll add their career paths soon.

With regard to colors:
The #95 car: Black number on orange background
The #96 car: Orange number on black background
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

Thanks to everyone who has replied.

I have an 800-driver database mod for Motorsport Manager that I'm using (with some adjusting) to rate RL drivers - it basically goes from Max Verstappen to Danica Patrick (retired Danica, not in her prime), so I can use the descriptions of the fictional drivers to fit them in. Since it is designed for MM, it has many sports car and open-wheel drivers. It is missing most of the NASCAR field, other than Kyle Busch, so I'll have to add Chase Elliott, Kyle Larsen and one or two other guys who are only running the 24 Hours of Daytona.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

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Hermann95 wrote: 06 Jun 2022, 12:42 Here are the wiki profiles of my two fictional drivers I'm using:
https://formularejects.com/wiki/John_Davis
https://formularejects.com/wiki/T.K._Wolf
Oh, that's right - I have a set of ratings for John. He finished fourth in the 2019 IndyLights series I finished. He was second with two races left, miles behind Oliver Askew, but Mitchell Macklin and Sennan Fielding knocked him off the podium.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

The current plan is for there to be three preseason tests. After each test, you can buy two points of chassis/car upgrades. Engine upgrades will come from the supplier.

The first test will be held at Willow Springs Raceway in about a week, so let me know if you want to use any drivers other than your main pair. After that, once everyone makes their purchases, we'll run the second test at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with the third one at Barber Park. Each test will consist of two two-hour sessions.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

I just posted the livery chart to the Discord. I honored every request I got. In other cases, I went with some kind of color combination used by the actual teams.

For some reason, the picture won't post here, but let me know if you want any changes. I'm planning to run the Willow Springs test on Monday.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

NOTE: There was an error in my post listing the drivers for the AI-controlled teams - Oliver Jarvis was listed on both Team Penske's #5 GTP and #55 eGT entries. Juan Pablo Montoya is driving the #5 and Jarvis is driving the #55.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Klon »

Alright, quick notes on the fictional drivers I hired. Einar Ármannsson is best described as a hyper-talented opportunist. He is fast enough to place him in situations where he can profit from other driver's mistakes. His consistent driving makes sure he rarely makes any himself, so in a way endurance racing might be his royal discipline.

Carlos Ramón Jiménez is very young, so his driving style hasn't been clearly established yet. He will be 17 at the 24 Hours of Daytona, but at least his second F4 season has shown remarkable consistency, so that might warrant a note.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

American Racing News wrote:
California Traffic Wins First IMSA Test

The first day of preseason testing has finished, and it was dominated by frustrated drivers. Twenty-nine sports cars is a little crowded for Willow Spring Raceway, especially when they are testing different setups on mostly short runs. If there was a driver who didn't have their best lap ruined by slower traffic, they weren't talking.

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In the Prototype class, Toyota Gazoo was expected to dominate, thanks to their two-year head start on running their hybrid engine in European competition. It wasn't as lopsided as some feared, but Sebastien Buemi and Loic Duval did top the lap charts in the #9 with a 1:08.565 lap. However, the only other car to break 1:09 was the #33 Ganassi pair of Kevin Magnussen and Renger van der Zende (1:08.815).

Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves were third in the #1 Acura Team Penske, just ahead of Kamui Kobayashi and Dane Cameron in the second Toyota. Heikki Kovalainen and Felipe Nasr completed the top 5 in the Kronstadt Keto.

The second half of the field was made up of the WRT/FCT Audi, the second Penske, the two Andretti Autosport BMWs and the #32 Ganassi.

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In the GTP category, four of the five teams made it into the top-five spots. Richard Leitz and Laurens Vanthoor were top at 1:13.742 in the #95 MarchSixteen Racing Porsche, just ahead of Dennis Olsen and Ilja Dragunov in the #007 RM Vikingsport Vantage. Wouters Lamberigts and Ron Mignolet were third in the #22 WRT Audi, ahead of Matt Keto and Giovanni Friello were fifth in the #20 Nighthawk Racing Corvette.

Corvettes didn't have a strong showing, as the second Vantage and Audi both beat the #3 Corvette Racing, #19 Nighthawk Racing, and #4 Corvette Racing Vettes.

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The most anticipated class of the day was the new eGT group. They didn't run long enough to test battery length, but there were significant complaints from almost every car in the class about the heavy wear on the Pirelli tires being used by the electric cars. The hybrids in GTP and GTD are using Goodyear tires, which seemed to hold up much better.

As it turned out, the tires weren't a problem for the Maserati TECHEETAH team as Jean-Eric Vergne and Jake Dennis topped the charts with a 1:15.406. Not only was that a second faster than any other eGT car, but it was also 0.158 seconds ahead of the #4 Corvette Racing car in GTD. On a fast Willow Springs track, that's a significant accomplishment for a class expected to be the equal of the GTDs in acceleration but behind on top speed.

Oliver Jarvis and Harvey Tincknell were second in the #55 eTeam Penske Acura ahead of the guest Tesla Motorsports Roadster. Kazui Nakajima and Brendon Hartley were fourth in the #99 WeatherTech Porsche, with Justin Case and Abbi Pulling next in the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari - a team that could significant changes before the series reaches Daytona.

Rubens Barichello and Russell Ward were sixth in the Windward Racing Mercedes, with the second Menlo Park Ferrari finishing seventh. The Peregrine Racing Audi and the Turner Motorsports BMW were at the bottom, nearly two seconds behind TECHEETAH.

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The Willow Springs test concludes with a 60-minute session under qualifying rules on Sunday, after which teams will get two weeks to work on what they've learned for the weekend.
IMSA Insight wrote: Changes Coming to Menlo Park?

The Menlo Park Motorsports entries in eGT were expected to have a advantage, at least early in the season, as their drivers were testing the new cars and engines throughout 2020. That gap widened when the other test team, Nighthawk Racing, chose to run the new Keto hybrid engine in GTD rather than the same company's electric product in eGT.

However, there are strong rumors that the #47 entry will have two new drivers in Daytona. As part of an IMSA-IndyCar deal, the eight test drivers were given sponsorship in the 2020 Indy Lights campaign as part of the testing deal, and that has changed things for Abbi Pulling and Justin Case.

At 17, Pulling became the youngest winner in series history with her victory at Milwaukee, and she's decided to stick with open-wheel racing in 2021. She has signed another Indy Lights contract, this time with Nighthawk Racing, as Menlo Park is leaving the series to focus on electric racing.

Case has been significantly more successful, batting David Malukus all season for the series title. As a result, he's drawn interest from IndyCar teams for a possible deal that would see him move to that series while a current driver switched to the Menlo Park IMSA team. One complicated rumor has Case filling the #28 Andretti Autosport ride being vacated by Marco Andretti, with Alexander Rossi moving from the #98 Andretti-Herta team to Menlo Park's eGT program.

However, there's an additional complication, as Rossi is signed to be Toyota Gazoo's driver in endurance races. In this scenario, he would be replaced by another Andretti IndyCar driver, Felipe Massa.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

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American Racing News wrote: Qualifying Trim Mixes the Grid at Willow Springs Test

On the second day of the IMSA test at Willow Springs, the cars were set up for a one-hour qualifying session, and only one team was able to dominate its class.

