IMSA: 2020

[broadrun96]

Kevin's dad is stepping down from Corvette for Jordan Taylor for 2020. No info given if he's retired or retiring, and no mention of the third drivers.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/j...n-at-corvette/

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Kevin's dad is stepping down from Corvette for Jordan Taylor for 2020. No info given if he's retired or retiring, and no mention of the third drivers.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/j...n-at-corvette/

One of those funny S365 posts where the headline makes it look like it’s confirmed, then in the second or third sentence say ‘industry sources suggest’

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

One of those funny S365 posts where the headline makes it look like it’s confirmed, then in the second or third sentence say ‘industry sources suggest’

Racer and a couple others all have hints to it with the usual GM we don't comment on drivers stuff so fairly comfortable in thinking he's moving to third driver or full Kevin's dad status

[MaskedRacer]

Mixed about the Long Beach race format change. I always liked Proto/GTLM because of less yellows and also it gave the event an "all star" race feel to it. Probably done because of the chance of GTLM going down to 6 cars in 2020.

I thought maybe that IMSA could have opened up GTLM to GT3 cars with all pro drivers, option tires, and no GTD BoP. Acura and Lexus could have been attractors to this. They tend to employ sneaky silvers too and would have rid GTD of that. But the series elected not to go that route next year at least.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Mixed about the Long Beach race format change. I always liked Proto/GTLM because of less yellows and also it gave the event an "all star" race feel to it. Probably done because of the chance of GTLM going down to 6 cars in 2020.

I thought maybe that IMSA could have opened up GTLM to GT3 cars with all pro drivers, option tires, and no GTD BoP. Acura and Lexus could have been attractors to this. They tend to employ sneaky silvers too and would have rid GTD of that. But the series elected not to go that route next year at least.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with the decreased GTLM field, it's only 2 but I think they are expecting other losses in other categories as well. The problem at Long Beach was the paddock space as everyone had ranted about and Indy guys were cutting their support series as well to make everything fit.

As the for the early GT3+ style that GT3s in GTLM would be, your big spenders of GM and Porsche would not be fans of that. GM for the money spent to build a new GTE car and now you want the run cheaper cars, and Porsche, well running another 911 in the class could possibly be blocked by them by blocking their car from supported upgrades. Plus we have all the look at Porsche and the BOP crying from the last 6 races before Laguna, just imagine trying to balance 2 more cars. Never mind if McLaren and Lamborghini want to get involved in cheap racing, although the draw may not be as great as they don't really do "factory" cars in GTD. I think you will have to see some serious cash on the table from all who want to run and some serious BOP management possibly even at the Prologue with an IMSA driver and no updates allowed in season. And then you wouldn't get noticed by the ACO anyway and what marketing does a GTLM win get you over a GTD win in the showrooms? You still get the pretty pictures to hang over the show car and the same claim of Champion but you've spent much less. And if you're Porsche, and Audi it seems, actually make money doing it.

[TheMightyM]

Scott Atherton is retiring at the end of the 2019 season, so IMSA will have new leadership and a new public face in 2020. Atherton will remain on IMSA's board.

I wish Scott Atherton well in his future pursuits. I think he did a very job in a very difficult position.

Press release here.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

I think he did a very job in a very difficult position.

I agree he did a good job. The ALMS was built based on an idea from Dr. Don, and Atherton made it work, and much of that lives on in the current IMSA.

[Deleted]

About bringing the Frankenstein Riley to IMSA P2:
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2019/0...ogressing.html

“As of right now we are going to be confirmed in the P2 class for the North American Endurance Championship races with a Multimatic Riley P2 car. And as of right now, I’m the only confirmed driver. But we do have some sponsorship from Jacob companies, who is our full-time sponsor on the #51 Cup car and NASCAR."

--

So I think the final question for me is around that choice of the LMP2 car.

It will be a unique car, In LMP2 there’s something like 30 cars racing around the world and you will have the only active Multimatic Mark 30 in racing.

There are lots of what-ifs, it could be actually at some tracks a dominant force that’s happened before with an unknown quantity. It could be that actually what you find, as you have told me, with a lot of engineering has gone into the car already with some of the issues having been found and resolved from those encountered by Brian and the BAR1 team at Daytona. But what if you get out there, and the car is not what you hoped?

“I’d say it’s part of the learning curve. Obviously, we go out there with the mindset and mentality of being prepared to win and podium and to have success. But also, we know that in our maiden year that it’s not going to be all rainbows and sunshine. And I think NASCAR is good preparation for that for anybody. ---

It's actually kind of interesting because they can't really improve the crappiness of the base chassis on their own due to spec nature of LMP2, and they also can't lobby for BoP to fix everything as P2's the sole non-BoP class, but maybe as a team they can make more to happen than BAR1 or Keating IDK. Perhaps the joker update for 2018 wasn't as terrible as BAR1 showed the world, after all that was just ex LMPC team

[TF110]

I think they'll race it and place towards the rear of the (small) class. They'll get tired of it and either quit or get another car. Maybe they don't have the funds, but I would have gone with the Mazda version and try my hand in DPi and prayed for some good BOP.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by TF110

I think they'll race it and place towards the rear of the (small) class. They'll get tired of it and either quit or get another car. Maybe they don't have the funds, but I would have gone with the Mazda version and try my hand in DPi and prayed for some good BOP.

I don't think they have the funds to even run the base Riley all season. They have had a habit of being the start and park guys in Nascar, although that's harder with some rules changes. They'll need some deep pockets to keep the season going and the Asian LMS races might bankrupt them before IMSA even gets going.

