A Friend Remembered A Tribute to Mike Bell 2021 Calendar

**joeb** · 13 Jan 2021, 18:50 (Ref:4028781)

S365 has some driver updates.

Snow and Sellers in the Paul Miller Lambo full season

Pigot will sub for Fraga (who can't make the travel work) in a P3 for Daytona

Magnus has its 3rd and 4th Daytona drivers: Pumpelly and Farnbacher

W2Motorsport · 13 Jan 2021, 19:52 (Ref:4028797)

50 cars for Daytona 24H in 2021!

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/5...-for-rolex-24/

Great looking grid and I'm very excited for this race.

WyldStallion · 13 Jan 2021, 21:16 (Ref:4028812)

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2Motorsport

50 cars for Daytona 24H in 2021!

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/5...-for-rolex-24/

Great looking grid and I'm very excited for this race.

Yahhy we got an Audi in the field!

Bcarr6 · 13 Jan 2021, 22:46 (Ref:4028832)

Im most curious how P3 is going to sit in a 3 tiered prototype race, with the GTE’s hot on their heals at the hands of pro drivers.

The other instances of P3 and GTE cars racing together come with slightly different circumstances, with GTE being more Pro Am focused, whereas here GTE comes with some serious Pro driven corvettes and BMW’s

It’s going to be an interesting dynamic.

Anyone whittled down this list to see what the full season entry looks like?

Bcarr6 · 13 Jan 2021, 22:56 (Ref:4028836)

Very very very wildly guesstimating the following for full season entries from looking at the Daytona grid

We know DPI is pretty safely 6, P2 could be anything but estimated to be 3, seems the P3 entries almost all look like full season cars.

GTE we know the corvettes and single porsche are confirmed, BMW a big maybe, Risi fat chance.

GTD is the more vague one, but I think there is roughly 5 cars at Daytona that won’t do full season (GRT x2, AF Corse, TF Sport, NTE???), of course that NTE entry is unannounced so including that in the list of Daytona only for now.

It looks like a conservative bet puts the grid at just over 30 for the season, which I think would be a nice grid!

DPI - 6
P2 - 3
P3 - 6/7
GTE - 3/5
GTD - 13/15

Total - 30/36

WyldStallion · 13 Jan 2021, 23:21 (Ref:4028841)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Very very very wildly guesstimating the following for full season entries from looking at the Daytona grid

We know DPI is pretty safely 6, P2 could be anything but estimated to be 3, seems the P3 entries almost all look like full season cars.

GTE we know the corvettes and single porsche are confirmed, BMW a big maybe, Risi fat chance.

GTD is the more vague one, but I think there is roughly 5 cars at Daytona that won’t do full season (GRT x2, AF Corse, TF Sport, NTE???), of course that NTE entry is unannounced so including that in the list of Daytona only for now.

It looks like a conservative bet puts the grid at just over 30 for the season, which I think would be a nice grid!

DPI - 6
P2 - 3
P3 - 6/7
GTE - 3/5
GTD - 13/15

Total - 30/36

Thanks for the analysis. I thought a GRT car might be full season. Just speculation though. Biggest hope for me is that we get a combined GTLM/GTD grid of 18-20 cars so we can have those grid sizes for the All GT races. Lime Rock is ok with having a 16 car grid. But at a V.I.R even 18 cars looks small for a track that size.

W2Motorsport · 14 Jan 2021, 00:34 (Ref:4028853)

Quote:

Originally Posted by WyldStallion

Thanks for the analysis. I thought a GRT car might be full season. Just speculation though. Biggest hope for me is that we get a combined GTLM/GTD grid of 18-20 cars so we can have those grid sizes for the All GT races. Lime Rock is ok with having a 16 car grid. But at a V.I.R even 18 cars looks small for a track that size.

GRT plans to compete in all of the IMSA endurance races for GTD according to this article.

http://gt-place.com/2020/10/23/grass...meisterschaft/

I also don't think Winward or Sun Energy1 will be competing in IMSA for the full season but could be wrong. I try to keep tabs on most Mercedes GT3 teams and have not seen anything official about them running the full IMSA season. I would be more inclined to believe Winward plans to run the GTWC America season with their GT3 entry and continue in Pilot Challenge with the GT4.

**Adam43** · 14 Jan 2021, 01:22 (Ref:4028860)

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2Motorsport

50 cars for Daytona 24H in 2021!

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/5...-for-rolex-24/

Great looking grid and I'm very excited for this race.

That will do nicely.

broadrun96 · 14 Jan 2021, 02:13 (Ref:4028868)

Quote:

Originally Posted by W2Motorsport

GRT plans to compete in all of the IMSA endurance races for GTD according to this article.

http://gt-place.com/2020/10/23/grass...meisterschaft/

I also don't think Winward or Sun Energy1 will be competing in IMSA for the full season but could be wrong. I try to keep tabs on most Mercedes GT3 teams and have not seen anything official about them running the full IMSA season. I would be more inclined to believe Winward plans to run the GTWC America season with their GT3 entry and continue in Pilot Challenge with the GT4.

Winward sounds like they are working on full season plans but we all know how that goes in good years.

SunEnergy made no comment about full season and I would guess race at a time in the enduros is best case scenario there.

Racing Harz · 14 Jan 2021, 05:52 (Ref:4028883)

Quote:

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Winward sounds like they are working on full season plans but we all know how that goes in good years.

Ward said, that Daytona is a test for 2022, because next year they´ll do the full season.

WyldStallion · 14 Jan 2021, 17:00 (Ref:4029052)

Great article on GT racing in IMSA by Marshal. https://racer.com/2021/01/14/opinion...-for-imsa-gts/

He is right about the BoP for "GTD-Pro". There is precedent that works in International GT Open. Those are the fastest GT3 cars on the track today in any series. I wonder if DTM might pull a big open BoP as well.

I always thought if Corvette ends up having to go with a GT3 C8R, then instead of Le Mans. Use Nurburgring as their European endurance adventure.

**skycafe** · 19 Jan 2021, 17:33 (Ref:4030070)

BMW Team RLL only doing the four Enduros in 2021
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/0...-for-2021.html

WyldStallion · 19 Jan 2021, 19:06 (Ref:4030090)

Quote:

Originally Posted by skycafe

BMW Team RLL only doing the four Enduros in 2021
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/0...-for-2021.html

This is concerning for Lime Rock and V.I.R.

broadrun96 · 19 Jan 2021, 19:20 (Ref:4030095)

Lime Rock I would wait until the week before the race to concern myself with car counts, I would guess it's 50/50 at best at going forward. From what I hear from friends still in Va it's a state that can't tell what the rules and future will be and there's still a chance the Gov Not me in Blackface may cancel the event again.

And not sure missing 2 GTLM will change much for either. Lime Rock is just traffic all day so interesting in it's own way but that garbage chicane makes it a must skip for me, rather drive it in FM than watch the race. ViR is so massive and open losing 2 cars won't look like anything. And for both of those it's which Vette was going to be in front and not hit by a GTD guy trying to not get his line blocked.

WyldStallion · 20 Jan 2021, 02:44 (Ref:4030153)

Well with the way the IMSA GTLM sked is now, NAEC races are the first 3 events of the year for the class. So the impact of BMW R.L.L. not being there won't be felt all the way until July 4th holiday weekend which is CTMP.