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Post by René on Jan 29, 2022 11:36:13 GMT
The first 'big' race of the 2022 racing season is about to begin in Daytona.
Pole position for the Acura DPi of Rick Taylor/Filipe Albuquerque/Alexander Rossi/Will Stevens. A bit disappointing in 5th (but fastest in final practice!) is the Cadillac DPi of Renger van der Zande/Sébastien Bourdais/Scott Dixon and Indycar champion Alex Palou. Kevin Magnussen partners Marcus Ericsson, Alex Lynn and Earl Barber, also in a Cadillac. They start in 6th position.
I'm sure we'll see some great racing again and some nice pictures of the cars going full blast on the banking.
Enjoy! 
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Post by charleselan on Jan 29, 2022 11:44:07 GMT
Click onto the Radio Le Mans site and the drop down menu for IMSA to get the live coverage and with the excellent RLM commentary team.
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Post by Carl on Jan 30, 2022 23:41:22 GMT
I watched some early laps and then recorded the final two hours. Glad I did because three of the categories (Daytona Prototype / LMP2 / GT Professional) were close and hard fought until the final lap. An extraordinarily exciting all day/all night motor race  Not a fan of Helio Castroneves, who I first saw in Indy Lights, but there's no denying his talent for driving or climbing fences. Colton Herta made a bold move (too bold for Swiss driver Louis Delétraz) into the chicane to take the lead, but the ugly LMP2 prototypes should be covered with a paper bag so their impressive speed will be foremost in the mind. Most exciting was the duel of Porsches in GT Pro between Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoorn, nose to tail and side by side with neither giving an inch. Great racing! |
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Post by mikael on Jan 31, 2022 8:10:37 GMT
... but the ugly LMP2 prototypes should be covered with a paper bag so their impressive speed will be foremost in the mind.
I have not seen the race (having been a bit busy lately); but just a comment on the LMP2 cars. I find it interesting how aerodynamic optimization has made the cars "return", in a way, to the teardrop-shaped cars that appeared just before the war. (Interesting to muse on what the technological level would have been now, without that war spoiling so much ...)
Fascinating that "they" actually got it right already 80 years ago (ugly or not - but the teardrop shape is Nature's own optimal form) ...
Schlörwagen (1939)
Schlörwagen (1939)
Skoda 935 Dynamic (1939)
LMP2: Teardrop-shaped compartments on low platforms.
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Post by charleselan on Jan 31, 2022 12:35:03 GMT
What an enjoyable race this turned out to be, such a shame that I cannot stay up all night these days as all the action and drama seemed to take place initially in the hours of darkness. However the last two hours certainly made up for that.
I think I must have watched hours of the race on Saturday up until about 1.00am European time and then back to it on Sunday morning with the transmission on all day from the normally excellent Radio Le Mans IMSA Feed; I say normally as this year I feel the commentary was not so sharp, far too many mistakes and missed action that as obviously going on screen while they babbled on about other things. Not the best performance from this excellent crew.
Daytona always impresses me as a venue as it is quite unique especially for a European observer and the lighting at night is superb and adds to the mystique.
Yet again the gremlins crept in to the Chip Ganassi squad and they were thwarted after showing great initial pace along with the ever aggressively driven Caddy of Kobayashi. After it looked like the Caddy's were in the driving seat the Acura's came on strong towards the end with the Meyer Shank car getting a thoroughly well deserved win. I was massively impressed with Tom Blomqvist on his debut (I believe that to be the case) in a Dpi car, a very underrated driver after a very successful early career in single seaters that did not progress as it should. Tom of course the son of the Swedish rally legend Stig, who interestingly races as British.
It seemed to me that the LMP2 division was often neglected by the RLM coverage until the later stages which was a shame, but what a drive by the Dragon Speed boys and yet again Colton Herta was a star turn.
As Carl points out above the GT Pro battle between the two factory backed Porsche 911's was pretty dramatic with neither wishing to give way during the last few laps. It all ended with a coming together which probably wouldn't have gone down well with the Stuttgart management as it could have taken both cars out, very silly to be honest especially as only one of the cars was doing the full IMSA series.
All told a great race and probably one that will take some beating over the rest of this season.
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Post by René on Jan 31, 2022 12:58:45 GMT
I watched some early laps and then recorded the final two hours. Glad I did because three of the categories (Daytona Prototype / LMP2 / GT Professional) were close and hard fought until the final lap. An extraordinarily exciting all day/all night motor race Not a fan of Helio Castroneves, who I first saw in Indy Lights, but there's no denying his talent for driving or climbing fences. Colton Herta made a bold move (too bold for Swiss driver Louis Delétraz) into the chicane to take the lead, but the ugly LMP2 prototypes should be covered with a paper bag so their impressive speed will be foremost in the mind. Most exciting was the duel of Porsches in GT Pro between Mathieu Jaminet and Laurens Vanthoorn, nose to tail and side by side with neither giving an inch. Great racing! It was a great race again. It's amazing how close it is towards the end after hours and hours of racing. Of course there are safety cars to bunch the field up but it's still very competitive.
A bit disappointed to see the #01 car with Renger van der Zande and the three Indy champs (Bourdais/Dixon/Palou) in trouble so soon. They were there to win but it wasn't meant to be this time. Good win for the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura though.
Still Dutch success in LMP2 with second overall for Racing Team Nederland with Giedo van der Garde, Rinus Veekay and Frits van Eerd! Colton Herta was his agressive self again but good drive and well deserved win for this team.
The Porsche battle between Jaminet and Vanthoorn was epic! Fantastic racing, really enjoyed that.
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Post by Carl on Jan 31, 2022 17:49:44 GMT
Roger Penske often can improve many aspects of a race car and sometimes transform an ugly duckling into a swan. His 512M made the utilitarian Ferrari 512 faster and more beautiful. He may do the same for Oreca...
Dragonspeed USA should have an art department 
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Post by Carl on Jan 31, 2022 18:46:14 GMT
I agree with several points made by John and René. Tom Blomqvist was so amazingly fast and consistent that he was asked by the team if he wanted to continue with about two hours remaining. I believe humility affected his answer, but I wonder if someone at Meyer Shank Racing flipped a coin. The increased European and Scandinavian presence noticeably improved the level of driving and René's countrymen were superb in LMP2. More than one winner would have been justified in several categories.
With perhaps the very best combination of drivers, the 01 Cadillac was favored by many and its early trouble was a great disappointment.
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Post by Carl on Feb 1, 2022 18:26:46 GMT
... but the ugly LMP2 prototypes should be covered with a paper bag so their impressive speed will be foremost in the mind.
I have not seen the race (having been a bit busy lately); but just a comment on the LMP2 cars. I find it interesting how aerodynamic optimization has made the cars "return", in a way, to the teardrop-shaped cars that appeared just before the war. (Interesting to muse on what the technological level would have been now, without that war spoiling so much ...)
Fascinating that "they" actually got it right already 80 years ago (ugly or not - but the teardrop shape is Nature's own optimal form) ...
Schlörwagen (1939)
Mikael, I agree with your endorsement of teardrop aerodynamic beauty, but Oreca could have arranged its teardrop shapes more harmoniously.  The Schlörwagen is beautiful and probably too advanced for its time, even had peace been on the horizon instead of war. It's fun to imagine this perfect teardrop as an alien appearing one morning at the front door of a very befuddled man.
Cheers, Carl |
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