2023 Roar Before the Rolex 24 - Jan. 20-22

[Nick Woodbury]

Weeeeell, Haven't seen any signs of a Roar thread being started for this year's R24, sooooo, figured I'd start one for the hell of it so all chat can be funneled through here! NA Sportscar activity on this forum in general seems to be quieter since the Rona dark days, so here we go!!

As usual, there is a metric f**k ton of info for everyone to consider for casuals and hard-cores alike!

From the DIS Roar Event Page - "The 2023 Roar Before the Rolex 24 kicks off the racing season at DAYTONA as the three-day test serves as the final dress rehearsal before the Rolex 24 at DAYTONA. Watch as some of the world's top drivers take to the track. Running the weekend prior to the Rolex 24 At DAYTONA, the Roar Before the Rolex 24 sets up two back-to-back weekends of intense IMSA action and sets the starting grid for the 2023 Rolex 24 At DAYTONA by a traditional qualifying format on Sunday!"
https://www.daytonainternationalspee...-the-rolex-24/


First off (and perhaps most importantly) the preliminary weather report for this weekend's test from the good lad(s?) at Racecast Weather. Looking great so far.
Weather Report
Website - http://www.racecastweather.com/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RacecastWx/


IMSA Competitor's Hub (Lots of cool behind the scenes info here) -> https://www.imsa.com/competitors/

Official Roar Schedule -> https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uplo...OAR-011123.pdf

IMSA Pitlane Assignments (Roar Only) -> https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uplo...gnments-V2.pdf

IMSA Track Map -> https://www.imsa.com/wp-content/uplo...-Track-Map.pdf

Live Timing -> https://livetiming.alkamelsystems.com/imsa/

IMSA TV -> https://imsatv.imsa.com/ - For VP Challenge raace & R24 Qualifying.

IMSA Official Youtube -> https://www.youtube.com/@imsaofficial

IMSA News Links Resources -> Racer.com | Sportscar365 | Daily Sports Car | Motorsport.com


Official ROAR Entry Lists

WeatherTech

Michelin Pilot Challenge

VP Racing Challenge


Twitter Resources

IMSA

IMSA Radio

Rolex24Hours

Daytona International Speedway - Sadly the R24 is quite the afterthought on this page. Oh well, sharing it anyway.


Youtubers

As always, what would the Roar before the 24 be without our hero camera people recording all the track angles, paddock action and other activities like the legends they are...each and every January! These are all of the regular Rolex youtubers that my pea-brain can remember from years past, probably leaving out several others.

Lanky Turtle <- Our lord and savior!

MidKnightR1

Buddybryan3

K Train 2787 Productions

SethV Tube


Additional Interesting Bits

Marshall Pruett's Terrific GTP 101 Tech Tours So Far...
Acura - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJctWKE83XU
BMW - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRvn0utijUo

Marshall Pruett & Graham Goodwin Report from December GTP & GT Test + Season Previews
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hmagr0PJf8c
Part 2 (Interview w/ Josef Newgarden) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWHOzKF-Dmo
Part 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu_Q5iq8yj8


Final Notes

I'm part of a Rolex 24 fans facebook group that I first joined back when I attended my first R24 in 2020. There's some fascinating insight into how the build-up of the race is going from a fan & camper's perspective.
- Easily 15-20+ posts a day since December of people looking to buy camping/lot 4 parking/infield parking/infield RV passes (all of which have been sold out since late summer or early fall ).
- Some in the group who are regulars and renew each year interact with their various agents and the ticketing office at DIS, one regular quoted a DIS ticket rep saying they've sold 4-5,000 more tickets than 2022, and that was in early January. Wasn't specific as to what kind of tickets, but either way that's 4-5k more people coming through the gates, and who's to say how much that number has gone up since then!
- Looks like the race morning Daytona 5K has been axed in lieu of Car corral parade laps during R24 race weekend.
- https://racer.com/2023/01/13/hand-su...un-into-doubt/ - Unfortunately, Kevin Magnussen is at risk of not making the R24 with the new MDK Motorsport due to hand surgery, F1 is still the priority for him, so he's getting it out of the way before the season starts.
- News to me; Acura apparently hasn't done a full 24 hour endurance test with their new ARX-06! -> https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/a...-of-gtp-debut/

- - -

Woof, this one was a bear to create, this is all I could possibly think of in the span of a few hours and my brain is fried, burning the midnight oil for sure. Hope you guys and gals enjoy! I'm looking at heading back down for the Rolex in 2024, can't wait to see the new Lambo GTPs with Grosjean, the new Mustang GT3 and 65F (18C) sunshine in the middle of January!

Hope you all don't mind the poll. Hopefully that'll spurn some more interest and attention.

Cheers.

[Nick Woodbury]

One more thing; Here's a well produced history piece done by Rolex. It was made around 2013 or so from what I can tell since it ends in the Grand-Am era. Not only does it get the blood pumping, but it's also narrated by a suave British man! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3EuX7WP2j0

[Mike E]

Thanks for all the info!

