|
Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 21 January, 2023, 08:34:31 PM Another year is upon us and as usual, the IMSA "WeatherTech" Sportscar Championship 24 hours of Daytona is first up over the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 28/29 January.
However, Qualifying is a near 100 minute race in itself, held on Sunday 22 January, so I will include it (see below). Other than this, to be posted separately, it will be just the races themselves. Before that though, below is a chronological Calendar for the forthcoming year of the 4 Championships I have posted on here over the years. Start times may/will be updated nearer race day as some are not yet published and/or seem incorrect to me. IMSA have dropped the DPi category and it is now GTP, a throwback name from the late 80s, while we here in Europe had Group C. GTP now has BMW and Porsche (their 963 being another throwback name but from Group C in the 80s) to add to Acura and Cadillac. In GTD, Ferrari have a new car to replace the very successful 488 GTE/GT3; this is the 296 GT3. Ex-F1 pilot Romain Grosjean will make a return to racing in a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo2 in the GTD class in preparation for their entry in 2024 into the top class in both IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Ferrari will be re-entering the top class in WEC with their 499P to be run by AF Corse, the title winners from the GTE-Pro Class last year. The last top class effort from Ferrari was back in the mid/late 90s with the 333SP, although these were all "privateer" teams, there was no direct Factory involvement. Also returning to WEC are Porsche. And for the first time Cadillac and Vanwall. Yes indeed, Vanwall, but very different in appearance from what you may have seen before with that name! These will join the Toyota, Peugeot and Glickenhaus team efforts from last years Championship, making for a much healthier grid in this Class. The GTE-Pro class was dropped at the end of 2022 as both Ferrari and Porsche were developing their new cars, which wouldve left a single Corvette C8-R in that class, clearly no longer viable; they have "down-graded" and will enter it in GTE-Am. This will be the final season for the GTE platform in the GT class, 2024 will see all GT3 spec cars. So, here is the Calendar for 2023.... IMSA 24 hours of Daytona Qualifying - Sunday 22 January IMSA Round 1 - 24 hours of Daytona - Saturday 28 January Asian Le Mans Series Round 1 - 4 hours of Dubai (Dubai Autodrome) - Saturday 11 February Asian Le Mans Series Round 2 - 4 hours of Dubai (Dubai Autodrome) - Sunday 12 February Asian Le Mans Series Round 3 - 4 hours of Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) - Saturday 18 February Asian Le Mans Series Round 4 - 4 hours of Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) - Sunday 19 February FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Round 1 - 1000 miles of Sebring - Friday 17 March IMSA Round 2 - 12 hours of Sebring - Saturday 18 March IMSA Round 3 - Grand Prix of Long Beach - Saturday 15 April WEC Round 2 - 6 hours of Portimão - Sunday 16 April European Le Mans Series (ELMS) Round 1 - 4 hours of Barcelona-Catalunya - Sunday 23 April WEC Round 3 - 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Saturday 29 April ELMS Round X - 4 hours of Imola - Sunday 7 May - cancelled due to over-running works to the paddock and pit-building IMSA Round 4 - Course de Monterey (Laguna Seca) - Sunday 14 May WEC Round 4 - Les vingt-quatre heures du Mans (24 hours of Le Mans 100th "edition") - Saturday 10 June to Sunday 11 June IMSA Round 5 - 6 hours of The Glen (Watkins Glen) - Sunday 25 June WEC Round 5 - 6 hours of Monza - Sunday 9 July IMSA Round 6 - Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (previously known as Mosport) - Sunday 9 July ELMS Round 2 - 4 hours of Le Castellet (previously known as Paul Ricard) - Sunday 16 July IMSA Round 7 - Northeast Grand Prix (Lime Rock Park) - Saturday 22 July IMSA Round 8 - IMSA Sportscar Weekend (Road America) - Sunday 6 August ELMS Round 3 - 4 hours of Aragón - Saturday 26 August IMSA Round 9 - GT Challenge at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) - Sunday 27 August WEC Round 6 - 6 hours of Fuji - Sunday 10 September IMSA Round 10 - "Battle on the bricks" (Indianapolis) - Sunday 17 September ELMS Round 4 - 4 hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Sunday 24 September IMSA Round 11 - "Petit Le Mans" (Road Atlanta) - Saturday 14 October ELMS Round 5 - 4 hours of Algarve - Friday 20 October - this event was added to the Calendar due to the cancellation of the Round at Imola in May and was held at Portimão, the same circuit as Round 6 on Sunday 22 October. ELMS Round 6 - 4 hours of Portimão - Sunday 22 October WEC Round 7 - 8 hours of Bahrain - Saturday 4 November I can now add the first two Rounds of the 2023-2024 Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) to this Calendar and Im pleased to report that the Organisers have re-introduced a return to the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia for the first two Rounds, which was last visited in 2019/pre-covid. The remaining Rounds take us back to the UAE and these will appear in the 2024 Calendar, but I will include them here. ALMS Round 1 - 4 hours of Sepang - Saturday 2 December ALMS Round 2 - 4 hours of Sepang - Sunday 3 December ALMS Round 3 - 4 hours of Dubai - 4 February 2024 ALMS Round 4 - 4 hours of Abu Dhabi - 10 February 2024 ALMS Round 5 - 4 hours of Abu Dhabi - 11 February 2024 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 21 January, 2023, 08:50:49 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
24 hours of Daytona Qualifying Sunday 22 January Seems I was mis-informed ::) Qualifying was a "normal" affair after all, each class having its own crack at pole. Here are the Qualifying times (courtesy of Dailysportscar).... https://www.dailysportscar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/IMSA-2023-Daytona-24-Qualifying.pdf Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 28 January, 2023, 09:29:33 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 1 24 hours of Daytona Saturday/Sunday 28/29 January Full replay here (part 1 of 4).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b2HkIAVZHM "Win the weekend" (similar to WECs "Full Access" but is a more produced product).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlt2v18mNvw Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 11 February, 2023, 10:41:26 AM Asian Le Mans Series
