IMSA: Road America Preview 2016

WEATHERTECH CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT SCHEDULE

Friday, August 5 (all times Central)
12:10 p.m. - 1:10 p.m., Free Practice 1
4:25 p.m. - 5:25 p.m., Free Practice 2

Saturday, August 6
9:25 a.m. - 10:25 a.m., Free Practice 3
2:50 p.m. - 4:20 p.m., Qualifying

Sunday, August 7
9:40 a.m. - 10:00 a.m., Warm-up
3:05 p.m. - 5:45 p.m., Race – Continental Tire Road Race Showcase for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - 2 hours, 40 minutes

TV TUNE-IN INFO

POINTS OF INTEREST

FAMILY REUNION
After racing at Lime Rock without the headlining Prototype class, all four of IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship categories will be in action at the Continental Tire Road Race Showcase.

Prototype (8), PC (9), GT Le Mans (10), and GT Daytona (17) comprise 44 total entries expected to take part in Sunday’s race.

THE SKED, THE CLASSES, THE EVERYTHING
Road America marks IMSA’s annual destination for all that’s on the horizon. Next year’s schedules for the WeatherTech Championship, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, and almost all of IMSA’s support series should be detailed in Friday’s information drop. Only the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama schedule will be held for publication at a later date.

Very little in the way of big WeatherTech Championship calendar additions or subtractions have been mentioned, and it’s believed the biggest news on the 2017 schedule will involve date changes.

Although it’s unconfirmed, rumors involving a month swap for Circuit of The Americas and Monterey have circulated the paddock. If it happens, IMSA’s September share with the WEC at COTA would come to an end next year and the Texas date would move to May where the WeatherTech Championship would become the headliner. Monterey’s traditional May time slot would then move to September.

The accuracy of those rumored changes will be known on Friday.

Like everything else involving IMSA and 2017, we can’t wait to see what it has come up with for our next wave of endurance racing enjoyment.

DP FAREWELL COUNTDOWN CONTINUES
If you’re a fan of Daytona Prototypes, it’s time to book a trip to Road America, COTA (Sept. 15-18) or Road Atlanta (Sept. 28-Oct. 1) to revel in the rumbling V8-powered Corvette DPs during one of the three races left where they’ll be featured.

Half of this weekend’s Prototype field is made of Corvette DPs, and thanks to their flexibility and reliability, those four cars hold first through fourth in the championship. Action Express Racing’s No. 5 entry for Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi (220 points) leads the sister No. 31 AXR car driven by Dane Cameron and Eric Curran (216), followed by Wayne Taylor Racing’s Jordan and Ricky Taylor in the No. 10 Corvette DP (211) and Marc Goossens in the No. 90 Visit Florida Racing car (197).

BoP-PED ON THE HEAD

IMSA made its fifth consecutive Balance of Performance leading into Road America. The latest adjustments have applied performance-reducing changes to Mazda in Prototype, a change to increase performance for Porsche in GTLM, and a little bit of give and take for Ferrari in GTLM.

To start, the German brand’s pair of factory 911 RSRs have been given an air restrictor break and will breathe easier thanks to a total of 0.3mm extra flow to its 4.0-liter flat-six engines.

Ferrari’s twin-turbo V8 488 GTLM model has been saddled with an extra 10 kilos (22 pounds) of weight, but was given more boost from 2000-7500 rpms. The Prancing Horse was given an extra liter of fuel capacity to compensate for the fuel consumption increase.

Mazda’s BoP journey has been an interesting one since the Detroit weekend in early June. With the 10 kilos (22 pounds) tacked on for Road America, the Lola-based Mazda Prototypes have gained 25 kilos (55 pounds) in two months. For the sake of comparison, at the new minimum weight of 925 kilos, the Mazdas still weigh less than Michael Shank Racing’s Ligier JS P2-Honda (950 kilos).

The four-cylinder turbocharged Mazdas was also received a boost reduction from 2000-8600 rpms.

Referring back to the limited number of races on the schedule, late-season BoP changes deserve more scrutiny than those that came earlier in the year. Porsche, which has one win at Long Beach and has looked dreadful since it went to the 2016 WEC spec Michelin tires, was granted an unusual concession by IMSA starting at Lime Rock. The heat wave that enveloped Lime Rock meant Porsche was unable to use the 2015 WEC medium-temperature tires it was given by IMSA, and as a result, its performance suffered.

With Road America’s forecast appearing to be a perfect fit for those 2015 tires, IMSA will get its first look at the factory cars with that BoP change applied. Adding power to the cars prior to logging the effects of the medium-temperature tires on the 911 RSRs stands out as odd, to say the least.

Ferrari’s GTLM 488 looked racier at Lime Rock, and with zero wins on the board, it wouldn’t hurt the series to have one of its most popular brands vying for its first victory of the year. If a BoP change late in the championship helps one of the series’ flagship marques improve its odds to win, that would stand out as an intelligent use of BoP. BMW is also searching for its first GTLM win with the new twin-turbo V8 M6, and had no modifications for Road America.

If there’s a truly bizarre angle to the new BoP changes, it’s the call to penalize Mazda – another winless marque. Granted, the brand has been fast and in positions to capture that first victory in recent races on a natural-terrain road course, but one would think a boost reduction and increase in weight would come after a car – any car – went out and spanked the field.

Road America, like Watkins Glen, CTMP and Monterey, should favor the Mazda Prototypes and Shank’s Ligier-Honda, so the pre-emptive BoP adjustment to keep the Mazdas from holding an obvious advantage could be a masterful move by IMSA. If it ends up knocking the Mazdas out of contention, some frank words could be exchanged between the brand and the series.

Those who are given breaks are thankful, and those who lose power or gain weight tend to complain without mercy. That’s the fun of choosing to manage competition through the use BoP.