IMSA Race 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona(IMSA @ Daytona) - Jan 25-28

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Two words: no PC. Even though the PC drivers moved on it seems like they moved on to cars that allow them to drive with their brain plugged in a lot better. Plus a clear class separation on pace, so no more GT cars crashing into slow erratic PCs.

"No PC" is technically three words but I totally agree. Certainly having the pace separation was something that was mentioned by imsa radio to where drivers could overtake with relative ease where they might not have been able to do that in the past with a different class.

[pafe]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Cause you can stop beating that drum, repeat after the US based people, IT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. The series and insurers have shown they have less than zero interest in ever accepting something like that. Plus I haven't seen anyone say it concretely works for PRO series, drivers constantly speed into yellow areas so now we're going to trust them to actual maintain that speed on their own?

OK i get it
As I said, with so few yellows, its all ok. I hope they stay with 3 classes like it is now, very enjoyable & clean racing.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Cause you can stop beating that drum, repeat after the US based people, IT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. The series and insurers have shown they have less than zero interest in ever accepting something like that. Plus I haven't seen anyone say it concretely works for PRO series, drivers constantly speed into yellow areas so now we're going to trust them to actual maintain that speed on their own?

Of course drivers speed into yellow areas because they are approaching them at race speed.

Why wouldn't a driver maintain that speed on their own? If they were faced with a penalty like a drive through, they would.

[Akrapovic]

It works in other series just fine? IMSA probably won't use it, but as a system, it works. If you can enforce it on 200 cars around the Nurburgring, you can easily enforce it 50 cars around Lime Rock. It's just GPS speeds.

[Maelochs]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Plus I haven't seen anyone say it concretely works for PRO series, drivers constantly speed into yellow areas so now we're going to trust them to actual maintain that speed on their own?

Actually it works everywhere in the world. Anywhere people Want it to work.

If drivers speed in caution zones, it is because the race organizers let them. That is a decision by the organizers, and in no way is related to the effectiveness of yellow flags.

Hand out a few stop-plus-fives for speeding in a caution zone, see what happens.

In fact Every car could be fit with a special transponder and a "Code60" limiter like the pit lane limiter, which would come on some number of seconds after the signal was broadcast, and which could be overridden with a switch if needed (but the driver who did would need a Good reason.)

Pass out stop-plus-five for offenders .... deal done.

Not saying it should or should not be implemented, but at least lets's keep the discussion honest and real.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Cause you can stop beating that drum, repeat after the US based people, IT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. The series and insurers have shown they have less than zero interest in ever accepting something like that. Plus I haven't seen anyone say it concretely works for PRO series, drivers constantly speed into yellow areas so now we're going to trust them to actual maintain that speed on their own?

None of that answers the perfectly valid question - why there is no code60 in IMSA?

[Richard C]

I wanted to say thanks to those who posted here during the race. I watched on/off all weekend and I used this thread to sort of "catch up" as to what was going on during the times I wasn't watching. While watching my teen son said he would be interested in going next year. So I will have to start making plans!

I haven't been posting in the Sport Car forums much recently (mostly been on the F1 side for the past few months). I will try to get back here more often!

Richard

[Joe Bernard]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

"No PC" is technically three words but I totally agree. Certainly having the pace separation was something that was mentioned by imsa radio to where drivers could overtake with relative ease where they might not have been able to do that in the past with a different class.

Yep, that was an answer to my tweeted question to them. Makes sense to me.

[Maelochs]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

I haven't been posting in the Sport Car forums much recently (mostly been on the F1 side for the past few months).

Tired of F1, wanted to follow a series which featured cars racing?

J/K, hope we both make it next year, if that's the best plan.

[RWill2073]

Really fun race. I had to step away in last few minutes but caught last 10 minutes on radio. Enjoyed the conversation here all race. Best, most considerate forum anywhere, imo. Imsa has gold on their hands: can they keep it or turn it back into coal? Only issue to fix is the ford sandbagging.

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by RWill2073

Only issue to fix is the ford sandbagging.

And the streaming !

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Damian Baldi

And the streaming !

Yeah. Ax FUX while you fix the stream. Just for those wondering, like I am, this is the last year of FUX's contract with IMSA. There's hope but the only (latest) article I can find is from Aug 2017 and Dagys, that doesn't sound promising, but very open ended...

Sorry, I got off topic. FUX coverage of the 24 was dreadful. No on demand in cars on Go. That I could find. There! On Topic.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Damian Baldi

And the streaming !

For me it was brilliant. Oddly we are having this conversation over in F1 too!

It seems I might be dependent on where you were. The UK was good.

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

The stream quality this year was abysmal. The fact it even worked for you is a miracle. It's been slow and buffering all weekend.

The streaming from the IMSA app was perfect for me. Picture was great quality. The usual handful of seconds at low quality while it buffers then brilliant.

I estimate that I had this on for 16 of the 24 hours. 8 of them streaming to the telly (via phone or pad). 6 on a pad in the garage and 2 only listening to IMSA radio while my kid was at rugby. I only remember it cutting out once, if you ignore the time I carried it to the garage!

The app did have a little bug. Sometimes when on the summary screen where you could chose lots of different on boards the main picture would show the top left quarter rather than shrinking the picture to quarter of the size.

Seriously, it was brilliant for me. Loved it.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

None of that answers the perfectly valid question - why there is no code60 in IMSA?

Insurance. It is the very same reason we have so many cautions in every series in the US - No one is allowed on a hot track, even under local yellows. We all know this still doesn't completely neutralize the field, but thems the rules. Code 60 is a terrific idea when controlled electronically, but it is still technically a hot track so it's a no-go here.

Never say never, but unless we completely revamp our entire insurance industry (which I'd be all for as well), I just don't think it will happen anytime soon.

