Have You Been Watching the 2018 IMSA Sports Car Championships?

View attachment 263841
Have you been watching the 2018 IMSA Sports Car Championships?

I have to admit I stopped watching auto racing on TV sometime after I stopped racing cars about 30 years ago. At that time almost all you could find on TV in the US was Indycar or NASCAR ... and frankly those two forms of racing bored the living snot out of me. About three plus years ago, my youngest son introduced me to Assetto Corsa and coincidentally at the same time I caught a look at the (new at the time) Ford GTE-GTLM ... and I was re-addicted. What made it better (worse, if you ask my wife) I found how much racing from around the world, both old archival stuff and new races, could be found on YouTube. There has been some very exciting sports car racing going on in my absence!

I know you fellas over there in Europe have some great racing, and the stuff from Australia (Mt Panorama is the home of the GODS!!!) is fabulous, but if you haven't been watching the IMSA sports car events, especially the LMP, GTE/GTLM and GT racing you really are missing out on some great stuff.

About a week ago, Round 9 of the Current IMSA championship series was held at Road America (YouTube HERE) and I gotta tell you ... it was a barn-burner for sure! I don't think I've seen racing this close and this hard since Cale Yarborough got into it with Bobby and Donnie Allison at the Daytona 500 back in 1979! At times the busted up carbon fibre piled up almost as deep as the snow up in Plymouth, Wisconsin. You want Better? This race came just a week or so after Round 8 which was held at Lime Rock Park (YouTube HERE) where the cars were busting sub-50 second laps ... door-to-door!

IMSA has a couple names for these races which makes things a little confusing (for ME ... but then, I'm OLD), so finding them on YouTube can be a little difficult. I do a search for "IMSA 2018" (or IMSA 2017 or IMSA 2016 since I mostly live in the past) and look for the most current entry. If you have a better way to find these races, please share it. I know I could subscribe to IMSA TV ... but I would have to pay for a lot of other TV that I don't want, so it's not a good alternative for me. IMSA posts the races on YouTube about 3 days after the event, so all I have to do is avoid the news for a couple days ... and it's almost like being there.

Unless I'm baddy confused, there are 3 races left in the 12 race series and the Championship in all three classes almost couldn't be more hotly contested, with ties for first place in all three classes, Prototype, GTE-GTLM, and GTD. Current standings can be viewed HERE. The remaining races include: VIR, Laguna Seca, and finally The Petit LeMans 10 hours at Road Atlanta and I have to tell you that I don't see the action slowing down until after the last lap of the last race. See IMSA Schedule for more details (IMSA SCHEDULE HERE).

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Have you been following IMSA sports car racing, either the Weathertech Championship series or the Continental Tire Championship series? Do you have a favorite car or driver? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section below!
 
BTW ... does anybody know if we have that BMW in AC? I think we have nearly everything else AC needs to make a GTE-GTLM grid.
There's no M8 GTE, but there certainly is a M6 GT3 and GTE mod out there - a few of them. An in true BMW fashion - the M8 pretty much looks like the M6 and there are M8 skins for the M6. I think the IMSA grid is relatively complete - there's a sketchy NSX GT3 mod and most of the current IMSA skins for all cars including WG 4th of July liveries. Only car mod I haven't seen is the Lexus.
 
YES!! this series has great racing! I use the ROKU app or DVR it, like i do for other series because i intend to fast forward it during boring parts but i never do because the action is non-stop. i hope more teams enter these races. this weekend the prototypes are not racing and there is only 19 cars entered. i'm sure the action will be good, these drivers are not easy on each other or their cars! great action!!
 
Weathertech has to be one of the best sportscar series running at the moment - so far removed from the ACO's current insanity and Blancpain's for-the-showmanship. Not quite so invested in the other IMSA banner series, but they're not bad either.

I'm also curious about what the DPi/P2 split is going to bring - I don't think it's going to kill P2 next season, although it might after that, but I'm also wondering how long it's going to be before DPi creeps away from it's P2 base and costs itself out of anyone being able to enter, or kills any manufacturer entry because they can't afford to lose. As long as P2 has *some* entries then hopefully there'll be IMSA prototypes for a good while. I'd like P2 globally to get a few more chassis but it's doing extremely well for itself as is.

I'm gunning for Studio397 to eventually knock out everything we need for a Weathertech season, but I don't think it'll be all that quick...

