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Strimovi za 24h Dejtone (kvalifikacije su na redu danas):

 

https://imsatv.imsa.com/

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Action Express 1-2 in damp opening practice at Daytona



By: J.J. O'Malley | 11 hours ago


Cadillacs took the top three positions as damp conditions held back speeds in Thursday morning’s opening practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

Felipe Nasr led the session with a 1m36.108s in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, followed by Action Express Racing teammate Filipe Albuquerque, at 1m36.707s in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac.

Results

“The track was wet in the beginning, so it was a chance for us to get a read on the car,” Nasr said. “It was good for me, because I have never driven Daytona in the rain. Just like in the race, we then made the transition to slicks. It was a good overall session to understand the car and the tires — just in case we have the same in the race, we are ready to react to that. So it was a productive session.”

Tristan Vautier was third, 1m45.334s in the No. 85 JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac, followed by Jonathan Bomarito in the No. 55 Team Joest Mazda DPi, who posted a 1m38.561s on his final lap. That was nearly five seconds off the team’s fastest lap in the Roar Before the Rolex 24 three weekends ago.

The session was held in cool and overcast conditions, with the track still wet from an early-morning deluge. The sun finally broke through in the closing minutes, with sunny and warmer conditions expected for the afternoon.

The Porsche GT Team went 1-2 in GTLM with its fastest laps at the end of the session. Frederic Makowiecki ran a 1m45.334s in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, followed by Mathieu Jaminet, at 1m46.156s in the No. 912, fifth- and sixth-fastest overall.

DragonSpeed had the only two cars to run in LMP2, led by Henrik Hedman with a 1m46.854s in the No. 81 ORECA Gibson.

While the Prototypes and GTLM competitors practiced for 45 minutes, silver- and bronze-rated drivers in GTD were allotted an additional 15 minutes. Corey Lewis led the class in the No. 48 Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini Huracan GT3, at 1m46.577s.

UP NEXT: The WeatherTech Championship teams in all classes will have a second one-hour session today beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. Qualifying — beginning with GTD — gets underway at 3:35 p.m. Thursday activities will conclude with a 90-minute night practice for all classes, beginning at 7 p.m.

 

Bomarito puts Mazda on top in second Rolex practice



By: J.J. O'Malley | 8 hours ago


Jonathan Bomarito jumped to the top of the charts in the closing minutes of Thursday’s second practice session for the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the last session before qualifying.

Bomarito turned a fast lap of 1m34.672s in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest DPi, well off teammate Oliver Jarvis’ fast lap of 1m33.398s turned in at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 test earlier in the month.

Results

The gloves come off later this afternoon in qualifying, when P.J. Jones’ 26-year-old official track mark of 1m33.875s will be on the line.

Defending overall race winner Filipe Albuquerque was second in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R with a 1m35.383s, followed by Colin Braun in the No. 54 Nissan DPi (1m35.538s), and Ricky Taylor in the No. 7 Team Penske Acura DPi at 1m35.539s.

Unlike the morning practice, which ran on a drying track, it was sunny and 69 degrees for the second session.

James Allen paced LMP2 in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA Gibson at 1m37.255s; Nick Tandy was quickest in GTLM with a 1m43.475s in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR; and Daniel Serra led GTD in the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3m at 1m45.936s.

All 47 entries participated in the 55-minute session, after only 42 cars ran in morning practice.

NEXT UP: Qualifying gets underway at 3:35 p.m. ET with a 15-minute session for the GTD competitors (limited to Silver or Bronze drivers). GTLM qualifying begins at 4 p.m., followed by DPi and LMP2 at 4:25 p.m.

Thursday activities will conclude with a 90-minute night practice for all classes, beginning at 7 p.m. ET.

The lone Friday on-track activity for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be a one-hour final practice, beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Jarvis, Mazda capture Rolex 24 pole with new track record



By: J.J. O'Malley | 5 hours ago


Oliver Jarvis officially became the fastest driver in Daytona International Speedway road racing history, capturing the pole for Saturday’s Rolex 24 At Daytona with a lap of 1m33.685s in the No. 77 Mazda Team Joest DPi.

