2020 Roar Before the Rolex 24 - Jan. 3-5

[TF110]

#77 back to the pace, set the fast time of the day in the 2nd session. BMW up front in GTE too. The barge's aren't too bad. Kyle Busch getting faster in his Lexus RC F GT3 as well.

[MaskedRacer]

You think Paul Dalla Lana would be the type to not penalize the other crew and drivers who need a pay check for running the Rolex 24, because HE got injured skiing. I hope he is a better man than that. He seems to have enough cash. But I am not sure though. The car is at the track, the drivers and crew are there. But they are not running. Situations like this will separate the respectable gentleman drivers to the ones who are selfish pricks.

Ben Keating had to leave a race due to a hurricane one year I think. But the team kept running the car that weekend. The lady who funds the CAT Acura and the GEAR Lambo this year looks like won't drive when she initially was going to but they are still going.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

You think Paul Dalla Lana would be the type to not penalize the other crew and drivers who need a pay check for running the Rolex 24, because HE got injured skiing. I hope he is a better man than that. He seems to have enough cash. But I am not sure though. The car is at the track, the drivers and crew are there. But they are not running. Situations like this will separate the respectable gentleman drivers to the ones who are selfish pricks.

Ben Keating had to leave a race due to a hurricane one year I think. But the team kept running the car that weekend. The lady who funds the CAT Acura and the GEAR Lambo this year looks like won't drive when she initially was going to but they are still going.

I assume you're referring to him not funding the car if he doesn't run? In which case I 100% disagree that Paul is a "Selfish prick". It isn't selfish to not want to spend an obscene amount of money to get nothing.

[Akrapovic]

Unpopular opinion time:

Ams deal with rain better than Pros. This race reminds me of VLN. It started in insane conditions that some bigger series wouldn't run in. And other than a few hiccups, the drivers have coped really well so far. Similarly, VLN has run in conditions that others wouldn't even run under SC, and it's usually fine too. I've seen Blancpain Pro races that are a much worse state than this in better conditions.

[skycafe]

Idemitsu sponsorship on the Mazdas is a pretty big deal. Not just the IMSA cars, but the oil company has become involved with Mazda's programs all the way to their (large) grassroots racing programs.

https://racer.com/2020/01/04/mazda-l...ew-dpi-livery/

[joeb]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

You think Paul Dalla Lana would be the type to not penalize the other crew and drivers who need a pay check for running the Rolex 24, because HE got injured skiing. I hope he is a better man than that. He seems to have enough cash. But I am not sure though. The car is at the track, the drivers and crew are there. But they are not running. Situations like this will separate the respectable gentleman drivers to the ones who are selfish pricks.

Ben Keating had to leave a race due to a hurricane one year I think. But the team kept running the car that weekend. The lady who funds the CAT Acura and the GEAR Lambo this year looks like won't drive when she initially was going to but they are still going.

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I assume you're referring to him not funding the car if he doesn't run? In which case I 100% disagree that Paul is a "Selfish prick". It isn't selfish to not want to spend an obscene amount of money to get nothing.

Im not sure who all the other drivers are, but does the team even have the am requirements covered without Paul being there? So it may be that Paul would be happy to fund the car but maybe finding the right guy it gal to step in is the issue?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Idemitsu sponsorship on the Mazdas is a pretty big deal. Not just the IMSA cars, but the oil company has become involved with Mazda's programs all the way to their (large) grassroots racing programs.

https://racer.com/2020/01/04/mazda-l...ew-dpi-livery/

I noticed they still have Motul stickers as well, so do they provide a different type of lube?

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by joeb

Im not sure who all the other drivers are, but does the team even have the am requirements covered without Paul being there? So it may be that Paul would be happy to fund the car but maybe finding the right guy it gal to step in is the issue?

