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28 Oct 2019, 17:47 (Ref:3937370) | #176 | ||
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28 Oct 2019, 18:09 (Ref:3937375) | #177 | ||
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At least the 2 added LMP2 teams do add some value and decent history. I'm still doubting we'll see Ware racing on track, especially with multiple chassis between Asian LMS and IMSA. Seems like a lot of growth all at once and no announced drivers. I'm willing to give Dragonspeed a bit and a team they're supporting as well. But a new team without current IMSA ties? Maybe not so much |
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29 Oct 2019, 19:23 (Ref:3937523) | #178 | ||
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What challenges are they? They run P3 cars quite happily in the ELMS 4 hour races, longer than IMSA. So I don't understand there can be any challenges. Other than the P3 entrants don't want to do that? |
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29 Oct 2019, 19:39 (Ref:3937528) | #179 | ||
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Then you add in the fact it's just more cars, and IMSA yellows keep cars bunched more than a FCY, and you've got a recipe for LMP3s and GTDs falling over each other. |
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30 Oct 2019, 01:58 (Ref:3937562) | #180 | ||
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30 Oct 2019, 12:31 (Ref:3937630) | #181 | ||
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The balance really I think is in what happens with car counts in GTLM and GTD |
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30 Oct 2019, 12:47 (Ref:3937631) | #182 | |||
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30 Oct 2019, 17:50 (Ref:3937689) | #183 | |
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Looks like someone could get a cheap Silver IF he's not promoted to Gold, Matt McMurry is joining MSR for 2020 replacing Trent Hindman. It would suck for him to be made Gold and limit his racing like Madison Snow last year.
The article also says the second MSR Caterpillar car is not yet confirmed for 2020. |
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11 Nov 2019, 21:36 (Ref:3940035) | #184 | ||
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Joest will be leaving Mazda's DPI program following Sebring next March. It seems that Multimatic Motorsports will likely take the lead in the program, and that Joest and Mazda management didn't see eye to eye over various details, which may be why Joest is leaving the arrangement following the expiration of the contract following Sebring.
This according to SC365, so take it as you want. Article also shuts down rumors of Brad Kettler succeeding John Doonan as manager of motorsports for Mazda North America. |
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11 Nov 2019, 22:54 (Ref:3940055) | #185 | |
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Are any of us surprised? I hadn't seen many Joest personnel trackside in a while and everyone has been talking Multimatic not Joest all season. I'm sure Joest wanted nothing to do with the team if they're a footnote anyway so why bother to push to renew the contract, especially if Mazda wasn't interested either.
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11 Nov 2019, 23:14 (Ref:3940059) | #186 | ||
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Yeah, I've heard those reports and rumors, too. I'd argue that Multimatic have been just as responsible as Joest for the turn around that Mazda has had. You have to remember that most of what screwed up the program was Speedsource losing their way and Riley having too much involvment with the original engineering of the Riley DPI/LMP2 chassis that the Mazda DPI uses as its basis.
Even though Multimatic was involved with the car from the start, Riley didn't even use Multimatic shocks on the car, and in some ways the Ford GT road and GTE/GTLM cars (all built by Multimatic and jointly designed by Ford Performance and Multimatic) were more advanced in chassis and suspension design. Only when Multimatic took the lead in development and Joest and Multimatic took over as the team running the car did Mazda's fortunes significantly improve. And we do have to remember, too, that Multimatic had a big role in both the IMSA and WEC Ganassi Ford GT programs and are helping run the AMR Valkyrie LMP1 hypercar program. Last edited by chernaudi; 11 Nov 2019 at 23:19. |
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11 Nov 2019, 23:34 (Ref:3940064) | #187 | ||
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Nelson Cosgrove (former TRD USA exec) will succeed Doonan at Mazda per SC365.
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12 Nov 2019, 01:08 (Ref:3940073) | #188 | ||
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My gut is telling me that Joest/Mazda have been arguing about what needs to be done to the car and Joest wasn't able to get it due to Mazda not wanting to spend the money on using a different base chassis. Joest knew it was going to be just about impossible to make the car better as they are using the worst P2 chassis as the base. The engine choice also hasn't helped much but with a chassis change I think they wouldn't have to run the engine on the edge all the time to match the lap times of the other cars.