That team wasn't in GTP, as Kamui Kobayashi and Dane Cameron took the "pole" in the Toyota Gazoo #10, but teammates Sebastien Buemi and Loic Duval were only fifth in the #9. Pipo Derani and Juan Pablo Montoya were second in the Penske #5, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Renger Van der Zande in the Ganassi Racing #33 and Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves in the Penske #1.

The Andretti Autosports BMWs finished 6th and 8th, with the Kronstadt Keto in the middle. The FCT/WRT Audi was ninth and the Ganassi #32 was 10th after missing much of the session with gearbox problems.

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In GTD, the MarchSixteen Porsches traded the pole back and forth, with Laurens Vanthoor getting the final word. His last lap of 1:13.081 put him and Richard Lietz ahead of teammates Earl Bamber and Kevin Estre by 0.044 seconds.

Wouters Lamberigts and Ron Mignolet were next in the #22 WRT Audi ahead of both Nighthawk Racing Corvettes. Jordan Taylor and Christina Nielsen were sixth for Corvette Racing, followed by both Team RM Vikingsport Vantages and the second Corvette Racing entry. Rene Rast and Frederic Vervisch were last after mechanical troubles resulting from Vervisch running wide on the Sweeper.

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In eGT, Rubens Barrichello and Russell Ward put the Winward Racing Mercedes on the pole, with a 0.365-second gap to the Maserati TECHEETAH entry of Jean-Eric Vergne and Jake Dennis. The Menlo Park Ferraris were third and fifth, with the Peregrine Audi between them. The WeatherTech Porsche struggled to sixth, just ahead of the Turner Motorsports BMW. The Tesla Roadster was eighth, with the eTeam Penske Acura continuing to struggle.

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Each team can now buy up to two points of upgrades to their chassis/car, assuming they can afford them. Engine upgrades will come from the supplier at random intervals.

The Google Sheet budget and chassis calculators are up to date.

Let me know if you want to spend your points on Aero, Grip, Ease on Tyres, Reliability, Wet Weather, Setup and Qualifying.

The game uses the Setup and driver's Feedback ratings to figure out how dialed in the car is at the end of practice. And, as I've hinted at already, the eGT cars have a penalty to Ease on Tyres and a bonus to Grip for the Pirelli tires, while the GTP and GTD cars don't get any tire points for the Michelins.

After everyone spends their points - you can tell me publicly or privately - we will move on to the second test. Due to flooding damage to the road course at Homestead, we're going to move the test to the 4.5-mile road course at Utah Motorsports Campus (fka Miller Motorsports Park). The third test, in preparation for the Daytona road course, will be held at a forgotten classic - the 3.3-mile, Sterling Moss-designed Michigan International Speedway road course.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

Nighthawk Racing is going for two points of mechanical grip.

Menlo Park Motorsports will take a point of aero and a point of grip.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by CaptainGetz12 »

Kronstadt Technology Team will invest 1 point on Ease of Tires and 1 point on Mechanical Grip.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship (and Tesla Cup testing)

Post by Stareagle »

Team Penske: 2 points of grip
Ganassi Racing: 1 point of grip, 1 point of reliability
Corvette Racing: 1 point of aero, 1 point of grip
Tesla: 2 points of aero
WeatherTech Porsche: 1 point of aero, 1 point of tire wear
Turner BMW: 2 points of tire wear
eTeam Penske: 1 point of grip, 1 point of tire wear
TECHEETAH GT: 1 point of grip, 1 point of aero
Peregrine Audi: 1 point of aero, 1 point of tire wear
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

American Racing News wrote:
Second Preseason Test Underway in Utah

Several IMSA teams showed up with significant upgrades to the car this weekend, and it showed on Day 1 of testing.

However, the 4.5-mile track at Utah Motorsports Campus (formerly Miller Motorsports Park) proved equal to the task. While there were no serious accidents and no serious damage, multiple cars spent lengthy spells on pit road during the two-hour session.

Heikki Kovalainen (Kronstadt) blew a tire on Miller's long front straight, and while he kept the car under control, the delaminated tire did enough damage to sideline the car for most of the session. Felipe Nasr did get the Kronstadt-Keto back onto the track at the end of the session, but they weren't able to post a competitive time.

Sebastian Buemi (Toyota Gazoo) beached himself in the gravel trap at Turn 1 (Sunset Bend), causing a short red-flag stoppage, and leaving the #9 Gazoo sixth on the GTP lap sheet. Team Penske dominated the session until Kamui Kobayashi jumped into second place in the final seconds in the #10 Gazoo.

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The GTD session was a straight shootout between the Nighthawk Corvettes and the MarchSixteen Porsches. Richard Leitz and Laurens Vanthoor led the class for the first 75 minutes, but Vanthoor made the same mistake as Buemi, trying to make a pass into Turn 1 coming off the front stretch. That left the #95 Porsche in the pits as the clock counted down, and Matt Keto took advantage on his last hot lap, moving 0.105 ahead in the #20 Nighthawk.

The #96 Porsche was third, while the #19 Nighthawk Corvette was fourth.

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In the first test at Willow Springs, the eTD cars were running competitive lap times with the slower GTD cars, but the long straights in Utah left them further back. As a matter of fact, while the TECHEETAH Maserati dominated the first day of that test, beating the other eGT cars by a full second, it was just fifth on Saturday, 0.658 seconds behind the Winward Mercedes. The car that finished second at Willow Springs - eTeam Penske's Acura - was last at Utah Motorsports Campus.

The only cars to come close to the Mercedes were the WeatherTech Porsche and the Peregrine Audi, who seemed to have gotten a handle on the tire wear issues with the Pirellis, but no one was doing race-length stints. That might not happen until free practice before the Daytona Pole Race.

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On Sunday, the teams will get 60 minutes in qualifying trim, four times as long as a season qualifying session, but will be limited to 15 laps.

Interestingly, three of the teams that performed the best - Winward Mercedes in eGT, MarchSixteen Porsche in GTD, and Toyota Gazoo in GTP - didn't bring any upgrades to Utah.

NOTE: Menlo Park Motorsports confirmed on Saturday that Abbi Pulling will be leaving the team at the end of the test to return to Indy Lights with Nighthawk Racing. They will announce a replacement before the third test in Michigan.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Hermann95 »

MarchSixteen would like to get 2 points of aero upgrade please
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

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American Racing News wrote:
Gazoo Ready For Daytona

Dane Cameron wanted to make sure everyone remembered which team is favored to win the IMSA GTP class.

On his first hot lap of the day, Cameron posted a 2:16.989 on the Utah Motorsport Campus road course in his Gazoo Racing Toyota. He and teammate Kamui Kobayashi could have taken the rest of the day off because no one got within eight-tenths of a second of that time in the 60-minute test session.

Sebastian Buemi and Loic Duval had to work a little harder for second place, only beating the #8 Andretti Autosport BMW and the two Acura Team Penske cars by less than 0.1 seconds.