BAR1 wasn't a bad team and they've run multiple chassis well for years and had good drivers working their way up, it wasn't a good chassis with Mazda until they finally had to admit defeat and push for changes. A team without any sportscar experience and using different cars to start out is a recipe for bad things. And sadly bad things and bad drivers often take out other drivers and cars.

[Koenigsegg]

Originally Posted by Chiana

It's actually kind of interesting because they can't really improve the crappiness of the base chassis on their own due to spec nature of LMP2, and they also can't lobby for BoP to fix everything as P2's the sole non-BoP class, but maybe as a team they can make more to happen than BAR1 or Keating IDK. Perhaps the joker update for 2018 wasn't as terrible as BAR1 showed the world, after all that was just ex LMPC team

BAR1 didn't use the full joker update if I remember correctly.

[carbsmith]

I legitimately don't think it matters what car you run in a 2 car ProAm class with revolving driver lineups. RWR does have sports car experience, the question is just about its recency and relevancy.

[TF110]

Are they employing pay-drivers?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by TF110

Are they employing pay-drivers?

No announcements yet but I'd guess paying drivers and likely a couple Ams as well.

[TF110]

They'll need them if what is being said here is true and they aren't that well off in terms of funds.

[carbsmith]

RWR is in no uncertain terms, a pay driver team. The announcement all but says they're going sports car racing to attract more pay drivers. You don't even run in LMP2 unless you're going to have pay drivers, that's literally the purpose of the class.

[broadrun96]

They're back, and oh dear God it's a 4 pot turbo again. Looks like we need to bring some scaffolding for joeb's Mazda and make a mock-up this weekend.

https://www.imsa.com/news/102019/maz...PcFnrhnpU-G4X4

[broadrun96]

And JHammy's favorite, a fabric tow loop too

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

They're back, and oh dear God it's a 4 pot turbo again. Looks like we need to bring some scaffolding for joeb's Mazda and make a mock-up this weekend.

https://www.imsa.com/news/102019/maz...PcFnrhnpU-G4X4

You laugh, but you have no idea how bad i want to drive that. Was actually thinking of buying one next year but the manuals are really hard to come by. Closest one to me that i've seen is in Pensicola.

[broadrun96]

Just to show it's actually the networks honestly not actually giving a rats ass about the viewers. Here's the baseball playoffs, yes the actual playoff schedule. Think having to switch mid-race is bad, follow this convoluted bs. And most don't get MLBTv so the probably biggest series starts on a network on an upper tier, often beyond NBCSports. Until the World Series what channel it's on can vary up until the start of the series. And the announcers are TRASH, TBS only does the playoff games and yet that's ok? They're so bad the worst sportscar crew appears excellent, they actually missed the final out of the 8th inning and couldn't find the replay until after the game.

Now imagine you're selling a product with maybe 125k consistent viewers. The fact IMSA and Indy is on TV at all in the modern era is amazing. And just wait, the NFL has threatened to take ALL of their games to private ppv, it won't but that will cost billions of sponsor dollars we won't be able to attract to racing. And F1 in the US will likely be 100% behind the ppv wall in 2020, maybe 2021. The contracts are already insane dollar figures and you never know when your provider or the channel will decide to strike and then you're out of multiple channels. Sadly I don't think a season subscription model would work for IMSA as its sole distribution medium. People know the NFL and F1 and will to an extent seek it out, not so much for sportscars in the same numbers.

Just a little keep things in perspective venting, remember if major sports have problems getting money what's the smaller ones left with?

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

You laugh, but you have no idea how bad i want to drive that. Was actually thinking of buying one next year but the manuals are really hard to come by. Closest one to me that i've seen is in Pensicola.

And now a video for you too

https://youtu.be/TmQNFhg4NJQ

[broadrun96]

Dear God, what in the name of all that is American is this? No wonder they released it now and not at the track so we don't burn the Vette garage.

https://www.imsa.com/news/102019/cor...gt-u1skSBQdHd0

It's not April Fool's Day is it? No specs released yet, they'll be shown at the official reveal at Petit. Sorry, but no front engine and no yellow is NOT a GTE/LM Vette.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by joeb

You laugh, but you have no idea how bad i want to drive that. Was actually thinking of buying one next year but the manuals are really hard to come by. Closest one to me that i've seen is in Pensicola.

Such a good looking car. Kinda like an Alfa Brera from the side.

And yes, broad, I do love me a fabric tow loop!

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Dear God, what in the name of all that is American is this? No wonder they released it now and not at the track so we don't burn the Vette garage.

https://www.imsa.com/news/102019/cor...gt-u1skSBQdHd0

It's not April Fool's Day is it? No specs released yet, they'll be shown at the official reveal at Petit. Sorry, but no front engine and no yellow is NOT a GTE/LM Vette.

No V8 either, me thinks.

I need to see the C8 in person before I make a final decision. I'm trying really, really hard to like the car, but I'm not feeling it. At all. I genuinely hope people like the car and buy lots of them but I wish they had named it something else.

I'm still going to be a huge Corvette Racing fan! I'm not sure you can just turn it off cause I don't like their ride. Who do I root for? BMW? I don't think I can.

[chernaudi]

Can anyone confirm for me if this is a first? I know that the front diffusers on even GT cars usually have strakes in them. But the C8R seems to have several in the raised splitter section of the diffuser, and they run all the way to the leading edge.