IMSA 2021

[broadrun96]

Was I the only one who felt it was a warmup for Hindy and Co as well? I had no idea what was going on often listening today. No problem as I have usually enjoyed the LM discussion with a race i the background over the years but when updating the race itself it felt lacking. But still better than listening to the radio driving around town for inspections.

[seanyb505]

We're not a full month or race event into 2021 and it might be time for an IMSA 2022 thread:


Deader than any dead animal that has ever died

[WyldStallion]

Got that right on the 2022 thread, but its ok if its here for now too.

Here we go kids on GTD Pro:

https://racer.com/2021/01/28/imsa-gt...-gtlm-in-2022/
https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/i...lass-for-2022/

1. Looks like GTD Am will still just be "GTD"

2. No more option tires. GTD Pro going with same spec Michelin. I'm ok with since it is Michelin. Good thing Conti's are not around still.

3. I wonder if Michelin will provide the same tires for both classes or might differ between the two.

4. Recommend IMSA to look at what International GT Open does with their BoP for GT3 cars. A Ferrari 488 GT3 car out qualified the GTE Pro cars at Spa in 2020. Maybe DTM has some tricks to speed them up too.

5. Hope many of the GT3 manufacturers and teams step up now for this. think Vasser/Sullivan will among others personally.

6. R.L.L. probably going with the M4.

7. Pratt and Miller must be developing the GT3 car now. The Marshal Pruett article the other day says its doable.

8. This can't be good for GT WC America.

9. Hope it will create a 3rd or 4th all-GT race on the schedule in 2022.

[carbsmith]

Given the wording in there about needing 2022 spec cars, I wouldn't think Lexus will be in IMSA at all next year because the RC-F GT3 is definitely not getting a new version.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by carbsmith

Given the wording in there about needing 2022 spec cars, I wouldn't think Lexus will be in IMSA at all next year because the RC-F GT3 is definitely not getting a new version.

Vasser Sullivan in a Racer article I think pledged to be in IMSA GT racing for the forseeable future. Your comment is the first time it is proper to give thought of them changing manufacturers. Lexus looks like is following the Bentley route last year and Nissan the year before and easing their way out of the GT3 scene.

[W2Motorsport]

Originally Posted by WyldStallion

Got that right on the 2022 thread, but its ok if its here for now too.

Here we go kids on GTD Pro:

https://racer.com/2021/01/28/imsa-gt...-gtlm-in-2022/
https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/i...lass-for-2022/

1. Looks like GTD Am will still just be "GTD"

2. No more option tires. GTD Pro going with same spec Michelin. I'm ok with since it is Michelin. Good thing Conti's are not around still.

3. I wonder if Michelin will provide the same tires for both classes or might differ between the two.

4. Recommend IMSA to look at what International GT Open does with their BoP for GT3 cars. A Ferrari 488 GT3 car out qualified the GTE Pro cars at Spa in 2020. Maybe DTM has some tricks to speed them up too.

5. Hope many of the GT3 manufacturers and teams step up now for this. think Vasser/Sullivan will among others personally.

6. R.L.L. probably going with the M4.

7. Pratt and Miller must be developing the GT3 car now. The Marshal Pruett article the other day says its doable.

8. This can't be good for GT WC America.

9. Hope it will create a 3rd or 4th all-GT race on the schedule in 2022.

There does not seem to be a ton of crossover between IMSA and GTWC America. I think the teams that race in both have different goals and priorities. Hopefully both can coexist, and possibly even help grow GT3 racing in the states together.

[joeb]

I'm wondering what the budget looks like for a private team wanted to run in the pro class. Since Vasser Sullivan was brought up earlier, how much more of an investment would it be for that team to run in the pro class with two cars? Ignoring the need for new machinery, wouldn't the running costs be similar? Will Michelin have a new tire and new price for the Pro class? Would a manufacturer place drivers with teams for little or no money?

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by W2Motorsport

There does not seem to be a ton of crossover between IMSA and GTWC America. I think the teams that race in both have different goals and priorities. Hopefully both can coexist, and possibly even help grow GT3 racing in the states together.

There used to be a separation, but then IMSA created the Sprint Cup AND GT WC made their races 90 minutes. So now it is the same. S.R.O. would be wise to give their GT3 class a reverse back single driver 50 minute races (Pirelli World Challenge).

With that said. I would LOVE for Flying Lizard/Kpax to go to GTD-Pro class. Maybe they can use a little leverage on IMSA and say they will race in IMSA if and only if they increase the number of all-GT races on the sked.

[canaglia]

Originally Posted by joeb

I'm wondering what the budget looks like for a private team wanted to run in the pro class. Since Vasser Sullivan was brought up earlier, how much more of an investment would it be for that team to run in the pro class with two cars? Ignoring the need for new machinery, wouldn't the running costs be similar? Will Michelin have a new tire and new price for the Pro class? Would a manufacturer place drivers with teams for little or no money?