The second half of the class was well behind, with only the #33 Chip Ganassi Cadillac getting within 1.5 seconds of the leaders.

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In GTD, the order was completely scrambled after Nighthawk Racing and MarchSixteen Racing had dominated the first day's 90-minute session. Jordan Taylor and Christina Nielsen took the top spot with a 2:28.046 in the #4 Corvette Racing entry, with eight of the ten teams breaking 2:29. Dennis Olsen and Ilja Dragunov were second in the #007 RM Vikingsport Vantage, ahead of Missy Stewart and Lisa Keto in the #19 Nighthawk Racing Corvette.

The MarchSixteen Porsches, who had to delay a planned aero upgrade to the third test in Michigan, finished 4th and 8th. The #22 WRT Racing Audi and the #009 Vantage both struggled with gearbox problems.

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The eGT paddock was home to some grumblings about sandbagging after the Turner Motorsports BMW jumped from a distant sixth on Day 1 to a comfortable first under qualifying rules. Bill Auberlen and Robby Foley put up a 2:31.542, beating the #48 Menlo Park Ferrari by 0.760 seconds with the Winward Racing Mercedes and the WeatherTech Racing Porsche close behind.

The TECHEETAH Maserati was more than a second behind the leaders, completing a frustrating weekend for a team expecting to contend for the championship, while the eTeam Penske Acura continues to struggle badly with its underperforming engine.

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Teams now can spend two more points of upgrades before the third test at the MIS road course.

The budget spreadsheet is updated through MarchSixteen's aero upgrades, which will go into effect at MIS, along with any other upgrades purchased at this point.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

Round 2 Upgrades:

Team Penske: 1 point of grip, 1 point of reliability
Ganassi Cadillac: 1 point of grip, 1 point of qualifying
Corvette Racing: 1 point of grip, 1 point of tire wear
Nighthawk Racing: 1 point of tire wear, 1 point of reliability
Tesla Motorsports: 2 points of qualifying
Porsche 99X: 2 points of aero
Peregrine Audi: 1 point of tire wear, 1 point of wet weather
Turner BMW: 1 point of aero, 1 point of grip
eTeam Penske: 1 point of wet weather, 1 point of setup
Menlo Park Motorsports: 2 points of tire wear
TECHEETAH GT: 1 point of aero, 1 point of grip
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by CaptainGetz12 »

Kronstadt will put 1 point into setup and 1 point into reliability.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Butterfox »

WRT will do 1 reliability for all cars.
I don't know what i want and i want it now!
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

Because of the holiday in the US, I'll keep this upgrade window open until Wednesday, July 6. The MIS road-course test - the third and final of the preseason - will run on the 7th.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

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IMSA wrote:
MIS Test to Simulate Race Weekend

At the request of several teams, the upcoming test at the Michigan International Speedway will be structured in the same way as a regular-season race weekend.

On Saturday morning, there will be a 90-practice session, followed by a 15-minute qualifying session.

On Saturday afternoon, there will be a 60-minute sprint race to set the starting order for Sunday's two-hour non-championship race.

During the regular season, all races will be at least three hours, but the process will remain the same. The only difference will be on endurance-race weekends, where the qualifying race will either be 90 minutes (6 or 12-hour features) or two hours.


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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

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American Racing News wrote:
IMSA Teams Furious After Michigan Carnage

"Why are we running our last preseason test at a track that hasn't been used in 30 years?"

That was the question echoing up and down the paddock at Michigan International Speedway after a weekend that created more repair bills than useful information. Few teams escaped unscathed from a two-day test on a road course that has spent the 21st century being used to train police officers in pursuit techniques.

The disasters started in the first 10 minutes of Saturday morning's 90-minute practice session, when Heikki Kovalainen snapped an axle on his Kronstadt-Keto, and continued with several cars missing long portions of the session while trying to adjust suspension settings. At the end of 90 minutes, there was a bit of a surprise in GTP with Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist's #32 Ganassi Cadillac topping the time chart ahead of the #8 Andretti Autosports machine. After that, less surprisingly, came the four Acura Team Penske and Team Gazoo Toyota cars that have dominated the preseason.

In GTD, the unstoppable #96 MarchSixteen Porsche, driven by Earl Bamber and Kevin Estre, easily topped the time sheets, with only the two Nighthawk Racing Corvettes able to stay within a second of them. The eGT class saw Ben Auberlen and Robby Foley's BMW beat Rubens Barichello and Russell Ward's Mercedes by 0.001 seconds. The next two spots were filled by the Menlo Park Motorsports Maseratis, with Rahal Frey finishing fourth in her debut as Abbi Pulling's replacement.

After an uneventful 15-minute qualifying dash that saw drivers struggling to get in a clean lap, it was time for the one-hour sprint race that would set the field for Sunday's two-hour non-championship race.

It went badly.

As the cars took the start on the NASCAR track and made their first turn onto the bumpy infield course, Kamui Kobayashi's Toyota collided with Renger van der Zende, sending the latter's three-wheeled Cadillac sliding through the gravel trap and hard into a tire barrier. While trying to maintain control, Kobayashi made contact with Rosenqvist in the second Cadillac, causing enough damage to force it into the pits for a lengthy stop. Kelvin van der Linde, Mirko Bortolotti and Felipe Nasr all went off the track to avoid the wreck, although van der Linde also ended up in the pits with suspension damage.

Bamber, leading the GTD cars into the mess, ran over debris causing a puncture that sent him into the same barrier as van der Zende. The rest of the GTD field got through, but Jeff Westphal, Frey and Kazuki Nakajima were eliminated by a secondary wreck when they came together trying to get slowed down.

That meant, after the first turn of a qualifying race, 10 of the 29 cars were already damaged. Things got better from there, but several more cars ended up with lengthy pit stops after problems caused by the bumpy infield portion of the course.

Two of the three classes had exciting finishes, with Ricky Taylor passing Bortolotti on the final lap to win the GTP race and Oliver Jarvis holding off Foley by 0.075 seconds to win in eGT. GTD, to no one's great surprise, finished with the remaining MarchSixteen Porsche cruising to a 13-second win over the #007 Vantage driven by Dennis Olsen and Ilja Dragunov.

Despite the complaints of several teams, Sunday's two-hour race was run on the same course, although significant repairs had been made overnight. The track held up slightly better, but not well enough for good racing.

In GTP, Taylor and Helio Castroneves got out to an early lead and watched the field disintegrate behind them. They beat Ericsson and Rosenqvist's Cadillac by 36 seconds, with Einar Armannsson and Zach Veach's Andretti BMW the only other car to finish on the lead lap.

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The GTD race was yet another MarchSixteen Porsche walkover, with Richard Lietz and Laurens Vanthoor finishing 0.7 seconds ahead of Bamber and Estre for their second win in as many days. Two other cars managed to finish on the lead lap, but only five of the 10 survived the two hours.

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In eGT, there wasn't a repeat winner from Saturday, as Barichello and Ward beat Jarvis and Harry Tincknell by a few car lengths in a race that saw the top-four finishers separated by just 12 seconds.

