IMSA Race Detroit: IWSC Round 5

[divxx]

85, Please go to the pits and do not come back out.

[TzeiTzei]

Another PC in the wall. Another FCY. That's it. I've had enough of this crap.

[tux]

PC Should be made to race on their own behind closed doors. Awful class.

[divxx]

It's the same damaged car that caused a previous FCY. They just shouldn't be allowed back out.

[RWill2073]

I really want to enjoy this series, I really do. But it is made nearly impossible. Had to try four different places to get a working feed, which has started to freeze now and as I type has gone poof, pc's causing yellow after yellow, and of course the bop where the mazdas are dominant at Mazda raceway and now corvettes dominant at the corvette sponsored race in Detroit..... Just so irritating.

[Maelochs]

On the other hand, PCs might finish third and fourth----if they don't crash as well.

[RWill2073]

At this point, I'd enjoy seeing the 5 and 10 wreck each other and see a pc win unless the Mazda could pass them. Just for the lols.

[Starfish Primer]

The stream is going worse, i remember how good it was on ALMS days.

[Maelochs]

I was hoping for the same ... but no luck. I bet the GTLM teams are thinking," How can we keep not getting invited to this event?"

[Purist]

Some crazy times put up during the race.

The #31 pulled a 1:23.138, versus the pole at a 1:23.815.

In PC, the fastest time had been a 1:26.211, and Renger threw down a 1:24.977 in the race!

In morning practice, the GTD mark was a 1:31.063, and that was lowered to a 1:30.626 by the class-winning Viper.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

I bet the GTLM teams are thinking," How can we keep not getting invited to this event?"

They will make out best of all with the cost savings of not having to replace loads of shredded carbon parts, and equally expensive suspension components.

[Deleted]

[Rcz]

BOPing existed during the since the GTP but it is getting ridiculous.

But you know, I don't envy them, I'm mean trying to control lap time of two completely different platforms is nearly impossible. Hopefully this will end during the DPi era.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

I do not honestly believe that IMSA is deliberately fixing the races ... well i don’t always think that ... but Chiana’s point is valid.

No matter who wins, there is always the question of was it the best driver and team, or was this the car that got the best BoP breaks this time around?

With cars being adjusted on a race-by-race basis, there is no chance to see if the BoP is right. Okay, this car was fast ... slow it down? Wait, this is racing ... cars are Supposed to be fast. Maybe the engineers got it right and what we saw wasn’t just BoP. Maybe the cars which were slower were less well-prepared for that track.

No matter. IMSA will change everything for the next track anyway.

There are two reasons I can see for adjusting BoP. Obviously, different levels are needed for Daytona, with its banking, and all the other tracks. And obviously, if something new comes along—like HPD’s bigger V6—then an adjustment is needed.

Otherwise, the only reason to adjust BoP would be ... because the series if freaking incompetent to set it correctly anyway.

I really don’t care so much anymore about it for the rest of this era ... the DP/P2 era. We have seen nothing but artificial results since this series started. I can accept that for the rest of this season, we will get skewed BoP as we always have.

What bothers me, is that IMSA seems likely to continue on with this idiocy even after every car is essentially identical—and that makes me kind of sick.

GT3-based series seem to be able to adjust a much wider range of weights, dimensions, chassis and engine types, and can produce excellent racing. IMSA needs to learn from that.

Don’t base BoP on practice results. Obviously teams will cheat in practice to win in the race. Have independent test drivers test each car and set its baseline before the season starts, then after Daytona ... and maybe once more after Le Mans if needed.

Otherwise, in a series where no real development or modification is allowed, why is constant BoP adjustment needed?

Chiana’s real point is that whoever has won in IMSA up until now, has been gifted the win by BoP at least in part. This really does devalue every win. Every other sport in the world strives for fairness and a level playing field; IMSA tries to help whoever lost the last race, at the next race. It is stupid and it devalues each victory.

