Acura Team Penske No. 6 ARX-05 DPi car

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(Photos from Sebring 2019)

With two race wins in the IMSA Weathertech United Sportscar Championship DPi class in the 2019 season, it would seem Acura Team Penske is on par with the Cadillac DPi cars of Wayne Taylor Racing and Action Express Racing. With the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen next on the 2019 IMSA season schedule, and only round three of the four-race Michelin Endurance Cup, finishing with high honors in this championship battle is likely to be Acura and Cadillac as the favorites to contend for the North American Sports Car Endurance crown. In a motor sport where the majority of race wins are won by automotive performance, only one manufacturer will triumph on the weekends and sell on the weekdays.

 

Michelin Tire Factory Kiosk at Sebring 2019

It takes a perfectly well-built combustion engine for the automobile to perform. It takes a well-funded and organized racing team, to put forth one of the world’s best drivers and engineers to bring out the best in the automobile.

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For such results to finish in the winner’s circle, or somewhere high in the money, traction, durability, and reliability shape the balance of the automobile’s load.

At the Michelin tire facility during the 2019 IMSA Sebring 12 Hours of Endurance, precision and perfection of rubber meeting the road is a life-long mission that goes nowhere but forward — as skilled technicians craft and assemble Michelin tires of all compounds on the spot while distributing them to each IMSA race team.  In a motor sport that races at road circuits across the United States, clocking in roughly 71 hours of green-flag track time a year, even tire manufacturing has its share of competition.

For tire companies like Michelin supplying race teams, competition is their business.

Feature Image of the Day: Corvette L88 Show Race Car

#Racecar #Chevrolet #FabulousRestorations #Cars #Corvette #CarShows #VintageRaceCars

 

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Race Car Pics: Chevrolet Monte Carlo Stock Car

In this content post, I Motor Man Dan present throwback photos of March 2017 at the Winter Wonder Car & Truck Show at the Sun’ n Fun airstrip in Lakeland, Florida.

Featured in this post is this Chevrolet Monte Carlo stock racing car, driven professionally by Ted Head.

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Feel free to check out the February 2017 feature story about the Winter Wonder Car & Truck Show at MotorManDan.WordPress.com.

Motor Lens: Let knowledge drive you!

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Blast From The Past: Swamp Rat 17

 

Waiting patiently for the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing Private Tour session February 2016 while scouring at Big Daddy’s collection of dragsters, this “Swamp Rat” dragster stood out from the rest.

Built with a streamliner body, according to the official Don Garlits Museum website Garlits.com, the Swamp Rat 17 was forged with a purpose: to reach blistering straight-line speeds. Garlits documents the birth of Swamp Rat 17 in his online photo gallery.

Swamp Rat 17: When Robert “Jocko” Johnson saw that I was having success with the RE Car, SR 14, he called me and asked if I would like for him to build a streamliner body for one of my RE chassis. I said yes and the project was underway. Jocko built a very nice fiberglass body and Swingle built the frame and by the end of 1972 we were ready to test. I debuted the car at the AHRA Grand American at OCIR and Butch Mass drove the beast to 180 MPH, far off the highly touted 275 MPH!

— Don Garlits

Sit back and pull out your smartphone or laptop, and check out the rest of the story of Swamp Rat 17 on garlits.com. A story of innovation ascending to greater heights while exceeding expectations.

Mazda Prototype Image From Sebring

Twelve hours is quite a long journey, but it will be over before you know it — when you take a ride in the Zoom Zoom. #Mazda

 

 

2019 IMSA Predictions: Acura Team Penske Will Be Top-Five Contenders

The 2018 IMSA Weathertech United Sportscar Championship season proved to be a rocky start for the two Acura Team Penske ARX-05 entries.

With the No. 7 entry of Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves capturing a race win at Mid Ohio, and the No. 6 Acura DPi of Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya averaging fifth place in the Prototype Championship battle — MotorMan Dan predicts that the Acura Team Penske organization will be among the top five contenders racing for the win throughout the 2019 schedule.

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For Acura Team Penske Lead Engineer, Jonathan Diuguid, he said on IMSA.com Wednesday, automotive reliability was among the team’s strengths heading into the 2018 IMSA season.

“We did significant mileage prior to the season and none of those issues arose during any of that. So, from a car-preparation standpoint, I think we relied a lot on the experience of the guys that worked here and have done this before to try to make sure we don’t repeat some of the mistakes that other teams have. I think we did a good job on that. That being said, everything can always get better.”

— Diuguid, IMSA.com

In the quest for improvement, Diuguid said Team Penske must minimize mistakes.

“As a group, everybody has a long list of notes on what we can improve,” Diuguid said. “By no means are we going to sit on our hands and look back and think we did everything correctly, because I think we still have a lot to learn.