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As a result of the problems, IMSA announced multiple rule changes that will go into effect for all single-weekend races - every race other than the 24 Hours of Daytona. The 90-minute practice on Saturday morning will remain unchanged, but a 60-minute qualifying session will replace the 15-minute shootout and 60-minute qualifying race. To cut down on traffic, teams will be limited to 15 laps in the session.

On Sunday, all three-hour races will be run from 3-6 pm local time. Six-hour races will be run from 3-9 pm and 12-hour races will run from 11 am-11 pm. The Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona will begin and end at 2 pm.

Protest Time

The season's first protest was filed over the weekend, with Peregrine Team Audi claiming Team Winward Mercedes was using an illegal system that allows the driver to change the amount of power being sent to the front and rear axles. However, Mercedes was anticipating the challenge and was able to produce documentation showing the design had been approved by IMSA's Technical Committee.

A more significant protest was filed on behalf of "several unnamed manufacturers" about the contract that gives Tesla Motorsports the right to be the exclusive engine supplier for the first two years of the Tesla Trophy eGP competition. Sources have told ARM the protest claims Tesla has failed to provide engines for 2022 preseason tests - a condition of the contract - and has shown no evidence that their engine will perform better than the ones being currently used by eGT teams.

"They are using their engines in a Tesla Roadster that isn't even GT3 legal and still aren't impressing anyone in testing," one team official said. "I know Britney (Tesla Motorsports general manager Nico Rosberg) is promising a super engine, but when?"

The manufacturers who filed the protest, which is understood to include some already involved in eGT, are asking for the opportunity to sell their engines to eGP teams as an alternative to the free Tesla engines. A ruling from IMSA, which is expected to involve officials from both sides of the Penske-France agreement, is expected before the 12 Hours of Sebring race later this spring.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by CaptainGetz12 »

Jost Capito wrote:I am not sure what the IMSA organizers are thinking about these choices of testing grounds. Michigan isn't the first time we went to a odd and unsafe location to test. Do they not care about the safety of the drivers?

I am proposing with the other teams the formation of a group to decide where testing will take place. If we deem a course unsafe, we would boycott the event on safety grounds. Alternatively, this group can send a list of courses for IMSA to choose from for testing halfway through the proceeding season. We cannot allow such a shite show to happen again.
#ComradeCorbynFan wrote:Quite ironic that a Fortune 500 company with a history of union-busting is basically calling for collection action against the IMSA organizers. Did they forget about last year's unionization efforts???
Klon wrote:What did poor André do to you for him to be insulted like that?
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Pinkd56 »

Róbert Mikkelsson wrote:I thought we'd left circuits like these back in the 1970s. We had better facilities when I raced in Formula Atlantic.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Hermann95 »

Günther Steiner wrote: We looked like a bunch of wankers out there. We f*cking can't do that. Safety is f*cking important and we can't do stuff like that, especially in pre-season.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Kinnikuniverse »

Toyota Concurs that it'd be best for everyone if we have a say in where to test desu.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

IMSA wrote:
In-Season Testing Schedule

Due to concerns about testing locales, IMSA is announcing the 2021 in-season testing schedule, all of which will be held on Monday and Tuesday after the three-hour races held at the track.
  • Lime Rock Park
  • Road America
  • Mosport Park
  • Mid-Ohio
Teams with complaints are encouraged to raise them ASAP.
Also, the third and final preseason upgrade window is now open. All teams have two more upgrade points, which gives several teams between 3-6 preseason points. Those **must** be spent before the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Teams will also get one (1) upgrade point after each of the four in-season tests, which must be spent by the end of the season.

Remember that Daytona has a unique schedule. There will be a 90-minute practice, a 15-minute shootout, and a two-hour sprint race on Saturday. There will be points and prize money awarded for the sprint race. The Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona will be a week later, so you can spend upgrade points between the spring race and the 24 Hours.

There are points given to the top 10 cars in each class.

1: 250 points
2: 180 points
3: 150 points
4: 120 points
5: 100 points
6: 80 points
7: 60 points
8: 40 points
9: 20 points
10: 10 points

For the Daytona Pole Race:
1: 25 points
2: 18 points
3: 15 points
4: 12 points
5: 10 points
6: 8 points
7: 6 points
8: 4 points
9: 2 points
10: 1 point

There will be team, engine and manufacturer championships in each division.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

My upgrades:

Nighthawk Racing: 2 points of aero

NPC team upgrades:

Acura Team Penske: 2 points of reliability
Cadillac Team Ganassi: 1 point of aero, 1 point of grip
Corvette Racing: 1 point of aero, 1 point of grip
Tesla Motorsports: 2 points of grip
Porsche 99X Racing: 2 points of grip
Audi eTron Racing: 1 point of grip, 1 point of tire wear
Turner BMW: 2 points of aero
eTeam Penske: 2 points of aero
TECHEETAH: 2 points of reliability
Menlo Park Motorsports: 1 point of aero, 1 point of grip
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

Preseason upgrade points remaining:

Keto Kronstadt: 2
FCT WRT Audi: 5
Andretti Autosport: 4
RM Vikingsport Aston Martin: 6
WRT Audi: 5
MarchSixteen: 4
Winward Mercedes: 6

These must be spent before the season-opening race. The budget and upgrade spreadsheet is here.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by CaptainGetz12 »

Kronstadt will spent 1 point on Reliability and 1 point on Wet Weather.
Klon wrote:What did poor André do to you for him to be insulted like that?
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Butterfox »

2 points aero 1 point grip for the GTP car if that is possible
1 aero and 2 grip for the GTD cars

not really finding the spreadsheet very clear, so correct me if i'm doing something wrong
I don't know what i want and i want it now!
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Preseason Testing

Post by Stareagle »

Butterfox wrote: 18 Jul 2022, 11:40 2 points aero 1 point grip for the GTP car if that is possible
1 aero and 2 grip for the GTD cars

not really finding the spreadsheet very clear, so correct me if i'm doing something wrong
Done. You have plenty of money.
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona

Post by Stareagle »

American Racing News wrote: Chadwick Back At Corvette Racing

British star Jamie Chadwick isn't at Daytona this week, but she will be at COTA and Sebring next month after all. Chadwick, who will replace Kyle Larson in the #4 Corvette Racing car for the remainder of this season's endurance races, has been the subject of a contract dispute since signing an Indy LIghts deal with Nighthawk Racing. Corvette Racing is upset by Nighthawk running Corvettes with Keto engines in GTD - an agreement reached without their input. The Detroit-based teams have been trading insults on social media, and Nighthawk signing Chadwick to the Indy Lights deal was seen as another provocation.

However, the teams announced a settlement hours before the start of Daytona Pole Weekend. Terms were not disclosed, but it is believed to involve a joint 2022 effort in the eGT class.
IMSA Insight wrote:
Daytona Pole Weekend Practice Live-Blog

After a long winter of testing, including the embarrassing decision to test at the antiquated Michigan International Speedway's road course in January, the 2021 IMSA season is ready to start with a 90-minute practice session on Pole Weekend at Daytona. This practice session will be immediately followed by a 15-minute qualifying session that sets the grid for tomorrow's two-hour pole race. That race will set the grid for next weekend's Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Unlike the preseason tests, teams will use three drivers for Daytona and all other endurance races. That includes the next two - the Foyt/Rutherford Twelve Hours of Texas and the 12 Hours of Sebring - as well as the Six Hours at the Glen later in the season and the Petit LeMans 12-hour season finale at Road Atlanta.

