Nizer

That GTD Pro battle was amazing and hats off to NBC for staying on until the end!

Congrats to Jan Heylen for completing the Porsche sweep in GTD.

Rhythmaddict

Agreed that was incredible and the battle had been going on for hours.

needmoregarage

Amazing driving and what a battle at the end!!
This was one year I was glad to catch all the action from home watching on TV, iPad and laptop.

Being at the race in person is great in a different way. I know I wouldn’t have seen the extent of the competition if I’d been trackside.
Congrats to the winners and all for exceptional racing!

redmonkey928

Fantastic setting for the newly revamped GTD(P) fields - coverage was perfect for the battle with the two GTDP cars.

That was also proper driving and really enjoyed that the officials left them to more or less drive it out on track all the way to the last lap.

ProCoach

Incredibly good racing.

Note too self, don't attempt an outside pass at corner entry with a teammate you know well and have won with before!

38D

Amazing racing. Seems like Vanthoor made two mistakes once he got by. He opened up the door by running wide at the hairpin. And then should have waited until the exit of the chicane to try and get a run, as that outside pass was never going to work. Still was a great battle.

ProCoach

I think Vanthoor and Jaminet each did what they had to do.

Didn't see anything too egregious, but race control did inform LV's spotter after the second straight-on "loosen up" into T3 under braking to cut that out, "no more intentional contact."

It's a fine line, and a master class put on by both drivers, IMO.

IPGJames

It’s a great time to be a sports car racing fan. GTD Pro battle was so much fun to watch

and on another note congrats to Magnus in the Aston Martin for the 2nd in GTD … that team always does whatever it can to be competitive and in contention

anyone else thinking maybe GTD Pro cars need a bit of a performance advantage to split the pace of them vs the GTD cars some ? Lots of intermixed battles throughout the field that ultimately didn’t matter to that teams overall class standing.

multi21

As mentioned the battles between the 2 Porsches was amazing, but I wanted to point out how good Colton Herta was in the LMP2 car. Not only did he chase down the lead car in the final 30 minutes, but took the inside line into the bus stop chicane cleanly. Then Herta had to be patient when lapping the 2 Porsches battling with each other and not get collected on the outside. Amazing display of driving all around.

Matt Lane

Absolutely outstanding skills, race craft and tempered-just-enough aggressive competition in GTD Pro. Wow.

Watching factory pro drivers at this level is simply amazing.

I loved the close action without the probability of getting Risi'd or Magnussen'd like in equally memorable ALMS times.

Cheers

Matt

LuigiVampa

Awesome race! My only gripe, as ever with IMSA, is they spend too much time on the prototypes. They are very interesting but I wish they at least split the time evenly. Hats off to Porsche for such a commanding performance.

I like the fact that there is no performance difference between GTD and GTDP other than the drivers. It just goes to show that there are some very talented amateur drivers in the field.

ProCoach

I've always said "the driver is the greatest variable in the racing equation."

A lot of the reason why, as the clock ticked down, the competitive mass of the GTD Pro field moved laps ahead of the same in GTD, was simply because the drivers are "shooting tighter groups" of lap times.Quicker groups, on average.

When the fast lap for GTD Pro is Laurens Vanthoor's 1:45.087 and for GTD is Jordan Pepper in the McLaren at 1:45.117, you know it ain't the cars!

Basically, the GTD Pro driver's lap time standard variation, IN TRAFFIC and WARMING UP TIRES, is far less than almost all the drivers in the Am class.

The P2 battle was intense. Deletraz was just sorry that he had to save fuel and it put him in the position to be passed by Herta (with contact). But, he's a professional, like Vanthoor.

Amazing race.

ProCoach

Fastest lap be each driver after all sessions and the race.

Every driver who was able to do their stint in the race was quicker than they'd been in all of the ten days before...

BFT3.2

I swore GT Pro was going to end in tears for the both of them. Incredible display of controlled aggression and skill

uscarrera

That was exciting and fun to watch, thought I was watching a SuperCup race 😀
Rich