For a private team wanting to run in pro class, I think the only extra costs will be the pro drivers salaries... travels and logistic will be the same for everyone, cars will be however gt3 with way cheaper managments costs compared to gtlm. Paradoxically could be even cheaper if a private team will be somehow backed by manufacturer.

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Originally Posted by gert

Didn't work here either.
But it never did in 2020 anyway.

In UK I found that it worked in Edge but not in Chrome...other people reporting that they couldn't see it in Firefox but could in Chrome

So could be a case of just trying different browsers, and also turning adblock off.

Not sure if it's really for this thread, but that MX5 race last night was absolutely cracking, really looking forward to Race 2 later. Think those cars are going to give some real entertainment through the season.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by canaglia

Paradoxically could be even cheaper if a private team will be somehow backed by manufacturer.

Like Lexus and Acura the first year in with factory support?

[hondafan37]

In the Glickenhaus instagram:

john_f_photography_
Are u guys gonna enter IMSA next year with their new GTD PRO class?

glickenhaus @john_f_photography_ we have several interested customers who want to race our 004C and 007 in IMSA.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CK1ewE9A..._web_copy_link

[broadrun96]

Hopefully the interested buyers are friends with the Frances or old Scotty A and he can get them in the series without garbage ballast. Although, free rides for fans as ballast?? I'll sign the waiver but 325 lbs of ballast is MEAN

[WyldStallion]

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/g...ch-to-gtd-pro/


Well the fact they are playing "wait and see" is obvious. No tech regs for GTD Pro have been given out. I think it can work like this:

1. GTD cars I think can be faster than they are in IMSA now. Isn't there a horsepower restriction across the board right now. Maybe an air restrictor? That can opened up for pro?

2. GTD-Am could have fuel capacity slashed across the board slightly too in comparison to GTD-pro.

3. Yes I do support the bronze driver mandate for GTD-Am. A team like Snow/Sellers can still run together. They just will have to do it in GTD-Pro....and that is for just the sprint races. And the guy in the article with Lamborghini thinks that the super silvers are keeping many potential aspiring GTD entries off the grid.

4. A team in theory could decide to run GTD-Am for the endurance races and GTD-pro in the sprint races too like I mentioned in point 3. So flexibility is there.

5. I think big name teams like WRT or AF Corse will show up for GTD-Pro at Daytona. But to entice good teams for the full season...I think offering more than 2 all-GT races can do this.

[broadrun96]

Why would they reinvent the wheel? Changing the pro class for driver requirements, and possibly with Michelin a tire choice should be enough. The AM drivers are already at the back of the field overall, why spend development money on a worldwide platform when allowing a pro selection in GTD in cars (GTE/LM and GTD) that look IDENTICAL to non-fans? Hell if Madison and Brian can steal a win over Corvette being smart, great let them and don't screw up the rules any more than needed. We do not need another Bronze driver class mandate, great another get out of the way class. You want to do that get a GT4 and go play on Fridays and save a boatload of money.

We have already had teams screw up the restrictors and ECU in cars because one car running the engine had one rule and the other engine an entirely different rule, and changes within those changes. LESS IS ALWAYS MORE.

And sorry, but the sneaky silver thing is ridiculous GARBAGE. There aren't many IMSA teams using that and those that are, sorry Lexus but you are right in the crosshairs here, will likely move up to not have to worry about it. Snow is and should always be a Silver. Don't like the fact he is good driver, TOUGH. He's not a pro so shouldn't be Gold, shut up and take your ball to SRO if you don't like that he is faster. See how far that series gets you, oh wait, that's right they can't figure out what they are doing long enough to not **** off everyone in the series and have a ridiculous 8 Hour race that looked worse than SCCA practice in the rain. Obviously the seats just weren't there or there would have been more cars. Sneaky drivers in LMP2? Then we have a talking point in IMSA and WEC both.

AF Corse and WRT will go where the money is. Why would adding a couple GT races, or this class, make them suddenly want to play? It's about the money and for 2022 there will be NONE. Peacock is TERRIBLE, the interface on an ipad is horrendous, and the sign up rate is well below what they expected, over 50% lower than expected by most publications, over low 75% by some. Even with it being free for Comcast/Xfinity users over a certain bandwidth, relatively no one has signed up. They HAVE to fix it before the Olympics but doubt they will, probably blow out the TV coverage and then hope for the best since it is hemorrhaging cash for NBC to air. Thinking moving to Peacock is a good thing, or even ok thing, for IMSA is delusional. We're seeing best numbers on NBCSports and NBC for it and yet losing that platform. It's the end of decent coverage and they better find another deal anywhere. Or we'll all be back to watching week delayed content on YouTube in the US and listening to IMSA radio.
There are now far too many exclusive and non-sharing streaming services to make it work and you're going to see some collapse. Only a few have figured out the ESPN/Hulu/Disney Plus idea of multi-platform one bill, basically cable streaming. If you want to replace the average cable package one estimate I saw said double your cable bill in monthly fees AND you still have to have some level of cable package in most of the US to get fast enough service to make streaming viable. Even Discovery cannot get subscribers pushing one of their top show's new content over exclusively to streaming, people are burned out of new services to buy. And with Amazon not even streaming the racing they sponsor through AWS I don't think the NFL and supposedly college football play of streaming on Amazon channels will be coming any time soon.

