WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Unlike most of his counterparts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, BMW Team RLL driver John Edwards doesn’t have many frequent flyer miles on any commercial airline. When it comes time to head to the racetrack – or head for home after a race weekend – he’s not taking off his shoes nor removing electronics from his backpack in the airport. He’s not navigating the TSA Precheck line or jockeying for position at the gate. Instead of waiting for his zone numberRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – He may be a full-time IndyCar driver now, but there’s no driver with more experience in various Acura prototype sports cars than Simon Pagenaud. It’s a fact that wasn’t lost on him in testing last week at Sebring International Raceway as he and his Acura Team Penske teammates prepared for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Presented by Advance Auto Parts. “I’ve been fortunate,” Pagenaud said. “I’ve seen every iteration of the Acura prototype since 2008. It’s been a phenomenal timeRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A popular marketing concept that has been successful in motorsports, particularly in the last decade or two, is “Business to Business,” or B2B, as it has become known in shorthand. In motorsports applications, B2B is when one participating company gets to know and do business with another company or entity in the paddock. Correctly accomplished, both businesses prosper, which leads to continued – and ideally expanded – support for what is happening out on the racetrack. For Konica Minolta – which hasRead More

By IMSA Wire Service If you were watching the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona, you may have seen a red and black, buffalo plaid Porsche out there mixing it up in the GT Daytona (GTD) class. You may have said to yourself, “Now, that’s an interesting livery. Is it one of those historic IMSA liveries?” It wasn’t, but it definitely was unique. And it made total sense, especially when you consider that the No. 9 Porsche 911 GT3 R was fielded by Toronto-based Pfaff Motorsports. And two of the fourRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer It’s the dawn of a new era for the prestigious street circuit in Southern California as the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach announced Tuesday that Acura will become the new multi-year title sponsor for the Grand Prix of Long Beach this year, replacing Toyota, who ended their 44-year relationship last August. Acura has been heavily involved in the world of motorsports, including their return to North American sports car racing as Team Penske’s DPi and Meyer Shank Racing’s GTD run the Japanese luxury brand inRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer The 57th Rolex 24 at Daytona started off the 2019 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and after everybody has had time to dry themselves off, let’s make some random observations. It was good to see the Mazda DPis up front near the start of the race. Team Joest has made a lot of progress with making those cars fast but reliability is still the biggest concern. Since the engine revs won’t be so high at Sebring, the team might have a shot at winning. After all, lastRead More

By Christopher DeHarde, Staff Writer CORE Autosport were at the short end of the stick. The team announced on November 30th that they would be switching to the Nissan DPi platform after Extreme Speed Motorsports pulled out of the WeatherTech Championship. That gave the team just over a month to get their brand new car, prepare everything for the Roar Before the 24 test in early January and iron out any kinks discovered in the car in preparation for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Then comes the race and the teamRead More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – A wet and wild Sunday led to the first rain-shortened Rolex 24 At Daytona in the 57-event history of the prestigious enduro on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway. As one would have expected in the days of practice and qualifying preceding the drop of the green flag on Saturday afternoon, the outcome would be unpredictable. The conditions magnified that fact, but in the end, the four class winners were clearly deserving. Here are our five takeaways from a Rolex 24Read More

By IMSA Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan 27, 2018) – Heavy rains that began in the early morning hours on Sunday and continued throughout the day made the 57th Rolex 24 At Daytona a battle for survival, and the team that wound up to be the fittest was the No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R squad of Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande, Kamui Kobayashi and Fernando Alonso. With two hours and seven minutes remaining in the race, Alonso took the lead when 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship PrototypeRead More