GT Sports Cars & Prototypes Racing News

[WillyDaP]

I am hoping some things are being addressed as I agree the BOP is an arcane art. To be fair Porsche has been accused of having an advantage many times over the years, it just seems there has been a struggle for pace Worldwide for the past 3-4 years. The Mustangs have already been put on a restrictor and my hope is they offer a bit of help for Porsche with its pace being off since testing began in Daytona. The strong suit for Porsche has always been its endurance, often not the quickest, but they're at the end, sure and steady. It has been interesting, though frustrating, to note the large increase in Racing Teams wheeling around in Mercedes GT3s/GT4s and often a low count of Porsches competing. I think IMSA wants a strong Porsche contingent now and in the future, so hoping they take note of the machines being off pace in Florida.

[WillyDaP]

Somehow missed that " Rexy" got the pole in GTD Pro with Priaulx, so good to see the 992s may have gotten some speed after all. Friend who is at the event commented he sees BOP changes coming, but I have not had a chance to actually talk to him if he means prior to the race or after the 24? Having raced Mustangs for well over a decade I have to say I ajm pleased to see their performance also, and I know I will get flamed for that comment. Hey, anything but those ugly kidney nosed BMWs or Cow Catcher snaggleteeth of the Lexus up front. Buttugly cars, both of them, I say with all lack of due respect, ha. " Rexy " is so much fun, when at Indy in 22 the young fans are just drawn to the Porsche Raptor in droves!

[blueline]

I'm with you on your two apt descriptions above! At least yours are family-friendly versions (We're both in trouble now. )

As for the Mustangs, BOP, etc., a couple of comments from Autoweek:

In a qualifying session where it was difficult to determine who got the biggest sandbagging award, the qualifying debut of the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R and the Mustang GT3 in the WeatherTech Championship was ho-hum. Like most of the other factory teams, the Corvette and Mustang poked around to lap times comfortable enough to avoid any additional Balance of Performance hits prior to next weekend’s Rolex 24.

And then straight from the horse's (er, Mustang's) mouth:
“I think you’ll see our best (performance) in the race,” said Mustang driver Joey Hand in response to a question about sandbagging prior to qualifying. His two-car Ford Multimatic Mustang team had a best showing of 22nd among all GTD cars and 9th in class.

Nah, no sandbagging from F.O.R.D or Corvette...

[WillyDaP]

It is such a chess game for sure, with Porsche discussing the dismal runs of the 992 and not being able to keep pace and then " Sexy Rexy " was the car -n-voure ( like hors-d'ourves ,ha over others in Class and that gave me hope the Porsches actually have pace. The Caymans do seem to struggle some in GS/GSX, though they did have a second place finish in race 2, but we shall all see how things shake out this coming weekend in the top Classes.

[blueline]

More info on the Daytona 24 for those interested from today's weekly PCA e-Brake News in case you didn't see it. Also, more info on TV scheduling and how to watch. The weather looks to be just about as good as one could ask for.

How Porsche fans can watch the 2024 Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona
https://www.pca.org/news/how-porsche-fa ... -tech-tips

A quote from the article: "Nowadays, you’ll hear that it’s no longer an endurance race but more of a 24-hour sprint. Qualifying revealed that the top nine GTP cars were separated by less than a second."

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The sole Porsche in GTD Pro: AO Racing's GT3 R.

T-Rex! (Willy's "Sexy Rexy"!)

[WillyDaP]

GTD does have 4 GT3R ( 992 s) running and it is the most competitive Class in many folks minds as it has 23 cars competing. Let's hope the 963s in GTP dominate, because that is where Porsche has put its funds, with 4 of the 10 cars running in the top Class.

[blueline]

PDF of Daytona 24 qualifying results:

Daytona 24-Hour 2024 Qualifying Results.pdf

(118.66 KiB) Downloaded 128 times

[blueline]

Some great short bits here regarding the upcoming Daytona 24!

"24 Things to Know About the 2024 IMSA Rolex 24 at Daytona"

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/more-ra ... d568259d8a

An interesting fact from Item #9: "To the best of our recollection, there is a record number of former participants in Formula 1 in this year’s race. Twelve drivers have started at least one F1 race.

The four with more than 100 F1 starts are Rolex rookies Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, plus Romain Grosjean and Eddie Cheever."

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IMSA Photo

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IMSA Photo

[996C438]

BOP changes to almost every GTD cars .

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/imsa ... -rolex-24/

[WillyDaP]

And one sees why Manufacturers feel the need to sandbag, and the irony to these changes is the Lexus was screaming around Daytona with Thompson in 3rd overall in his GTD machine -- behind the first two GTD Pro Cars. The GT3 Mustangs have been near the back of the pack during the sessions, though fast with Luca Mars in GT4 GSX Class ( second car in GSX was not near as quick ). It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend, but many think the BOP moves were a bit too drastic, and nothing done to Lexus, who were running quite strong, is baffling.

One Porsche in GTD Pro and it gets punished even though it did not run away from others. The past decade has been frustrating for Porsche and also Ford with the Mustang, as after Engineering helped them get quite a few wins, it seems finding a Porsche or Mustang in some of the Worldwide Series means shifting towards the middle or back of the pack. It was good to see Andretti running a Porsche in GTD, but one had to be shocked to see Pfaff gone from the Flat Six Fast and Furious. The one plus is there seemed to be fewer Mercs out there and they have been a dominant force everywhere for the last 10 years.