PRELIMINARIES
The 2023 Daytona 24 hours was the 61st year of the event. It was once again a watershed year, as this was the first year of the new GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) cars. These of course are the new prototypes that came out of the combined rule set between IMSA and the ACO (Auto Club l’ouest at Le Mans). This was their first actual race after some four years of development. They are named as GTP in memory of the last great era of GTP cars, which were the mainstay of IMSA in the 1981-1993 time frame.
NEW GTP
These new cars are Hybrid powered Prototypes, of which nine were entered. Two from Porsche, Two from BMW, Two from Acura/ Honda and Three from Cadillac. Several additional cars will probably enter the series later this year, with Lamborghini also joining the series in 2024. These are brand new cars which have undergone massive testing during the latter part of 2022. They all use a standardized Hybrid system consisting of a battery, MGU(Motor Generator Unit) and gearbox developed by the consortium of Williams Engineering, Bosch and Xtrac. The chassis are all new, and once again come from the four makers that constructed the Dpi chassis: Multimatic (Porsche 963); Dallara (Cadillac V-LMDh, BMW M Hybrid V8); Oreca (Acura ARX-06); and Ligier (Lamborghini). The Porsches were entered by Roger Penske, Cadillac by both Chip Ganassi and Whelen Engineering, BMW by Rahal-Letterman-Lannigan, Acura one each from Wayne Taylor/ Michael Andretti (Andretti having bought a stake in Wayne Taylor Racing) and Meyer/Shank.
While there are several additional manufacturers that run as Le Mans Hypercars (Le Mans rule set) in the WEC (World Endurance Championship), none of them were entered for Daytona. These Include Toyota, Peugeot, and Ferrari. Some teams, notably, Porsche, and Cadillac have committed to run both IMSA and the WEC (World Sports Car Championship) in 2023. Per the new rule set either type car can run in either series after completing sanctioning body “homologation processes”.
The GTP cars are an interesting technical exercise as each manufacturer has taken a somewhat different path in design. The cars look quite different from a bodywork point of view, and while the hybrid systems are all the same, they each have taken a different view of what the Internal Combustion engine powerplant should look like:
Porsche 963 – 4.6- liter twin turbo V8 (based on the 918 engine)
BMW M Hybrid V8 – 4.0- liter P66/3 twin turbo V8 (Based on 2018 DTM engine)
Acura ARX-06 – 2.4-liter twin turbo V6 (Completely new engine from the ground up)
Cadillac V-LMDh– 5.5-liter normally aspirated V8 (New engine based on Dpi engine)
There was no BOP (Balance of Performance) per se. Instead, the concept of a “virtual tank” was introduced for GTP. The virtual tank was 920 MJ (Megajoule) of energy. i.e., you can use up to 920 MJ of energy per stint in any combination of Gasoline engine power or Battery Power.
All these GTP cars have been on a massive, condensed testing schedule during 2022 in an attempt to get these cars ready. The complexity of the cars has increased dramatically with the addition of the hybrid power units. But the manufacturers all have taken on these projects with, it seems gusto, as the engineering work has to be mind boggling. Porsche maybe has gotten the most testing in, including running the week before the ROAR at Sebring for extended time. All of them have had “new car issues” at some point or another, but the hybrid units have been generally reliable with a few exceptions.
It is clear they all went into this race with some trepidation, as historically, the Daytona 24 has not been kind to brand new cars or categories. Reference the following historical notes:
1977 – The Porsche 935 comes for the first time, every 935 entered has some issue and while several finish, the race is won by a proven Porsche Carrera RSR.
1994 – The new WSC (World Sports Car) cars show up in earnest, but they all break down and the race is won by the slower, Nissan GT cars.
2003 – The DP (Daytona Prototype) cars run for the first time, and all have issues, and the race is won by Kevin Buckler’s team with a GT Porsche.
