Hi IMSA fans!

​

Was IMSA's penalty not harsh enough or just right? A couple of week after the penalties were handed out it seems the masses have concluded that it wasn't enough, what do you think?

In other news the 12 Hours of Sebring is right around the corner and there is plenty to talk about in the leadup to the race!

BMW and Ferrari Given Penalties After Rolex 24!

✍️ Davey Euwema/Sportscar365

🔗 Full Article 👉 https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/ferrari-bmw-stripped-of-gtd-pro-gtd-manufacturers-points/​

🏎️ Why it matters: It was a tough pill to swallow for the second straight year but we have penalties coming out of the Rolex 24. BMW and Ferrari have been penalized for exceeding their permitted performance levels at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. As a result, both manufacturers have lost all their championship points from the race and been fine $25,000 , but the race results remain unchanged, with Ferrari notably retaining their GTD PRO win.

Last week, the IMSA Technical Committee and Supervisory Officials announced that BMW and Ferrari’s performance in the Daytona 24 Hour Race exceeded IMSA’s expectations based on their pre-season tests. These tests, designed to ensure competitive equivalence, aim to ensure that the best performance of each manufacturer’s car model is within a targeted performance window. IMSA’s goal is to enable each manufacturer to compete with and market the automotive architecture that is representative of their brand.

The penalties issued indicate that BMW and Ferrari did not display the same performance levels during the race as they did during the IMSA sanctioned tests. The extent to which they exceeded these performance windows is unknown, but it’s clear that rules were broken.

Despite this, the teams and drivers were not issued any penalties. For me, this ruling raises questions about fairness for other competitors operating within their performance windows and whether it actually discourages teams from exceeding their performance levels in the future. While the manufacturers’ championship is valuable for marketing, it doesn’t carry the same weight as the teams or drivers championships from a fans’ perspective.

It seems that IMSA views this as a decision made by the manufacturers themselves, not the teams. However, I believe that the teams who benefitted from this and should have some sort of penalty imposed on them not because they necessarily did anything wrong but to reduce the impact that this has on teams that had cars operating within the rules.

5 KEY Things We Learned From the Rolex 24! Off in the Esses ​ Did you see the video from this week? I breakdown 5 things we learned from the Rolex 24!

Cadillac WON'T Offer Customer LMDh Cars (yet)

✍️ John Dagys/Sportscar365

🔗 Full Article 👉 https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/cadillac-rules-out-customer-lmdh-cars/​

🏎️ Why it matters: General Motors has announced that it will not be selling Cadillac V-Series.R cars to customers in IMSA or the WEC for the time being. The decision was confirmed by Laura Wontrop Klauser, GM’s sports car racing program manager, at the Lusail International Circuit during the WEC season opener. The company is currently focused on their two entries in IMSA’s GTP class and its single entry in the WEC’s Hypercar class with no plans to expand to customer cars. Cadillac is the first LMDh manufacturer to officially state that they will not be making customer cars available. 3

Talk about disappointing news! Cadillac has gone from a tremendous customer program with their DPi car to no customer program with their LMDh, and by the sounds of it, that isn’t likely to change anytime soon! I don’t love hearing that manufacturers aren’t going to be offering customer cars, especially given that this formula was supposed to encourage it. It should be noted that GM isn’t saying no to this forever, and with it expected that Cadillac will upgrade the car next offseason, perhaps we could see a customer car become available sometime in 2025. Until then, though, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Aston Martin Progressing With Their Valkyrie LMH

✍️ Stephen Kilbey/DailySportscar

🔗 Full Article 👉 https://www.dailysportscar.com/2024/03/04/heart-of-racing-closing-in-on-valkyrie-lmh-debut.html?fbclid=IwAR1W-lIPZmyK2IHcYryyOhiPB8cyx3uTYm7NyoZ5Uw1csAyuMIpWY6Gwjr4​

🏎️ Why it matters: Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing’s Valkyrie LMH programme is moving forward with system testing on a mule car and full track testing to commence soon. Ian James, Heart of Racing’s team principal, indicated that a more developed mule car would be ready for use in about six weeks. The Heart of Racing team, based in Seattle, recently leased space in Brackley, England to facilitate the dual FIA WEC & IMSA programme for the Valkyrie, which is expected to debut in both IMSA and the WEC in 2025. The team is aiming to have a test car running by mid-year.

Another year brings another manufacturer joining the top prototype class in IMSA! This one is unique as Aston Martin is developing a hypercar, not an LMDh like all the other IMSA entries. It’s still fairly early in the car’s development, and it seems there is still a lot of work to be done. The timeline is a bit concerning, reminding me of last year’s Lamborghini testing (they experienced a couple of hiccups and ended up missing the Rolex 24). However, I’m confident that Aston Martin and Heart of Racing will do everything possible to ensure the car is ready for Daytona next year!

Final Lap

I want to hear about what you want in this newsletter! Are there any big pieces of news you'd like to hear more about? Or maybe you have questions about something that happened in a recent race!

Hit reply and let me know!

Thanks,

Stu

Stu​
​Follow along on X, Instagram and Youtube​
​Website​
​
Are you a driver, team or series looking to grow your YouTube presence?
Click HERE to learn how I can help!

​