Has IMSA's Balance of Performance made racing better for everyone?

IMSA’s tech officials must feel rightly proud of the results of this season’s opening 24-hour enduro at Daytona International Speedway. Every car on the headline-winning GTP grid was so evenly matched that all nine entrants in this category qualified within tenths of a second of Pipo Derani’s stunning lap record of 1:32.656 in the Whelen-sponsored Cadillac prototype. 

[Live Thread: 2024 Rolex 24 At Daytona]

Perhaps even more impressive was Felipe Nasr’s incredible pass in the 23rd hour of the race. Driving Roger Penske’s Tim Cindric-prepped Porsche 963, he flashed by race leader Tom Blomqvist–co-driver to the polesitter. 

In spite of a yellow in the final hour, Nasr was able to hold the lead when the race again went green to win by 2.112 seconds! The credit for that 2-second advantage at the flag has to go to the perfect work in the Penske pit, which allowed Nasr’s quicker exit and formidable talent to hold off last year’s winner, Blomqvist, in the pole-winning Caddy for the win.

The LMP2 race within the race was equally close and impressive, with five of the first cars in the 13-car field also qualifying within tenths of Ben Keating’s class lap record of 1:38.501. And then the top-five cars finished on the same lap. It has to be noted that Keating had also won the LMP2 pole in five previous Daytona 24s.

Even in the combined GTD Pro and GTD classes, with 36 cars total, the first 16 on that grid all qualified within a second of Seb Priaulx’s pole-winning time of 144.382 in the AO Racing Porsche.     

What all this perfection amounts to is solid proof of IMSA’s adherence to its Balance of Performance philosophy. It makes every team’s class entry, regardless of make, as “equal” as possible by carefully monitoring practice times and then “adjusting” performance by mandate, adding or subtracting performance-affecting factors like weight, power, fuel load and even carefully measured aerodynamic potential by trimming wing angles to ensure equality.

If anything, the quality of human performance was also as close to perfection as the cars, with race results for every class still in doubt right down to the checker in the final seconds of 24 grueling hours. 

One can only congratulate and admire the incredible skill of all involved in this year’s Daytona 24, because everything–cars, drivers, crews, on-track officials and even race administrators–presented what has to be one of the most carefully and perfectly* calculated endurance racing events in modern race history. 

The reality of this type of event is that it couldn’t exist without the full agreement of all involved to participate in what can only be described as IMSA’s very carefully programmed microscopic overview ensuring a “great show”–not only for the largest crowd in Daytona 24 history, but also for the millions following the event on television.

Left unregulated by IMSA’s now well-refined and proven Balance of Performance limiting rules, those teams with the most innovative minds and best-engineered racers would always win, soon leaving the grid empty of those brave or foolish enough to even think they could attempt matching the level of excellence shown by consistent dominant winners. 

Without IMSA “racertainment” as we know it, competition would evaporate and cease to exist. Any system of regulation that exists by limiting the performance of those who live for excellence only to benefit the also-rans, who expect their shortcomings will be compensated for by suppression of the best, is not real competition.    

There is no precise way to measure bravery, skill, hard-won experience and innovation. Those rare unregulated “run whatcha brung” qualities still exist in many other forms of motorsport. They can be seen on almost any weekend on dirt and pavement ovals all over America or in the vast desert racing venues across the globe, where constantly changing conditions and track surfaces tend to create their own natural performance-limiting factors that self-regulate and continue to attract those who understand and love real competition. 

 

*It has to be noted that this year’s Daytona 24 field was shown the white flag one lap early! That single mistake, marring this year’s IMSA perfection, could well have affected the final outcome in any of the five classes. Under IMSA’s rules, there was no recourse for those who may have planned a sudden last-lap pass, but, That’s Racin’.

More like this

Comments

View all comments on the CMS forums

You'll need to log in to post.