IMSA: New fuel monitoring plan for 2017

IMSA's technical department has informed its WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams of a new refueling tank data monitoring system that will be required for use in 2017.

The series faced scrutiny from some of its teams and manufacturers last season as efforts to balance the refueling time among cars with differing fuel tank sizes led to some cars completing pit stops faster than others.

To further improve the accuracy in establishing refueling-time parity, IMSA confirmed in a technical bulletin distributed on Friday that "all P, GTLM, and GTD Competitors Autonomous Fuel Supply Tank(s) must be fitted with an IMSA sensor package and wiring loom which provides IMSA with the capability to collect data on each cars refueling in real time, and will enable IMSA to provide each individual team with its respective fill time and volume data.

"The sensor package consists of a capacitive fluid level, fuel temperature, and vent pressure sensors integrated into a single housing. The sensor package and wiring loom is only available for purchase from IMSA as an accessory and will be distributed at the beginning of the Roar event."

IMSA has also asked its teams to standardize the mountings and hardware on their refueling tanks that are directly related to flowing fuel into the cars during a pit stop. With the in-tank data collection system and the replacement of any specialized fuel flow hardware with spec pieces, vagaries in refueling times should be greatly diminished.