There were a lot of rumblings before the race that it was not inconceivable that one of the LMP2 cars would win the race overall in 2023, as they are a well proven category and only a few seconds off the overall pace. However, due to fuel tank size the LMP2 would pit more often, thereby negating some of the reliability factor.
The rest of the field would once again be made up of four additional classes of cars, LMP2, LMP3 and GT3 cars (both Pro and Am categories). Showing that IMSA is on the right track with their show, the race was over- subscribed, with over 70 entries submitted. While the track in the past has supported that many cars (and more), the current layout just does not have the garage space or pit boxes to support more than 61 cars. So, the entry was limited to 61, with teams who committed to the whole year getting priority. An added issue was the fact that the new GTP cars are larger than the previous Dpi cars (to accommodate the battery packs and required ancillary equipment), so pit space was at a premium. An added preliminary indication of fan support was that the Daytona Infield was completely sold out several months in advance. Early January e-bay listings showed an infield parking pass and two tickets for over $700: an actual camping spot well in excess of $2500.
The Field Breakdown by class was:
GTP – 9
LMP2 –10
LMP3- 9
GTD PRO –8
GTD – 25
The LMP2 cars were all Oreca LMP2-07 powered by 4.2- liter Gibson V8 engines. These are basically spec cars although quite quick. LMP3 were a mix of Ligier JS P320 and Duqueine D08 models, all running a spec Nissan 5.6- liter V8 engine. GTD-Pro and GTD are the same homologated GT3 cars, the only difference being the driver rating of the drivers. GTD -Pro can have any combination of drivers, while GTD by rule needs at least one Bronze or Silver rated driver. The GT field had an amazing variety of cars. No less than ten manufacturers were represented ; Corvette, Porsche, Lexus, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, BMW, Acura and McLaren.
Driver lineups included the who is who of sports cars, Indy Cars, and even a few ex-Formula 1 drivers. I think Daytona is viewed by many as a great start for the year.
FUEL & TIRES
There is quite a technical diversity across the board. A variety of fuel is used. The GTP class uses a new Bio- Fuel made by VP called VP R80. This is fuel made from Biomass and renewable components. LMP2 use E-20C (20% ethanol); LMP3 and all GTD cars use E-10 (10% ethanol). All cars used a spec Michelin tire, as Michelin remains the series tire sponsor. Tires, as in previous years, were limited in quantity by class for the event. The one major change for 2023 tire wise, is that Michelin provided TWO spec tire compounds for GTP class only, one a softer compound for night running, in case the temperatures dropped as they did in 2022. Reportedly the tires have harder compounds so that they can be double and possibly triple stinted, in the effort to be more sustainable and save some costs. The sets of tires allowed have also been dropped significantly in 2023, so tire management over the 24 hours would be a critical technical piece of the puzzle for the teams to deal with.
THE ROAR
The logistics and scheduling for 2023 were very similar to prior years. The teams would load into the Speedway the week of January 16th. WeatherTech 24- hour practice would take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the week prior to the race. The one notable change from 2022 was that there was no 100- minute qualifying race on Sunday, just actual qualifying. A lot of the testing and some of the support races would happen during this week also. Most teams like this schedule, as the whole event is completed in one two week period at the Speedway (as opposed to the pre test in the first week of January, going home and returning three weeks later). The only concern really, is to complete the ROAR weekend without any car damage. The teams then have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of race week to prepare the cars for the race itself.
The ROAR (pretest) started off well enough, the weather was good except for the one night practice in which it rained. The Acura’s were quickest in every session except for the rain. There was no forecast of rain for the race weekend so many did not run at all. The crowd for the ROAR was large, as thousands of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts descended on the speedway for the weekend. The Speedway does this as a community service now for several years and it is well received.
Qualifying on the ROAR Sunday resulted in some interesting results. The Acura of Tom Blomqvist took the pole but only after Nick Tandy in the Porsche crashed in the chicane on his last lap, which looked like it might be the fast lap. John Farano also crashed his LMP2, as did the #55 Proton LMP2 entry.
