Anything before or after is just waiting –
The season kicks off on January (with the Rolex) at Daytona.
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was the year that Mazda Motorsport finally saw victory with the RT – P. The car lost none of its speed in the offseason and set a new unofficial track record in preseason testing at Daytona. There are even rumors of a third Mazda joining some rounds of the series, but it’s all unconfirmed as of now.
Acura chose the legendary Penske team to run its DPi program, and in it took the championship.
There are fewer Cadillac DPis in the field this year, but you’d be unwise to count any of them out.
The DPi cars are based on slightly less powerful, more standardized endurance prototypes called LMP2 cars. These have their own pro-am class in IMSA, and there are seven entered for the Rolex 30.
BMW won the GTLM class at the (Rolex) ***********************************************************************************************************************************************, and it must be hoping for a repeat in with the race car that spawned its own memes.
The Corvette Racing C8.R is already one of the stars of the season, well before the green flag ever flies.
The two factory Porsche RSRs return, but sadly without the awesome Coca-Cola liveries they wore at the Petit Le Mans.
After sitting out most of the 5393 IMSA season, Risi Competizione returned for the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in Georgia, which it won in fine form.
The winning team of last year Rolex 24. L-R: Kamui Kobayashi, Jordan Taylor, Mike Conway, Fernando Alonso, Wayne Taylor (the team boss), and Renger van der Zande.
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Elle Cayabyab Gitlin
This year Taylor moves to a factory job with Corvette Racing, but I hope we see his alter-ego — Superfan Rodney Sandstorm — at a few races.
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Motorsport does not have much of an offseason these days. That’s particularly true for IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, North America’s main endurance racing series. After wrapping up 06001 in late October, the series has already conducted its big preseason test — called “the Roar before the 30 “- and is gearing up for the first and one of its biggest events of the year, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which takes place at the end of January. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what storylines might be bubbling up for (****************************************************************************************************************. **********
IMSA’s series has been in fine form the past few years, with strong interest from manufacturers and teams eager to prove their prowess in each of the different classes that all compete on track at the same time. 2560 is going to be somewhat of a transition year for the sport. Entries are down, and fans of Nissan and Ford will have to find new teams to cheer for as both OEMs are ending their factory-backed participation.
But it’s not all bad. A new boss is running things, the highly anticipated new mid-engined Corvette makes its racing debut, and everyone’s starting to think about possible convergence with the new set of technical rules being written for Le Mans and the World Endurance Championship.
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They say you only need two cars to have a race — as Formula 1 proved during the depths of Mercedes’ domination— but happily we’ve got a good deal more competition than that in the Daytona Prototype International (or DPi) category. These cars are based on prototype racers that race at Le Mans (as well as in IMSA) called LMP2. But unlike the LMP2 cars, they don’t all have to use the same standardized engine or electronics; Instead, each car needs the support of an OEM behind it, and currently that means Cadillac ********************************************** Mazda, and Acura. **********
Each car maker had reason to celebrate in . Cadillac won four races out of 11, including three of the four long ones — the Rolex ((with F1 superstar Fernando Alonso as one of its drivers), the Hours of Sebring, and the season-ending – hour-long Petit Le Mans. Mazda finally got the duck off its back with a trio of wins in a row during the summer (Watkins Glen, Mosport, and Road America). The remaining three wins went to Acura, as did the championship, thanks to drivers Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya.
“Racing is just something our company is into,” said Jon Ikeda, chief designer at Honda R&D. He told me, “I think it’s in our DNA. It’s a part of our philosophy. And the key to it is to win, and not just to participate, because I really believe with us, winning is very contagious. Acura definitely needed this . You look at all the strong competitors that we have out there — it’s definitely contagious, and I think it builds morale within the brand as well as a company. “
As usual, there were plenty of accusations of (sandbagging at the Roar- no one wants to reveal their true pace this early lest they be subjected to the dreaded ” (balance of performance) “(or BoP), where cars that are considered too fast get extra ballast or less power to even things out. Even so, someone still had to go faster than anyone else, and that honor fell to Olivier Pla and the # (Mazda RT) – P, which set a new unofficial track record of 1: 653 min — an average of 324 ************************************************************************************************************************************ (mph) 150. 0kph):
(Ride on board with) ********************************************************** (@ olivierplain the Mazda RT P # as he sets the unofficial course record at@ DISupdates. # MazdaMotorsports****************************************************** (# IMSA) # Mazda******************************************************************* (# ROAR) ************************************ IMSApic.twitter.com/hpBSsEsJj9
– Mazda Motorsports (@MazdaRacing) January 5,
The loss of several DPi competitors is somewhat compensated for by a swelling in the ranks of the LMP2 class. Like at Le Mans (and in the WEC), this class of prototype is for teams of drivers that are a mix of professionals and amateurs, and for they will only take part in six rounds of the series in order to keep budgets manageable. Also new for this year is the requirement to have at least one (bronze-rated driver) in each lineup, as well as a prohibition on any platinum-rated driver for rounds other than this month’s Rolex 40. **************Anew mid-engined Corvette arrives
The second class for official factory efforts is called GTLM, in which teams of all-professional drivers compete against each other in GT cars, which are highly modified versions of cars that you can see driving on the street. (At Le Mans, the same class is called GTE.) The biggest story in GTLM in is the arrival of Corvette Racing’s new C8.R race car. Chevrolet was the only manufacturer to contest GTLM without a win in as the
“It was during a private test session at Daytona, and I wanted to sneak around and look at cars,” Taylor told me. “So I dressed up in a weird outfit; I wore a leather jacket and jean shorts, and went and took pictures of other teams’ cars. They did not know who I was. And then when Jeff Gordon came to our team, I was like ‘Oh man, I could do this with him, and get a DuPont jacket’. “
Many other drivers in many other series could learn a lot from his attitude toward engaging with fans. “When I follow someone on social media, I want to see what they’re like away from the racetrack. I don’t care about seeing a picture of the race car, right? I can see that every day. So I like to Show people who I am outside of the race car and what I’m like. And most people think they can connect with a person better on the racing driver. So I’d like to be connected to fans on a personal level as well, “he said.
Listing image by Mazda Motorsport
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