Story and photos by Tim Adams
Since my last IMSA report from Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October of 2019 a lot has changed to say the least. The IMSA season started out on schedule at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. We all know what happened by March of this year. IMSA was set to go racing at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, when Covid-19 shut down the entire sports world. To say it put a wrench in the IMSA schedule would be a severe understatement.
As sports started to come back this summer, motorsports were the first ones back. The IMSA schedule was in a constant state of flux and has continued to change throughout the summer. To get back on the track, IMSA went back to Florida and ran two sprint races at Daytona and Sebring. Both races were held with limited fans, and limited media coverage. The IMSA Sportscar Weekend at Road America would end up being the fourth race on this year’s schedule. It would also be the first race since the Covid-19 outbreak to offer unlimited attendance for fans. Concessions would have to be made however. The tradition of open paddock access for all fans, and the pre-race grid walk have been eliminated at this time. Time will tell when this will again be the norm. I fear it is going to take quite a while before we have fan access to paddocks again. A huge thank you needs to go out to IMSA and Road America for allowing the media to do its job covering this weekend. It makes no sense to restrict us and make us try to cover races in the crowd, when we are safer and socially distanced better inside the fences where we belong.
The balance of the schedule continues to be shuffled, and fan access depends on the local restrictions in place. While Road America was completely open to fans, the next race, which is GT only at Virginia International Raceway will not allow any fans. Petit Le Mans will continue to be in October but was moved back one week and it will not be the season ending race. The 12 Hours of Sebring will now end the season in November, with a sprint race at Laguna Seca sandwiched between Petit and Sebring. Races at Mid-Ohio, and Watkins Glen were cancelled. Both Ohio and New York have too many Covid-19 restrictions in place to logistically hold a race.
The Covid-19 outbreak also thru a wrench into Corvette Racings plan to debut the C8.R at Le Mans this year. Le Mans was moved from its traditional mid-June date to September. It just does not work with the current IMSA schedule, and with the United States woeful handing of the pandemic, we are not exactly welcome in Europe currently.
The bad news continued. The factory Porsche effort in GTLM will be ended in 2020. They will continue in the WEC in Europe, but the US based team is done. Currently this leaves four cars in GTLM for 2021. Two C8.R’s from Corvette Racing, and two BMW M8’s from Rahal Letterman Lanigan. The BMW effort may also end after 2020. GTLM cannot continue with only four cars, or maybe just two Corvettes.
Acura has also announced that it is dissolving its relationship with Team Penske at the end of the 2020 season. Roger Penske has already told his drivers, start looking, I am done with IMSA. Acura has said that this does not mean that they are leaving IMSA however, they may be back with different teams next year. One rumor is that Wayne Taylor Racing may switch to Acura next year. Currently they are running the Cadillac DPi-V.R, but that contract ends after the 2020 season.
The past several years, the Road America race has been when IMSA would hold their state of the series press conference and announce the next seasons schedule, and rules changes. With the pandemic in 2020 that did not happen this year. It is a mess right now. The Road America date is set for next year as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona, beyond that, it is anybody’s guess. We are all going to have to wait and see how this all plays out. Stay tuned.
The race at Road America was a return for IMSA to a traditional three-day weekend filled with racing. The weather was fantastic all weekend, until the last 30 minutes of the headlining race on Sunday. Those last 30 minutes it rained…. a lot. More on that later.
The weekend included racing in Prototype Challenge, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, and the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship.
Prototype Challenge features two different chassis manufactures, the Ligier JS P3, and the Norma M30. The race in Prototype Challenge was won by the JDC Motorsports team in their Norma M30.
The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge races were dominated by two cars all weekend. Jeff Kingsley of Kelly-Moss Road and Race, qualified number one and won race one on Saturday. Qualifying number two was Riley Dickinson of Moorespeed. Riley won race two on Sunday with Kingsley finishing in second place.
The IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series is a big hit with fans because all the cars start out stock and have minimal modifications. A fan can actually identify the cars. It is composed of two classes, Grand Sport, and Touring Car. This means fans get to see the likes of Mustangs, Camaros, Mercedes AMG’s, Aston Martins, racing with Hyundai’s, Alfa Romeo’s, and Honda Civics.
In Grand Sport the Aston Martin of KOHR Motorsports claimed the pole by a full second. At the start of the race the Aston led, but after Corey Lewis took over from Sheena Monk in the McLaren 570S he was able to chase down the Aston and hold on after a pit stop to take the win as the race ended under caution. It was a huge comeback for Sheena Monk who was severely injured in a crash at Laguna Seca in 2018. She also became the first woman to win overall in the Michelin Pilot Challenge since 2015. The Touring car class was won by one of the many Hyundais fielded by Bryan Herta Autosports in race 33.
In the WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, Acura Team Penske qualified 1-2 in DPi. The two Mazda Motorsports cars were 3-4. The race played out this way as well with Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves leading the race and the two Mazda’s hot on the tail of the Team Penske Acura. With about 45 minutes to go in the race the skies became extremely dark. When it is that dark in Wisconsin at 12:45PM, it is going to rain, and rain it did. With about 30 minutes to go the skies opened up. The race was red flagged for what was said was lightning in the area. The race clock was stopped. The rain was extremely heavy leaving parts of the track with a lot of standing water. The race was being carried live on NBC, and they had a window the race had to be finished in before they had to go to NHL hockey. The drivers were called back to their cars and started back out on track under yellow. As they circulated the track under yellow the rain began to lighten, but then became heavier again. With 3 laps to go, we went back to green. A 3-lap shootout in horrendous conditions. I do not know how any driver behind another could see a thing. Imagine yourself trying to drive behind a wall of semitrucks in a downpour. Castroneves took the green in third place behind the Wayne Taylor Racing Konica Minolta Cadillac. The Cadillac took the lead as the leading Mazda was still on slicks and had to pit. Castroneves managed to get around the Cadillac at Canada Corner and get the win as the race finished under caution. The white flag lap was chaotic, and the full course yellow soon was out not long after the white flag flew. It was an insane ending to the race. More than a few teams did not make the right call when to pit for rain tires, and many cars ended up off track.
In GTLM, it looked to be Porsche’s comeback race in the 911 RSR. They qualified number one with the two Corvette Racing C8.R’s right behind them. The Porsche was comfortably leading until the rain came. To put it bluntly, the factory drivers, and the team itself failed miserably dealing with the rain. This handed Corvette Racing their third win in a row. What should have been a triumphant return to victory lane for Porsche ended with one finishing last, and the other, second to last in class, a disaster. I do not expect them to stop battling, and we will see them win before the season ends.
In GTD, as it has been all season long, it was the Lexus show. The AIM Vasser Sullivan RC-F GT3’s qualified 1-2, and at the start of the race just drove away for the rest of the class. The rain did throw a wrench into the 1-2 finish though. A Lexus would win, but for the first time it was the 12 car driven by Townsend Bell and Frankie Montecalvo. It was close over the second place Acura, but only because of the rain. After running roughshod over the GTD class the first four races, the Lexus received a BoP (Balance of Performance) adjustment for the next race at VIR.
In LMP2 I was surprised to see 4 cars at the race. After last years debacle of a 2-car class for most of the year, I did not see the class surviving. Five were entered, but Tower Motorsport by Starworks pulled their entry due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The class was won by the Dragonspeed USA entry.
Next up for myself is Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta it everything goes at planned. I may not be able to obtain media access again. Even if I am unable to obtain media access, I will still plan to cover the race from the spectator areas if Covid-19 restrictions allow for it.
