That New Prototype Car Smell

After this year's 12 Hours of Sebring, I've been thinking a lot about prototype sports car racing in America.  As I said in my article on the 12 Hours of Sebring (if you haven't read that, go do it now), I talked about how the current Daytona Prototypes, whatever their virtues (and there are virtues to DP's), they need to leave.  The question is what should replace them?

Let's get one thing strait right here, right now, if you love sports car racing in America, do not suggest that IMSA adopt the WEC's LMP1-Hybrid rules. The hybrid prototypes built by Audi, Porsche, Toyota and Nissan (to a lesser extent) are fire breathing beasts of racecars.  They would also single handedly kill the Tudor United Sports Car Series in a heart beat.  While I'm sure that teams like Action Express and Chip Ganassi could successfully run these cars, they just don't have the budget.  All of the LMP1-H teams running in the WEC are factory works teams while the prototype teams in TUSC (with the exception of Mazda's P2 cars and Chip Ganassi in a sort of, kind of, not really, kind of way) are privateers.  Point is that the LMP1-H cars require a level of technological sophistication that only a factory supported team has the budget for, and Audi and Toyota aren't going to be running North American teams any time soon.  So let's stop pretending that LMP1 hybrids are going to happen.

Now that we've left crazy town, the two options left are LMP1-Light, or P2.  IMSA has decided to back the P2 cars, which theoretically should end the conversation right here and now, but I have space to fill, so let's go ahead and pretend IMSA reads Racing Nerd and have a discussion on the merits between the two.

In one very important way, LMP1-L and P2 have one thing in common.  They are both raced at Le Mans.  As much as I love Daytona and Sebring (and the 24 Hours of Daytona may be my favorite race of them all) the most significant sports car race in the world is Le Mans, and if the TUSC teams don't have a chance to race at Circuit de la Sarthe, then TUSC will always limit itself to being a second class racing series. 

The real defining difference between these two cars then is speed.  Reviewing 2014 WEC qualifying times, the LMP1-L cars are approximately two to four seconds then the LMP1-H cars (depending on the track), while the P2 cars are about another two to four seconds back.  At first, I was in favor of TUSC adopting the LMP1-L specifications.  The cars are faster and technically the LMP1-L cars are designed to compete directly with the LMP1-H cars, meaning we could see the TUSC teams squaring off against the factory backed European teams, just like the good old days of the American Le Mans Series.  While that's a great theory, the reality is that the factory backed LMP1-H teams always stomp the LMP1-L teams into the ground, and that's not going to change just because Wayne Taylor Racing is the team being stomped.

Quick side note, I keep referring to LMP1-L like it's a thing that is seriously raced.  In reality, only one team, Rebellion Racing, is campaigning an LMP1-L car at the moment, so don't let this discussion make you think that the class is well supported.  Which is another good reason IMSA should run away from LMP1-L specifications like the plague

If the TUDOR privateers have about as much chance of winning Le Mans as Pastor Maldonado has of keeping his car on the track, P2 suddenly becomes a lot more attractive option.  Yes, the cars are slower, but the class appears to be much better supported with a number of different chassis manufacturers and growing class popularity from the teams.  I'm a big believer that as a class of cars becomes more popular with the racers, and as the class matures, the racing becomes much better, which is great for us fans.  Yes, P2 cars are slower then LMP1 cars, but the quality of racing (the thing we actually care about) doesn't necessarily require super sonic cars.  The fact that P2 is better supported by both the manufacturers and the teams makes the class a better choice for a racing series like IMSA to buy into.

IMSA, I salute you for making P2 the top prototype class in the TUSC championship.  Now all you Tudor teams go give the Europeans hell at Le Mans.

The 12 Hours of Sebring: Fuel by Florida Fresh...Great Race, Horrible Name

As I start typing this article, the 12 Hours of Sebring has ended only a few minutes ago.  Unfortunately, I missed most of the middle of the race because I'm not one of the three people in America who gets Fox Sports 2 with their cable.  I was able to watch the last several hours however via IMSA streaming, and while I'm not sure I would call it a race for the ages, it was an exciting finish.  I'll let the "real"racing news outlets handle the play-by-play commentary, so if you're looking for that stuff, I recommend either RACER or Sportscar 365, but that doesn't mean there aren't some things I want to talk about.

IMSA has confirmed that 2016 will be the last season for the Daytona Prototype class, and the qualifying performance of the P2 cars at Sebring (as well as Daytona) has confirmed that the P2 cars have an amazing potential for speed.  That being said, the actual finishing order for the prototype class at both these races was dominated by DP cars.  The simple reason is that the DP cars were the ones running at the end of the race (at the end of the 12 hours, only the Krohn Racing car was the only P2 still on the track).  We may be seeing the dawn of the P2 cars, as they are able to go toe-to-toe with the DP cars at power tracks, but that doesn't mean 2015 is the twilight of the DP.  If I was Action Express, Wayne Taylor Racing, or Chip Ganassi (i.e., the teams running DP cars), I wouldn't be worried about my championship chances just yet.  The results at Daytona and Sebring suggest that the P2 teams are still stomping out technical gremlins, while the DP cars are pretty much bullet proof.  The next endurance race on the TUSC schedule is the Six Hours of the Glen, and I fully expect the P2 cars to score some wins between now and then, but I expect the better reliability of the DP cars to be an advantage at Watkins Glen and Petite Le Mans.

The Daytona Prototype: the ghost of TUSC prototype past and present

If you'll allow me to wander off like an Alzheimer's patient in the snow for a second, I actually really like the current DP cars.  They don't look half bad with the new Corvette C7 body work, and they make their speed with a big engine, which is just cool.  Yes, the DP's aren't the most technically sophisticated cars in the garage, but that fact that people hate DP's for that reason makes me love them all the more.  The job of a race car is not to be technically innovative, the job of a race car is to be faster then the other race cars, and simply throwing more power at the car (like the DP's do) is a totally valid solution.  That being said, the DP cars need to be replaced.  Wayne Taylor racing earned a Le Mans berth based on their performance at Daytona, but couldn't take the spot because they didn't have a car that was legal for Le Mans.  The top American prototype teams need to have equipment that they can compete in Europe with, and investing in stupid expensive LMP1 cars is not the solution.  So, while I will miss the NASCAR-racer-turned-sports-car that is a Daytona Prototype, I fully support P2 cars as the future of prototype sports car racing in America.

The P2 car: the ghost of TUSC prototype future

On the GT front, as a huge Corvette racing fan, I was extremely excited to see the #3 C7R win the GTLM class.  Considering Corvette took the lead at both Daytona and Sebring because the team they passed for first had a botched final pit stop, you'd think that Pratt and Miller is engaging in an active sabotage campaign.  It does continue to show that the car the wins an endurance race isn't always the fastest car (although the C7R is plenty fast), but the team that makes the least mistakes and keeps the car running.  Likewise, in GTD, the Alex Job Racing 911 that won the race only took the lead in the closing minutes of the race when the leading Riley Viper had an overheating engine.  Last minute swings of fortune like this is probably the reason why sports car racing is my favorite form of racing.  Where else can you have cars racing wheel to wheel for half a day, only to have the race winner decided at the very end.

This time last year, a lot of people where criticizing IMSA over how the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring were run, and rightfully so.  This year, both of these races were extremely exciting. While the normal state of things over at The Racing Nerd is doom and gloom, American sports car racing actually looks like its in a pretty good spot at the moment.