Quote:
Originally Posted by MaskedRacer
The teams know that with the closely matched cars and full course yellows that everybody will still be on the lead lap as the race heads into darkness unless they run into contact or mechanical problems. Even penalties and spins you can recover from now if you are fast enough. Just like the #24 BMW M6 at Laguna Seca.
I expect the daylight portion to have a couple yellows but not that many as teams will race hard but smart. Even if you go 3 hours of green flag straight the cars are evenly matched enough so that unless you hit a problem you probably won't go more than 1 lap down, which is enough to get that wave around to get back on the lead lap during the yellow.
I'm kind of telling you what I predict will happen at the Petit Le Mans, but also in a ways still griping about the full course yellow wave around procedure which is fine during the non-NAEC races. But for the endurance races I think IMSA needs to take a hard look at it. I hope that the nature of the endurance race can be protected a bit more.
With that said the Petit Le Mans always produces at least 1 winning team that has not won a race all year. I could see several possible contenders for that such as the #92 Porsche of Bruni/Vanthor/Bamber also the #62 Risi Ferari. In prototype I think the guest entries of Rebellion and Penske will for sure contend with the Caddys. I really like the Land Audi's chances in GTD a lot. They are my pick in GTD for sure. Also note that the Mercedes got a slight air restrictor break that could allow the #33 to contend now.
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If you go a lap down to your class leader, you do not get that back from the wave around. The wave around is in reference to the overall leader only. There is no "lucky dog" in IMSA. These rules were put in place to keep from ruining the races in lower classes and must be kept in place.