Both Jarvis and Acura Team Penske’s Ricky Taylor bettered P.J. Jones’ record of 1m33.875, set back in 1993 in the All American Racers Toyota Eagle Mk III. However, Jarvis was a few ticks slower than his own unofficial mark of 1m33.398s, set in “qualifying” during the recent Roar Before the Rolex 24.

Qualifying results

“I think the most important thing was to get the pole, but I was really surprised at the Roar how important the record was,” Jarvis said. “It was nice to get it at the Roar, but this is where it counts. In the past two weeks, I was thinking, 26 years for a record is something incredible, especially looking at the cars they achieved it in. I wasn’t sure if we would beat it after this morning’s rain.

“The record is the icing on the cake for the team, they’ve worked so hard,” he added. “There has been no off-season for this team. There was Petit Le Mans and then straight into prepping for here. The result shows the hard work back at the shop.”

Acura Team Penske took the next two positions. Taylor bettered Jones’ mark by 0.002s, running 1m33.873 in the No. 7 Acura DPi. Juan Pablo Montoya was third with a 1m34.095s in the No. 6 Acura.

Jonathan Bomarito, who was fastest in Thursday’s second practice, took fourth after a 1m34.212s in the No. 55 Mazda.

Felipe Nasr had the fastest Cadillac in fifth with a lap of 1m34.433s in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. He will be joined on the third row by Jordan Taylor, who clocked in at 1m34.479s in the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R.

The defending race winning No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R failed to post a time after Filipe Albuquerque radioed his crew that the power wasn’t there. The team will start at the back of the Prototype grid.


Image by Dole/LAT

James Allen led the LMP2 class, running 1m35.904s in the No. 81 DragonSpeed ORECA Gibson.

Records fall in GTLM, GTD qualifying

Nick Tandy took the GTLM pole in the No. 911 Porsche 911 RSR, running a lap of 1m42.257s.


Image by Dole/LAT

“We knew the Corvette would be tough,” Tandy said. “I had a really good lap going. I had a real decent infield, lightly brushed the wall in Turn 6, and then I picked up a perfect double-tow from the two Corvettes down the front staightaway. I watched the time ticking down and down and down. It was the perfect lap, really.”

Former track record holder Jan Magnussen was second with a lap of 1m42.583s in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R.

Different marques filled the top four positions, with the No. 67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT third at 1m42,634s and the No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE fourth after a lap of 1m42.712s.

The nine GTLM cars were separated by only 0.982 seconds.


Image by Galstad/LAT

Marcos Gomes gave Ferrari its third consecutive GT Daytona class pole. The Brazilian stock car champion ran a lap of 1m45.257s to put the No. 13 Via Italia Ferrari 488GT3 atop the 23-car class.

“We’re really excited to be on the pole for Saturday,” Gomes said.

Ben Keating came up 0.067s short on a final charge, qualifying second in the No. 33 Wynn’s Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3, with a 1m45.324s. Third went to Trent Hindman after a 1m45.396s in the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura NSX GT3.

COMING UP: Thursday activities will conclude with a 90-minute night practice for all classes, beginning at 7 p.m. ET. The lone Friday on-track activity for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will be a one-hour final practice, beginning at 10 a.m. ET.

 

CORE Nissan leads Rolex night practice



By: Marshall Pruett | 1 hour ago


CORE autosport’s Loic Duval placed the lone Nissan Onroak DPi in the Rolex 24 At Daytona field atop Thursday night’s 90-minute practice session.

The Frenchman’s lap of 1m34.786s was marginally faster than Action Express Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque (+0.119s) as the defending race winners used the run under darkness to rebound from missing out on most of qualifying due to a drivetrain issue with their Cadillac DPi-V.R. Acura Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves was third in his ARX-05 DPi (+0.340s), and DragonSpeed’s Ben Hanley led LMP2 with a 1m36.521s set in his ORECA 07.

Results

BMW Team RLL’s Augusto Farfus managed an impressive feat in his GT Le Mans M8 GTE by outpacing Rolex 24 polesitter Patrick Pilet’s Porsche GT Team 911 RSR. The BMW completed a lap of 1m43.315s to the 1m43.317s delivered by the Porsche, accounting for a margin (+0.002s) that would be hard to measure on track. Oliver Gavin’s Corvette C7.R also got in on the GTLM party, falling a tiny amount (+0.038s) behind the German cars.

