Matt Romanowski

Some parts of the old lap times are completely amazing (I always think of PJ Jones at LRP doing a 43.112). When those cars were so fast, the restrictions were not nearly the same as they are now and weren't designed to slow cars down. Think to what Porsche did with the 919 Evo when they didn't have to follow any rules.

jsabatini

There was a lot more yellows this year than in years past. Through the Porsche Platz we got to tour the Pfaff garage Friday afternoon. The Pfaff guy mentioned all the team personal at the race and mentioned there were 2 spotters. I asked him where the spotters were located and he said 1 was in Turn 1 and the other was in Turn 10. I remember seeing a bunch of the scissor lifts high up in Turn 1 in years past and he replied that due to insurance, they were only allowed to raise the lifts up 10 feet, years past it was way higher. With a spotter up a lot higher, that might have helped with some of the problems.

Pfaff did a great job rebuilding the car after the Friday morning qualifying accident. We got to the garage a little over an hour after the crash and the first picture is what the car looked like. Car needed a new steering rack and while we were there out came a box with a brand new steering rack. Second picture was taken while walking through the pits around midnight.

9114609048

Yes.....until 1982 when Bobby Rahal got pole with a 127.289 mph in a Chevy March. In 1983 the track was shortened to 4.75 miles.

38D

Is anyone really surprised there are more yellows at Sebring NASCAR (formerly IMSA)? It is exactly what they want the product to be: bunched fields, really close finishes and crashes. And it works as we are all still talking about the race. I just hope we don’t get the “stages” and some of the other horrid Nascar inventions.

NaroEscape

what was interesting was watching both the WEC and IMSA races back to back.
WEC uses virtual safety cars where everyone slows to a set speed when there is an incident. And their yellows are fast - none of the resetting the order, allowing this class to pit this lap, that class next lap, etc that takes an IMSA yellow so long.
That said...the WEC race was ungodly boring. Once cars spread out, there is no racing going on. So yeah, the FCY is annoying, but it does create better racing to watch and does give other teams a chance to be competitive with strategy and a bit of luck.

Carrera51

I don't like the long yellows for minor clean ups (a la NASCAR). Please no stage racing!

ProCoach

NASCAR started Grand-Am, which bought and integrated IMSA. There’s been an ownership of top level pro sports car racing for two decades.

Carrera51

^^ Yes they did and subjected us to the awful Daytona Prototypes for all those years, while the real prototypes raced in ALMS on this side of the pond. How cool would it have been to see the Audis, the RS Spyders, and Peugeot 908s race at Daytona?

ProCoach

You can see those cars race at the Daytona Classic 24 organized by HSR, which is now owned by IMSA! I think Joao Barbosa did a high 1:34-low 1:35 in David Porter's Peugeot 908 HDi FAP a few years ago. A coupe RS Spyders from the West Coast showed up and there's always the R8's of Travis Engen and Doug Smith, driven by Andy Wallace and James Gue.

https://racer.com/2019/10/04/rogers-...assic-daytona/

Carrera51

I need to make it to the Daytona Classic 24. I've heard it's awesome! I remember seeing the R8 race in 2001 when they had that one event in DC at RFK Stadium. Sitting behind one of the cars was the complete rear end assembly that they could just swap in one shot rather than replacing one or two parts.