I don't buy that because the other drivers would still be on track testing today. Hope that something comes through. But to stop the whole effort because of mistake that YOU made being careless doing an activity is very busch league. I'll reserve final judgment but if this does happen it will certainly justify my speculation.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

I don't buy that because the other drivers would still be on track testing today. Hope that something comes through. But to stop the whole effort because of mistake that YOU made being careless doing an activity is very busch league. I'll reserve final judgment but if this does happen it will certainly justify my speculation.

Well you pay, you get to make those decisions. He basically fully funds everything outside of the AMR team so he gets to decide where to spend his money. I'm sure the team is aware of the restrictions and either has a contract or knows there is a risk running with him.

[Akrapovic]

“He seems to have plenty of cash.”

You have an internet connection and a computer. It seems to me that you can afford this. Should you be in hospital, I think you should stop using it, but pay for mine. You seem to have enough cash to do this.

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

You have an internet connection and a computer. It seems to me that you can afford this. Should you be in hospital, I think you should stop using it, but pay for mine. You seem to have enough cash to do this.

I tend to agree with you that PDL can do as he wishes with a car he is entirely funding. However, your analogy really doesn't work .

(There's only one internet connection. You don't pay for it. When the dude who pays for it isn't using it, you don't get to use it either).

[Damian Baldi]

A few lines about what I've seeing in the last two days.

- lot of cars with very good looking and coloured liveries (wellcome!)
- Mazda is flying, I see a dedicated BoP coming
- the new Corvette looks so good, and that yellow is easy to associate with the C7. It's the engine the same in the new car? It sounds different, maybe because the exhaust.
- RWR is facing the reallity in the hard way
- DragonSpeed is so fast that it seems that they forgot to put the P2's limitation on the engine.
- beside Dragonspeed being too fast, and RWR too slow, the other P2 cars are very close and it looks like we will have a good race in that sub series
- why the ladies are so far from the other Lambos?
- Didn't knew about roy Block, it seems very fast, and the Alfa looks promising.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

I tend to agree with you that PDL can do as he wishes with a car he is entirely funding. However, your analogy really doesn't work .

(There's only one internet connection. You don't pay for it. When the dude who pays for it isn't using it, you don't get to use it either).

All analogies fall down eventually, but for the "You should pay for something for someone else, otherwise you're a prick" stance, I feel it's sufficient.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by Damian Baldi

A few lines about what I've seeing in the last two days.

- lot of cars with very good looking and coloured liveries (wellcome!)
- Mazda is flying, I see a dedicated BoP coming
- the new Corvette looks so good, and that yellow is easy to associate with the C7. It's the engine the same in the new car? It sounds different, maybe because the exhaust.
- RWR is facing the reallity in the hard way
- DragonSpeed is so fast that it seems that they forgot to put the P2's limitation on the engine.
- beside Dragonspeed being too fast, and RWR too slow, the other P2 cars are very close and it looks like we will have a good race in that sub series
- why the ladies are so far from the other Lambos?
- Didn't knew about roy Block, it seems very fast, and the Alfa looks promising.

AER is the mazda bop factor for 24hours races.


About C8R, don't know if the 5.5L is still based on the LT1 or the new LT5 but giving an eye to the bop sheet, surely it was made more "docile"...

it has a max rev rpm at 7500rpm, while C7R engine max rev rpm was always about 6500-6800rpm and watching le mans onboard telemetry drivers used to shift up at about 6000rpm.
Due the increased revlimit, tend to think C8R V8 will get max power at higher rpm releasing less torque than recent past...



Considering max power is usually reached before the revlimit



if C7R used to push 520hp@6000rpm it would require about 620Nm at that rpm, with >650Nm for most of the rpm range.


While now 520hp@7000rpm require 530Nm, with likely a torque curve below 600Nm for most of the rpm range. Basically these are figures comparable to old ford/GM/bmw 5L V8 grand-am years.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by joeb

I noticed they still have Motul stickers as well, so do they provide a different type of lube?

Motul is an IMSA partner.

[skycafe]

I should add a "?"

[Steve McQ]

The C8.R has a surprising noise for a normally aspirated flat plane engine. At least when looking at videos from the Roar.