“Just tying up loose ends from a team standpoint and a strategy standpoint and making sure we minimize mistakes. Even in the endurance races, you make one mistake and you’re out of the race. The (No.) 7 car this year at Daytona, they got into an accident when we were running in the top three and then that was their race and they couldn’t recover from that. So, I think just minimizing mistakes on all fronts, car preparation, drivers and engineering is the main goal.”

— Diuguid, IMSA.com

The initiation of a full-time motor racing team in any racing series, especially a team with a history of success like Team Penske making a return to sports car endurance racing, can be a rough mountain to conquer. Success in IMSA’s premier series, regardless of class, takes engineers who designs and fine tunes race cars that suit each co-driver’s style of driving while the drivers themselves, are trained mentally and physically in piloting their aerodynamic machines (of course money and sponsorship are vital in a team’s ability to perform). Engineers work day and night to produce hundreds of race cars every season for their drivers to hit the ground running from Daytona to Road Atlanta.

With the off season already in full swing, IMSA teams such as Team Penske, will be eager for on-track, left and right turning action at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 and beyond. Until then, a family Turkey dinner and spreading Christmas cheer is next on the agenda.

 

Grand Touring Showdown: Ford GT Ganassi Cars Vs. Team Corvette

With a four-point advantage over the No. 3 entry of Team Corvette in the IMSA GT Le Mans class, the No. 67 Ford GT Ganassi entry will be looking to keep the pressure at VIR.

IMSA fans across the country will be sure to capture the sights and sounds of the GT Showdown in GTLM, including the GT Daytona class, as IMSA.com has provided event details from their post on Aug. 8.

The second of two GT-only races is on tap for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as the series heads to VIRginia International Raceway near Danville, Virginia for the Michelin GT Challenge on Sunday, Aug. 19.

The two-hour, 40-minute race will start at 1 p.m. ET with live television coverage beginning on FS1 for the first hour before moving to FS2 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET IMSA Radio also will offer live coverage on IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and Sirius XM Radio (Sirius 138/XM 202/App 972). Tickets are available now on VIRNow.com.

It is the ninth of 11 races this season for both the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes. The entry list features 19 cars, eight from the lead GTLM class and 11 for GTD.

— IMSA.com

MotorMan Dan predicts that the GTLM championship will go down to the wire, based on how strong Team Corvette’s No. 3 car has performed in the past. And when that happens, fans are sure to see the ultimate American sports car battle: Ford GT vs. Chevrolet Corvette. So fans sitting in the grand stands, pull out your cameras and camcorders. Fans watching on TV, be sure your TiVo is set to record.

Check Out My Personal Review of My Dodge Neon SXT

 

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Motor Lens: ‘Where knowledge is driven.’

IMSA Watkins Glen Race Predictions

Four races in the 2018 Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup season may look short.

Nevertheless, team racing drivers and engineers have an extended amount of time for race preparation. As drivers exercise their minds and bodies for the hot-summer conditions of the Sahlen’s Six Hours Of The Glen, mechanics calibrate the setup of their four-wheel endurance machines before loading them in the haulers for a trip to Schuyler County, New York.

As the clock continues its tick for the waving of the green flag at Watkins Glen International, here are my IMSA Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup race predictions for the six-hour race:

Prototype: Cadillac vs. Acura vs. Nissan

Even without Ricky Taylor in the Wayne Taylor Racing No. 10 Cadillac this year, the team’s 2nd place finish in the 12 Hours of Sebring shows how much fight they have in racing for their 2nd straight IMSA WeatherTech United SportsCar Championship, and their quest for the 2018  Tequlia Patron North American Endurance Cup. To secure both championships, they have to beat the front-running Action Express Racing team, as well as the two Acura Team Penske entries.

Because anything can happen in a race, be on the lookout for the No. 22 Tequila Patrón ESM car and winner of Sebring, Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek, and Nicolas Lapierre finding their way forward in the Prototype grid — and who knows, they may be a closer in the race just like at Sebring.

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GT Le Mans: Ford GT

With the No. 66 and 67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing cars ranked one-two respectively in the North American Endurance Cup standings, their main challengers are expected to be defending race winners BMW Team RLL, and the Corvette Racing duo of Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen — in the GT Le Mans class.

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GT Daytona: Championship Consistency

Fresh out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a 3rd place result in GTE AM (in a Ferrari 488 GTE), expect once again, Ben Keating, and Jeroen Bleekemolen, and the Mercedes-AMG Team Riley to be a top-three running car over the course of six hours, and perhaps giving Lamborghini and Acura a run for their money in the final 20 minutes around The Glen. After all, they are both the reigning champions of last year’s North American Endurance Cup, and the current points leaders.

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