GTLM Untouched After IMSA Makes Balance of Performance Changes to the DPi and GTD Classes

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GTLM Untouched After IMSA Makes Balance of Performance Changes to the DPi and GTD Classes

Photo Credit: Richard Prince for Chevy Racing


Apparently it’s whining (not winning) if you’re a Corvette Racing fan that points out the inequities of IMSA’s Balance of Performance changes this season.

Although I never really bought into the fact that IMSA plays favorites, I don’t see how you can think up any other reason for how the Corvette team has been treated this year.

On Friday, IMSA issued a new technical bulletin ahead of this week’s Monterey Sportscar Championship at Laguna Seca Raceway in California. In the new bulletin, IMSA gave the Cadillacs in the top DPi class a 20kg weight break and a 0.3 larger air restrictor. In GTD, IMSA penalized the Porsche 911 GT3s a 20kg increase while removing weight on three additional competitors.

But for the GTLM class, it’s crickets…

The Corvettes were at least competitive this year up until the last BoP change in July ahead of the race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. That BoP change singled out the Chevys exclusively with a 10kg weight penalty despite the fact the team hasn’t a single win this year. Meanwhile, Porsche had four consecutive wins prior to the Corvette C7.R’s BoP adjustment and they have gone on to win at CTMP and VIR for a total of six wins this season.

This doesn’t make racing fun for the fans, and it surely doesn’t make it fun for the teams racing when the race organizers have a built-in bias, whether real or perceived, for one team over all others.

And the racing in the class isn’t going to be better anytime soon as the GTLM field will be further limited in 2020 with the loss of the Ford GTs as Ford has stated this is the last year of their GTLM racing program.

Corvette Racing has been on the scene for 21 consecutive years now and next year a new Corvette will be seen on the greatest road courses in North America. Knowing that IMSA will put its toe on the scale (and keep it there) has us less excited than ever…


Source:
sportscar365.com

Related:
IMSA Hangs 10KG of Weight on the Corvette C7.Rs in BoP Adjustment Ahead of CTMP
IMSA Tweaks Balance of Performance Ahead of the Long Beach Grand Prix
IMSA Makes Changes in Balance of Performance (BoP) for GTLM Class Ahead of Sebring

 



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16 COMMENTS

  1. Finally, an article calling out the obvious. I have the worst feeling that the C8.Rs will be a BoP target next year unless IMSA starts making changes to their system. You cannot say that a series has close racing if you keep seeing the same winners day in and day out…

  2. Can anyone get IMSA to explain how they arrive at their BoP adjustments? If they can’t explain their system or don’t have one, then one might assume some bias.

  3. If the new C8R..turns out to be the Godzilla of the class..you know IMSA will geld it, so it can’t show its full potential..if the Corvette in stock race trim is the fastest car on the track..then the other manufactures need to step up their game..not penalize the Corvette for being too good! I’m glad IMSA wasn’t around and in charge in the Can Am era

  4. It’s apparent to me that IMSA hired Bernie Sanders to be head of their competition committee. Corvette, having won the GTLM championship the last three years, he felt it was time to share the victories and championships with those less fortunate. Any advantage Corvette achieves with the new mid-engine C8R, will quickly be negated by BoP adjustments. Hard to win when the rule makers keep changing the rules.

  5. Brian’s comment said what we are all feeling … IMSA are a bunch of losers that handicap the Corvettes because they just want to make sure that the Porsches win, so everything seems to be going according to plan. Doesn’t matter cuz making Chevy build a “special” detuned engine just so that the Corvettes don’t win every single race (like they used to most of the time anyway) doesn’t alter the reality on the street where Corvettes decimate every other car on the road! So take that, you assholes at IMSA.

  6. IMSA has destroyed my enthusiasm in GT/GTLM racing. I love my Corvettes, but when racing, these classes should compete with the engines that the production cars run. There should be no BoP adjustments. If your entry can’t perform: it won’t win. IMSA selects winners. This is why I will never return to an IMSA sanctioned event.

  7. This season’s BoP adjustments (or lack of) seem to be the worst they’ve been, pretty much handing the crown to Porsche. I wouldn’t be surprised if BMW leaves after 2020, leaving Corvette & Porsche to fight it out. That wouldn’t be good for the series; almost as bad as when the Corvettes raced each other a few years ago.

  8. Ever wonder why manufacturers leave imsa,,bop is a bunch of BS. Anyone remember camel GTA.no such c h thing as b o p.you either picked up the pace or were left behind,all imsa is doing is self destructing,soon everyone will stop,it makes no sense to penalize fast cars because others aren’t as fast,fans want to see racers race,not executives decide who wins and who don’t,it won’t be long and it will be just like NASCAR,no one will be showing up,,

  9. Can you imagine if the 1953 C-Type Jaguars were weighted down with BoP “equalization” because no one else could brake as well as they could with their new innovative disc brakes?

    Totally stupid. Get rid of the whole BoP nonsense and go racing.

  10. My buddies and I usually attend a few races every year. Haven’t as much this year due to crazy formulation that primarily affects Corvette balance.

  11. David is also correct … run what you bring … if your street car s faster than everyone else’s (i.e.: you drive a Corvette) and you don’t like it (i.e.: you drive anything else), then build a faster car (I’m talking to you, Porsche et al). The GTLM class is SUPPOSED to be a representation of the actual street cars – NOT a detuned version of one car (i.e.: the Corvette) so that everyone else can “compete.” BoP is nothing more than institutionalized cheating! IMSA is a JOKE!

  12. Callaway Corvette in ADAC GT Masters Series is the best bang for the buck. Forget IMSA, watch ADAC GT Masters. Callaway is 2nd in points. Yes, ADAC also has a BoP formula, but it seems to work better.
    ADAC GT Masters has 30 to 35 competitors in one Class, the racing is great!!! So much better than IMSA GTLM with just 8 competitors. Ford is going bye-bye, BMW may, no other Factory wants to put up the big bucks it takes, only to have the France Family ruin it for them.
    Callaway has 2 Corvettes in the field of ADAC GT Masters, one-a Callaway Team and another-RWT Team, versus half-a-dozen each Audis, Porsches, MBs; a few Lambos and BMWs. Give it a try: two – one hour races over a weekend, which means two qual sessions, no reversing the order, on some of the most iconic race tracks in Europe. Gotta get up early to watch live stream, Europe time, or watch a full replay later.
    https://www.adac-gt-masters.de/uk

  13. ^^^^ This. Granted it’s early, but as of now a total of three teams/six cars will run in GTLM. No Ferraris, Forda, Dodges, probably BMW. This year the BoP was just ridiculous and apparently still will be. U.S. television coverage has been pre–empted by the roundy rounders or tape delayed.

    Corvette Racing should take a hard look at WEC…..

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