2018 IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar ChampionshipSports Cars 

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This wasn't the most exciting Rolex 24. Noteworthy outcomes were in the cards early on and the merciless unpredictability of endurance racing never really showed itself. Bring on Sebring.
 
Nielsen
This wasn't the most exciting Rolex 24. Noteworthy outcomes were in the cards early on and the merciless unpredictability of endurance racing never really showed itself. Bring on Sebring.
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That is of course your own personal view very much based on presumably your own personal expectations and requirements. I like to wait a day or two before the full race is available on the IMSA Official YouTube channel and I am not even through the first 4 hours and I have found it very good. The Acura's DPI's in their first race I thought did really well. I was impressed by the young British kid Phil Hanson in the United Autosports' Ligier. He was the only one still on the same lap at this point when more experienced drivers were -1 and -2 laps down. And Stuart Middleton did Mike Conway, Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran credit I thought. Again I saw a young 18 year old British rookie from my neck of the woods (Northumberland. The most northerly county on the East side and the county above my own) compete with world class talent. Only two years ago he was competing in the top championship in the Ginetta scholarship programme - the Simpsons Race Products Ginetta Junior Championship which supports the BTCC (finishing 2nd) and last year was in the GT4 class of the British GT Championship where he won the class. Only three years ago he was in the Ginetta Junior Winter Series where he won that. So his success is no surprise but his quick rise very much is.

The only downside in the Prototype class is the Mazda DPI's and ESM's problems. Had it not been for them I think both ESM cars would have been in contention.
 
I've got to side with Nielsen here. It was interesting, but definitely one of the less-intriguing ones of the past several years, which is a shame considering the incredible field we amassed.

I do think this was a proper test of all the cars though (never gone this hard with this much green, this much distance, and this much competition) so the winners should be damn proud. But the race lacked almost any proper racing outside of a few excellent moments in GTD.

I do think the remainder of the season could be spectacular, but this was one of the first "meh" endings I've seen in some time. Not sad I watched the race: I always watch them in their entirety on YouTube after the fact, just finished.
 
TheElbows
I've got to side with Nielsen here. It was interesting, but definitely one of the less-intriguing ones of the past several years, which is a shame considering the incredible field we amassed.

I do think this was a proper test of all the cars though (never gone this hard with this much green, this much distance, and this much competition) so the winners should be damn proud. But the race lacked almost any proper racing outside of a few excellent moments in GTD.

I do think the remainder of the season could be spectacular, but this was one of the first "meh" endings I've seen in some time. Not sad I watched the race: I always watch them in their entirety on YouTube after the fact, just finished.
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Maybe IMSA should have thrown some competition yellows to keep the affair closer and more lively? Or maybe bring back the PC's?
 
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Yeah the lack of yellows was the biggest thing making the race seem dull. Instead of constantly bunching up the field we actually had, you know, racing for almost 24 hours. So the fastest cars pulled away, and the ones that didn't have reliability issues took over pretty handily. I was reasonably impressed with the PC teams -- we still had a lot of the same people but while they had some moments they weren't the hot mess you tended to expect when they were their own class.

AEX did seem to be the team to beat right from the start, but both cars barely made it to the finish and almost got caught from behind as they were nursing them home.

GTLM was a bit dull up front unfortunately. The Fords weren't very much better but they were so damn consistent nobody could put a dent in their lead.

GTD was swapping leaders for most of the race, I really had no idea how that would come out until quite late.

Not the most entertaining race ever but I've enjoyed far worse. It looked like it was going to be one for the ages with the way practice and qualifying looked, but that's endurance racing for you.
 
Morgoth_666
Yeah the lack of yellows was the biggest thing making the race seem dull. Instead of constantly bunching up the field we actually had, you know, racing for almost 24 hours. So the fastest cars pulled away, and the ones that didn't have reliability issues took over pretty handily. I was reasonably impressed with the PC teams -- we still had a lot of the same people but while they had some moments they weren't the hot mess you tended to expect when they were their own class.

AEX did seem to be the team to beat right from the start, but both cars barely made it to the finish and almost got caught from behind as they were nursing them home.

GTLM was a bit dull up front unfortunately. The Fords weren't very much better but they were so damn consistent nobody could put a dent in their lead.

GTD was swapping leaders for most of the race, I really had no idea how that would come out until quite late.

Not the most entertaining race ever but I've enjoyed far worse. It looked like it was going to be one for the ages with the way practice and qualifying looked, but that's endurance racing for you.
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And here I thought it was dull because, of bad tires in the main class, horrible BoP in the LM class, and a race win altering call on the lowest class...

