Alonso, Kobayashi, Van Der Zande and Taylor win rain-lashed Daytona 24 Hours

43 comments on “Alonso, Kobayashi, Van Der Zande and Taylor win rain-lashed Daytona 24 Hours”

1. 

   stefano (@alfa145)
   28th January 2019, 0:03

   What are these LeMans and Daytona classes?
   1. 

      Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
      28th January 2019, 0:32

      @alfa145 GTD is basically GT3 cars, you know, the Audi R8s, Mercs AMGs, Lambos, Porsches 911 GT3s… GT Le Mans are GTE cars, the highest level of GT cars. They are the same spec of cars that race in WEC: the Ford GT, BMW M8, Porsche 911 RSR, Corvettes…

      There are technical differences which you can easily google.
      1. 

         FlyingLobster27
         28th January 2019, 11:32

         @alfa145 @fer-no65 It’s the same cars, the only difference is who does the Balance of Performance. IMSA does its own BoP, separate from SRO (GT3) and the ACO/FIA (GTE). DPi is also balanced, and I have to say, the BoPs were all spot-on at Daytona.
         All the winners were lucky with the timing of the last caution and red flag, but good, deserved wins nonetheless for Wayne Taylor Racing, BMW RLL and the Grasser Racing Lamborghini. My team of the race was probably BMW RLL: it was great to see Alex Zanardi in one of their crews and do really well, and late call-up Augusto Farfus won the race, the first since the untimely death of Charly Lamm – Farfus having won Lamm’s last race as team boss in Macau.
2. 

   Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
   28th January 2019, 0:27

   @COTD: give it time… it’s all fun and games when it’s just starting…

   The Daytona 24 was amaizing to watch, even if the last half of the race was marred with red flags and full course yellows. The night stint by Alonso was incredible, they were really going at it with Castroneves and Rene Rast, but he just motored past and built a 15 seconds gap in NO time! I have to say Nasr was really on it in the end, his overtakes before the last red flag were superb and he should’ve won the race in the end, the race could’ve been stopped minutes earlier before his little off.
   1. 

      faulty (@faulty)
      28th January 2019, 1:08

      Yeah, the night exchanges with Castroneves were top shelf racing.
   2. 

      MaddMe (@)
      28th January 2019, 6:43

      @fer-no65
      I fully agree, I found the last 7 hours still very good racing, despite much of it being full course yellow. When the racing started, the drivers weren’t afraid to push, leading to some superb driving displays.

      Nasr managed a good pass and showed his ability to race well in extreme conditions, although when Alonso returned to the seat, it was clear he was looking for a better line and just prior to Nasr running off track, had backed off enough to keep pressure on and able to capitalise to get the pass.

      Next big race Bathurst 12 next weekend…
   3. 

      spoutnik (@spoutnik)
      28th January 2019, 12:36

      @fer-no65 Not only the show was really good but also having free multicam livestreams without a single glitch was refreshing, as well as having a full timings table at hands. Something to reflect on for F1.

      I watched more than a third of the race and even if full course cautions and red flags were annoying we got to see intense driving under really bad weather and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I bit my nails over the last stint.

      I wonder how much people like us Alonso did attract but the race was quite a success in terms of action. Will do it again.
   4. 

      Dave
      28th January 2019, 23:55

      You might like this video inside ALO’s car passing the front runners…no sound but awesome IMO.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF47rLI86WM
3. 

   pastaman (@)
   28th January 2019, 0:37

   Fanboost.
4. 

   HUHHII (@huhhii)
   28th January 2019, 0:54

   I absolutely loved FE race. So much action all around the track, a great fight for victory, fabulous passes… Fanboost is completely useless but Attack Mode is something else. A unique idea, which makes the races more interesting. Gimmicky? Who cares, as it only brings positive things to the races.

   I also tried to watch Daytona 24hr and pretty much fell asleep after watching it for like 10 minutes. And yes, it was still green flag at that point!
   1. 

      jamesluke2488
      28th January 2019, 1:47

      See I am the opposite, I watched nearly 9 hours of the Daytona 24 hours and saw what I thought was some amazing driving. Where I got board of the go karts in FE after 10 minutes, I really dont see how you can compare the cars or the driving skill. In my mind sports cars are far better looking and the drivers look far more on the edge. FE has a long way to go before it can match the skill of sports cars. I may be wrong but I am a purest and I think FE is to manufactored, with rubbish tracks and silly driver aids.
   2. 

      pastaman (@)
      28th January 2019, 3:55

      Yeah, what could possibly be exciting about driving flat out in the rain at night with multiple classes of car all on the track at the same time… Give me a slow spec series driving on city circuits any day!
      1. 