The Turner Motorsport magic conjured by team veteran Bill Auberlen was evident as his BMW M6 GT3 went to P1 in GT Daytona with his 1m45.165s lap. The Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Daniel Serra (+0.109s) was close in second, and GTD polesitter Via Italia was third with Victor Franzoni in the cockpit of his Ferrari 488 GT3 (+0.630s).

One notable absence from night practice was the Mazda Team Joest DPi program, which set a new all-time prototype lap record in qualifying a few hours earlier. The team planned to skip the session well in advance of the event, and spent the evening by getting a head start on its race preparations.

A lengthy red flag was necessitated when the Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3 pulled off course with steam and liquid trailing from the engine bay. Daytona International Speedway safety workers then dispatched trucks to dry a decent stretch of the infield, which added to the downtime.

UP NEXT: Final practice, Friday 10-11 a.m. ET

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 25 January 2019 - 04:28.

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Albuquerque paces final Rolex practice for Action Express



By: J.J. O'Malley | 1 hour ago


Set to start at the back of the DPi grid after an issue in qualifying, Filipe Albuquerque finally put the defending race-winning No. 5  Action Express Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R at the top of the chart in Friday’s final one-hour practice for the Rolex 24 At Daytona.

“Statistically, we have finished P2 in each session and now P1 in the warm-up,” said Albuquerque, whose best lap was 1m34.358s in the Cadillac that he will share with fellow defending race winners Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi. It was announced Friday that co-driver Mike Conway had encountered travel problems getting to the U.S. from England and will not be able to compete this weekend.

Results

“It was disappointing to not get a lap in [qualifying], since you miss out on the pure pleasure of driving the car when it is low on fuel, with new Michelins on it,” he added. “But I am extremely happy with the balance of the car as it is now and excited to see how it is during the race. Not participating in qualifying does not set us back, since everyone here at the team is so experienced. We only want to be on the top of the leaderboard on the last lap. We are relaxed after figuring out the issues with the car and it is a good thing that it had happened yesterday and not during the race.”

Olivier Pla was second, running a 1m34.758s in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest DPi — the sister car to Thursday’s pole winner.

Third was Pipo Derani, whose lap of 1m35.087s in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R bettered co-driver Felipe Nasr’s best lap of 1m35.244s.

The session was red-flagged at the 40-minute mark when Sebastien Bourdais locked the brakes and tagged the tire barrier with the right rear of the No. 66 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT in Turn 5, the International Horseshoe. The team then worked on damage to the rear wing, the right side and right rear of the Ford, painted in the Motorcraft tribute livery.

Enzo Guibbert was fastest in LMP2 with a 1m36.433s in the No. 52 PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports ORECA Gibson.

Frederic Makowiecki went from the back to the top of the GTLM grid in the closing minutes to post the fastest lap of the session, 1m42.478s in the No. 911 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR. Dirk Mueller was second in the No. 66  Ford, 1m42.612s, prior to that car’s problem. Mueller was closely followed by Jan Magnussen, who set a 1m42.644s in the No. 3 Corvette Racing C7.R.

Pedro Lamy charged to the top of the GTD chart in the closing minutes, running consecutive faster laps before settling with a fast time of 1m44.632s in the No. 51 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3. The top six cars bettered Marcos Gomes’ track-record pole of 1m45.257s, set Thursday in the No. 13 Via Italia Racing Ferrari. Nick Cassidy was second, 1m44.846s, in the No. 14 AIM Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3. Marco Seefried was third with a 1m45.073s in the No. 540 Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Forty-six of the 47 qualifiers participated in the session. CORE autosport opted not to run the No. 54 Composite Resources/Flexbox Nissan DPi after that car led Thursday’s night practice.

Next up for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competitors is the green flag for the 57th Rolex 24 at 2:35 p.m. on Saturday.

 

Majk Konvej nece moci da vozi:

 

 

The defending Rolex 24-winning Mustang Sampling Cadillac team learned Thursday that driver Mike Conway had encountered travel problems getting to the U.S. from England and will not be able to compete in this weekend’s Rolex 24 At Daytona.

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Compass Racing wins Michelin Pilot Challenge opener at Daytona



By: IMSA Wire Service | 14 hours ago


McLaren was the star of the show on Friday in the season-opening race of the 2019 IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season.

