IMSA 2021

[WyldStallion]

Detroit IMSA replay is up...might be worth skipping...that was boring honestly. Not becasue of John, Jeremey and Shea of course. Detroit has got to go. It is the lone dead weight on the sked.

[joeb]

Something is happening at Watkins Glen this weekend. The shank car topped the first practice.

[joeb]

Acura on top in practice 2.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/c...in-practice-2/

[fieldodreams79]

That was a little scary and seemingly unnecessarily far too long before Cooper stopped to deal with that. Glad he's okay.

[TWRv12]

Great win for Mazda, lucky there wasn't another lap.

[NaBUru38]

Friday night's IMSA WeatherTech race at Watkins Glen has 31 entries (6 DPi, 3 LMP2, 6 LMP3, 3 GTLM, 13 GTD).


https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/3...0-at-the-glen/

[broadrun96]

30, believe the Wright Porsche has since dropped out as it does not pay full season points.

Sounds like the LMP3 guys managed to air freight a new Nissan for the car AGAIN this week. And Cooper's Porsche is being rebuilt not the backup car. Also, the weekend weather looks to be a MESS and possibly interrupted with HEAVY rain and lightning

[WyldStallion]

Not running the Glen 240 on the short course was a mistake. Got to see some of it now. It was not that exciting other than the GTD race at times. IMSA blew that one. They have made two real bad calls this year now. Not running the Glen 240 on the short course and not doing a split class twin races for the Daytona Q-races. Could argue a 3rd one too, because the GTD pro ony qualifying has not really brought any exictiment or interest either. Can anybody say so far that has been a successful idea?

[broadrun96]

The short course is fairly boring but hey to each his own I guess.

As for GTD Pro quali it appears the teams enjoy the challenge and the points for it. It wasn't added for the fans but for the teams to have something fun. From everything I've seen they enjoy it so I would say success.

[WyldStallion]

With the Lime Rock round coming up we could sure use a good clean safety car free race. 17 car grid is small but a small track like Lime Rock will help shield that some. (V.I.R. won't do that)

2021 IMSA has honestly left me wanting more. Not been the most exciting seaon so far I think. Granted I'm a GT fan mainly and the coverage has been very skewed to DPI wheras in past years it was more balanced. Maybe GTLM being diminished has a lot to do with it, but GTD deserves more TV time than it has gotten. So yeah more reason to hope for a good sunny day on June 17. The season championship right now is still wide open in GTD. Don't think we are even halfway yet since Detroit and Glen 2 don't technically count.

[seanyb505]

I think as we get closer to 2023 we'll feel that way more and more. Yes there's a race going on... Any new news?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

I think as we get closer to 2023 we'll feel that way more and more. Yes there's a race going on... Any new news?

With the top classes, dpi and gtlm, having reduced sizes or going away all together, 2022 will be a rough year. Maybe GTD pro will add some excitement?

[seanyb505]

Yeah you may be right... Any new news on that?

[joeb]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

Yeah you may be right... Any new news on that?

Corvette said they will be there, and BMW, but everything else is just rumoured at this point.

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by joeb

Corvette said they will be there, and BMW, but everything else is just rumoured at this point.

Factory GT teams in North America is non existent beyond the said two teams mentioned and BMW is interested in LMDH too now. Chevy Corvette just have no more dancing partners here. They will stomp the privateer GTD Pro entries I feel without major BoP which I don't know will happen.

The best course of action for Laura Wintrop Klauser to consider is look at where the remaining factory backed GT runners actually are at...well that is the Nurburgring 24 hours and SRO GT WC Europe. Corvette should conisder the N'Ring 24 seriously if they go with GT3 ever. Convincing the Euro tems to go acroass the Atlantic and run IMSA is no-go. LMDH is already going to be there. LMDH is the factory GT killer in North America.

Another option is to go with Cadillac as the LMDH, and have Corvette C8R become a hypercar. Duel efforts.