         montreal95 (@montreal95)
         28th January 2019, 12:33

         @pastaman I don’t like FE(which is btw not really a spec series any more than say Lmp2 class is a spec series) but I prefer even that to the so called endurance “racing”. To me it’s just a fast engineering exercise and I’m not interested in engineering. multiple racing classes at the same track that you bring as a plus for me is a huge minus. To me it all looks just a track day with random cars going round in circles. Real racing element is very rare in endurance. Mostly the cars are separated by over a lap distance and all the overtakes are on slowed cars which is worse than blue flags in F1. I was at an endurance race once at Road America. Came there in 2007 for the Champ Car race but there was also the American Le Mans as support series. Loved every minute of the Champ car race but endurance was like watching paint dry for 6 hours. Don’t want to even imagine what it would be like if it went on for 24 hours. for someone more engineering minded I suspect it would be more interesting but not for me.

         I’m not dismissing your opinion. horses for courses as they say. This post is a response to the patronizing tone in your response above.
      2. 

         HUHHII (@huhhii)
         28th January 2019, 19:09

         @pastaman @montreal95 is spot on. That’s exactly how I feel about WEC and IMSA. Plus the fact that following a long race with 60+ participants in wildly different cars is incredibly complicated, since you don’t know the pitstop strategies/timings for each car and commentators can’t possibly concentrate on each participants.

         I don’t mean to say all endurance racing is boring for me. I love the looks of GT cars, but when I want to see beautiful cars and endurance racing, I won’t tune in to WEC and IMSA. My answer for those is Blancpain, a superior series compared to those two. Spa 24hr is my go-to endurance race of the year.
         1. 

            Evans
            28th January 2019, 20:13

            Agreed, last Lemans had so many battles within classes at the same time that I think at least 40% of them were missed on the live coverage. I would be happier with 4 races 6 hours each per class or 6 races of 4 hours. I don’t see any advantage of having LMP1 (or DPI) cars on the same track as GT cars
         2. 

            pastaman (@)
            29th January 2019, 1:15

            Fair enough
   3. 

      MaddMe (@)
      28th January 2019, 12:07

      I’m actually enjoying the FE racing. I couldn’t be bothered with Gen1, but, Gen2 has some really good racing action and is filling the void left between the F1 season.

      Attack mode is good and enhances the drivers strategy of the racing. I still see Fanboost as a gimmick and the sooner they get rid of it, the better.

      On the flip side, I also watched the Daytona 24, which also showed some superb driving and racing action and enjoyed that equally as much as the FE.
5. 

   Spencer (@spencer)
   28th January 2019, 2:57

   Attended the Rolex 24. Never have been much of an Alonso fan, but he put on an absolute clinic. Virtuoso performance at night. Stint at the end forced Nasr (who deserves to be rated higher as an all around driver ) into a mistake, all while on an aggressive fuel strategy for WTR. It took 20 years but he finally won me over as a fan. Attitude aside F1 will miss him.
   1. 

      Spencer (@spencer)
      28th January 2019, 2:59

      Also the rain was much more severe in person than it appeared on television. Water up to 10 inches deep in certain corners.
      1. 

         spoutnik (@spoutnik)
         28th January 2019, 12:39

         Thanks for this details. On imsa live there were not much weather forecast details but looking at the cars at some point it looked like disney on ice. Really enjoyed it!
6. 

   Phylyp (@phylyp)
   28th January 2019, 4:05

   Good stuff by Alonso – letting his driving do the talking.
7. 

   Sumedh
   28th January 2019, 4:43

   After his night stint at Le Mans and now here and given how he makes enemies everywhere, is it time we call Alonso ‘The Night King’ (inspired by Game of thrones) ;)
8. 

   Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
   28th January 2019, 4:58

   I managed to watch the night stint – pretty much all I could see of the 24 Hours. Alonso’s drive was epic, but I have to give the Acura Penske boys and Kobayashi a pat on the back too – especially Kamui putting in fastest lap after fastest lap in his stint. And the Wehlen Engineering car did great job too.

   I was bummed to see that the Mazdas retired again, I hope their reliability improves from last year and they manage to identify and sort out their niggles by Sebring. Bernhard and Ticknell are superb drivers, and they deserve some wins this year. Its also sad that an experienced crew like the Mustang Sampling car didn’t get a proper shot as well, I’m sure they would’ve pulled a fast one in the challenging conditions that I read about during the final quarter.
   1. 

      Hlg8888
      28th January 2019, 11:41

      I came away impressed by Jordan Taylor , the way he was able to keep the Minolta car on the road was pretty good and he could be a talent for the future.
      1. 

