All posts by Christopher DeHarde

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring at Sebring International Raceway will be postponed to November 11-14 due to multiple circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. Following a European travel ban enacted as part of the U.S. government’s plan to combat the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), IMSA has decided to postpone Sebring until the November 11-14 weekend. Many team members, drivers and other personnel needed for the weekend would be unable to fly to the United States. The rescheduled race will take place the same weekend asRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — Qualifying on medium tires was BMW’s strategy to hide their true pace ahead of the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona. After qualifying, it was easy to see how one could predict Porsche to win the GTLM class. The German manufacturer qualified first and second by a decent margin over the Corvette Racing pair in third and fourth and the BMW M8 GTE pair in fifth and sixth. However, as the race went on through the night, the No. 24 M8 of John Edwards, JesseRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — After years of unreliability that made Mazda an afterthought, the Japanese brand brought their lead RT24-P across the finish line in second place in the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona. The No. 77 Mazda Team Joest DPi started on pole position and led 190 of 833 laps with Oliver Jarvis, Olivier Pla and Tristan Nunez sharing driving duties. However, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season opener escaped the Multimatic-based prototype by just over a minute. Their opening pace could not be replicated late inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — With four hours to go in the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona, it is a battle of the titans in DPi, GTLM and GTD in the season-opening race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Ryan Briscoe currently leads in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac, which is remarkable given that Briscoe was a lap down about an hour and a half ago. Briscoe exited the pits when the red light was on at the end of pit lane, requiring the 2012 Indianapolis 500Read More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — The dominant cars near the start of the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona aren’t necessarily in the lead, but as the season-opening race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship continues, strategy becomes more and more important. The No. 77 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P led from pole position and dominated the earlier portion of the race, but the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi came alive with Kamui Kobayashi behind the wheel. One of the winners last year with Wayne Taylor Racing, Kobayashi didRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — Two of the top contenders in the Rolex 24 at Daytona have collided during the fourth hour of the race, with one car still in the garage over 30 minutes after the incident took place. Harry Tincknell in the No. 55 Mazda Team Joest RT24-P DPi was trying to overtake Helio Castroneves in the No. 7 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 DPi as the pair headed to the bus stop chicane on the backstretch of the Daytona International Speedway. Tincknell went down Castroneves’s inside, butRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — The final preparations for the 2020 Rolex 24 at Daytona are underway at Daytona International Speedway with as much action off the track as on track before the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship kicks off another campaign. Convergence IMSA and the ACO announced a common set of regulations for the prototype category that will allow manufacturers to build a prototype-class sports car to race in both the WeatherTech Championship and in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The announcement is the culmination of decades of discussionsRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer IMSA and the ACO have announced a preliminary set of rules that will see sports car teams be able to compete in both 24 hour races at Daytona and Le Mans in the same prototype car. The new category, called LMDh (Le Mans, Daytona, yet to be identified h), is built around both IMSA’s DPi and the ACO’s Hypercar formula. From the IMSA release, the new LMDh car: “Based on a new chassis common to both ACO and IMSA, using elements of the Le Mans HypercarRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — Late nights, hard work and uncertainty were the storylines on the first official day of track activity ahead of the Rolex 24 at Daytona as the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship roars to life. Acura on top, then rebuild Each of the two pre-qualifying practice sessions were led by one of the Acura Team Penske ARX-05 machines, with the No. 6 entry leading the morning session and the No. 7 entry leading the afternoon session. However, the No. 7 crew were faced with aRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer DAYTONA — Different year, same result for Oliver Jarvis and Mazda Team Joest as the British racer captured pole position for the second year in a row for Saturday’s Rolex 24 at Daytona. Jarvis turned a fastest lap of 1 minute, 33.711 seconds around the 3.56 mile road course to average 136.760 mph. Jarvis’s lap was .026 seconds slower than his track record lap set last year. “This year feels different, this year feels business like,” said Jarvis. “Last year, huge amount [of] emotion, it wasRead More