After starting from the pole, the No. 75 Compass Racing McLaren GT4 of Paul Holton and Kuno Wittmer took the checkered flag after battling for four hours on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. It was the third IMSA win for the manufacturer since joining the series in 2017.

“The car was really, really good,” said Holton. “The boys did a really good setup mechanically on the car. The car was the easiest thing I’ve ever driven. The racing out there was extra tough. We were three-wide through the trioval, three-wide through Turn 1, three-wide through Turn 3. Really good, respectful racing, hard racing. Was some of the most fun I’ve had in a race car in a long time.”

Holton – who was part of the lineup that delivered the first North American victory for the McLaren GT4 at Circuit of The Americas in 2017 with Compass Racing and then co-driver Matt Plumb – handed the car over to Wittmer early in the race before taking the reins back for the finish. The drivers combined to lead a race-high 58 laps.



“I think the biggest thing for us was seeing how well the car performs on Michelin tires,” said Wittmer. “Having done five years, give or take, in GTLM where we only drove Michelin tires in the past, being back on the Michelin tire, it’s almost like being back home. Everything worked perfectly well. There were no issues and no blistering, no flats, none of that. It was very comforting. A lot of confidence in the car going forward.”

The No. 75 was part of a thrilling four-way battle in the final half hour of the BMW Endurance Challenge involving the No. 99 Automatic Racing Aston Martin GT4, the No. 39 CarBahn Motorsports Audi R8 GT4 and the second McLaren in the field, the No. 69 for Canadian team Motorsports In Action.

It was a clash that lasted until the final second, literally, as Kris Wilson in the Aston Martin made for a photo finish by beating Jesse Lazare in the Motorsports In Action McLaren to the stripe for second place by .007 seconds. Wilson shares his runner-up finish with Gary Ferrera, while Lazare and Corey Fergus teamed up for the final step on the podium.

The race broadcast will air on NBCSN on Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 1 p.m. ET.

If Friday’s race is any indication of the future and talent in the Michelin Pilot Challenge TCR class, IMSA fans are in for a treat.

Side-by-side battles between competing manufacturers became the norm over the course of the four-hour race, but it was Honda and L.A. World Racing that took the top spot. Crossing the stripe first was the No. 37 Honda Civic TCR of Tom O’Gorman and Shelby Blackstock, one of three entries for the team.

“The hardest part was to stay out of trouble, keep your wits about you, keep the car underneath us, because these guys were racing so hard,” said O’Gorman. “It was really easy to get caught up in all of it, the GS guys and the TCR guys. If you’d have told me this yesterday that we would be standing here, I wouldn’t have believed you. We worked really hard overnight, the L.A. Honda World guys did an amazing job. The race was really challenging and we just kind of checked ourselves until the end and we found ourselves in the lead and it came to us.”



For O’Gorman, Friday’s victory is his third in the series in only seven races contested since joining the series midway through 2018. Meanwhile, the victory caps off a triumphant return to the Pilot Challenge for Blackstock, whose last race in the series came in 2014.

“It’s always been nice to go back to the IMSA paddock for sure. I’ve had a blast always here at Daytona, I’ve had great success here at Daytona and so happy it continued. The weekend started a little rough for the team, but the team worked really, really hard and we were able to pull out a win. Yeah, to return back and both of us get our win, the first for Honda and the first for the team, a lot of good stuff.”

For the remaining podium spots, it was a battle between the No. 73 L.A. Honda World Racing car of Mat Pombo and Mike LaMarra and a last-minute addition to the entry list, the No. 23 Fast MD Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR of Nick Galante, James Vance and Jared Salinsky. Ultimately, the No. 73 made it a 1-2 finish for Honda and the Audi took third.