15 minutes: Dane Cameron is at it again. His first hot lap in the #10 Gazoo Toyota - a 1:45.205 - is almost a half-second faster than Helio Castroneves (1:45.693) in the #1 Penske Acura and Mirko Bortolotti (1:45.704) in the #2 WRT Audi. In GTD, Rene Rast has set the early pace in the #12 WRT Audi at 1:53.656, just ahead of the two Nighthawk Racing Corvettes. However, most of the GTD teams are running longer stints on the hard-tire compound. That's not the case in eGT, where Jean-Eric Vergne's 1:55.497 in the #6 TECHEETAH Maserati is 0.428 ahead of Oliver Jarvis in the #55 eTeam Penske.

30 minutes: Very little change on the leaderboard, with almost every team now working on longer, fuel-heavy runs. Kamui Kobayashi did improve on Cameron's time, putting up a 1:45.102 on his first lap, but the #12 still leads GTD and the #6 is not only leading eGT, it is faster than the #22 WRT Audi and only 0.005 behind the #3 Corvette.

45 minutes: The first two incidents of the session, although neither appears major. Kelvin van der Linde had a tire go down on the #8 Andretti BMW, but was able to get back to the pits without damage, and Ilja Dragunov spun the #007 Aston Martin without hitting anything. Robby Foley and Rahel Frey moved the #23 Turner BMW and #47 Menlo Park Ferrari into 2nd and 3rd in eGT, with Foley only 0.204 off Vergne's leading time.

60 minutes: Good news and bad news for the GTP class. The good news is the #10 is no longer at the top of the leaderboard. The bad news is it was Alexander Rossi in the #9 Gazoo Toyota who knocked his teammates down to second. The two Penskes are third and fourth, but Kyle Kirkwood nearly started a multi-car wreck when he spun the #1 in the hairpin. Giovanni Friello (#20 Nighthawk) and Frey barely missed him and each other, but all three needed a new set of tires. Jeff Westphal moved the #36 Peregrine Audi into second place in eGT and Wouter Lamberigts took the #22 Audi back into the GTD segment of the leaderboard, but Vergne's time is still holding up.

75 minutes: Wild happenings as teams started making more qualifying-trim runs to prepare for the upcoming shootout. Cameron regained top spot in the #10 Toyota, only for Sebastian Buemi to grab it right back in the #9 and Ricky Taylor jump into 2nd in the #1 Penske. Kobayashi promptly went off at the International Horseshoe, ending the #10's session early. In GTD, Matt Keto took the #20 Nighthawk into top spot for about 45 seconds before Earl Bamber took it over in the #96 MarchSixteen Porsche. Westphal moved into first in eGT, only to be quickly beaten by Ben Auberlen in the #23 BMW, who was immediately knocked off by Kazui Nakajima in the #99 WeatherTech Porsche. However, Nakajima radioed in to report damage to the exhaust system.

90 minutes: After the drama of the previous 15 minutes, a lot of teams finished the session with their third drivers getting some much-needed seat time. Crown Prince Ferdinand Habsburg moved the #96 Audi into top spot in GTD while Alex Palou took fourth in GTP in the #33 Ganassi Cadillac.

Kevin Estre led the session with 31 laps in the #96 MarchSixteen Porsche, while Rubens Barrichello did 30 laps in the #54 Winward Mercedes and Renger van der Zande did 29 in the #33 Ganassi Cadillac. In a move that could mean just about anything, Nico Rosberg never took to the track in the Tesla.

GTP Results

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GTD Results

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eGT Results

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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona

Post by Stareagle »

American Racing News wrote:
Gazoo Toyota Lock Out Daytona Front Row

At first glance, pole position doesn't seem all that important for an endurance race - there is plenty of time to make up a few car lengths off the start - but that's not the philosophy of the Gazoo Toyota team.

"If we're starting at the front, we're not going to be in the wreck that happens at the start of every one of these races," said Dane Cameron, driver of the pole-winning #9 Toyota. "As long as we don't take each other out, we're safe."

IMSA used the 15-minute qualifying shootout format, despite its unpopularity with drivers and owners, and got away with it - all 29 teams were able to set competitive times without incident. There was still some grumbling about the difficulty of getting a clean hot lap.

"If we gave them 24 hours to qualify, there would still be whining about being blocked when they were going to win the pole," said an IMSA official. "They've got a two-hour race to win the real pole."

Toyota was so confident in their #9 team that they opened the session with third-driver Tony Kanaan at the wheel rather than Cameron or Kamui Kobayashi, who have dominated timesheets all spring. He set a time of 1:42.059 on his first lap and the only other drivers to get with 0.2 seconds were Kobayashi and Loic Duval, who put the #10 Toyota second at 1:42.094. Juan Pablo Montoya was third at 1:42.329 in the #5 Penske Acura, followed by Alex Palou in the #33 Ganassi Cadillac and Phillip Eng in the #8 Andretti BMW.

The GTD field was the most competitive, as it has been throughout the preseason. Lisa Keto's #19 Nighthawk Corvette took the top spot from Kevin Estre in the #96 MarchSixteen Porsche only to see Laurens Vanthoor grab it for the #97 MarchSixteen on the final lap of the session. The top three were separated by 0.038 seconds, and the whole field by 0.792. Rene Rast took fourth place in the #12 WRT Audi ahead of Matt Keto in the #20 Nighthawk.

In eGT, Nico Rosberg almost pulled off the perfect storyline. He didn't take a lap in the 90-minute practice session, but after Marchy Lee ran a couple warm-up laps in the shootout, Rosberg jumped in the car and put the #71 Tesla in first place with a 1:52.221. The only driver who came close to knocking him off was his long-time teammate, rival and arch-nemesis, Mark Webber, who did a 1:52.331. It looked like Williams was going to lock out the front row - something they haven't done in F1 for years - but Rahel Frey spoiled the party with a last-lap 1:52.206 in the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari.

The biggest groan at Frey's time didn't even come from the eGT paddock. With 30 seconds left in the session, the #19 Nighthawk Corvette team of Lisa Keto, Melissa Stewart and Emma Kimilainen were on pace to become the third, fourth and fifth women to win a pole in IMSA, following in the footsteps of Corvette Racing's Christina Nielsen and their own race strategist, Katherine Legge. Instead, Vanthoor knocked them into second place seconds before Frey grabbed the honor for herself.

"It's a little disappointing, but now we can focus on the real goal, which is to join Kat and Christina on the short list of female drivers to win an IMSA race," Keto said after she, her teammates and Legge had sprayed Frey with champagne. "And we're thrilled for Rahel - she was one of the women who encouraged us to try endurance racing when the W Series fell apart.

"We love you Sabine."