[JHamilton]

I thought the coverage was pretty good. I streamed the whole race on Fox Sports Go and it was reliable and in HD. The commercials were as bad as ever during the commercial broadcast, but disappeared when it was just the stream. I had the world feed with RLM overnight.

Also, there was a 40 minute pre-race show on the network and they showed 2+ hours of the start. I think sometimes we forget that's a big damn deal.

[Damian Baldi]

Originally Posted by Adam43

For me it was brilliant. Oddly we are having this conversation over in F1 too!

Last year was perfect from imsatv page, I had put the smartTV on that page and it was like a dream, full HD, no cuts for 24 hs.

This time I never was able to get any image on the smartTV, but I was able to watch in the computer, but with constant cuts each 3 or 5 minutes (a nightmare).

FOX3 showed part of the race, but those guys can't distinguish a GT from a ship.

[Maelochs]

My favorite part of the FUX coverage was the 20-minute blocks where there were commercials, interviews, info-mercial interviews, commercials, info-mercial features, more commercials ... but No Racing.

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Cause you can stop beating that drum, repeat after the US based people, IT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. The series and insurers have shown they have less than zero interest in ever accepting something like that. Plus I haven't seen anyone say it concretely works for PRO series, drivers constantly speed into yellow areas so now we're going to trust them to actual maintain that speed on their own?

As someone who has business actually heading onto a racetrack occasionally to sort out crashed cars (albiet not at that level) I can firmly state the only safe way to deal with incidents is to bunch them all behind the safety car and send people out on track when the field has filed by and you can actually hear each other and not have to worry about a bunch of racing drivers more interested in watching their own delta time and their competitors to see if they're gaining an advantage than doing the right thing by the marshals.

We're only one technical failure on a delta time away from a car gourangaring a bunch of marshals, and when that happens the excuse of "Oh, but I didn't want to lose the gap I'd built up under green" won't matter a damn to the marshals who have been struck by a car

And on an entertainment point, I'm getting tired across a lot of motorsport now of seeing an entertaining, strategic race completely ruined by certain drivers getting "free" pit stops under code 60/VSC/FCY or whatever and others not, there by meaning there is no excitement after it goes back green.
The first time I saw this was in Monaco a few years ago where someone who was running about 12th pre-pitstops stayed out in the pit cycle, someone else crashed and brought out the VSC and he pitted while his rivals were at VSC speeds, came out and thereby won a race he was never going to without it
And it's happened a good few times since then too

I'm getting sick and tired of drivers and fans moaning about SC vs Code 60 like the precious gaps built up by drivers under green matter a damn when there's a big incident on track that actual human beings (ones not paid a jot compared to the superstar drivers in the cars) are expected to head on to a live race track just so they can keep hold of their gaps and the series itself can make some grandstanding point about being "pure"
Well: Purism is BORING.
The face SC periods end up making races more exciting is a side effect of their true nature as the safest way to clean up incidents, but I'd rather a side effect that improves racing instead of ruins it, as Code 60s do

Keep the slow zones at Le Mans and tracks big enough to make them work, but keep them out of racing elsewhere imo

[codename_47]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Tired of F1, wanted to follow a series which featured cars racing?

J/K, hope we both make it next year, if that's the best plan.

I don't think this race is the best one to shout about when for most of sunday, no-one was on the same lap as the cars they were fighting

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

My favorite part of the FUX coverage was the 20-minute blocks where there were commercials, interviews, info-mercial interviews, commercials, info-mercial features, more commercials ... but No Racing.

I liked plugging the event and advertising it while it was on, because someone watching it on FS2 had to be convinced to not watch UFC and switch to a 24 hr sports car race on FS1. Pretty sure UFC fans and sports car fans are like all other sports fans these days; they watch what they want to, not because FUX is plugging it. Not sure why networks haven't figured that out yet...

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by codename_47

I don't think this race is the best one to shout about when for most of sunday, no-one was on the same lap as the cars they were fighting

dunno what you watched but I watched Daytona. After a couple of hours there were 6 GTD cars all on the same lead lap. After 24 hours there were still 4 of them on the lead lap racing to the finish.

[MGDavid]

Originally Posted by codename_47

..........

I'm getting sick and tired of drivers and fans moaning about SC vs Code 60 like the precious gaps built up by drivers under green matter a damn when there's a big incident on track that actual human beings (ones not paid a jot compared to the superstar drivers in the cars) are expected to head on to a live race track just so they can keep hold of their gaps and the series itself can make some grandstanding point about being "pure"
..............

I have to politely ask if you've ever raced or marshalled in mainland Europe where Code 60 is widely used and works?

[Matt]

I'm okay with not adopting Code 60. Restarts are fun.

Also, Ford didn't sandbag - here's the math from facebook.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

I thought the coverage was pretty good. I streamed the whole race on Fox Sports Go and it was reliable and in HD. The commercials were as bad as ever during the commercial broadcast, but disappeared when it was just the stream. I had the world feed with RLM overnight.

Also, there was a 40 minute pre-race show on the network and they showed 2+ hours of the start. I think sometimes we forget that's a big damn deal.

At the start of the race I went looking for it on Fox Sports but was surprised that it was on the regular Fox network. You are right that is a huge deal for getting eyeballs on the product. It has always been this way in America even when the alms had a few races on ABC or NBC, I can't remember which, those were always huge draws.

[Matt]

Also, after listening to them all weekend trackside - Hindahugh and Marriott need to go. John makes Murray Walker's later years seem competent with the amount of mistakes he makes. Not to mention constantly bickering with Jeremy Shaw when Jeremy corrects him.

Marriott is just pretty bad to listen to. Cringe worthy questions all the time.