With the first race of the year checked off, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge shifts its focus to its next round at Sebring International Raceway on Friday, March 15 at noon ET. The race will be streamed live on IMSA.tv with IMSA Radio commentary.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Start 24h Dejtone je danas u 14:35 po lokalnom vremenu / 20:35 po srednjeevropskom. Strim OVDE

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Nakon 20-tak sati Alonsova posada je u vodjstvu, u ranoj fazi trke bili su oko 5-6 mesta a onda je tokom noci pocela kisa i Alonso maestralnom voznjom izbija na celo. No, negde iza 16. sata kisa se pretvara u pravi potop i organizatori su odlucili da istaknu crvenu zastavu. Pauza je trajala nekih sat i 45 minuta, a na restartu na jos uvek mokroj stazi doslo je do masovke u kojoj je eliminisano nekoliko bolida. Usledio je poduzi period pod zutom zastavom da bi pre nekih 15 minuta trka konacno restartovana...

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

...i ubrzo ponovo suspendovana pod zutu zastavu zbog serije incidenata. Vec skoro pun sat kruze pod zutim i ne deluje da ce se uskoro nesto promeniti po tom pitanju. Nakon pitstopova trenutno vodi DPi Kadilak #31 (Nasr / Derani / Kuran).

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 27 January 2019 - 17:43.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Alonso uz'o 22 h Dejtone!
 

Wayne Taylor Racing wins rain-shortened Rolex 24

 

By: J.J. O'Malley | 8 hours ago


Wayne Taylor Racing’s No. 10 Konica Minolta DPi Cadillac driven by Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande, Kamui Kobayashi and Fernando Alonso won the 57th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona when IMSA deemed the event official after 23 hours and 50 minutes. The race was cut short after extensive rainfall caused some of the most extreme weather conditions ever seen at Daytona International Speedway.

Battling some of the worst conditions in the history of the event, F1 veterans Alonso and Kobayashi joined Taylor and van der Zande in giving Wayne Taylor Racing its second victory in the three years of the DPi formula.

Rolex 24 results

Steady rain began to fall at 6 a.m. ET and only got worse, leading to a number of caution periods and two red flags for the first time in the event’s history, first for an hour, 45 minutes on Sunday morning and a second and final time at 12:39 p.m. ET with 1 hour, 57 minutes remaining.

Moments before the final caution, Alonso took over the lead when Felipe Nasr went wide in Turn 1 in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R. The 17th caution came out four minutes later — followed six minutes later by the red flag that eventually ended the event.

Alonso earned his first Rolex Daytona Cosmograph in his second start in the event, seven months after taking the overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He becomes the third F1 champion to win an endurance race at Daytona, joining Mario Andretti and Phil Hill, whose win in 1964 came in the 2,000-kilometer Daytona Continental road race.
 
“Just an amazing experience with the team from the test now to the race,” said Alonso, a two-time F1 champion and 32-time Grand Prix winner. “A perfect execution of the race. Very different conditions for all the competitors, so I’m really happy for the team. It’s too bad we didn’t get to race the full distance, but we led the race in night, day, dry and wet, so I think we all deserve this one. You had to survive every lap. It wasn’t a matter of lap times or anything like that. It was a matter of crossing the line, putting the lap together and at the end, it worked.”

Taylor also won the race in 2017 — with a lineup including NASCAR superstar Jeff Gordon, his brother Ricky and Max Angelelli — while van der Zande won for the first time.


Image by Renger van der Zande

“The closing hours were like a roller coaster in terms of highs and lows,” said car owner Wayne Taylor, who won as a driver in 1996, owner-driver in 2005, and owner in 2017 and 2019. “People will never be able to able to understand, and it’s impossible to explain what goes through my mind and my family, with all the efforts, the focus and vision we need to make this happen. The team is all like family.”

Finishing second in DPi for the second straight year was the No. 31 Whelen Engineering DPi-V.R driven by Nasr, Eric Curran and Pipo Derani.

“This wasn’t racing, it was survival,” said Curran, who is transitioning to an endurance-only role for the team. “Cars were spinning off on every lap.”

Acura Team Penske took third, the last DPi car on the lead lap, with Ricky Taylor, Helio Castroneves and Alexander Rossi sharing the No. 7 Acura DPi.

Mazda Team Joest entered the race with high hopes. Oliver Jarvis qualified on the pole in track record time in the No. 77 Mazda DPi, with Jonathan Bomarito a solid fourth. Both Mazdas ran in contention for many hours — battling the two Team Penske Acuras, the two Action Express Cadillacs and the eventual winner — before double disaster struck during the seventh hour. First, Olivier Pla came to a sudden stop in the No. 55 before taking the car to the garage to repair a fuel leak. Minutes later, Timo Bernhard came to a halt near the chicane when the engine compartment of the pole-winning car suddenly caught fire, forcing retirement from the event.
 
