2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar ChampionshipSports Cars 

  • Thread starter Northstar
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I don't watch all of the races live, I just watch them when they upload to YouTube. Just finished the first half of Petit Le Mans, and I'm also binge watching the Michelin Pilot Series (Currently at Canadian Tire). I might also take a look at the other series when I finish.

Edit:
I have a question, though. I'm still learning about how IMSA works, but why do some cars appear in some races and are absent in others (the 488 in GTLM and 720 GT3 in GTD)?
 
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Edit:
I have a question, though. I'm still learning about how IMSA works, but why do some cars appear in some races and are absent in others (the 488 in GTLM and 720 GT3 in GTD)?
Some teams choose to participate only in some of the races. There are times they commit to all of the sprint races, or all of the endurance races, since there are secondary championships for those.

With the Risi Ferrari, they specifically called out the IMSA BOP (balance of performance) as the reason they were not competing in the races following the Daytona 24.

https://us.motorsport.com/lemans/news/risi-competizione-ferrari-imsa-2019/4331532/

There are other cases in which teams have a bad wreck and no spare car, so cannot recover in time to race when the races are close together.

EDIT - I see you are a fellow Idahoan!
 
I was born in Idaho. Lived there all of 3-4 months.

Just finished Petit Le Mans (watch it with my father's who's ill so we watch it after the fact in 1-2 hour blocks). Overall, pretty superb, as expected. Some thoughts.

-Heartbreaking to see the 5 blow its brake up with only 10-15 minutes left.
-Even more heartbreaking seeing the Wynn's Merc dead on the track on the last lap (even more so since they're departing the series...a sour end)
-Nice to see that the BOP for the DPI category was the best it's been this year at this track with everyone spending time at the front, etc.
-Auberlen is a legend and continues to be so, congrats to him.
-Legge surprised me as I saw her involved in no less than four contact incidents (I don't believe any were major offs/crashes). Just seemed to be hitting or was hit by...everyone! :D
-GTD was probably the stand out for me this race. Constant pressure and tight racing the entire way, including a superb last 15-20 minutes
-Awesome to see Montoya win a championship. While still a solid driver I think it's safe to say that a couple years back he was probably thinking his winning/glory days might have been done and gone.

Overall, just good stuff with some serious heart break at the end. I've been nervous with all the not-so-great news coming out about the future of IMSA, but I hope it gets a second wind and stays strong.
 
Just finished Petit Le Mans (watch it with my father's who's ill so we watch it after the fact in 1-2 hour blocks). Overall, pretty superb, as expected. Some thoughts.

-Even more heartbreaking seeing the Wynn's Merc dead on the track on the last lap (even more so since they're departing the series...a sour end)
I felt like it was a bit of poetic justice after Fraga punted Foley off the track earlier in the race, which of course caused the Turner BMW to need to come in early and land on a suboptimal fuel strategy.

Understand to some extent that it was just "hard racing", but it was pretty much the reason the Merc was even in the class lead at that point.
 
Some quality Sunday afternoon entertainment while I'm hunkered down working in the studio 👍 Thanks for the reminder as I totally forgot this race existed. And on IMSA TV no less :D
 
Well that's...not great news. Losing Joest isn't great (though, admittedly they suffered quite a bit the last two years). I hope this is just a cyclical patch of "bad times" for IMSA. Maybe there's a silver lining and Joest is joining another major team or manufacturer, etc.
 
Mazda is cursed
I can't believe you're making me defend Mazda but here goes my pride...

Joest Racing is quiting IMSA because it is becoming rather clear their past success was because of Porsche and Audi, not because of their skills.

Joest is probably the most overrated team in motorsports history with ProDrive being a close second.
 
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