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Axer is the name and axing is my game. "Don't Beg For Things, Do It Yourself, Or Else You Won't Get Anything" NCR/CCR SCCA F&C Pro Races Flagged: 2015 Rolex 24 & PLM; 2016 Rolex 24 |
12 Nov 2019, 17:17 (Ref:3940207) | #189 | |
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Joest turned Mazda int a winning team. They were the laughing stock of the paddock. Now they win races.
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12 Nov 2019, 19:28 (Ref:3940231) | #190 | |
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Can't keep Ben Keating away, as I'm sure surprises no one here. Returning to his old seat for the enduro schedule, with Bleekomolen as the 4th at Daytona.
Sounds like we could see him again in 2 cars at Daytona. And of all the drivers making claims in history, I'd take his as being the most honest and likely. Would not all be surprised to see him in a LMP2 car for the race as well. |
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12 Nov 2019, 20:09 (Ref:3940243) | #191 | |||
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“If there’s any golden nugget in any of our success, it’s Multimatic and the engineering support, the investment they’ve made, the simulation, the vehicle dynamics, the testing,” Doonan said. “They’ve just crushed it out of the park in terms of helping this program be successful. In looking at Monterey, throughout the year last year, we had those oh-so-close moments, and the more we’ve involved ourselves with Multimatic, the more success we continue to have.” |
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12 Nov 2019, 20:12 (Ref:3940244) | #192 | |
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But Multimatic were involved in the original car too. If it was all Multimatic, then why wasn't it done properly until Joest came along? Did it take someone good to highlight it?
It's just weird. The car was no where, except close to a fire extinguisher. It made literally no improvements until Joest took over. I've no doubt Mutlimatic played a part in it, but man, I think Joests part in turning that dumpster fire of a project around shouldn't be underplayed. |
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12 Nov 2019, 20:16 (Ref:3940246) | #193 | ||
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12 Nov 2019, 20:44 (Ref:3940249) | #194 | |
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That wasn't my understanding of it. Multimatic did chassis, aero and bodywork. Riley did mechanicals. Mazda did explody things.
https://racer.com/2017/01/24/imsa-20...timatic-mk-30/ I'll be honest, I tend not to be that impressed with any major projects Multimatic run. The Ford GT is obviously the best, but Ganassi has heavy involvement, and it's from a Ford factory car. I hope to god this doesn't have a negative effect on Mazda, otherwise we risk losing the IMSA DPi class to the same mess that WEC is in. We need 3 strong manufacturers. |
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12 Nov 2019, 21:16 (Ref:3940260) | #195 | ||
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To be fair, Joest had most of their success the past few years with Audi Sport. And Audi Sport often took a no expenses spared effort with Joest, or Champion or anyone else they valued as a factory or quasi-factory team.
Joest has been a great team, but they can't work miracles all the time. Champion became the superior team in the ALMS in late '03, and Audi of America and Audi Sport officials said that as good as Joest was, Champion was even better. Also, it should be noted that the original Mazda DPI was heavily influenced by Bill Riley and Riley Technologies, who hadn't designed a successful full carbon tubbed car since Bill's father Bob designed the Intrepid GTP for Pratt & Miller in the early 1990s. The Cadillac LMP cars were failures until Nigel Stroud was brought in, and the situation repeated itself here. Hell, the Mazda DPI didn't even run Multimatic shocks on it until Joest and Multimatic got more involved in the program. Basically, both Joest and Multimatic had to fix Riley's screw ups. Joest undoubtedly helped sort out the car, but let's be realistic here. Joest is good at managing races at the race track, but they're not an engineering firm. From what I'm gathering, Joest may've wanted Mazda to switch to a different tub, like an Oreca or Ligier, anything other than the Riley tub. Mazda, who in partnership with Multimatic, didn't want to because of the investment already made to try and fix the Riley-based Mazda DPI. Rather or not that's true, or Joest felt that Multimatic muscled them out of the fold, fact is that Joest is leaving the Mazda effort following Sebring. Also of interest is that John Dagys at SC365 wrote an article about this saying that Joest and Mazda Motorsports are splitting up. Marshall Pruett at Racer Magazine wrote and article with the same exact info in it, but says that Joest and Mazda's partnership is continuing. |
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12 Nov 2019, 21:27 (Ref:3940261) | #196 | |||
