{"id":30457,"date":"2023-02-04T18:51:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T22:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=30457"},"modified":"2023-02-04T18:51:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T22:51:20","slug":"payne-in-daytonas-high-stakes-high-speed-classroom-lessons-learned-for-penske-porsche-and-cadillac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/payne-in-daytonas-high-stakes-high-speed-classroom-lessons-learned-for-penske-porsche-and-cadillac","title":{"rendered":"Payne: In Daytona’s high-stakes, high-speed classroom, lessons learned for Penske, Porsche, and Cadillac"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daytona Beach, Florida<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 You\u2019re never too old to learn.<\/p>\n

At 85, Roger Penske is an auto racing legend. His Bloomfield Hills-based Team Penske has won a staggering 18 Indy 500s, 17 IndyCar championships and three NASCAR titles.\u00a0This year, Motown\u2019s winningest race team and Germany\u2019s most successful performance brand, Porsche, have teamed up for an assault on the sportscar racing record books. Nothing short of world domination is the goal for Porsche Penske Motorsport. But experience matters, and Porsche Penske haven\u2019t teamed up in endurance racing for 15 years.<\/p>\n

In the first race of the gas-electric hybrid sportscar racing era last weekend, it was Acura and Cadillac \u2014 veteran endurance racing programs \u2014 that dominated the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona over Porsche and BMW.<\/p>\n

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Backed by formidable engineering know-how, Acura and Cadillac have combined to win the IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championship for the last seven years. Despite all-new cars for 2023 \u2014 and breakneck programs to develop them over 12 months \u2014 this year looked a lot like last as Acura and Caddy swept the podium. Acura and its Meyer Shank Racing team won for the second year running (Acura for the third year in a row), its ARX-06 dominating Daytona, taking pole and contesting the race lead throughout.<\/p>\n

Like a thoroughbred pacing the field, the #60 Acura \u2014 with star jockey Tom Blomqvist at the wheel \u2014 pulled away down the home stretch over its sister Wayne Taylor\/Andretti Autosport Racing car. A trio of thundering, V-8-hybrid Cadillac V-LMDh prototypes rounded out the Top Five, leaving Porsche and BMW in the dust.<\/p>\n

\u201cMassive respect to our competitors. They’re world class, we’re world class. These are the biggest companies in the world,\u201d said Honda Performance Development President David Salters, whose California-based team makes the powertrains for Acura\u2019s IMSA GTP racers and Honda-powered IndyCar teams. \u201cBetween us (and) General Motors, we’re game fit. Match fitness, I think, is the right word.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That two of the world\u2019s most revered performance brands struggled is a testament to the demands of race-car development. Teams expected attrition with the new, complex hybrids and Porsche and BMW took the brunt of it.<\/p>\n

The BMW M Hybrid V-8, managed by Team Rahal Lanigan Letterman, suffered an early setback, going back to the paddock garage to replace its electric motor unit. Of the two Penske entries, the #6 Porsche 963, would soon follow \u2014 replacing its battery pack. Even the Acuras experienced difficulties as oil, gearbox, and electrical gremlins frayed nerves. In the end, the #7 Porsche finished 14th<\/sup>\u00a0overall, 34 laps back while the #6 car \u2014 showing good pace relative to the Acuras \u2014 retired on Sunday morning with gearbox failure.<\/p>\n

Porsche and Penske know experience breeds success, and they are in sportscar racing for the long game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe will learn quickly and we will have answers and results from all the issues we had,\u201d said the director of Porsche\u2019s GTP program Urs Kuratle. \u201cThere were a lot of firsts, issues we never had before … even though we did (18,000 miles of testing) before the actual race.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2023 season has opened a new world to manufacturers and sportscar racing as international sanctioning bodies \u2014 IMSA in North America and FIA abroad \u2014 agreed on common rules enabling brands to fly their flags across multiple continents from Daytona\u2019s high bankings to the 4-mile Mulsanne straight in Le Mans, France.<\/p>\n

The emerging, common GTP and GT classes attracted an eye-opening 17 manufacturers to Daytona, with more to follow.<\/p>\n

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Of particular focus is the hybrid GTP category, which provides crucial development \u2014 and marketing opportunities \u2014 for automakers as governments force electrification and luxury buyers crave the new, new thing. In addition to the four brand entries at Daytona, 2024 brings new teams from Ferrari, Alpine, Toyota, and Lamborghini in the GTP class; Ford in GT.<\/p>\n