Something Blew…..
OK, so we weren’t going to list every blue liveried in the race here were we?
When the teams and cars that would form the TUDOR Championship grid first came together for tests at Sebring International Raceway and Daytona in November the running at the Superspeedway was marred by a car of scary high speed accidents after Daytona Prototypes, running with the 2014 updates, blew tyres.
Those issues, though seemingly allayed given the lack of similar accidents both when, following some tweeks to the aerodynamic and technical package, the DPs returned to Daytona in December and at the Roar Before the 24 are indicative of the unknowns that lie in wait, not only at Daytona, but in the entire season ahead.
How the different classes compare in terms of top speed was one of the major issues to be highlighted during the Roar test, with the GTD cars surpassing the GTLM cars, and pushing the PC cars for top speed despite slower cornering speeds though the infield. As expected every class has been subject to technical regulation changes in the time between test and race as IMSA try to find a balance not only between the classes.
Arguably chief amongst them is the attempt to balance out the P class after the Corvette DPs dominated the top of the times, only failing to lead one of the sessions in the three days of running. Of course, part of the issue in the P class is that the P2 cars are running on a sort of track – Daytona’s famed 31° degree banking to be precise – that they were never designed for. Conversely, however, the likes of OAK Racing’s Morgan and Muscle Milk Pickett Racing’s new Oreca are more used to the challenges of endurance racing, especially after the huge upgrade package applied to the DPs to bring them up to speed with the ACO regulations machines.
How, or indeed whether, the down time changes alter the order from that which was set across the three day Roar will be seen first in the practice sessions on Thursday January 23 before the qualifying sessions later the same day. However, with qualifying for a 24 hour race of such debatable importance it may only be once the rhythm of the race itself is established that the true balance of performance becomes clear.
And once the Rolex 24 has been won for another year, of course, the unknowns move onto the 12 Hours of Sebring and the rest of the TUDOR Championship season.
www.theCheckeredFlag.co.uk will have full coverage of the Rolex 24 at Daytona, with reports from Daytona on each of the practice and qualifying sessions in the build-up to the race before hour-by-hour reports throughout the race.