I just don't see much of a future for GT racing in IMSA and WEC at this point. GT racing should be left for SRO, the NLS, DTM, etc.

[broadrun96]

Why would Corvette pack up and go to Europe where they're not common from the States where they can't make enough even now and the wait list is long without the premium models yet? Plus what's the TV coverage of N24 or SRO GT Europe in the US? Sorry, live stream isn't gonna work for the old guys buying Corvettes, that's a non-starter. Wholesale packing up the program to go to Europe just isn't in the cards, the program and GM DEPEND on the trackside engagement and they are masters at it. Go to a track and count the Corvettes in the corralls.

And making 2 separate chassis for effectively the same class? What sense would that make? They'd be better off making a Caddy and Corvette option on the same platform. But what return would they get there other than maybe spreading the spend across the old DPi and GTLM budgets.

To stay in IMSA they'll have to build a leaner program like Lexus runs in GTD and retain one hot shoe and find willing partners lined up. But then they'll likely have to make more cars and make them available for GT3, doubt they'd have any problems selling them. To stay in GTE a limited WEC program could be in order until that's not an option. But if that option goes away when FIA/ACO drop GTE, the GTD program becomes a bigger deal with option to go to LM as well. Course we went through that with GT2/S/etc in the past so maybe 10 years we'll do this again.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

Corvette said they will be there, and BMW, but everything else is just rumoured at this point.

Even Lexus isn't sure about it. I'm guessing unless it's identical spec to GTD they aren't biting.

Doubt we'll see enough to make it worth doing anything special, it will be this year with a slower Vette and new ugly as sin M4. MAYBE a Weathertech run with a car hoping to catch the scraps if things go wrong and the M4 being new.

[S griffin]

We'll have to see who comes along. I just hope this series can survive for a while longer. We'll see what happens in the next few year, but the series isn't looking great at the moment. I'm not getting my expectations too high at this stage

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Even Lexus isn't sure about it. I'm guessing unless it's identical spec to GTD they aren't biting.

Wasn't it already announced that it will be exactly the same spec as GTD for next season? Only bop could be different, and in the future there is talk with Michelin about a better tire. But that is at least a couple years out.

[S griffin]

I am not sure how they are doing it next year, but I hope the BOP is much better. However I think putting the spec in line with WEC is a great move that could be very beneficial for both

[WyldStallion]

Originally Posted by S griffin

We'll have to see who comes along. I just hope this series can survive for a while longer. We'll see what happens in the next few year, but the series isn't looking great at the moment. I'm not getting my expectations too high at this stage

Survive...err the Prototypes are about to be the strongest it has ever been. Racer is talking about a golden age coming up. To talk is specifically about GT racing which I love and hold dear but WEC and IMSA are clearly making it a 2nd priority whereas it used to not be that.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by joeb

Wasn't it already announced that it will be exactly the same spec as GTD for next season? Only bop could be different, and in the future there is talk with Michelin about a better tire. But that is at least a couple years out.

It appeared in the Racer article different BOP and setups and they don't have any interest in making 2 separate teams. I think by identical they mean everything the same between the cars in Pro and GTD. I don't know why they would need to run split BOP but racing management rarely does things that make sense or cause less work

[S griffin]

Good spot. We'll see what they do. Maybe scale it down a bit. It's gonna be a bit of work to make these rules work how they should

[WyldStallion]

John Dagys just posted his Friday S365 notebook at Lime Rock. I can't believe Michael Avanneti the infamous Stormy Daniels lawyer was a sports car GTE Am driver. That is instane!! He drove in Le Mans in 2015 in a Ferrari 458. Add this guy to the list of seedy race car drivers. Scott Tucker, Randy Lanier, John Paul Sr, and the Whittington brothers have added a new member of the club. Well This Avanneti guy certainly deserves the jail time and is long overdue.

Have I forgotten anybody else past or present? The Crowdstrike guy in GT WC America George Kurtz has seedy ties perhaps?

[canaglia]

can't say he had seedy ties but jaime melo too was arrested about 10 years ago