IMSA Race Road America 2015

[wdave0]

The point of spec tires is not to be faster since they only compete with themselves. A good spec tire will be safe, reliable and reasonably consistent. It may also be relatively inexpensive and durable. It is not reasonable to compare a spec tire to a bespoke race tire. Even comparing different spec tires is not particularly useful as they don't compete with each other so may even have different objectives. An example would be the PC spec Michelins. In ALMS there was a time penalty associated with tire changes so multiple stinting was desirable, not so in IMSA.

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by HORNDAWG

No it is not, as there is/was clear evidence from within the ALMS in 13 on the LMPCs.






L.P.

And I am talking about tires on the GT cars. Try to keep up.

Yes, the Continental Tires are crap. It's a well known fact and has been repeated by many other people over the years.

In 2010 the cars were running on Pirellis. The fastest lap in race at Barber by an RX-8 was 1:27.215. In 2011 they switched to Continentals. The best lap by the same car was a 1:32.695. Now tell me the tires aren't crap.

[chernaudi]

Not to derail the race thread further, but either way, you're looking at a spec/sole supplier with tires. That means that they make what the series wants or, in the absence of such a request, the tire maker just makes what they want.

With such things, you can bet that the series will almost always go for what will get the series (and to a degree the manufacturer) will get the most ROI--lowest contract bidder, largest commitment to sponsorship, will allow the series and the manufacturer to make the most cash for a minimum of effort. These, from a ROI and commercial stand point, are usually good things.

As it relates to Road America (and the series in general), though, having a spec tire for 3 classes and an open tire format for the one class closely related across the board to ACO/FIA regs, that might not be a good thing. GTLM allows for tire development, while the Prototype, LMPC and GTD series are spec tire. This doesn't matter too much for GTD, but we've had races this year where the GTLM cars gave the LMPC cars a hard time, in part because they had better tires, and at some tracks, the GTLM cars weren't too far off the pace of the Prototypes.

The tires are kinda crap as has been pointed out, but that's not really Continental's fault, as ISC/IMSA has intentionally discouraged them from developing the tires. At least the Conti's aren't known for being prone to failure like NASCAR's Goodyear tires have been on an off and on basis, though that's an apples to oranges comparison.

I wish that there was still a thread for discussing this type of stuff, but it'd probably degrade fairly quickly into an ACO/FIA vs IMSA/ISC/NASCAR bash fest with people stepping on each others toes instead of healthy discussion with opinions at least being backed up by facts.

[jasonjessica09]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Not to derail the race thread further, but either way, you're looking at a spec/sole supplier with tires. That means that they make what the series wants or, in the absence of such a request, the tire maker just makes what they want.

With such things, you can bet that the series will almost always go for what will get the series (and to a degree the manufacturer) will get the most ROI--lowest contract bidder, largest commitment to sponsorship, will allow the series and the manufacturer to make the most cash for a minimum of effort. These, from a ROI and commercial stand point, are usually good things.

As it relates to Road America (and the series in general), though, having a spec tire for 3 classes and an open tire format for the one class closely related across the board to ACO/FIA regs, that might not be a good thing. GTLM allows for tire development, while the Prototype, LMPC and GTD series are spec tire. This doesn't matter too much for GTD, but we've had races this year where the GTLM cars gave the LMPC cars a hard time, in part because they had better tires, and at some tracks, the GTLM cars weren't too far off the pace of the Prototypes.

The tires are kinda crap as has been pointed out, but that's not really Continental's fault, as ISC/IMSA has intentionally discouraged them from developing the tires. At least the Conti's aren't known for being prone to failure like NASCAR's Goodyear tires have been on an off and on basis, though that's an apples to oranges comparison.

I wish that there was still a thread for discussing this type of stuff, but it'd probably degrade fairly quickly into an ACO/FIA vs IMSA/ISC/NASCAR bash fest with people stepping on each others toes instead of healthy discussion with opinions at least being backed up by facts.

Well I don't mind it. We could see GTLM move up much higher up the overall grid next year. Especially if P and LMPC remain the same as this year which I expect. In fact the qualifying times for both P and LMPC at Road America are down from last year wheras GTLM has gotten faster.

[Ferrari333SP]

Live stream link?

[BullMan]

http://multimedia.netstorage.imsa.co.../index800.html

[joeb]

Unfortunate the Shank car had to start from the pits. Could have been a good race for them.

[J Jay]

Dang, can anyone give me a recap on the first 20 minutes that I've just missed?

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Dang, can anyone give me a recap on the first 20 minutes that I've just missed?

You've missed nothing.

[Ferrari333SP]

Originally Posted by BullMan

http://multimedia.netstorage.imsa.co.../index800.html

Awesomeeee

Anybody have the nice live timing?

[Ephaeton]

http://livescoring.us/2015/tusc09/scoring.php
is as good as it's gonna get atm.

[TzeiTzei]

Aargh Hindy & co are clueless

[BullMan]

Turner car wrecked in the kink...bet they got forced off.

[J Jay]

#97 has just gone off hard past the Kink ... no problems with the FCY for this one.

[BullMan]

At least this puts the Shank car back on equal footing.

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

Originally Posted by J Jay

#97 has just gone off hard past the Kink ... no problems with the FCY for this one.

Well if we had slow zones it could be done without one Would've been nice for the marshals to have DWY at the Kink since they surely have 2 yellow flags?

With no one having been lapped surely this will be a quick SC - whoops spoke too soon, seems like they are doing pit stops as well.

[Ephaeton]

wow, DW pit stops aren't the fastest, eh. Comes in trailing the DP pack, leaves with couple of PCs in between themselves and half the pit lane away from the DP leader leaving.

[BullMan]

Wow, leading LMPC nails the 73 Porsche into turn 1.

[TF110]

Chevy dp race up front again. I hope theres more players later in the race.

[Ephaeton]

Right I remember why I feel about these grand am heritaged guys like I do...
-- Sure, my teammate and I exchanged bumping into each other, good and close racing blah blah --
Uhm, if you're bumping into someone, you just failed. That's not good and close racing. That's not racing at all. Bumping into each other is not what you do on a race track. It's stupid, amateur, and dangerous. If you want to bump into each other, go nascar or whatever series sells itself as crash-fest. Argh.

[joeb]

Deltawing is holding its own today.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by joeb

Deltawing is holding its own today.

it actually seems to be dropping back into the fangs of a negri, who keeps a somewhat constant gap to the leader.

...alright, one start/finish cross later, DW drops back another ~2s to the leader, negri's past it, keeping his constant gap

[TzeiTzei]

#60 has passed the DW. Negri could still catch the leaders.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

#60 has passed the DW. Negri could still catch the leaders.

Negri might be half a second a lap quicker if the stars align right (as in, he's only once in the past five laps made up space to the leader) but ...


hmm 85 sitting there, FCY?

[J Jay]

#85 off the track on the front straight. It's FCY time again.

Edit - Or not, the car is being handled with waved yellows.