Rick Mayer, race engineer of the Risi Competizione No. 62 Ferrari 488 GTLM team, gives us a preview of this year's 55th Annual Rolex 24 At Daytona, January 26-29, 2017.Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy), Toni Vilander (Finland), and James Calado (Great Britain) will drive the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTLM in the first race of the 2017 International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, Round 1 for the GTLM class. They won the GTLM finale, Petit Le Mans, at Road Atlanta in their last race of the 2016 WeatherTech race season.
General: The total car count (55 cars) is similar to last year, but with more GTDs, fewer PCs and the all new for 2017 DPi's. The four longer endurance series races always have a larger Pro-Am content than the shorter races, this makes getting through traffic and staying clear of trouble more difficult and risky. A driver's mental fatigue and any lapse of concentration could easily affect the outcome. Your concentration has to be high as traffic will be constant. The safety car and wave-by rules will ensure a large lead lap car count for each class, as the rules make it easy to make up a small lap deficit. Clearing GTD traffic will be particularly difficult for GTLM as the GTDs have the equal or better banking speeds and the GTDs are allowed ABS brakes. The IMSA WeatherTech specific balance of performance (BoP) GTLM rules evolved from the ROAR test earlier this month with only small changes for the race.The track: Daytona is the iconic, classic 'roval'. Weather and grip will vary with conditions. Any rain will increase additional complexity. The track was repaved recently and, with mild winters, the surface is still relatively smooth. The corners are all slow except the "Bus Stop" and the "Kink". This is all complicated by having to run very high tire pressures and very low cambers in order to diminish the chance of having banking related tire failures. There are many ways to get a good lap time here but good stable braking, good corner exits from Turn 3, 6 and the "Bus Stop", plus speed through the latter are key to a competitive race car.
Setup: Daytona is a track that requires some reserve in setup to increase safety. Daytona setups only relate to Daytona. The mechanical setup and tire pressures we need to run (Daytona-only pressure and Daytona-only cambers) here are all in the direction of safety at the detriment to lap time and performance. We bias the setup to improve braking stability and traction and maximize banking speed. You don't setup for the infield as it's difficult to pass there. The required high tire pressures (+10%) reduce front and rear grip. The increased pressures tend to bias the deficit to the rear both at corner entrance and power down at the exit. The reduced camber safety requirements (more than one degree less negative camber) also decrease grip; all of this change the general setup and what you expect. We'll try and trim drag, to improve banking speed as much as you can as IMSA rules stipulate a minimum wing angle for each GTLM car. With 55 cars you'll be in traffic throughout the infield nearly every lap. The only legitimate passing areas are on the banking to clear slower cars, braking into Turn 1, braking into the "Bus Stop" and occasionally into Turn 5. The better car to race is the low drag version (increased top speed) if the lap times are similar. Being fast in the infield section is of little advantage.
The race: The Daytona 24 is the quintessential 'crap shoot' of endurance races. The field is packed and the pit lane boxes are the smallest of the season. You have to take as much care in the pits as on the track. Luck and patience pays large dividends here more than at other tracks. The wave-by rules for cautions (safety cars) are likely to ensure a large number of lead lap cars in each class in the last stints of the race. After the opening hour, you need to stay in touch with the class leader, ideally BE the class leader, and be positioned for the 23rd-hour sprint to the finish. Any of the 11 GTLM cars could win this race, but with Ford having 4 cars they certainly have better odds. This year the Porsche is the only new car in GTLM but it still has a large content of proven parts and will be a contender for the win. We have had great success with the long races at Risi Competizione. We had a good run and stayed out of trouble and won the last race of 2016, Petit Le Mans in October. Let's hope our good fortune continues into 2017 starting at Daytona.Tune-In Information:Qualifying for the 55th Annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, Thursday, Jan. 26 can be viewed from 3:00 p.m. - 4:40 p.m. on IMSA.TV.In the U.S., watch the Rolex 24 At Daytona, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. on FOX Network then from 5:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m. and overnight from 11:00 p.m. -12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 29 on FOX Sports 2. Final hours of the race can be viewed from 12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Fox Sports 1. (All times Eastern.) The Rolex 24 At Daytona is also available on the FOX Sports GO mobile app and IMSA.TV.