Round 1 4 hours of Dubai (Autodrome) Saturday 11 February Replay here (race start 30:30, adjust Quality in Settings for optimum image).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmcYiRCU1jw Once again, this Series is staying in the UAE. Here is a statement from them as to why.... "ALMEM management team has taken the decision to delay returning to racing in South East Asia due to the significant freight issues teams are facing globally. As a consequence of remaining in the UAE, the joint management of the Series with the SRO will be delayed until the Series returns to racing in South East Asia. ALMEM and SRO continue to work together closely on a plan to return to the region as soon as feasibly possible." Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 12 February, 2023, 12:02:02 AM Asian Le Mans Series
Round 2 4 hours of Dubai (Autodrome) Sunday 12 February Replay here (race start 31:20).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gti0l-IoyEM Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 18 February, 2023, 07:07:09 PM Asian Le Mans Series
Round 3 4 hours of Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) Saturday 18 February Replay here (race start 33:13, but race was red flagged between 1:34:49 to 2:12:31 due to a major incident).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iUDV_9lMBA Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 18 February, 2023, 10:46:24 PM Asian Le Mans Series
Round 4 (of 4) 4 hours of Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) Sunday 19 February Replay here (race start 31:55) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0AUwoa48pw Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 16 March, 2023, 07:00:05 PM A busy 2 days ahead as both the FIA WEC and IMSA "WeatherTech" Championships are together again at "Super Sebring" this year.
FIA WEC Round 1 1000 miles of Sebring Friday 17 March Replay here (race start 31:40).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l627yZDiGqU "Race Debrief" (with Alexa Rendell and Anthony "Ant" Davidson).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jd0Uilkntk "Full Access" (behind the scenes).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drwbQEP3Il4 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 18 March, 2023, 12:46:14 AM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 2 12 hours of Sebring Saturday 18 March Replay here (part 1 of 2).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lo_mtJ8aGY (Towards the very end of the race it all gets a bit bonkers!) "Win the weekend" (similar to WECs "Full Access" but is a more produced product).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc-EiiCagyI Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 15 April, 2023, 09:17:26 AM FIA WEC and IMSA Sportscars back on the same weekend again, but this time in very different locations apart. First up is IMSA today, the first of the "sprint" races and no LMP2 and LMP3 cars at this event.
IMSA Sportscar Championship Round 3 Long Beach, CA. Saturday 15 April Replay here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MU874LdMSM "Win the weekend" (similar to WECs "Full Access" but is a more produced product).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsffRFoc-R4 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 16 April, 2023, 07:59:44 AM FIA WEC
Round 2 6 hours of Portimão Sunday 16 April Replay here (race start 29:08).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ltsolMB-0s "Race Debrief" (with Alexa Rendell and Anthony "Ant" Davidson).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL2YHbXK9nk "Full Access" (behind the scenes).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQJO_dVxd0 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 22 April, 2023, 06:04:23 PM ELMS
Round 1 4 hours of Barcelona Sunday 23 April Replay here (race start 30:10).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfBAMZG-ifw Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 28 April, 2023, 04:40:23 PM FIA WEC
Round 3 6 hours of Spa-Francorchamps Saturday 29 April Replay here (race start 29:55 under Safety Car due to track conditions/weather).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7wqTWi-eeo "Race Debrief" (with Alexa Rendell and Anthony "Ant" Davidson).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVkYDUdSiQE "Full Access" (behind the scenes).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH06jdNjSj4 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 14 May, 2023, 02:23:10 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 4 Course do Monterey (Laguna Seca) Sunday 14 May Replay here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzubsxYZabQ Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 13 June, 2023, 09:29:27 PM FIA WEC
Round 4 24 hours of Le Mans Saturday 10 June to Sunday 11 June As Im sure you will have read/seen/etc elsewhere, a certain car manufacturer from Italy won the race outright, and what a race it turned out to be, plenty of incident, including 2 downpours on Saturday; one in daylight, the other in darkness. That and other incidents caused a higher level of retirements than in previous years, particularly in GTE. But to hear the three Cadillac Hypercars and the NASCAR Camaro all with V8s with my own ears, was, as our American cousins would say, awesome! Replay here (click "Show more" to reveal "Chapters" including race start).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSNHrKrkeQ "Race Debrief" (with Alexa Rendell and Anthony "Ant" Davidson).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TqHPBESZcs "Full Access" (behind the scenes).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0wJCo07opQ Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 25 June, 2023, 01:21:39 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 5 6 hours of The Glen (Watkins Glen) Sunday 25 June Replay here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rzL-iRSRMI "Win the weekend" (similar to WECs "Full Access") here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=morAo3hkDCI Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 09 July, 2023, 10:19:20 AM FIA WEC
