IMSA | Rolex 24 Discussion Thread

[BrunoBæ]

Gear team is on fire.

Oh you evil man.
And then with a laughing smiley.
That will be remembered

 

[bgil66]

So for the winning team does everyone get a watch or just the drivers?

 

[DND]

So for the winning team does everyone get a watch or just the drivers?

I think drivers only, crew get egg timers.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Oh Christina what the hell happened?
And even inside the team Legge was faster!
We had so high hopes here.

 

[brc19]

Oh Christina what the hell happened?
And even inside the team Legge was faster!
We had so high hopes here.

View attachment 346148

Prior to the fire, what was GEAR team's GTD position?

 

[PoopMan]

Good race between bmw and porsche, sad for the corvettes lacking pace and busted ferrari. Wayne Taylor is just too good at this track, that driver line up was insane.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Prior to the fire, what was GEAR team's GTD position?

OK Im serious here.
Was there actually a fire?
English is not my first language - so I thought that your comment that the "girlie" car was on fire was an ironie because they were slow.
So was the car literally on fire?
Because that could explain the lousy result

 

[BrunoBæ]

sad for the corvettes lacking pace

I would say the Corvettes was lacking Jan Magnussen

 

[M-Bimmer]

What a race. Watched in total 15 hours of it. GTLM fight was epic all came down to this

https://twitter.com/x/status/1221503734200655873

 

[BrunoBæ]

OK Im serious here.
Was there actually a fire?
English is not my first language - so I thought that your comment that the "girlie" car was on fire was an ironie because they were slow.
So was the car literally on fire?
Because that could explain the lousy result

OK I researched this accident myself.
I have to admit that I didnt follow much of the race live -so...
Now Im even a bigger fan of Christina - the firewoman

— 8:47 a.m. ET: The No. 19 GEAR Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3 catches fire with Christina Nielsen at the wheel. She gets out of the car OK, and the incident brings out a caution.

Trouble for the No. 19 GEAR Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3.

Christina Nielsen then tried to put out the fire herself. #Rolex24 #IMSA

— Motorsports On NBC (@MotorsportsNBC) January 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/x/status/1221429544688717825

 

[bgil66]

Porsche looked great

 

[brc19]

OK Im serious here.
Was there actually a fire?
English is not my first language - so I thought that your comment that the "girlie" car was on fire was an ironie because they were slow.
So was the car literally on fire?
Because that could explain the lousy result

Yes, it is a shocker. No word from the team about the cause of the fire - word is the engine compartment was badly damaged. Nielsen tried to activate the fire suppresion system from the outside, didn't appear to work.

 

[bgil66]

She did a great job

 

[Wayne Kerr]

Oh Christina what the hell happened?
And even inside the team Legge was faster!
We had so high hopes here.

View attachment 346148

i hate to break it to you. CN had the slowest intrateam lap average over a stint in the first 5 stints.

 

[BrunoBæ]

i hate to break it to you. CN had the slowest intrateam lap average over a stint in the first 5 stints.

No you are absolute right Wayne. You didnt have to publish that.
But Im sure it was Calderon who was running the first many stints

Hehe joking ofcourse.
But I have to admit it looked so promissing - before the race started

What what? You are saying Christina had the slowest " intrateam lap average".
Im gonna kill myself

 

[M-Bimmer]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1221502441260224514

 

[Andrew Harper]

A really good Rolex 24 with a good field of cars. Lots of nice battles all through the race and the top positions in all classes were pretty close till the very end. A puncture or spin could mean a very different result.

Thoroughly enjoyed watching it over the weekend and so nice to see Daytona bathed in sunshine!

I support the Mazda team and even though they didn't get the win, they've made huge progress in the last two years. Superb result for them. Even with the turbo problem they managed to nurse the #55 to the finish as well which was good.

Congrats to the #10 Konica Minolta team, a superb win.

Modern day 24 hour racing is incredible. The reliability compared to even five years ago is just amazing.

@brc19 I'm only guessing but the team were constantly having to top up the oil on the GEAR car. My guess is that a hose or union joint came lose eventually and sprayed oil all over the engine. To answer the other persons question I think they were in the teens GTD position wise when the fire hit.

 

[Andrew Harper]

So can I turn this into a prototype convergence section?
Anyone have more elongated thoughts on it yet?

I'm torn both ways on this. It's great that we could end up with a global platform for both IMSA and WEC/Le Mans.

However DPi was a category kind of born out of necessity. Manufacturers wanted to race in a top category but couldn't go to the expense of building there own car (or operate on the budget of even a privateer LMP1 team). So the LMP2 base chassis idea with the rest being designed and developed by the manufacturer was in my view a brilliant idea. The cars look good, sound good and deliver good racing.

They are also more customer team friendly, will be interesting to see if we do in fact get some customer cars this year, looks promising so far.

DPi 2.0 regulations were in full swing for 2022 (I think it was) and they included more dramatic bodywork restyling (most will notice the current cars are only really modified with front aero changes, the new regs allowed almost the whole car to be changed. Also a customer hybrid system was due to be introduced as well. At a much lower cost than anything that LMP-H use.

My worry with this new global formula is the ACO are adamant in the past that with any top category, the whole car should be developed and made by the entrant. This would shoot up costs dramatically and that's my worry.

Cadillac and Mazda I think would walk away, they simply do not have the budget of these large marques and will not stay around if they feel the costs will spiral out of control.

At the moment though I see that the LMP2 Base chassis idea is still being kept, so I'll be following the whole development of this with great interest.

Where does this leave Hypercar? Well Hypercar I have a feeling will still be used as the top halo category, with the new category slotting in beneath it but still with a chance of a winning overall.

Also for those that don't know. Originally IMSA had a gentleman's agreement when they were developing the DPi's that the ACO would allow them at Le Mans, and then the ACO changed their mind. So I'll believe it when I see it! lol

In summary I really like the DPi's. You can't argue with 8-10 factory cars in the top class of a series battling for the win. It's just worked very well for them. I'm hoping to make it to maybe Petit Le Mans this year as I want to see the cars on the track in front of me at least once.

 

[BrunoBæ]

Really good background info @Andrew - appreciated
I will read it thoughtfully again - before I kill myself.

 

[BrunoBæ]

She did a great job

Isnt it possible to make you my friend in this forum