         Sundar Srinivas Harish (@sundark)
         28th January 2019, 12:54

         Both the Taylor brothers are impressive drivers, from what I’ve seen in the last 2 years that I’ve followed IMSA. 2017 was especially nice – a small family team winning the title was a nice story.
9. 

   Coanda (@ming-mong)
   28th January 2019, 6:11

   My dream would be to see Alonso & Webber T up for bathurst 1000.
   1. 

      Chaitanya
      28th January 2019, 8:20

      Considering both are good friends and both love racing, lets hope both Alonso and Webber teamup in future.
10. 

    Exediron (@exediron)
    28th January 2019, 6:59

    It’s van der Zande, not Zander. No ‘R’ at the end!

    https://www.rengervanderzande.com/about/driver/
    1. 

       nase
       28th January 2019, 7:48

       On the plus side, the extra R makes him 100% tastier.
       1. 

          Luke S (@joeypropane)
          28th January 2019, 12:33

          Van Der Zande Type-R?
          1. 

             nase
             28th January 2019, 14:15

             Not quite. Zand(e) vs. zander.
             1. 

                Phylyp (@phylyp)
                28th January 2019, 15:25

                Nice :-)
11. 

    Patrick (@anunaki)
    28th January 2019, 8:13

    I like this quote from Irvine

    Now you get points for turning up to the race, which I’m really against. So to get points in my first grand prix, when points were more special, I was super happy.
    1. 

       Jere (@jerejj)
       28th January 2019, 10:13

       @anunaki Shows how much he knows, LOL. Getting points for merely turning up to the races would be a valid claim if every single position would be a points-paying place instead of the first ten.
       1. 

          Patrick (@anunaki)
          28th January 2019, 10:23

          He’s obviously exaggerating to make his point. 50% of the grid gets points now. The Japanese GP 1993 that was only 25% in a 24 car grid
          1. 

             Matthijs (@matthijs)
             28th January 2019, 11:33

             @anunaki It’s not really a correct point he was making. I could make the exact opposite point. Back in 1993, half the field DNF’d per race, at least. So just finishing gave you a good chance of wrapping up points. Now the cars are close to bulletproof so just finishing doesn’t guarantee anything.

             The truth is in the middle. At the Japanese GP of 1993, 8 drivers finished outside the points, in 2018 there were 7. So one could argue that it’s equally difficult to collect a point.
    2. 

       Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
       28th January 2019, 17:34

       @anunaki I disagree completely. Given the huge amounts of money awarded through the constructors’ championship, it’s unfair that the bulk of the smaller teams’ points hauls are largely determined by how many cars from the richer teams finish each race. This is the situation you inevitably have with 20 cars per race but only points for the top 10.

       By all means give no points to cars which are not classified (unlike in IndyCar). But the present situation isn’t good enough. Finishing 11th is not the same as finishing 19th.
       1. 

          Patrick (@anunaki)
          28th January 2019, 17:41

          I agree with you that the money distribution to the teams is something to think about.

          But to me (and Irvine) finishing 10th in a 20 car race should never get a driver any points.
12. 

    Jere (@jerejj)
    28th January 2019, 10:25

    Well, RBR apparently has already managed to claw back the lost performance, so it’s more or less a team-dependent thing.

    ”Where as in F1, realistically it’s about four drivers getting on the podium and two for the championship.”
    – Make that ‘six’ getting on the podium and four fo the championship car-wise.

    The W05 might be one of the most dominant F1-cars ever, but it was slow AF.
13. 

    Aleš Norský (@gpfacts)
    28th January 2019, 11:10

    Happy for Alonso, really happy for Kamui Kobayashi. Congrats to all top three cars!
14. 

    Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
    28th January 2019, 11:51

    New rules will put back top teams in ’19 – Renault (Autosport)

    I don’t think the new rules will restrain the top teams, unless there is some thing that equalisers the difference in engine output. As far as I know this won’t happen, so I expect Mercedes and Ferrari will be nearer the front, and Red Bull – Honda and Renault will be in the midfield.
15. 

    Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
    28th January 2019, 12:24

    I seemed to hit it lucky with Daytona this year, as everytime I tuned in, it seemed Alonso was just getting in the car. He went from i think 8th to 1st during 1 stint and pulled at 20 second gap in no time. he was in a class of one in the nighttime rain, and partiucularly under braking into turn one.
    1. 

       pSynrg (@psynrg)
       28th January 2019, 12:53

       @fullcoursecaution For me that remains one of the toughest braking moments in all my (sim) racing experience. Consistently gaining an advantage here sets the best apart.

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