IMSA WeatherTech Midseason Update
The IMSA WeatherTech series has reached its mid-way point and we bring you the exciting highlights and standings of the leading cars in the Prototype and GT Le Mans classes.
Transcript
00:00 [Music]
00:17 Hey everyone, welcome to the IMSA Preview Show. Justin Bell here.
00:20 We are officially at the Midway Point in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship
00:25 and it's a busy period for everyone involved, whether you're a driver, team, sponsor or fan,
00:31 because we got back to long distance racing at the 6 hours of Watkins Glen,
00:35 then immediately over the border into Canada for the sprint race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
00:41 And of course what that means, when you have races this close together,
00:44 and it's at this point in the championship, fortunes can change in the blink of an eye,
00:49 whether you're going up or going down.
00:51 The prototype season has been tremendously exciting, mainly as a showcase of dominance.
00:56 Wayne Taylor Racing's number 10, Conor Kaminalta-sponsored Cadillac DPI VR has been,
01:02 well, there's no other word for it, dominant.
01:05 Ricky and Jordan Taylor are topping the standards week in and week out.
01:09 A huge fan favourite, the GT Le Mans class is more of a dogfight.
01:13 It's been highly competitive through the first half of the season.
01:16 Corvette is on top of the standings, but only 17 points separate first from fifth.
01:20 So let's check in with our two top pro divisions and see what it means for them
01:25 in the final run-up to the championship.
01:27 So definitely the centre of the prototype class universe for the first five races
01:35 is right here by the number 10 Conor Kaminalta Cadillac DPI.
01:39 Now Wayne Taylor, long-term race driver, now team owner and obviously proud dad.
01:45 What's it like? The boys have actually, Jordan and Ricky, five in a row.
01:49 That actually ties an endurance record of consecutive wins in the States
01:53 with Tom Christensen and Capelli. That's not bad, is it?
01:57 No, it's pretty amazing. It is truly incredible.
02:00 I mean, there's no way, when you think about a car coming out for a 24-hour,
02:05 which is always the hardest race, to debut a car.
02:09 We win the race, we win Sebring, we win all these races, and it's like,
02:13 my God, now we can't lose. We can't not win anymore.
02:18 Really, the standard-bearer for the GTLM class over the last few years
02:22 has, of course, been Corvette Racing, Doug Feehan, Program Manager.
02:25 We have talked to you a thousand times on our TV shows,
02:29 and always the theme is, "Corvette is here because racing makes sense.
02:33 Racing for the road-going enthusiasts makes sense."
02:36 Six races this year have really been very demanding, haven't they?
02:39 It's been a challenge, that's for sure.
02:42 Not something we haven't encountered before, though.
02:44 You've got to remember, we've been doing this for a while,
02:46 but we've got it pretty down to the point where it's almost military-like in its execution.
02:51 Looking just towards the championship, we work on individual races
02:56 with the ultimate goal for everybody of winning a championship for a manufacturer.
03:00 That takes a lot more knowledge than just winning individual races.
03:05 Does the pressure start to mount?
03:07 No, not really. I mean, not for us.
03:09 Perhaps for someone who hasn't been in this position before, it would.
03:12 We've always taken the long view. No season is made in one race.
03:16 With the experience that we've garnered over the past 18 years, that comes with the territory,
03:20 and I think that's why, usually at the end of the season, we're in the hunt.
03:24 So the midpoint of any race championship, John, really is a pivotal moment.
03:30 You had this break from Le Mans, right, where there was downtime in North American motorsport,
03:36 but then you come back with Watkins Glen and Enduro.
03:39 Your team, the BMW team, really managed to get some renewed motivation from that.
03:44 What's that done for the team?
03:46 Well, it's done a huge amount for our morale and our dedication.
03:51 We knew all along that we could do it, but we had a lot of bad luck,
03:54 particularly in the beginning of the season. We didn't have a lot of pace.
03:57 But we found some things in the car set up.
03:59 We've had a lot of bad luck, but we're only halfway through the season,
04:03 so that means that in the next half of the season, we can really remake our championship.
04:07 So we're not giving up, and we're going for race wins now.
04:10 Great racing, closely fought by the world's top driving talent like gladiators in the ring.
04:16 That's what this championship is all about.
04:18 But as we go on the final run-up to the championship shootout at Petit Le Mans,
04:23 will we start to see a different type of race strategy employed by each of the teams?
04:28 I don't know. As the heat cranks up, the pressure rises.
04:32 I tend to see that the on-track action just gets more frantic and more furious.
04:36 Anyway, it's worth watching. Justin Bell here from Canadian Time Motorsports Park. Keep watching.
04:41 Watch the next race on Saturday, July 22nd on FS2 at 3pm Eastern.
04:49 Eastern.