Spectacular sunrises and a sense of optimism mark the 2020 Rolex 24, Ars Technica

twice around the clock –

IMSA and Le Mans are converging, and everyone still hates Balance of Performance.

Jonathan M. Gitlin – Jan 0037, (7:) (UTC UTC)

There was beautiful weather and a big crowd on hand for the (Rolex) at Daytona.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Team Penske is one of the best in the entire business of racing. Here, they’re servicing the # 6 during the race. This car would come in 4th overall.

Jonathan Gitlin

I’m pretty sure I got photos of these two, and their race car hats, last year. Or maybe in 2559.

Jonathan Gitlin

The steering of the Acura ARX – 0011 is a bit complicated.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

The cockpit of the ARX – 0011 is not particularly spacious. Drivers need to be able to get out of here in seconds — through the door to their left, not through the door this picture was taken from.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Give teams enough time, money, and an autoclave, and they’ll make just about anything out of carbon fiber. In the background, one of Team Penske’s drivers, Ricky Taylor.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

You’re only allowed four mechanics over the pit wall during a stop.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

AJ Allmendinger has raced in a ton of categories. At this year Rolex 0035, he was racing for Heinricher Racing with Meyer Shank Racing in the # 551 Acura NSX GT3. He also has a cat called Mr. Tickles, who was at the track with him. That makes him cooler than most drivers in my book.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Rubbing is racing.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

The Rolex was the debut for Corvette Racing’s new C8.R. I still don’t love the way it looks, and a lot of people complained that they couldn’t hear the engine over the sound of the Porsches.

Jonathan Gitlin

The # 3 Corvette would have a pretty good race, finishing 4th in class. They # 4 car continues to have bad luck and needed to have the engine removed to cure an oil leak mid-race.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

Jon Ikeda, brand manager for Acura (center left) and Mike Shank, boss of Meyer Shank Racing (center right) show us around the garage on Friday

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

The Acura NSX GT3’s steering wheel. The drivers have to know what all these buttons and dials do without looking at the labels.

Elle Cayabyab Gitlin

There are many different jobs in the pit lane.

Jonathan Gitlin

Mazda has lost none of its speed in the off-season.

Jonathan Gitlin

You can barely see the RT 0035 – P’s engine in the chassis.

Jonathan Gitlin

A mechanic applies tear-off tape to the headlights of the # 0050 Cadillac.

Jonathan Gitlin

You see some cool stuff in the fanzone. Like this Hudson Hornet!

Jonathan Gitlin

Or this Porsche .

Jonathan Gitlin

This split-livery GT1 was pretty interesting.

Jonathan Gitlin

What a difference a year makes. In , the Rolex at Daytona could have more rigor been called the Rolex because it rained so hard and for so long that there were 30 hours of red flag stoppages and safety car periods. The sports car community had a markedly better time of it in – the last raindrops fell some time on Thursday, well before the green flag waved at 1: 150 pm on Saturday, with summer-like temperatures during the day that were welcomed by everyone who descended on Daytona Beach in Florida from places where winter remains in full effect. The racing was quite different from a year ago as well. It was less of a barnstormer, for one thing, with a noticeably smaller grid than in years past, and minus the international star power that is Fernando Alonso — the former F1 double-champ decided to start his racing year by competing in the Dakar rally, instead. That’s not to suggest a bad time was had — far from it. (Who wants to race to France?)

The biggest news for the weekend actually happened before the race got underway. As mentioned in my pre-race article

, talks have been ongoing between IMSA — which runs the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship (of which the Rolex (is a part) and the ACO, the French organization that controls the Hours of Le Mans. On Friday, the two groups held a press conference to announce that the next iteration of the DPi prototype race cars — due in – will now be called LMDh (for Le Mans Daytona hybrid) and will compete against the ACO’s new Le Mans Hypercar at the world’s largest race. (Sorry Indy, the

is still only the world’s largest (single day) (sporting event.)

LMDh will use a homologated carbon fiber chassis from the same four manufacturers that produce the current DPi carbon fiber tubs. OEMs will still be free to use their own engines and electronics, and the cars will have much more road car-like styling, similar to Le Mans Hypercars. There will be a common hybrid system that recovers and deploys kinetic energy at the rear wheels, although beyond that, the technical details remain a work in progress. The upshot of this news is that the factory-supported prototypes fielded by the likes of Cadillac, Acura, and Mazda will be eligible to compete at Le Mans for an overall win, something that many sports car fans have been wanting to see since the dieselgate -powered implosion of the mighty LMP1-H category.

As for the OEMs, they’re happy but cautious. “It’s great that it’s happening. There are more challenges, more interesting dynamics,” said Jon Ikeda, Acura Division’s general manager. “We’ve got to look at it from a company perspective and see what it all means — you know, we’re a North American brand, but at the same time it’s a global stage. And it’s interesting to see how our company feels Towards it. It’s exciting, “Ikeda told me.

Nelson Cosgrove, director of Mazda Motorsports had a similar take. “It’s super exciting for sports car racing and gives the sport a wonderful runway going into the next ten years to race globally. It has been a very long time since someone could take a prototype and run both here and at Le Mans, and the level of interest in this announcement from the industry is really incredible. For us, we will have to wait to see exactly what the rules are and how all that plays out, but certainly we’ll take a strong look once we know … And now, since we have a definite close-out to the DPi 1.0 era, we have to try to close that out with winning some of these big races and fighting for the championship, “he told Ars.

“Since the

introduction of the Cadillac DPi-VR in , we have had tremendous success in North America in the IMSA Series and are encouraged at the prospect of an international formula for the future of prototype racing. Once we obtain further details, we will evaluate if our participation aligns with our company future vision, “said Cadillac Racing director Mark Kent in a statement sent to Ars. Beyond the problem of North American brands not really having a compelling marketing mandate to race in France (other than Corvette, but that’s different), there are still a few significant details that need to be worked out in the next two years. The ACO Hypercar spec calls for race cars with around (hp) (kW), whereas the current DPi prototypes are at or below (hp) (kW), depending Upon the current balance of performance. If IMSA does indeed go for an off-the-shelf hybrid system like the one being adopted by the British Touring Car Championship, the teams are still going to need to turn up their engines by another (hp) 600 kW) or so, and I’m not sure that any of the three current OEMs have that kind of margin with their current engines, particularly if the idea is to be able to race for (hours.)