IMSA needs to be told that once everyone has the latest DP, all those BoP games need to Stop. Let the teams and drivers decide the winner, not the stewards and series officials.

This is the most long-winded response of saying the races are manipulated but not fixed, as suggested.

[skycafe]

GTP's were not BOP'ed. Not this way. There was a power to weight ratio scheme, but it did not change race to race. A turbo Buick would have been treated the same in a March, Lola or Whatever chassis. If the engines were the same capacity, the weight rules (balance) would have been the same across the board. If your Whatever GTP was slower the the March, well, get busy-and not lobbying for legislation, you were working on aero refinement, and engineering, and what not, like getting a different driver.

The times are different. You can run all sorts of performance projections now, and customize all sorts of things to do with performance. I am some old curmudgeon who doesn't see this as an emulation of the sort of wonderful power you have in video games (I am clueless when it comes to referencing something like that, so maybe it is out of line), so yippee. I can't get excited. I hate to think that is the future, but maybe I should just accept it? (apparently someone in Tokyo, Scranton and London can connect on the internet and play racing games in real time-can we enlist the people responsible for that to actually make internet timing and scoring, and video work without glitches? Please?)

Grumpy curmudgeon going off to sulk.

[skycafe]

Oh, and the Viper won the Daytona GT class today, so I will set aside my 'grumpy' briefly.

[Deleted]

Yes! Skycafe, you are mirroring my thoughts perfectly.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by skycafe

. I can't get excited. I hate to think that is the future, but maybe I should just accept it? (apparently someone in Tokyo, Scranton and London can connect on the internet and play racing games in real time-can we enlist the people responsible for that to actually make internet timing and scoring, and video work without glitches? Please?)

That pretty much sums it up. Streaming video on the internet is easy these days, don't know why racing has an issue with it. And problems with T&S are beyond my comprehension.

[skycafe]

Clinkie Clinkie

[Deleted]

Every single comment on sportscar365 race article was about BoP.

Negri also wants to complain:
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=...&id=abca85a8e7
"We definitely need some help from the series to make the BOP a bit more equal because we are not equal with these other guys. It is completely embarrassing that the BOP - in what is supposed to be the top class in IMSA - allows a PC car and GTD car to pull away from us.""

[TF110]

On Mazda's twitter, they say the 'overboost' was caused by the car leaving the ground on the bumps. Imo, this track is a low point in the calendar. Everyone is gearing up for Le Mans and they put on this eye-sore while also playing second fiddle to Indy. What was the attendance like?

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by TF110

On Mazda's twitter, they say the 'overboost'

Please, what is 'overboost?' So, you can overboost on a bump and have to take a penalty?

[Purist]

Well, it's not IMSA's fault that a "decent" (in your eyes) road course doesn't exist near Detroit, or even in the state of Michigan. (And "second fiddle" is a matter of your perception.)

Penske has seen to it that millions have been poured into Belle Isle, including quite a bit to do work on the track. They're not using the short course anymore, and section by section, the track is getting redone.

As for the bumps, is it any worse than the lower half of Sebring? I know some years, Lime Rock was absolutely diabolical, particularly 1992, to give an example. Houston and Baltimore were fairly mean in the roughness department. Is Long Beach a billiard table? (As for F1, they have the clout to get their street circuits repaved every year; I'm not sure even NASCAR could pull that one off.)

We'll see what Chevy does for 2017, but even if they disappeared, and Detroit went away, for IMSA, I wouldn't count on them adding Mid Ohio, or any other "better" circuit, in its stead, necessarily. I still think the calendar is too sparse with just 12 events, so I wouldn't relish losing another one.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by skycafe

Please, what is 'overboost?' So, you can overboost on a bump and have to take a penalty?

Here's the tweet I mentioned https://twitter.com/MazdaRacing/stat...44421149642752.

[cbbrit]

Results for those that haven't seen or need to see them!

http://results.imsa.com/Results/16_2...03_Results.PDF