The No. 55 returned to the race, three laps down, and fought back into contention. Pla was fifth overall and back on the lead when when the problem recurred during the 14th hour. This time, the damage was terminal.

The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R attempted to win the race for the second consecutive year, which would have been the fourth Daytona 24 triumph for Christian Fittipaldi and Joao Barbosa. However, the team lost considerable ground in the early hours after a visit to the garage to repair the tail lights. The pair, joined by Filipe Albuquerque, scrapped their way back to finish ninth overall and seventh in class. It marked the end of a standout career for Fittipaldi.


Image by Levitt/LAT

Also frustrated in a bid for a fourth Rolex 24 triumph was Juan Pablo Montoya. Joined by Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud, the team ran in podium contention all the way to the 20th hour, when an oil pump failure sidelined the No. 6 Acura DPi.

The No. 18 DragonSpeed ORECA, which Sebastian Saavedra had crashed with minutes to go before the red flag flew, took the LMP2 class win and sixth overall with Saavedra, Roberto Gonzalez and Pastor Maldonado. In driving rain, Saavedra’s crash badly damaged the car, but the team had a four-lap gap that likely would not be overcome by Kyle and Robert Masson, Cameron Cassels and Kris Wright in the No. 38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA.


Image by BMW Motorsport

In GTLM, Augusto Farfus — a late replacement for Tom Blomqvist due to visa issues — took the lead one lap before the final caution to earn an emotional win in the No. 25 Team RLL BMW M8 GTE co-driven by Connor De Phillippi, Philipp Eng and Colton Herta. The victory comes days after the sudden death of Karl ‘Charly’ Lamm, the longtime leader of BMW Team Schnitzer.
 
The 25 team’s win, which featured a charge to the lead after losing five laps for an early spin on cold tires, came at the expense of Chip Ganassi Racing. Richard Westbrook, Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon were leading in the No. 67 Ford GT — painted in historic Castrol livery — but Westbrook was forced to pit for fuel moments before the race-ending caution, resulting in a fourth-place class finish.

The No. 62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GT3 of James Calado, Miguel Molina, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Davide Rigon finished second after a dominant run. Farfus made what proved to be the winning pass on Calado with only three green flag laps remaining. In third was the Porsche GT Team 911 RSR of Earl Bamber, Laurens Vanthoor and Mathieu Jaminet.


Image by Galstad/LAT

The GT Daytona class proved to be last driver standing, with many of the podium contenders involved in spins during the treacherous final hour. At the end, it was Rolf Ineichen, Mirko Bortolotti, Christian Engelhart and Rik Breukers out front in the No. 11 GRT Grasser Racing Team Lamborghini Huracan GT3. Engelhart led the final three laps after Luca Stolz spun in Turn 6 in the No. 33 Team Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG GT3.

Daniel Morad, Christopher Mies, Ricardo Feller and Dries Vanthoor took second in the No. 29 Montaplast by Land Motorsport Audi R8 LMS GT3, followed by the all-American lineup of Jeff Segal, Frankie Montecalvo, Townsend Bell and Aaron Telitz in the No. 12 AIM Vasser Sulliver Lexus RC F GT3.

The opening 15 and a half hours were run in cloudy and chilly conditions, with precipitation expected for the closing hours. But the rain came early. An extended caution at 6 a.m. was followed by a one-hour, 45-minute red flag at 7:21 a.m. An attempt to restart the event was quickly aborted following a multi-car incident in the trioval. That led to another extended caution for one hour, 40 minutes.

With conditions bad and expected to get even worse, throwing the checkered flag with a scheduled three hours remaining might have been a popular move. But that was not an option. Drivers cinched their belts for a thrilling — and treacherous — hour of racing before continued conditions made racing impossible.

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 28 January 2019 - 05:21.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Rain played to WTR’s strengths

 

By: Marshall Pruett | 5 hours ago


Fernando Alonso offered a terse one-word answer of ‘No’ to a reporter during the early stages of the Rolex 24 At Daytona. Asked about the Balance of Performance settings applied to the Cadillac DPi-V.R model by IMSA, the Spaniard said his Wayne Taylor Racing entry, along with the other Cadillacs in the field, surrendered vital top speed to their rivals each lap on the long sprints between Daytona’s corners.

