IMSA Race 61st Rolex 24 at Daytona - January 26th - 29th, 2023

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Nick Woodbury

Well, here's your answer. Must have been some impact! Lucas Auer was the driver.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/a...pmV0YkrA8PFY7s

Yikes, that doesn't sound good. Hope the Lucas is ok.

[joeb]

We are about to go green for the first Imsa Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) qualifying of the year. TCR is up first and the 14 cars entered will have 15 minutes to set a time. This session will be followed by the 32 GT4 cars on track for GS qualifying. There are a few new cars to note - a new Civic TCR and a new Mustang GT4 are likely to be the two most anticipated cars for the series this year.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by joeb

We are about to go green for the first Imsa Michelin Pilot Challenge (IMPC) qualifying of the year. TCR is up first and the 14 cars entered will have 15 minutes to set a time. This session will be followed by the 32 GT4 cars on track for GS qualifying. There are a few new cars to note - a new Civic TCR and a new Mustang GT4 are likely to be the two most anticipated cars for the series this year.

McAller put his Cayman on the pole in GS and Pombo put his new Civic there for TCR

[joeb]

Not surprising, but the Winward Merc is the only car not to have made it on track so far in Practice 2.

1/3 of the way in and it is Caddy 1 2 3. While Porsche and Ferrari continue to struggle

[JoeW04]

Do we think Porsche teams in GT are playing the B*P game or genuinely struggling for pace?

[broadrun96]

I'm willing to go 50/50 on that, they know IMSA can see all the settings and systems And it seems IMSA would rather be slow with new cars than fast. I could see some tweaks but if they suddenly gain pace beyond any changes allowed I would expect swift retribution at Sebring

[Nick Woodbury]

MX-5 Cup R1 in the books.

If you missed it, then enjoy the livestream replay. https://youtu.be/8XySlnWVj7I

Race 2 tomorrow morning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrpORfqgrbk

[joeb]

Racer has reported that Auer broke his back in the accident this morning.

https://racer.com/2023/01/26/auer-ho...ractice-crash/

[broadrun96]

Yeah, sounds like he's out of the race, for good reason and rest and repair sir, and they're trying to build a new chassis for Saturday. That's probably gonna be close

[fieldodreams79]

That stinks for Auer. The team was in Houston yesterday to work on the spare tub? That's a thrash but the later start time on Saturday gives a bit more time, but man! Good luck to them!

[joeb]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

That stinks for Auer. The team was in Houston yesterday to work on the spare tub? That's a thrash but the later start time on Saturday gives a bit more time, but man! Good luck to them!

Why wouldn't you bring your spare chassis with you? or doesn't some other Merc team have one they could loan?

[broadrun96]

Do they have 2 cars there already? Guessing they didn't have room for another chassis in the hauler plus the MPC car(s) as well

[JT240Z]

Official entry list is out.:

https://www.imsa.com/news/2023/01/25...ch-and-talent/

https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uplo...Entry-List.pdf

Looks like 61 cars entered. Nice showing for the new season.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Do they have 2 cars there already? Guessing they didn't have room for another chassis in the hauler plus the MPC car(s) as well

That could be, I forgot about the IMPC effort. Assuming they get the new car there and built up, I wonder if they will draft a replacement driver?

[joeb]

I was just noticing the weather forecast. Overnight low on Saturday is only 60°F. That has to be one of the warmer overnights in the recent past. I always seem to remember hearing 40's or so. There is also a slight 20% chance for rain Sunday. That would sure make an exciting finish!


On the official schedule we have the MX5 race this morning, IMPC practice and then race this afternoon. There are also 2 Weathertech sessions. One this evening being 20 minutes for GTP only. Seems like a short run, I wonder why they added this? Testing some new components before the race since there is no warm up saturday?