I was expecting something close to the old F458 GTE as some videos from earlier in 2019 showed, but at the end the sound seems to be really quiet. It seems like the guys at P&M are not using that much of the revs available.

Anyone on site can confirm this impression or is simply the videos that are not rendering the sound well ?

[MaskedRacer]

Other unscientific analysis from the ROAR qualifying session at least is that. The speed gaps is about even between DPI to LMP2 to GTLM. The LMP2's lap at times roughly between what DPI is doing compared to GTLM.

Barring any rain I wonder if the cars can go another second quicker when get to the actual race qualifying session. GTLM cars lapping in 1 min 41 sec is doable. That was very good Grand AM DP lap times back in the day.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope we don't get rain for the race weekend this year. I want another 2018 where we run clean the whole way through.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Other unscientific analysis from the ROAR qualifying session at least is that. The speed gaps is about even between DPI to LMP2 to GTLM. The LMP2's lap at times roughly between what DPI is doing compared to GTLM.

Barring any rain I wonder if the cars can go another second quicker when get to the actual race qualifying session. GTLM cars lapping in 1 min 41 sec is doable. That was very good Grand AM DP lap times back in the day.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope we don't get rain for the race weekend this year. I want another 2018 where we run clean the whole way through.

It was kind of fun to watch the rain (from the dry of my house) it just made some corners and cars not work at all.

[fieldodreams79]

Our good pal Lanky Turtle has some videos up from the Roar on his page:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C...fBzjMVLp_RFHyA

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by joeb

It was kind of fun to watch the rain (from the dry of my house) it just made some corners and cars not work at all.

I used to love it when it rained back when we had Daytona Prototypes running on Conti tires since the GTLM cars were able to keep up with them. With DPI's now and everybody running Michelins, that difference is neutralized.

[fieldodreams79]

https://twitter.com/drgitlin/status/1214255848429686785

Kyle Busch sticking out like the db he is!

[Nick Woodbury]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

Our good pal Lanky Turtle has some videos up from the Roar on his page:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C...fBzjMVLp_RFHyA

Thanks for reminding me, I meant to link other youtube channels who were posting videos from the Roar including Lanky's.

Buddybryan3 - https://www.youtube.com/user/C5R2/videos (This guy is a great videographer!)

MidKnightR1 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxH...9eAuSRA/videos

SetV Tube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA0...4SDgXyA/videos

PMD tv - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbAtVVE1nUY

There are many, many others out there but these awesome blokes (including Lanky) deliver regularly during every Roar and Rolex 24!

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Nick Woodbury

Thanks for reminding me, I meant to link other youtube channels who were posting videos from the Roar including Lanky's.

Buddybryan3 - https://www.youtube.com/user/C5R2/videos (This guy is a great videographer!)

MidKnightR1 - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxH...9eAuSRA/videos

SetV Tube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA0...4SDgXyA/videos

PMD tv - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbAtVVE1nUY

There are many, many others out there but these awesome blokes (including Lanky) deliver regularly during every Roar and Rolex 24!

Thank you for the summary. Been seeing a lot of these over the weekend. Will watch them again surely during the race week later in the month. Things feel a lot different. Probably because we do not have the Ford GT, Porsche 911 RSR 2017, and Corvette C7R around. Been used to those models running around the track for so long now. Not used to it. Ford is not even there, The C8R is new. The 911 RSR 19 feels new too. Tried to watch some of the youtube replays of the WEC so far but its just not that interesting. The entire GT grid is just Porsche, Aston, and Ferrari. The GTLM will be 3 eventually too yes, but the Corvette C8/Porsche/BMW combo is more interesting. Plus you have the GT3 cars providing much needed manufacturer diversity that that GTE Am does not.

Keeping fingers crossed for a rain free Rolex 24 weekend this year. Distance records could be possible if that is the case.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

https://twitter.com/drgitlin/status/1214255848429686785

Kyle Busch sticking out like the db he is!

just carrying over the Nascar look