GTP Qualifying Results

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GTD Qualifying Results

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eGT Qualifying Results

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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona

Post by Stareagle »

IMSA Insight wrote:
Andretti Autosport Takes Pole For 24 Hours of Daytona

PRE-RACE: Some interesting driver choices, with Toyota choosing to start with Tony Kanaan and Alexander Rossi rather than their regular drivers. Other teams are splitting their choices – Penske going with Pipo Derani and Kyle Kirkwood and Nighthawk going with Lisa Keto and A.J. Allmendinger – while others are sticking with their full-timers, like Chip Ganassi’s Kevin Magnussen and Marcus Ericsson. Yes, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg are both out there.

IMSA officials stressed a safe start at the driver’s meeting, pointing out this is a two-hour race to set the field for a 24-hour race.

START: Go, go, go! The field makes it through the first turn intact, with Tomas Gabrysiak (#48 Menlo Park Ferrari) passing three cars, but we’re going to have a safety car anyway. As everyone else accelerated away from the line, Alexander’s Toyota lurched to a stop. One of the favorites is out after 10 seconds – but he picked the right time to do it! This only means he’ll start at the back of the GTP grid next weekend – a failure like this in the big race would be a disaster.

30 MINUTES: Complete fail for Toyota! On Lap 14, Tony Kanaan tries to lap Oliver Jarvis in the eGT Penske coming into the Bus Stop and puts himself into the barrier! So, the safety car is out for a second time, the Toyotas are done for the day and the drivers who had built a lead are going to lose it. Derani had already passed Kanaan before the wreck and appeared ready to drive into the distance. In GTD, the MarchSixteen Porsches are 1-2 and their toughest competition, Lisa Keto, just spun trying to keep up. She didn’t hit anything, but Emma Kimilainen had just come out of the pits when Kanaan brought out the safety car. Nico Rosberg was leaving the eGT field for dead, but the Menlo Park Ferraris are running 1-2 in the point-paying portion of the class.

45 MINUTES: With so little at stake in this race – a win is worth 25 points instead of 250 for a full race – teams aren’t taking any chances with their equipment. As soon as Ganassi Racing’s telemetry showed evidence of a suspension issue on the #33 Cadillac, they told Alex Palou to park it, so the GTP class is already down to seven cars.

60 MINUTES: Driver swaps and pit strategies have jumbled the standings. The top four in GTP are Penske (Helio Castroneves), Andretti (Marco Andretti), Penske (Juan Pablo Montoya) and Andretti (Einar Armannsson) with Scott Dixon a close fifth in his Kronstadt. Kyle Larson leads GTD in the #4 Corvette, having stayed out during the safety-car period caused by Palou’s breakdown, and Missy Stewart is in second after her #19 Nighthawk Corvette got out of cycle by pitting before Kanaan’s wreck. The MarchSixteen Porsches are back in fifth and sixth. Jeffi Ibrahim leads eGT thanks to the same strategy used by Larson, while the Menlo Park cars are in fourth and, after a botched pit stop, 10th.

75 MINUTES: Chase Elliott’s excursion coming out of the Bus Stop did enough damage to end the #3 Corvette’s day, while Robin Frijns did the same with the #2 WRT Audi. Neither forced a safety-car period, though, so the field is starting to stretch out a bit. Castroneves now has a 1.7-second lead over Andretti, with Montoya and Dixon battling for third. In GTD, Stewart just got past Larson for the lead, but there’s still some concern about damage from Keto’s spin. Ibrahim still has a 21-second lead in eGT, but his tires are starting to give up on him.

90 MINUTES: More strategy at work after Robby Foley brings out the safety car after a nasty slide into the tire barriers caused by a suspension failure. Kelvin van der Linde (Andretti) and Kevin Estre (MarchSixteen) both stayed out to get track position, leaving Andretti Autosports 1-2 in GTP with 30 minutes to go. Estre leads the two WRT Audis and the #007 Aston Martin, while Rahel Frey (Menlo Park) and Oliver Jarvis (Penske) are atop eGT, where everyone is on the same pit cycle. The #19 Nighthawk Corvette, which has looked like the fastest car in the GTD class for long periods of the preseason, is now four laps down after a 10-minute pit stop to fix suspension damage from Lisa Keto’s spin early in the race. Unlike other teams, they’ve decided to keep running to get more track time for three drivers making their competitive sports-car debuts.

105 MINUTES: With 15 minutes left, no one has enough fuel to make it if the race stays green. The #95 MarchSixteen Porsche were the first ones to come in, putting Richard Lietz in the seat for the final stretch. It’s still an Andretti 1-2 in GTP and the WRT Audis are 1-2 in GTD thanks to Kevin Estre spinning into the gravel on old tires. Mario Farnbacher just did the fastest lap in eGT to pass Frey for the lead, with Mark Webber only a second behind.

117 MINUTES: It turns out Henry Paul in the #009 Aston Martin and Jean-Eric Vergne in the #6 TECHEETAH are going to be the one who tries to stretch a few extra laps out of their tanks. Paul has a 16-second lead on Ferdinand Habsburg with two or three laps to go, depending on the timing, while Vergne is 55 seconds ahead of Justin Case – almost enough for a splash-and-dash. GTP is poised for a spectacular finish with the six remaining cars within 10 seconds of the lead. Andretti Autosport has Philipp Eng in the #8, as expected, but put 17-year-old Carlos Ramon Jimenez into the #7. He’s in second, with Felipe Nasr right behind him.

120 MINUTES: No spectacular finish after all. Vergne ran out of gas and coasted onto an access road, but Paul tried to make it to the pits and ended up stopping next to the track. That forced IMSA to throw the yellow flag, ending the race. That means maximum-points finishes for Andretti Autosport in GTP and WRT Audi in GTD, along with front-row lockouts. How much that means in a 24-hour race will remain to be seen.

GTP Finishing Order

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GTD Finishing Order

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eGT Finishing Order

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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Results!

Post by Stareagle »

2021 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Live-Blog

PRE-RACE: Andretti Autosports has the front row in the Prototype division, but all the talk has been about the team starting at the back of the class – Toyota Gazoo. Alexander Rossi couldn’t get one car off the starting line and Tony Kanaan binned the second one in the first half-hour, leaving the odds-on favorites at the bottom of the point standings. Obviously, a better performance today will erase the memory of a rough 2-hour qualifying race, but is there doubt in the unstoppable force?
In GTD, the two WRT Audi cars finished 1-2 after a surprisingly lackluster performance by the preseason favorites: MarchSixteen Porsche. The Aston Martins also looked good, while Nighthawk Racing’s “Mutant” Ketovettes are fast but need driver experience. Only one of their six drivers – A.J. Allmendinger – has competed in endurance racing.
The new eGT class looks wide open, with all eight teams battling for the win on Pole Day. TECHEETAH GT threw away a podium finish by leaving John-Eric Vergne out for a hopeless attempt to win on fuel mileage, but they should be up front with the WeatherTech Porsche and the Peregrine Audi. Tesla Motorsports will be running as an exhibition team, but have shown serious reliability issues this far. There’s also the question of the Pirelli tires being used by the eGT teams. They are quite quick in short stints, but don’t wear well at all.