The lack of yellows gave a legit endurance race, which is typically long and without cautions because people aren't trying to make a sprint out of it.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
And here I thought it was dull because, of bad tires in the main class, horrible BoP in the LM class, and a race win altering call on the lowest class...

The lack of yellows gave a legit endurance race, which is typically long and without cautions because people aren't trying to make a sprint out of it.
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Personally, I thought it was a proper endurance race, those that survived and ran consistent won (except in GTD). I Have a hard time blaming the tires when one car seemed to have about 80% of the issues. Maybe next year, with Michelin nobody will have issues, let's hope so. Can't blame the BoP in GTLM either, not if you look at the times being run. If you look at Fords times at FP, qually and throughout a stint they just didn't fall off as much as anyone else and without a bunch of yellows closing the field up as usual they simply drove away. I have heard lots of what ifs for GTD, but nothing really conclusive, I have no idea what happened there :boggled:
 
E65458AA-2DA6-4FEE-AC76-53B28106113E.jpeg


Look what came in the mail yesterday!!
 
MustangManiac
Personally, I thought it was a proper endurance race, those that survived and ran consistent won (except in GTD). I Have a hard time blaming the tires when one car seemed to have about 80% of the issues. Maybe next year, with Michelin nobody will have issues, let's hope so. Can't blame the BoP in GTLM either, not if you look at the times being run. If you look at Fords times at FP, qually and throughout a stint they just didn't fall off as much as anyone else and without a bunch of yellows closing the field up as usual they simply drove away. I have heard lots of what ifs for GTD, but nothing really conclusive, I have no idea what happened there :boggled:
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As far as race time goes I do too, and expressed such in the 12hr Bathurst thread. The other parts that could have made it a proper endurance race were missing as mentioned.

Actually you can blame BoP so much so that there is a massive disparity between Ford to Chevy to Porsche then to BMW who were nerfed on boost pressure. Ford times over a lap were always better, and still were able to get as good or better fuel running and tire life than those in the class, as explained in the thread, the cars are harder to BoP because of their drag coefficient to the others around them, and giving them more weight isn't alway the solution either. There were no what ifs that I've seen. One car didn't have 80% of the tire issues though...since it was last I checked a total of 7 teams with tire failures, also Conti at first blamed teams and then had this to say in regards to the several WTR tire issues that went contrary to blame:

Continental Tire said in an interview with Fox Sports that it is working in collaboration with Wayne Taylor Racing to find the cause of these unidentified issues.

"They are within our specifications and have had a number of issues," said Travis Roffler, director of marketing at Continental. "We've identified two of the issues as punctures." He continued to mention that the remaining unsolved problems are being investigated to provide better service and insight in the future.
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Controversy and silly stuff like this aren't typical indicative of a "proper endurance race"
 
gren1414
Nice! This is our first time going down, I’m pumped.
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Have a great time! I personally like watching the start from where the Porsche corral bleachers are - (before the start/finish line) because you can see the start of the race at the beginning, and its cool seeing them come flying back around that very bumpy turn at sunset bend (turn 17). Then I go around turn 6 (big bend), they come flying past pretty quick, and there's a big tree there for shade if you need it. Then make my way to the hairpin (turn 7), there's bleachers there as well. Then I backtrack towards turn 6, there is a bridge walkway that goes over the track that puts you on the other side where I'll go to turn 8, 9 and 10. After that we head to some other areas. But I always start out in that exact order every year lol.
Circuit_Sebring.png
 
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Juttner is hopeful that Joest makes an improvement at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Interestingly, the article notes that Joest is looking at evaluations to fix their engine program, and a couple of rumored solutions involve either enlarging the AER 4 banger or switching to the AER LMP1 engine.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/juttner-hopeful-of-making-step-forward-with-mazda-dpi/

Also, Continental will be running a new tire for this years 12 Hours of Sebring. Amazing of them to try and look like they care by trying some development in their final year as the spec provider after half-assing their development in IMSA for years.
http://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/continental-debuts-new-tires-at-sebring/
 
raven214
Anyone know what the BoP changes were for Sebring?
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Not sure, but whatever they were they made the playing field for quali at least far more fair than Daytona

EDIT: Found this
"For Sebring, BMW has been given a power boost and an extra two litres of fuel, while Ford has had two taken away. Whether or not that will make this a dogfight between all five makes remains to be seen, but it should nevertheless be a step in the right direction."
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The soccer announcer lady just finished her bit showing when the next matches are and literally said "racing is next".

Seriously? Just some "racing"? That right there shows the amount of thought an effort Fox Sports puts into motorsports. :(
 

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