Yes, that's a bit of old man rant about streaming but read those reporting on it. 2020 was not a great year for the new services and new signups have not been great. Amazon and Netflix aren't too bad, Disney Plus wasn't great, Discovery Plus, Peacock and Apple TV (but that makes sense as only new stuff) all were below expectations, far below for most of their launch. If big name things can't move the needle, IMSA isn't even going to make it flinch so it will not get the best out of it. And will not be on the free Peacock section with ads, wait for the NBCSports add-on to Peacock Plus or whatever they call it and more money

[WyldStallion]

I have the ESPN+/Hulu/Disney+ myself. Have a personal policy to only pay for one at a time. Still I hope that these giant bundle platform that ruled cable TV for years DOES NOT come back. Good for the consumer I guess.

The problem with streaming as far as a racing series like IMSA is concerned is that with cable you can just remote through the channels and just come across a sportscar race by chance that might allow some viewers to stick around and watch. Streaming does not do that. You MUST be interested enough in it ahead of time to click on it and maybe you'll stick around and watch.

The On-Demand abilities that consumers have today means that you MUST create more hardcore dedicated fans who will click on those links. One reason why I think NBC hurt IMSA with their all Chase all the time coverage. Not much to educate them about the class structures, the cars, the race strategy, the history, etc..which they did have the time do cover. But nope..Chase E, Chase E, Chase E. And he did not even do that well.

[carbsmith]

Being beaten by an Am team is not "great" to factory teams, "stealing a win" on the factories is by definition impossible unless they also steal one on the prototypes because they literally aren't racing them, and more importantly losing to another factory team because they're held up with ProAm cars when the pro driver is in the car (and vice versa) is also not "great". Running everyone together in SRO is supported because they're all also competing for overall wins, but when GTD and GTD Pro relative finishing positions mean nothing the teams gain nothing by being in a position to race each other. I'd much rather just have one GT3 class with a ProAm sub-trophy but it's not going to happen that way.

[S griffin]

It can happen though. However it is hard, but the underdogs can still spring a surprise. I don't think there's anything actually stopping the AMs beating the big teams. It will be embarrassing to the factory teams, but the competition has always been close in the series it's not that bad. It's different from SRO due to them having one class. However what matters in this series is where you are in class, so it doesn't matter too much where you finish overall other for reasons of pride

Personally I think things are fine the way the are. Good mix of cars from different classes throughout the field. We'll see if the series can keep going strong for some time

[FLGTFAN]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Personally I think things are fine the way the are. Good mix of cars from different classes throughout the field. We'll see if the series can keep going strong for some time

Yah, we can't leave good enough alone and let GTLM die a natural death. Let's conflagrate GTD.

[S griffin]

There’s still tough times ahead, the series will keep going for some time though. As long as there are enough teams and cars involved we can still enjoy it

[FLGTFAN]

Why not have a Pro-Am GTE class replace GTLM? WEC has 13 full season entries. Is it a non-starter just because of Corvette?

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by S griffin

There’s still tough times ahead, the series will keep going for some time though. As long as there are enough teams and cars involved we can still enjoy it

As long as we get surprise entrants like the CarBahn Audi that pop up out of nowhere sometimes along with the hopeful big manufacturers and drivers coming in, we'll be in good shape. I look forward to GT racing being strong and large in 2022 in the USA.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by FLGTFAN

Why not have a Pro-Am GTE class replace GTLM? WEC has 13 full season entries. Is it a non-starter just because of Corvette?

Not just Corvette - there simply would be no place for All-Pro-GT efforts in IMSA at all anymore. And then: How many GTEs are there in the US and for how much longer is GTE-Am going to be a thing in WEC without a Pro-category from where cars can trickle down?

[S griffin]

I don't see why we need a big change. Keep it as it is and make sure it's sustainable for the teams to stay. We've got enough for a decent grid. Of course the way things are with the WEC, it'll mean IMSA needs to make sure it can survive, as who knows how many GT teams will remain in WEC?

[SnoodyMcFlude]

Simply put, much easier to get a grid of GT3 cars compared to GTE. Sure there are teams in WEC, but how many of those want to enter both series?
And all the support for GTE is being pulled, in 2 or 3 years you aren't going to have 13 entries.