Ben Keating took pole in LMP2. Nico Pino, a newcomer from Chile took LMP3 pole in Lance Willsey’s , Sean Creech Entered Ligier P320. The kid was 18 and had never been to Daytona before, so it was impressive. The GT classes provided the most turmoil. The Mercedes AMG GT3 took pole in both the Pro and GTD classes followed by the Aston Martins, Acura NSX and Lexus. These were all established cars that had run in 2022. Noticeable by absence at the top of the time sheets were Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini. The new Porsche GT3R, Ferrari 296 GT3 and Lamborghini EVO 2 all seemed to struggle with various issues and were well off the pace. There were of course constant complaints of one manufacturer or the other “Sandbagging” (not showing true speed) in order to affect a BOP change from IMSA. However, since these were all new cars, and had no data history so to speak, IMSA tends to go conservative on BOP until more data is assembled. That said, there were various rumors and reports of issues with the cars. Porsche, some driveshaft problems, Ferrari some kind of electrical boost adjustment problems, and Lamborghini some kind of chassis issues.
Monday to Wednesday after the ROAR the teams got down to business of rebuilding a lot of the cars almost completely. New engines, gearboxes and suspension parts were all over the garages getting assembled. The Tower Motorsports crew of John Farano had a big job ahead and stripped the LMP2 down to the bare chassis and basically replaced almost everything after the hard impact into the barriers in qualifying. The Tandy Porsche was not badly damaged, being mostly bodywork, and was quickly repaired.
OFFICIAL RACE PRACTICE
The big drama in practice was the massive crash in turn 2 of the pole sitting Mercedes of Lucas Auer. The car was badly damaged, and he was taken to the hospital with a reported back issue. The team, Windward Racing, immediately sent for the back up car in Texas, which was sent, but they had a huge effort to prepare this car for the race.
Porsche was still having teething problems in GTD, as on Friday afternoon, all the cars had the engines out (again) to install some kind of water pipe upgrade that presumably came in an emergency bulletin from the factory.
Friday night before the start there was a final short session for the nine GTP cars. There was still a lot of concern about the reliability of these cars. A special quarantine box was setup for the race where the cars would be sent should the “red light” signifying an electric drive issue arise. A team of engineers from Williams, Bosch and Xtrac would be stationed there to provide support.
The big press announcement pre- race was the team for the Project 56 Camaro of Hendricks motorsport which would run at Le mans. Jimmy Johnson and Mike Rockenfeller would be joined by none other than retired F1 champion Jensen Button. The car has reportedly made good progress lately and is expected to have the speed to qualify. Button apparently is very interested in this project and initiated the contact to get the 3rd seat.
Race day dawned sunny and warm. The Pre- Race Fan grid walk was a massive crowd the size of which caught the speedway a little bit by surprise, I think. Everyone (fans) seemed to enjoy it. It was reported this was a record crowd on hand for the Daytona 24 hour. Every open space in the infield was occupied.
As in recent tradition, there was a 24-minute exhibition lapping for historic Daytona 24 cars on Saturday morning before the race. Included were the 1983 winner, the 2003 winner, and a replica of the 1973 winner. This is always a welcome addition, and the fans seem to love it.
THE RACE
The race started under clear skies in a split start (Prototypes and GTs). The #80 Porsche bounced off the pit exit wall on the way out, and the #8 LMP2 was off in turn 5 on the first lap. Both were probably due to cold tires. There was an early yellow to retrieve the #8. Both cars were repaired and continued.
The LMP2s stopped after about 40 minutes, out of fuel. LMP3 a few laps later, GT cars at about 50-55 mins. GTP were last to stop, the leader #60 making 30 laps. The GTP of course only had to stop when they reached the “virtual tank” energy limit. The concept is interesting. Similar in concept to Group C in the 1980s which had a fuel limit per race. The difference being, here it was a total energy limit.