Also, please give us a proper HD feed, IMSA... you can jump through hoops ( Streamlink ) so you can use a decent player like VLC to watch the feed, but it's 720p at best.

Why can't ELMS be like this? there doesn't seem to be any reason why it shouldn't, but it's never really managed to be great since everyone left after the first year it ran.
 
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I've definitely been following both of the series, Weathertech and Continental Tire. You're right, the racing has been close and very competitive. I love all three classes and I can't wait for the season-ending Petit Le Mans.
I was a little disappointed to see that the sanctioning body is going to separate the prototypes next year. I'm not sure how many LMP2 cars will show up when they will no longer be competing for wins.
Corvette seems to lack pace in the GTLM class, but have been very consistent this year, so I'm rooting for them. I would love to see an LMP2 car take the prototype class win and the Lambo in GTD.
Corvette won't be off pace next year, the mid-engine C8.R was spotted testing I'm sure that will put corvette back at the top of the GTLM class next year.
 
Evidence that quality racing sims are good marketing for a racing series . . . the rF2 endurance cars and Assetto Corsa's great GT3 and GTE cars have been so enjoyable to learn and drive, it got me curious. I found the IMSA WeatherTech series the week of Lime Rock---and I am hooked. Such great racing to watch in a very engaging format.
 
I've been following IMSA for a few years now and I really like the racing in this series, but I wish they'd finally sort out their horrid international stream. It's mostly fine if you're using a direct link to watch through VLC or MPC but the webstream is a disaster. And even using a direct link, Daytona through Long Beach were pretty much unwatchable this year. But no, it's easier to feed fans some tech mumbo jumbo "We've rebooted the stream because of an encoder issue, sorry !" instead of admitting they just don't want to pay for more bandwidth. Using Youtube or Dailymotion like everyone else would be so much harder...
Also less ad breaks with the Continental/Michelin tire whisperers in the commentary booth please, those are really annoying I think.
 
@Ted Duncan Jr great write up mate! 100% IMSA has been amazing the past two seasons. Arguably my favourite series at the moment.

Unfortunately I don't get to watch all the races but the radio le man's/IMSA radio crew do such a good job that listening to the podcast is almost as good, and makes the drive into work and back each day a lot more enjoyable.
 
I've been watching IMSA for quite some time (back to the ALMS days) and it's always been very entertaining, partially because the tracks are also just brilliant. In WEC they only use FIA F1 circuits whereas in the US they seem to go to tracks that just seem like bloody good fun :thumbsup:

The DPi category has worked really well, it's cheap in comparison to anything even approaching LMP1 and allows factory teams to compete for the wins and get the headlines without having to spend $150 million a year.

The idea to bring in GTD/GT3 was also inspired and has provided an extra level of entertainment for those that watch.

I'm actually glad they are separating DPi from P2 next year. They were having to slow down the DPi's so much we had almost constant complaints from the factory teams about it and it was starting to make a mockery of the whole IMSA prototype category. That's always the danger when you have factory versus privateer. I see though there are solid rumours of DPi customer cars next year so looking good for 2019 and beyond.

It's my favourite sportscar series at the moment (although ELMS is proving very entertaining as well with it's huge grids).

Hoping next year to make it to Sebring as I've been trying to fix it in around work for about four years now! lol.
 
I KNEW he was going to run out of fuel and on that last lap I kept telling the wife that he wouldn't make it up the hill into the pits. Even though I am a BIG Ford fan, I really hurt for the BMW team.

BTW ... does anybody know if we have that BMW in AC? I think we have nearly everything else AC needs to make a GTE-GTLM grid.

When i saw him not make it up the hill i was hurting so much for BMW, it pretty much summed up their season. Being so close to seeing the top but never having quite enough to make it
 
The IMSA series has been my goto series going back to the Pabst 500 at Road America. The entire series has progressed more than I could have hoped for coming off the merger a couple of years ago.

This past race weekend at RA they had special events that embraced what we were all there for, race cars and drivers.I won't go on about the races as if you saw any of the action during the weekend you know it was top notch.

On Friday they had JP Montoya, R Taylor, A Lally, K Legge, J Taylor and a few more drivers available for a Q & A. Saturday a Pod Cast with Marshall Pruett and guests H Castroneves, C Nielson, Corvette Chief Mechanic Dan Binks and IMSA Director S Atherton which I was fortunate enough to ask him if there were plans to get a wider gap between the GTLM and GTD classes which he went on to explain in great detail how the series is evolving.