GRID: Toyota isn’t blaming their drivers for the pole-race disaster – Rossi and Kanaan are both strapped in for the start. Andretti Autosport is going with 17-year-old Carlos Ramon Jimenez, just as they did at the end of the pole race, while Acura Team Penske is sticking with veterans Juan Pablo Montoya and Ricky Taylor.

START: Months of preparation gone in 30 seconds for the #4 Corvette, which loses an engine in the first 200 yards.

30 MINUTES: Tony Kanaan shows why he still has the confidence of the Toyota Gazoo team, going from 9th to 1st in the first 16 laps. Alexander Rossi is up to 4th in the second Toyota, while the two Andretti cars have dropped to 9th and 10th after starting on hard tires.

Ferdinand Habsburg is being pushed by Kevin Estre in GTD, while Kazuo Nakajima has already built a 10-second lead in the #99 Porsche. He’s closer to the back of the GTD class than to the second-place car in eGT.

ONE HOUR: It’s taken an hour for GTP to settle into the expected Gazoo-Penske showdown. Kanaan still leads, with Taylor in the #1 Penske car ahead of Rossi and Montoya in the #5.

Estre’s #96 Porsche has taken a seven-second lead in GTD, but Chase Elliott is setting fastest laps in the #3 Corvette. The two Nighthawk Racing cars are 4th and 5th despite going with hard tires, but it hasn’t worked for Henry Paul in the #009 Vantage – he’s already 32 seconds behind.
Nakajima now has a 17-second lead in eGT, with Jeff Westphal (#36 Audi) and Vergne (#6 TECHEETAH) going wheel-to-wheel for 2nd. The hard Pirellis aren’t any better than the hard Michelins, with the teams running them between 35 and 55 seconds behind.

TWO HOURS: A fairly uneventful second hour, although most teams switched drivers and went to soft tires on the first round of pit stops. Helio Castroneves and Pipo Derani have taken the lead in the Penskes, with Sebastian Buemi and Dane Cameron in the next two spots. Scott Dixon is only six seconds behind that group in the Kronstadt, with the other teams well behind. Einar Armannsson is 71 seconds back in the #7 Andretti BMW, his team having gone with another set of hard tires.

Earl Bamber has a 21-second lead in the #96 Porsche, but Corvette Racing left Elliott out for a double stint to try to keep up with him. Lisa Keto is only five seconds behind him in the #19 Nighthawk, with brother Matt on her back bumper.

Nakajima, also doing a double stint, is 20 seconds ahead of Ben Keating in the Audi. Nico Rosberg is gaining ground in the Tesla.

THREE HOURS: Night has fallen and the #7 Andretti BMW is on its third set of hard tires – the only car on the track running them. Buemi is still in the #9 Toyota and has taken a 4.5-second lead over Ryan Briscoe in the #5 Penske. Dixon has moved up to 3rd, ahead of Kyle Kirkwood in the #1 Penske and Kamui Kobayashi in the #10 Toyota.

In GTD, T.K. Wolf has taken over the #96 Porsche and extended the lead to 33 seconds over triple-stinting Elliott. Emma Kimilainen and A.J. Allmendinger have replaced the Keto siblings in the Nighthawks and remain in 3rd and 4th.

Brendon Hartley is 23 seconds ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa (TECHEETAH), Lelani Munter (Tesla) and Rahel Frey (Menlo Park). The Audi, now being driven by Mario Farnbacher, has fallen back to 5th.

FOUR HOURS: Most teams are double-shifting their drivers under a full moon and clear skies, but Chase Elliott is still behind the wheel of the #3 Corvette. He’s 30 seconds behind Wolf with the Nighthawks less than five seconds behind him.

Buemi has taken a 14-second lead over Kobayashi, with Heikki Kovalainen up to third in the Kronstadt. In eGT, Hartley has increased the #99 Porsche’s advantage to 33 seconds over da Costa and Frey.

FIVE HOURS: The first set of safety-car pit stops comes after Kovalainen wrecks the Kronstadt, and two drivers are given drive-through penalties for speeding on pit row. To the amusement of many, they are Dries Vanthoor in the #2 WRT Audi and Laurens Vanthoor in the #95 MarchSixteen Porsche.

The safety-car period has closed up the field, with Buemi, Briscoe and Kobayashi within three seconds at the front of the GTP field. Wolf is still 15 seconds ahead, but it is now Allmendinger and Kimilainen chasing him. Hartley has a six-second lead over da Costa in eGT.

SIX HOURS: The first set of Endurance Cup points is given out – 5 points for 1st, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th and 1 for every other car still running.

The quarter point came just after a set of green-flag pit stops, and Kobayashi took the points for the #10 Gazoo ahead of Briscoe, Buemi and Kirkwood. In GTD, Allmendinger took a timely lead in the #20 Nighthawk, ahead of Wolf and Casey Mears, who finally replaced Elliott in the #3 Corvette. Emma Kimilainen was 2nd in the #19 Nighthawk, but a mistake led to a lengthy repair in the pits, handing an extra point to the #007 Aston Martin.

The #99 Porsche has led the whole way in eGT, and Da Costa, Frey and Farnbacher took the rest of the points.

SEVEN HOURS: The hour mark comes during a green-flag pit cycle, so the #33 Ganassi Cadillac has taken over 3rd with Renger van der Zande at the wheel, Mears leads GTD and Farnbacher is ahead in eGT.

EIGHT HOURS: Nighthawk Racing’s inexperience bites them again, as Giovanni Friello wrecks the #20 after Allmendinger had handed him a 30-second lead. That has allowed Kevin Estre to go up by 20 seconds on Madison Snow in the #3 Corvette, with John Davis 71 seconds back in the second MarchSixteen.

Kanaan has a 20-second lead over Montoya in GTP, while Jean-Eric Vergne has put the #6 TECHEETAH into a five-second lead over Mark Webber in the #99 Porsche.

NINE HOURS: Mirko Bortolotti loses a gearbox in the #2 WRT Audi, reducing the GTP field to eight. Kobayshi leads Briscoe, Buemi and Kirkwood as the Toyotas continue to duel the Penskes. With the Nighthawks gone, Wolf has jumped out to a 35-second lead over Mears, while da Costa is 21 seconds ahead of Hartley in eGT.

TEN HOURS: The field is spread out around the track, with the GTD Audis the only cars within five seconds of each other. The class leads are 26 seconds (Kobayashi over Buemi), 27 seconds (Mears over L. Vanthoor) and 27 seconds (da Costa over Hartley). It appears everyone is content to hold station until a dash for the second set of Endurance Cup points at the 12-hour mark.

ELEVEN HOURS: A lot of teams changed drivers in the last hour, but the closest thing to excitement was Madison Snow blowing the Bus Stop chicane and putting the #3 Corvette out of the race. Tony Kanaan now leads Loic Duval by 43 seconds in GTP, Kevin Estre is 95 seconds ahead of MarchSixteen teammate John Davis in GTD and JEV is 42 seconds ahead of Mark Webber in eGT.

