2020 Roar Before the Rolex 24

www.porscheroadandrace.com 2020 Roar Before the Rolex 24 Published: 14th January 2020 By: Martin Raffauf Online version: https://www.porscheroadandrace.com/2020-roar-before-the-rolex-24/ www.porscheroadandrace.com The two factory Porsches approach Turn 1 which leaves the oval. The immensity of the grandstands can be seen behind. The factory cars ran well, given that they are brand new cars. Driver line-ups are slightly changed from last year: the #911 will have Nick Tandy, Fred Makowiecki and new comer Matt Campbell; while the #912 will have Laurens Vanthoor, Earl Bamber and Mathieu Jaminet The Roar at Daytona was completed on Sunday 6 January. This has become a standard three-day test put on by IMSA for the Daytona 24 hours, always in the first week of January. It is mandatory for all entrants (of the 24 hour) to attend as IMSA uses it to monitor performance for potential BOP changes. The teams get to test new tyres, new cars and other new components prior to the busy upcoming race week. This year there was a new Michelin tyre, and several new cars that were making their debut, notably the new Porsche RSR GTLM, and the Corvette C8R. The field comprised 40 cars, which, while a little low compared to prior years, was a premium group of cars. A few more pits have been lost at Daytona, as a safety barrier was installed for the Daytona 500 which took away three of the existing pits. So, with this current configuration only about 47 full size pits are available. www.porscheroadandrace.com The quickest GTD Porsche was the Black Swan Racing entry driven by Bleekemolen, Estep, Muller and Pappas. However, all the GTD (GT3) cars were within just over 1 second of time, so not a lot of difference. Also, since the Bronze drivers qualify, it is not really a show of outright speed of the car There was a qualifying session for all classes, which is used to select pits and garage spaces (note: not for race start positions). Some teams seem to care about this, others not. There seemed to be some complaints in the early days (which were quite warm – 80ºF) about the BOP. But, when push came to shove, the qualifying sessions were amazingly close in all classes. [the_ad id=”12764″] The Mazda was quickest overall setting a new unofficial track record, but the Acura and www.porscheroadandrace.com Cadillac were right there, the top cars separated by less than 0.5 secs. In GTLM, the Risi Ferrari was quickest by 0.001 second over the factory Porsche, with the rest not far behind. LMP2 and GTD were not so clear, as according to the rules, the Bronze driver has to qualify. The indomitable Ben Keating, who is driving in the race in two cars, an LPM2 and GTD, took the pole in LMP2. Frankie Montecalvo took the pole in GTD in the Lexus. Four of the five Lamborghinis were disqualified from qualifying, after they were found to have a non- homologated gear set in the car. Apparently, the American Paul Miller team were the only ones to have read the email from the Lamborghini factory on which of the gear sets to use, and as a result, they were in the clear. The four European cars apparently missed the mail… Following is a brief photo essay of some of the goings on. More details at race time! www.porscheroadandrace.com The GTLM Porsche followed by one of the GT3 (GTD) models in the Daytona Infield. The BOP had been adjusted somewhat to slow the GTD cars to keep www.porscheroadandrace.com the lap time gap between GTLM and GTD at about 4 seconds The new Corvette C8R looked good, and ran well for a new car. Some of the purists are not happy with the engine sound, as this new V8 uses a flat plane crank, so does not sound like the V8 of the C7R. But the car looks great to me. Rumour has it, the 2020 production of street cars is already sold out! www.porscheroadandrace.com The Mazda DPi cars were quickest in almost every session. But when it came to qualifying, the gaps to the other cars were small. The IMSA BOP looked good after all was said and done. Olivier Pla, who set fastest time, indicated they had worked hard, having completed two 24 hour tests in the past few months, and worked on some reliability issues www.porscheroadandrace.com Nascar Champion, Kyle Busch, was on hand to drive one of the Aim-Vasser- Sullivan Lexus GTD cars. He of course was very familiar with Daytona, but www.porscheroadandrace.com not the road course section. It was quite interesting to hear his views in the media interview room. He indicated the biggest thing he had to get used to were the brakes on the Lexus, which were far superior to the NASCAR cars, and he had not found the limit yet. In short order though, he was down 1.5 seconds on the faster times. He was looking to Jack Hawksworth to give him guidance on the ‘etiquette’ of IMSA racing, but he is a professional and will be fine in the race I think The factory Porsche team always seemed to be working. Here on late Friday, the factory drivers were practicing driver changes www.porscheroadandrace.com Porsche had some neat ‘wall art’ for their garage www.porscheroadandrace.com The Risi Ferrari GTLM goes through tech inspection. James Calado put the car on pole by 0.001 second, over the factory Porsche. He admitted that www.porscheroadandrace.com they struggled at first getting the car to work on the new Michelin tyre. By qualifying time, it was much cooler, which helped he said. So it is clear that for the race, weather conditions will once again play a part, especially in GTLM class where they have three compounds to choose from. Everyone reckoned that the new tyre was quicker than last year’s tyre, it just took some work to get the car to work with it The all-ladies Lamborghini was colourful and got a lot of attention, especially from the thousands of girl scouts who were in attendance at the circuit at a jamboree during the roar. Driven by Katherine Legge, Christina Nielsen, Tatiana Calderon, and Swiss driver Rahel Frey, they acquitted themselves well. I made the acquaintance of Rahel, as we have a www.porscheroadandrace.com mutual friend in Fredy Lienhard in Switzerland. She was enjoying herself, and liked Daytona. By Sunday she set the third fastest time in GTD Race weekend for the Rolex 24 at Daytona is 22-26 January, and this race will be the first round of the prestigious North American Endurance Cup. Readers can access further information on major international and popular races in 2020 here. Written by: Martin Raffauf Images by: Martin Raffauf Share this:.

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