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And Mulitmatic being involved with the Ford GT as a factory program with Ford, a company that Multimatic has had a relationship with for many year?. How's that different from Joest being involved with Audi as a factory program from 1999-2003 and again from 2006-16? Also, Multimatic also built the Ford GT road and race cars. And Ganassi? Cheap Ganbleep was basically a figurehead as far as running the team a lot of the time IMO based on what I've seen. Outside of Daytona, was he even at any of the races? Not to mention that he runs Chevrolets in NASCAR and Chevy engines in Indy Car. That's not to say that there was a balance between Multimatic and Ganassi personnel, but it was what Mazda probably hoped would work out for them. Just as it seems that Mazda hoped that Joest would handle the team matters and strategy and tactics at the track and Multimatic would handle the engineering side of things, Ganassi and Multimatic did the same with the IMSA and WEC programs, with the WEC program def. being mostly a Multimatic deal. As I previously posted, Joest is a great team, but they're the masters of managing and calling races at the track. The days of Joest as a privateer being able to work magic on factory developed machinery have been long gone, and were gone since 1998 when he signed on with Audi Sport. Joest probably had great input on what would become the Audi R8, but even Audi Sport already had quite a few ideas up their sleeve. Joest hasn't been a great engineering firm for racing in years. Granted, it can be argued that Audi Sport took that away or Joest no longer had to worry about it. But expecting them to polish Riley's turd, as good as they are as a team, without Multimatic's engineering help, is a bit ludicrous. Not wanting to start an argument with you, just calling things that way I've seen it work out from what I've seen as a fan and follower of the sport. Last edited by chernaudi; 12 Nov 2019 at 21:32. |
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13 Nov 2019, 07:37 (Ref:3940320) | #197 | ||
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I also just read an article that Marshall Pruett posted on Racer Mag's website about the upcoming Joest and Mazda split. And reading between the lines, Pruett seems to suggest that just like SpeedSource, Joest ended up maybe biting off more than they could chew without help.
The article, though without directly saying so, seems to also somewhat back what I've read some people on social media have been saying about Mazda Motorsport, which is that certainly in recent years that Mazda Motorsport has been a weird company to work for that has made some confounding decisions. Marshall seems to hint, at least from his POV, that both Joest and Mazda have blood on their hands for the problems that both organizations had in 2018 and seem to hint that both needed Multimatic to get involved to right the ship. Thus, one can argue that Joest may've been pushed out of the fold to a large degree, hence their decision to leave. But Pruett said that even though both Joest and Mazda wanted out at the end of the 2018 IMSA season, they tried to keep the relationship going in hopes of improvement, as well as Mazda not wanting to lose face. As for Joest, I don't hold them to be 100% blameless for this. IMO, they did bite off a bit more than they could chew. Dealing with Mazda wasn't like dealing with Audi Sport. Audi had tons more money and engineering/R&D resources for their racing programs than Mazda does. When something went wrong at Audi, usually Audi Sport were able to quickly ID and sort out the issue. Instead, Mazda tended to make strange decisions and tended to foster a tale of break crap, break crap and break crap and, relative to Audi, took forever to fully address an issue. Not to mention that Joest had been out of major racing for nearly a year when they seriously started to work with Mazda. You'd think that wouldn't have effected Joest that bad, considering that they have been doing this since my parents were teenagers. But in the modern world, being away for a year may as well be almost an eternity. I think that Mazda being slow to own up to their own deficiencies, and Joest getting a huge culture shock when going from Audi to Mazda and the differing philosophies and cultures there, and just being out of the loop were the biggest problems in that relationship. Mind you, I don't even think that things were 100% rosy with Audi and Joest the last couple of years of the LMP1 program. Not so much a relationship deterioration, but the arrival of Porsche (and having two VAG companies directly competing against each other in LMP1) and Audi and Joest coming to terms with new gen rules and new gen tech started to push things, especially for Joest, to the limit of what they could give. |
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19 Nov 2019, 14:52 (Ref:3941635) | #198 | ||
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Dragonspeed confirm their full season entry with Hedman and Hanley in their Oreca:
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2019/1...sa-season.html Plus they will do Daytona. Good to see more entries confirmed for P2. The reduced schedule (and budget) seems to be attracting the am drivers. |
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19 Nov 2019, 15:30 (Ref:3941639) | #199 | ||
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19 Nov 2019, 23:02 (Ref:3941691) | #200 | |
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Christina Nielsen and Katherine Legge will share a GEAR Racing bannered Lamborghini run by Grasser
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