Round 5 6 hours of Monza Sunday 9 July Replay here (race start 27:00).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4QFgKwhva4 "Race Debrief" here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUz9-O_JCII "Full Access" here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drwbQEP3Il4 It should be noted that despite the results given in the above 2 "programmes", the #8 Toyota was handed a further 50 second penalty post race for "excessive energy usage in the late stages of the race", which had already been handed 2 penalties for collisions with 2 other cars earlier in the race, both with Sebastien Buemi at the wheel. However, Toyota did visit the garage of the car Buemi punted off into immediate retirement and apologise, and so they should have, although I wouldve thought Buemi himself should have done so. It seems to me that Toyota are feeling the effects of strong opposition this season and are maybe not reacting particularly well under the pressure. They complained about the "success ballast" handed to them for the 24 hours of Le Mans (37 kg), but neglected to mention that Ferrari were likewise penalised (24 kg), so actually only 13kg difference, not 37kg. Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 14 July, 2023, 12:04:12 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 6 Mosport (now known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) Sunday 9 July Replay here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HcUXXvGmuc Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 16 July, 2023, 07:03:23 PM ELMS
Round 2 4 hours of Le Castellet (Paul Ricard) Sunday 16 July Replay here (race start 25:00 and check you have the best "Quality" replay available to you by clicking on the gear icon at lower right).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdZptKKHWDM Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 21 July, 2023, 10:19:42 PM IMSA
Round 7 (is only GTD and GTD-Pro entries, no Prototypes, but as its a Round of the full WeatherTech Championship, Im including it) Northeast Grand Prix, Lime Rock Park Saturday 22 July Replay here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGmcri7u26s Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 06 August, 2023, 01:23:20 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 8 Road America Sunday 6 August Delay in my posting this ::) Replay here (race start under safety car 5:45).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Se0S8lCMiE "Win the Weekend" (similar to WECs "Full Access") here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jdqpRCbPx8 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 26 August, 2023, 08:27:48 AM ELMS
Round 3 4 hours of Aragón Saturday 26 August Replay here (race start 24:20).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5WdiKyykSM Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 27 August, 2023, 09:06:24 AM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 9 (GTD-Pro and GTD only) Virginia International Raceway Sunday 27 August Replay here (race start 5:35).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flcLXJqacIk Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 15 September, 2023, 09:33:36 AM FIA WEC
Round 6 6 hours of Fuji Sunday 10 September Replay here (race start 27:30).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_jqbCbzPME "Race Debrief" here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96r22005cBQ "Full Access" here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_FrsyJ6N_U Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 16 September, 2023, 06:34:10 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 10 "Battle on the bricks" (Indianapolis) Sunday 17 September Replay here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU8KH9BDF_k Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 24 September, 2023, 10:49:22 AM ELMS
Round 4 4 hours of Spa-Francorchamps Sunday 24 September Replay here (race start 25:30).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpwuKrhmS-g Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 13 October, 2023, 11:48:57 PM IMSA Sportscar Championship
Round 11 (final round of the 2023 season) "Petit Le Mans" (Road Atlanta) Saturday 14 October Replay here (part 1 of 2).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6nx1OPixo4 "Win the weekend" (similar to WECs "Full Access") here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGE1jmIQ0Yw Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 20 October, 2023, 08:42:51 AM ELMS
Round 5 4 hours of Algarve Friday 20 October Replay here (race start 24:33).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCX5C-jmy30 Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 22 October, 2023, 11:44:28 AM ELMS
Round 6 (final round of the 2023 season) 4 hours of Portimão Sunday 22 October Replay here (race start 1:54:10 with red flag from 1:59:02 > 2:44:10 due to weather conditions).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB-GcLDCbqI Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 03 November, 2023, 11:20:28 PM FIA WEC
Round 7 (final round of the 2023 season) 8 hours of Bahrain Saturday 4 November Replay here (race start 29:02).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HDLL94sbB0 "Full Access" here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NbB2LzAOLY Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 01 December, 2023, 07:27:21 PM Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) 2023-2024
This is the first time we will see GT3 spec cars race in any Le Mans Series Championship and this is how it will be from now on. GTE cars are no longer eligible, a great pity in my view, but things move on, and it does open the door to many more Manufacturers. Round 1 4 hours of Sepang Saturday 2 December Replay here (race start 32:38).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYcO2HPn7hI Title: Prototype and GT racing 2023 Post by: rikardo on 02 December, 2023, 11:59:51 AM ALMS 2023-2024
Round 2 4 hours of Sepang Sunday 3 December Replay here (race start 31:38).... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ56Yp0TtU8 |