Ricky and Jordan Taylor hosted a lawn games event at the Continental Tire tent complete with a hat toss and various other silly games enjoyed by kids of all ages, including me and my buddies.
Drivers, mechanics and the IMSA tech people couldn't have been more gracious with their time to get chat or stop for a quick photo, taking into consideration they are working I found it refreshing the overall attitude of all I came in contact with.

We met Leland with IMSA who is in semi retirement from Alabama. He and I chatted for several minutes regarding days gone past and how some things never change. He quipped about how one team is always trying to get one up on another by pointing out a perceived slight of the rules by another. He said something me and the guys will remember forever 'step your f....ing game up Porsche' we all had a good laugh.

And best of all, our wives think we should do this yearly.

My mates with Leland the coolest guy at the IMSA tech lane
Guys.jpg

He is Sir David Hobbs to me

Hobbs.jpg

Castroneves and Montoya in IMSA, haven't had names like that since Andretti, Unser and Rahal many moons ago. Besides, that Alonso guy :) for one race.
JC.jpg
JPM.jpg

The man that makes the Corvettes finish, and finish fast Dan Binks a legend in my world.
DB.jpg
 
View attachment 263841
Have you been watching the 2018 IMSA Sports Car Championships?

I have to admit I stopped watching auto racing on TV sometime after I stopped racing cars about 30 years ago. At that time almost all you could find on TV in the US was Indycar or NASCAR ... and frankly those two forms of racing bored the living snot out of me. About three plus years ago, my youngest son introduced me to Assetto Corsa and coincidentally at the same time I caught a look at the (new at the time) Ford GTE-GTLM ... and I was re-addicted. What made it better (worse, if you ask my wife) I found how much racing from around the world, both old archival stuff and new races, could be found on YouTube. There has been some very exciting sports car racing going on in my absence!

I know you fellas over there in Europe have some great racing, and the stuff from Australia (Mt Panorama is the home of the GODS!!!) is fabulous, but if you haven't been watching the IMSA sports car events, especially the LMP, GTE/GTLM and GT racing you really are missing out on some great stuff.

About a week ago, Round 9 of the Current IMSA championship series was held at Road America (YouTube HERE) and I gotta tell you ... it was a barn-burner for sure! I don't think I've seen racing this close and this hard since Cale Yarborough got into it with Bobby and Donnie Allison at the Daytona 500 back in 1979! At times the busted up carbon fibre piled up almost as deep as the snow up in Plymouth, Wisconsin. You want Better? This race came just a week or so after Round 8 which was held at Lime Rock Park (YouTube HERE) where the cars were busting sub-50 second laps ... door-to-door!

IMSA has a couple names for these races which makes things a little confusing (for ME ... but then, I'm OLD), so finding them on YouTube can be a little difficult. I do a search for "IMSA 2018" (or IMSA 2017 or IMSA 2016 since I mostly live in the past) and look for the most current entry. If you have a better way to find these races, please share it. I know I could subscribe to IMSA TV ... but I would have to pay for a lot of other TV that I don't want, so it's not a good alternative for me. IMSA posts the races on YouTube about 3 days after the event, so all I have to do is avoid the news for a couple days ... and it's almost like being there.

Unless I'm baddy confused, there are 3 races left in the 12 race series and the Championship in all three classes almost couldn't be more hotly contested, with ties for first place in all three classes, Prototype, GTE-GTLM, and GTD. Current standings can be viewed HERE. The remaining races include: VIR, Laguna Seca, and finally The Petit LeMans 10 hours at Road Atlanta and I have to tell you that I don't see the action slowing down until after the last lap of the last race. See IMSA Schedule for more details (IMSA SCHEDULE HERE).

Like what you see here at RaceDepartment? Don't forget to like, subscribe and follow us on social media!

 

Have you been following IMSA sports car racing, either the Weathertech Championship series or the Continental Tire Championship series? Do you have a favorite car or driver? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section below!
 
I like the series but...

TOO MUCH GOD**** FCY's.

Sometimes when I watch USA races I wonder when a pigeon is going to take a dump on the track and they'll throw a FCY out for it. It makes the racing artificial to bunch the field up so many times. Just let them race, do code 60's, local slowzones whatever, but when people are faster they should be faster and not see their work be neutralized just because someone went off in the grass cause the need was high or something.
 

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