The disadvantage would have been a crippling liability for WTR and its main Cadillac protagonists at Action Express Racing if the race stayed dry for 24 hours, but with the arrival of rain, the tables quickly turned in their favor.

Acura Team Penske’s ARX-05 DPis, quick during the cool overnight hours, were no match for WTR’s drivers — Jordan Taylor and Fernando Alonso, in particular — once the skies opened. From there on, it was an internecine battle for overall victory between the Cadillac camps, and from his perspective inside the winning WTR entry, Taylor credited a bold downforce choice — to do the unexpected — with the No. 10 DPi-V.R.

“When we saw the forecast we were kind of excited for the wet, knowing after qualifying that our pace wasn’t really there for the dry conditions,” he said. “Especially leaving the Bus Stop is where we lacked pace and that’s pretty much where you can pass on this track.

“So, we knew it was going to be a long race if that was the case, but our goal was to make it to sunrise when the rain came and stay on the lead lap until that point. And we were still as low-downforce as possible in the wet, where you saw Acura change to a high-downforce nose. Action Express did the same thing and we were able to pass Action on the straights. So I think we played our cards right in the rain, and playing the long game rather than trying to have the fastest car in the dry.”

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Three-time Indy 500 winner and full-time Acura Team Penske IMSA DPi driver Helio Castroneves is close to finalizing a deal to make his debut at June’s 24 hours of Le Mans.

RACER has learned the Brazilian, who will spend the month of May pursuing his fourth Indy 500 victory with Team Penske, is expected to be confirmed as a member of the RLR Motorsport LMP2 program. Winners of the 2018 ELMS LMP3 championship, RLR recently announced the signing of Bruno Senna, along with others drivers, as part of its 2019 plans using the dominant ORECA 07 chassis.

The inclusion of Castroneves for Le Mans would fill the void left by Senna, who is meant to drive for the Rebellion LMP1 team during the June 13-16 event.

Provided both sides come to terms, Castroneves would become the latest high-profile open-wheel driver to add the 24 Hours of Le Mans to his résumé.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Austrian-flagged LMP1 privateer team ByKolles Racing looks set to miss Round 6 of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship — the 1000 Miles of Sebring — next month.

The team is understood to be in dispute with NISMO over the performance of, and payment for, its VRX 30A Evo 3-liter V6 engines after a season that. thus far has yielded only two race finishes.

The engine supply issue saw the team miss a planned endurance test at Aragon, Spain last month and with no apparent thawing of the relationship between ByKolles and NISMO, it is understood that the Sebring race is now not logistically possible.

One well placed source told RACER that the team was in the process of sourcing an alternative engine supplier.

The ByKolles team has also spoken publicly of its wish to develop an in-house ‘Hypercar’ LMP1 design in time for the commencement of the new regulations in 2020/2.

The first portion of the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours entry list is set to be revealed on Monday, February 11 and, RACER understands, it will see confirmation of the first privately entered Ford GT in the GTE Am class.

The single-car entry will fulfill Ben Keating’s Auto entry for the race in June. The Texan IMSA regular campaigned an ex-factory SRT Viper in 2015, a Murphy Prototypes-run ORECA LMP2 in 2016, a Riley Multimatic LMP2 car in 2017 and a Risi Competizione Ferrari in GT Am last year.

If confirmed, the entry marks a significant shift in the outlook from Ford Performance on their current GTLM/ GTE Pro cars in what is set to be the final year of the joint IMSA/ FIA WEC program.

The potential Keating entry would mark the first time that Ford has permitted the car to be raced in private hands, and opens up the potential for additional future customer programs in the future in either GTLM in IMSA, and/or GTE Pro, or GTE Am in the FIA WEC.

Keating was one of several potential entrants to express an interest in acquiring a Ford GT in previous years to race either at Le Mans or in the case of other interested parties, the full FIA WEC.

Requests for comment from Keating were not immediately returned.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Objavljena lista prijavljenih ucesnika za ovogodisnji Leman:

 

https://racerdigital...u-mans-2019.pdf