Dear IMSA,
I am a lifelong sportscar racing fan. My earliest memories are of Al Holbert dicing it with the Rob Dyson, Bayside Disposal car, the Group44 Jag and the Kreepy Krawly March. I have been to many a race, ate many a hotdog, been rained on and got sunburns that lasted weeks. I climbed the fence on Daytona’s front stretch to get a better view of the Nissan’s flying underneath me at 200+MPH.
As a lifelong sportscar racing fan, I found the 64th running of the Sebring 12 Hours simply confounding. Like Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities; It was the Best of times, It was the Worst of times.
Daytona, we have a problem. More than one, actually.
I am personally very enthusiastic about the “Merger of (in)Equals”. That being Grand-Am and ALMS joining under the IMSA banner, bringing together a pair of very diverse racing series, each with its own unique history, under a very historic banner. I truly feel that this new series may be the most technologically advanced, diverse and compelling racing series in the world. More so than NASCAR, IndyCar and F1. You have all the keys to making it work. However…
At Sebring, I saw a large number of doubters, many camped in Green Park by Sebring Pit Crew’s “Shrine of Extremely Low Expectations” containing among other things, a dart board framing a picture of Jim France, blaming the NASCAR family member for all problems, both real and perceived. Let us not forget history: it was a France (specifically Jim Frances father Bill France Sr.,) who, along with John and Peggy Bishop, started it all to begin with and formed IMSA in 1969. Jim France is following his passion. He has invested a great deal of money into road racing. For the sake of fairness, I am from Daytona Beach and when a France screws up, it’s in the paper. We in DB do have a Love/Hate relationship with the France family, but by and large, it has greatly benefitted Daytona Beach and Volusia County and it has also benefitted the racing community as a whole. Enough on that.
After Sebring, here are my personal observations. There is more of everything! There are more people at the races then I have seen in years. That’s good. Last year was the last chance to see the mighty Audi’s and I expected a great turnout. This year with the combined series, I expected a lot of people, and got them. However, it was a much more tamed group than recent years, though I did see a number of sofas and recliners ablaze by the end of the race!
There are a lot more cars on the track, which is both good and bad. Good because it’s good for the series and makes for constant racing. With as many cars on track as there were, with vastly different speeds and racing experience, (suggestion here) I would like to see the “No Contact” rule reviewed and possibly dropped. There is going to be contact, whether we like it or not. The Bronze level drivers racing among Platinum drivers can be a recipe for disaster. Don’t get me wrong, we need them as they directly sponsor or pay for the drives they get, keeping many of the cars on track. But we may have to expect some ugliness from time to time, and the rules need to reflect this.
The officiating has been extremely embarrassing to fans of the sport. As if the “No Contact” rule alone is bad enough, its implementation has been horrendous. The officials need to allow time for teams to challenge a call. Ask Alex Job! An overall poor level of officiating along with a refusal to not only review the available material but to not allow him to challenge the call, caused him to lose the race. Yes, I said “caused him to lose the race”! This “No Contact” rule I don’t like was wrongly applied. Again. After the debacle in Daytona, someone should have learned by now, only weeks after Rolex24. Had there been room to challenge a wrong call, he would have at least had a chance to win. IMSA and Sebring track official’s took that opportunity away. So they cost him a win and the financial benefit of winning. To add insult to injury, the cars which actually caused the infraction were never punished and were allowed to win the race. I wouldn’t be surprised if Alex Job took his cars to the Pirelli World Challenge! Now that would be bad for the sport!
The racing has been close. The balances of performance (BoP) are good, not perfect, but close enough to be fair. This takes time and it is a moving target. As IMSA changes the BoP, the teams find an advantage that may need another BoP. And on and on. However, it was a good sign that of the top 5 Prototypes, 3 were P2. There was no run away as there has been when the P1 Audi’s were racing. There was some close racing that was very enjoyable, and some bone headed moves by some of the Bronze drivers. But I enjoyed much of the racing there actually was.
Which brings me to my next officiating issue: the full course cautions. Let’s face it, the red Corvette pace car lead the most laps. While 3 of the cautions are understandable, running 5 of 12 hours under Yellow is unacceptable. It’s not called Race CONTROL for nothing. Control the Race. Realize the impact cautions have on the final product and use more local cautions. This was where everybody makes a NSACAR connection with the mysterious cautions for “debris” on the track. If rules need to be changed, change them. While the race was closer than expected, it’s the second time in two races a caution impacted the outcome of the race. If you’re going to call a full course caution at the end of the race, I have a suggestion. There’s enough traffic to go through during the race. Why lock it in during cautions? The current way benefits only the leader. Group them by class, so the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place cars have a clear chance to challenge for a win. From my point of view, THAT would have been an even better race!
Oh, lastly, on the North American Endurance Cup, scrap the points system. It’s confusing and contrived. There is no logical way the winner of a race should get less points than the 2nd loser (third place finisher). You will lose fans with it. You’ve lost me. At this point, I really don’t care how close it’s supposed to make the final race. F1 is doubling points and did a good job of annoying both their fans and the teams. You’re making the same mistake.
Now don’t let the above listed issues get in the way of the fact that I really had a great time at Sebring. The atmosphere was fun, the weather was great and I saw some very entertaining racing, saw some very state-of-the-art machines and met some of the world’s best drivers. I will be back! I will be watching all the races too (I’m not even getting into the TV/Radio thing….) Despite the problems, I still feel that IMSA is off and running in the right direction. Changes do need to be made, but… I look forward to the sprint portion of the series.
Sincerely,
A Sportscar Fan