TWELVE HOURS: Pipo Derani gets past Alexander Rossi just in time to earn an extra point in the Endurance Cup, but he’s still 54 seconds behind Dane Cameron in the #10 Toyota. Earl Bamber has lapped the GTD field, with Richard Lietz graciously getting out of his teammate’s way, and Kazuo Nakajima hasn’t been able to cut into Jake Dennis’ eGT lead.

THIRTEEN HOURS: We’re down to four cars on the lead lap, and Kamui Kobayashi could lap Kyle Kirkwood if the race stays green. He leads Ryan Briscoe by 57 seconds, the #96 MarchSixteen Porsche is now 1:49 ahead of its sister car, and the #6 TECHEETAH is 27 seconds ahead of the #99 Porsche with the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari another 13 seconds left. There’s not a position battle within 10 seconds at the moment.

FOURTEEN HOURS: A significant development as the #9 Toyota suffers a brake failure. Buemi manages to get the car back to the pits, but they are five laps down before Loic Duval gets back underway. That moves the #8 Andretti into fourth place. One point of interest as we get closer to sunrise – how many sets of soft tires do teams have left?

FIFTEEN HOURS: Another thing to watch as we get deep into the second half of the race. The long green-flag run means pit cycles are now stretched over more than 20 laps. The #96 MarchSixteen Porsche is pitting first, with a lead of more than a lap, but a safety car in the middle of a cycle might the only thing that could scramble the stretched-out field.

SIXTEEN HOURS: Kazui Nakajima brings out the safety car as the sun rises, but just after a cycle of pit stops. It still allows Ryan Briscoe to put the #5 Penske on the back bumper of Kamui Kobayashi’s #10 Toyota. Laurens Vanthoor picked up his second pit-road speeding penalty of the race, which means the #96 Porsche now leads GTD by 2:35. With 53 laps separating Kobayashi from Harry Tincknell in the #55 eTeam Penske, safety-car periods don’t do as much to close up GTD and eGT, but Rahel Frey has gotten the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari within 26 seconds of the #6 TECHEETAH.

SEVENTEEN HOURS: Mario Farnbacher (#36 Audi) got past Justin Case (#47 Ferrari) for second place in eGT, but had to give the spot back for violating track limits. Two laps later, he repeated the pass coming out of the hairpin and make it stick. Fatigue is starting to show, as both GTD WRT Audis are under investigation for pit-road speeding. That could be meaningful, because Emma Kimilainen has set two fastest laps as the track warms up, and drive-through penalties would put her onto the same lap as the Audis.

EIGHTEEN HOURS: Ron Mignolet did get a speeding penalty in the #22 WRT Audi, but was able to keep Missy Stewart a lap behind in the #19 Nighthawk. In the meantime, his teammate, Crown Prince Ferdinand Habsburg has passed both Aston Martins to move into third place in time for the third set of Endurance Cup points.

NINETEEN HOURS: Jake Dennis crashes out of the eGT lead, giving Rahel Frey a 74-second advantage over Mario Farnbacher. The safety-car period allows Briscoe to close up on Kobayashi again, and the #19 Nighthawk is back on the same lap as the GTD backmarkers. Meanwhile, the #96 MarchSixteen is cruising with a two-minute lead over the #95 and two laps over the third-place #12 Audi, which is trying to hold off the two Aston Martins.

TWENTY HOURS: Ryan Briscoe was losing ground to Kamui Kobayashi yet again, but green-flag stops mean it is now Juan Pablo Montoya chasing Tony Kanaan. A brake failure has eliminated the #009 Aston Martin, leaving only six cars running in GTD.

TWENTY-ONE HOURS: No long stints now, as Dane Cameron takes over the #10 Toyota to try to hold off Pipo Derani in the #5 Penske.

TWENTY-TWO HOURS: The Penske just doesn’t have enough power to run down the Toyota, no matter who they put behind the wheel. With two hours left, Cameron leads Derani by 42 seconds. The other two classes are locked up for the #96 MarchSixteen and the #47 Menlo Park, barring a calamity.

TWENTY-THREE HOURS: Zach Veach in the #7 Andretti loses sixth place to Sebastian Buemi, then drops out with suspension damage. Buemi has the #9 Toyota within 12 seconds of Renger van der Zande in the #33 Ganassi Cadillac for fifth.

FINISH: Tony Kanaan and the #10 Toyota get their math wrong, crossing the finish line 14 seconds before the clock expires, but he’s still 52 seconds ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and the #5 Penske the next time around. Ricky Taylor finishes a lap down in the #1 Penske and Philipp Eng is another lap back in 4th in the #8 Andretti.

Kevin Estre and John Davis cross the line together in the MarchSixteen Porsches with Estre officially winning GTD by 1:51. Ferdinand Habsburg comes home third in the #12 WRT Audi, 12 seconds ahead of Nicki Thiim in the #007 Aston Martin.
In eGT, with the Tesla sitting in the pits with a broken engine, Justin Case brings home the #47 Menlo Park Ferrari with a 73-second edge on the #36 Peregrine Audi, with the #48 Menlo Park another lap behind.

FASTEST LAPS:
Loic Duval, GTP
Emma Kimilainen, GTD
Antonio Felix da Costa, eGT

FULL RESULTS:

GTP

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GTD

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eGT

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There are eight sets of standings for each class: Overall drivers, team, chassis, engine and the same four for the Endurance Cup. I'll update them in the Google Document, but they are basically just the Daytona finishing order at this point. I'll also add prize money to the budget page.
Stareagle
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Re: 2021 IMSA SportsCar Championship - Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona Results!

Post by Stareagle »

Prize money and repair bills are updated in the Google Document. There are a lot of teams who didn't use their upgrade points in the preseason for either budgetary (Toyota Gazoo) or other reasons.

They have the following number of points:
Toyota Gazoo: 6
FCT WRT Audi: 2
Andretti Autosport: 4
RM Vikingsport Aston Martin: 6
WRT Audi: 2
MarchSixteen: 4
Winward Mercedes: 6

As a rule adjustment, you can use those points - up to 2 at a time - by holding a private test at any point during the season. This costs $100 and can be split between multiple teams.

Remember, each team will also get two upgrade points for each of the four official tests, to be held after the three-hour races at Lime Rock. Road America, Mosport and Mid-Ohio.

Other Series
Since IMSA is not a full-time series, your full-time drivers might want to participate in other American series - European drivers who are WEC regulars aren't eligible for this.

1) For $10, you can get one of your experienced drivers a one-off ride for the Indy 500. Teams already affiliated with an IndyCar team get this for free. This is mandatory for Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcus Ericsson.
2) For $5, you can get a young driver a full-time ride in Indy Lights. Andretti also gets this for free.
3) For $5, you can get a young driver a part-time ride in the NASCAR Trucks series. They would run the Truck Series every weekend it didn't conflict with the IMSA schedule. Ganassi gets this for free.
4) For $5, you can get one of your experienced drivers a one-off race on a NASCAR Cup road course. Ganassi and Penske get this for free.

Options 1 and 4 would bring a share of the driver's prize money. Options 2 and 3 would provide a chance to improve their racecraft - my experience system is based on seat time, with races being the most valuable.
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