Shortly after the first pit stop the #25 BMW GTP appeared at the quarantine box. The red light had come on while on track. After a time of diagnosis, it was determined the MGU was bad. The car proceeded to the garage for MGU replacement which took about 1 hour. Shortly after, the #7 Porsche stopped on track, restarted and entered the garage for a battery replacement which took 33 minutes. Both BMW and Porsche continued after repairs, these two cars now relegated to “test mule status” as they were many laps down. Although there was concern now for this componentry, the two Acuras, the Cadillacs, the remaining Porsche and BMW circulated fairly close all staying on the same lap except during pit stops. The Acuras and Cadillacs seemed to always go a few laps more than the Porsches and BMWs, which indicated they were most likely using less energy at this pace than the other two.
Mercedes and Aston Martin were front runners in GTD. The Corvette ran much stronger in the race than any pace they had shown in qualifying. The Ferrari’s continued to struggle, and the Risi 296 ripped the floor off during an off- course excursion and was eventually retired. The Lamborghinis circulated, but only the pro car #63 of Roman Grosjean seemed able to maintain contact.
The GTP slowly stretched their lead over the LMP2 class with each stint. The lead group of 5 stayed on the same lap and circulated. One got the impression they were waiting for Sunday. That all changed at 445am Sunday when the #31 Cadillac went to the garage for a lengthy repair with damaged rear suspension. This was repaired and they continued, but many laps down. The lead pack of 5, was further reduced at 515 am when Nick Tandy had a huge off in the kink (infield turn 4) trying to pass a car. He wiped out a bunch of Rolex track signage and staggered back to the pits trailing bodywork. Three laps were lost to replace both front and rear body pieces. One sensed, maybe the Porsche was pushing harder than the rest to maintain the pace. The #10 Wayne Taylor/ Michael Andretti Acura lost two laps in the night, when an oil filler line broke while they were adding oil. They eventually regained the lead lap during cautions. Most every caution was due to single car incidents.
Sunday morning, Cadillac upped the pace, leading much of the middle morning shifts. With a few hours left, the #6 Porsche retired to the garage with a broken gearbox. It was deemed unfixable in the remaining time, so the car was retired. Towards the end the Acuras regained the upper hand. The #10 Acura of Taylor was hampered somewhat by a broken pin in the rear bodywork. A planned change to a better setup for daytime running on Sunday was thwarted by a broken pin which meant the tail piece could not be changed without a lengthy repair, so they did not really have anything for the #60 Mike Shank entry. A late yellow with less than 1 hour remaining to retrieve another stalled car bunched everyone up.
At the finish, the Meyer /Shank Acura won by some 4 seconds over the Taylor entry. The #01 Cadillac was 3rd, 9 seconds back, and #02 4th 11 seconds back.
The big finish was in LMP2 as the #55 Proton Entry of James Allen beat the #04 Crowdstrike entry at the line by 0.016 seconds for the win. It looked like the finish of a Nascar race.
In LMP3 the Duquiene of Merrill, Mantella, Boyd and Varrone won the class by 12 laps, after the Sean Creech Ligier lost a 2-lap lead Sunday morning with a gearbox repair. The Creech car of Willsey, Pino, Barbosa and Siegel recovered to finish 2nd, for the 3rd year in a row.
In GTD Pro, the WeatherTech Mercedes beat the Corvette by only 4 seconds. And the two Aston Martins won GTD the Heart of Racing #27 by 5.3 seconds over the Magnus Racing entry.
More statistics and analysis can be found at results.imsa.com
Undoubtably, the race was a success. The concepts are new, and require some more explanation in GTP. Seven of the nine GTP cars finished the race, and four of them were within 11 seconds. So, the concerns about the new systems did not affect the outcomes, although there were a few issues.
Sebring will prove interesting as for sure there will be adjustments. Sebring will also see the first match up between the IMSA GTP cars and the WEC LMDh cars. It should prove to be an exciting season.