[Coach Ep]

Scheduled to flag all 3 days @ the Roar, then doing just Thu + Fri for the Rolex itself (work interfering with race weekend).

Did the 'double' for the first time last year and just wanna get a good look at the new cars. Probably will do the 2024 edition as well before calling it a day on Daytona.

On the other hand, anticipation for Sebring is and will remain high!

[broadrun96]

Well Will Power is out, caring for his wife after surgery seems reasonable excuse

https://racer.com/2023/01/17/power-w...24-at-daytona/

[joeb]

Gosh this is only 2 days away! Weather is looking ok-ish with a chance of rain and wind over the weekend, low % chance though. With all the new machinery I wonder if the teams would like a chance to test in the wet though?

[Nick Woodbury]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Well Will Power is out, caring for his wife after surgery seems reasonable excuse

https://racer.com/2023/01/17/power-w...24-at-daytona/

Man thats a bummer. I was really looking forward to him racing in the 24. I think he was one of the few remaining Indycar drivers to never have done the Rolex, or anything outside of Indycar come to think of it!

Goes without saying, family always comes first in those circumstances.

[skycafe]

Awesome job Nick!

[fieldodreams79]

Indeed. Nice intro, Nick.

I've got projects happening this weekend but will be listening and following along. Excited to see the new cars at pace and can't wait for some new videos from Lanky Turtle!!

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Well Will Power is out, caring for his wife after surgery seems reasonable excuse

https://racer.com/2023/01/17/power-w...24-at-daytona/

Dang. Bummer for Will but certainly wish the best for Liz.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by joeb

Gosh this is only 2 days away! Weather is looking ok-ish with a chance of rain and wind over the weekend, low % chance though. With all the new machinery I wonder if the teams would like a chance to test in the wet though?

My guess is some. I mean this is the time to shake it all down for real.

[Mike E]

https://youtu.be/d3EwMOgliqc

[PhilipR]

Originally Posted by Mike E

https://youtu.be/d3EwMOgliqc

Really enjoyed this with the exception of the 3 talking heads which I found spewing PR stuff in their talk trying to big up the cars and technology

Looking forward to the next episodes(there will be 7 more) and the insights they will provide. Great step from IMSA.

[seanyb505]

Good thread. As for united States streaming, I don't yet see any on peacock in the upcoming live events. Is roar stuff for sure available to all?

Edit: Looks like imsa.com is describing business as usual with peacock for the two weekends.

[broadrun96]

Peacock is not the best for upcoming events in the schedule are they. I have all IMSA events saved as a channel on the app so it's easier to click through but TMobile did a Peacock deal a while back through my phone so it's the second tier. But nothing showing as upcoming yet in the iPad app

[seanyb505]

Originally Posted by PhilipR

Really enjoyed this with the exception of the 3 talking heads which I found spewing PR stuff in their talk trying to big up the cars and technology

Looking forward to the next episodes(there will be 7 more) and the insights they will provide. Great step from IMSA.

Between coming off winter break and seeing new cars in moving pictures, I enjoyed that. The talking head piece was interesting from a direction perspective. I'm sure lally, bozi and parker provided their own insight and comments, though Mike spinelli was credited as writer. The biggest eye roll was acting like only f1 had been playing in the hybrid field previously, and that lmdh cars were somehow new sportscar territory in terms of manufacturer contribution.

But overall a well produced piece of marketing at a time when imsa needs to make some noise about the next generation of na sportscar racing.

[broadrun96]

And remember, that material is built to bring in new fans. It's not talking to current or life long fans

[broadrun96]

KMags out, Jason Hart in for the MDK Motorsports 911 GT3.

https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/k...-for-rolex-24/

[Nick Woodbury]

First photos from the Thursday at the Roar are online thanks to S365! It's almost time!

https://sportscar365.com/photography...fore-rolex-24/

[joeb]

First photos from the garage at Daytona.

https://sportscar365.com/photography...fore-rolex-24/

Always makes it seem a little more real when you see cars there!

[Nick Woodbury]

John Dagy's Thursday notebook, these usually have alot of interesting info -> https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/d...C5VCWsFg1qfLHI

Grosjean's first laps in the Lambo will be at the roar -> https://sportscar365.com/imsa/iwsc/g...-laps-at-roar/

Insane to think its been 13 years since he's been in any sort of GT car in competition!

[Nick Woodbury]

Marshall Pruett has released the final two GTP tech tours. Marshall really did a solid job with this series! It's not an extreme tech tour with the proviso you have a mechanical engineering degree in order to make heads or tails of it, and it's not mind-numbingly dumb and scant of any meaningful details like you'd typically see from nascar people. It's prepared perfectly towards the fanbase as a whole!

Cadillac -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xqRB0hi12U
Porsche -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wSu...st=WL&index=16

Enjoy, guys!

[joeb]

JDC is enjoying the early part of the season before they get their new car. Pic from DSC:

[broadrun96]

seems right for them, well done

[Nick Woodbury]

First red flag of the year is caused by an LMP3 car.




lol.