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Corvette #3 wins 2018 IMSA GTLM Championship.
Even though Antonio Garcia crashed leaving the pit area on cold tires about 1 and 1/2 hours to the end of Petit Le Mans, making a
direct turn into the right wall, it took them about 3-4 minutes to put a new front end on the
car. Since the Ford GT 67 was not able to finish first giving them the championship (finishing 5th), with the no. 4 Corvette pressuring the 67 (and finishing 2nd to the Porsche 911) . that allowed the no. 4, in 8th place, to win the championship (Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen)
Last edited by agapsdiver; 10-13-2018 at 09:45 PM.
Actually, the #3 Corvette won the Driver/Team IMSA GTLM championship. Ford won the Manufacturer GTLM championship and had that locked up before the race by virtue of their 5 combined wins to Corvette's 1. Obviously, the #3 car was the most consistent throughout the season even though it didn't win a single race. The #4 had the only C7R win at Long Beach. FGT was the most dominant car in terms of wins (3 for the 67 and 2 for the 66), but got knocked out either by wrecks or mechanical failure more often.
Garcia and Magnussen were both pretty embarrassed about winning a driver's championship without winning a race all season and talked about the importance of winning prior to the race today because of that. They'll both take a lot of flak from their compatriots around the paddock. I know a lot of former pro drivers, and they're all about winning races. It's not fun to win by being the most frequent runner-up.
Both Chevrolet and Ford will be bragging about their 2018 IMSA GTLM championships.
Actually, the #3 Corvette won the Driver/Team IMSA GTLM championship. Ford won the Manufacturer GTLM championship and had that locked up before the race by virtue of their 5 combined wins to Corvette's 1. Obviously, the #3 car was the most consistent throughout the season even though it didn't win a single race. The #4 had the only C7R win at Long Beach. FGT was the most dominant car in terms of wins (3 for the 67 and 2 for the 66), but got knocked out either by wrecks or mechanical failure more often.
Garcia and Magnussen were both pretty embarrassed about winning a driver's championship without winning a race all season and talked about the importance of winning prior to the race today because of that. They'll both take a lot of flak from their compatriots around the paddock. I know a lot of former pro drivers, and they're all about winning races. It's not fun to win by being the most frequent runner-up.
Both Chevrolet and Ford will be bragging about their 2018 IMSA GTLM championships.
Kind of a good/bad season, the cars were consistent, but poor decisions likely cost Corvette at least a couple wins, maybe more (Lime Rock, Road America, Laguna Seca come to mind), but today the Crew bailed Antonio out after he made an uncharacteristic mistake. To repair the damage and get back on track in under 4 minutes was pretty impressive, but that's why they plan and practice for scenarios just like that. Looking forward to next season, I'll be at the opener for the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January and the Sebring 12 Hours in March to watch the action. Hope for a good send-off for the C7R before the C8R debuts in 2020.
I wouldn't be surprised if IMSA rethinks the points system used to calculate championships to give more credit for wins. As it stands now, there's only a 3-point bonus for winning, and 2 points separating each position from 2nd through last place. That's why it's not all that hard to win a Driver/Team championship without winning a race by being the best runner-up.
It's harder to win a Manufacturer's championship without winning, because only the best finishing car gets points, and 5 Ford wins was more than enough to clinch that. Both BMW and Porsche won more races than the C7R.
NASCAR made such a change a couple of years ago to put more emphasis on wins.
I agree. The NASCAR Matt Kenseth "no wins" championship a few years ago was not a popular one and the latest Corvette win will likely be scrutinized as well. Probably will result in a change, and I'm OK with that.
This championship is owed to the 3 pit crew and the incredible thrashing they did behind the pit wall to get the car out so fast, and absolutely to the 4 car and the immense pressure it put on the 67.
Without the 4 car stepping way up like it did, the 67 could have coasted to the finish, but it wasn't going to be like that. The final pit stop where the 4 came out AHEAD of the 67 I think set the stage for the rest of the race, that they were going to go for the win, and they were going to do everything in their ability to make the 67 have to race the race of it's life to win that championship.
Garcia and Magnussen may have their names on that trophy, but it damn sure belongs to the entire Pratt & Miller C7 Racing TEAM.
I wouldn't be surprised if IMSA rethinks the points system used to calculate championships to give more credit for wins. As it stands now, there's only a 3-point bonus for winning, and 2 points separating each position from 2nd through last place. That's why it's not all that hard to win a Driver/Team championship without winning a race by being the best runner-up.
It's harder to win a Manufacturer's championship without winning, because only the best finishing car gets points, and 5 Ford wins was more than enough to clinch that. Both BMW and Porsche won more races than the C7R.
NASCAR made such a change a couple of years ago to put more emphasis on wins.
I can't stand NASCAR, but I think that's a good idea, and it may happen. I think any race driver will agree that consistency is good, but winning is better.
I wouldn't be surprised if IMSA rethinks the points system used to calculate championships to give more credit for wins. As it stands now, there's only a 3-point bonus for winning, and 2 points separating each position from 2nd through last place. That's why it's not all that hard to win a Driver/Team championship without winning a race by being the best runner-up.
It's harder to win a Manufacturer's championship without winning, because only the best finishing car gets points, and 5 Ford wins was more than enough to clinch that. Both BMW and Porsche won more races than the C7R.
NASCAR made such a change a couple of years ago to put more emphasis on wins.
I don't think we'll see major changes. They tweak the points system all the time (last year we had a bonus point for fastest race lap), so they may change some things (particularly the 0 points for not crossing the start finish at the green flag that took the #5 DPI out of contention for the pre-start crash at Laguna). I could see an extra point of something for winning, but this is endurance racing, not NASCAR. You get rewarded for having a car that can survive 10,12, and 24 hours. And the drivers get rewarded for not crashing (unlike NASCAR where that seems to be part of the show). As a guess, I suspect most involved in the sport would agree, finishing all these races on the podium in endurance racing, particularly with how close the BOP is (pretty good job by IMSA for most of the year) is a bigger challenge than winning 3 races and crashing or breaking for most of the others.
As a side note, there is only 1 point between the finishers after 5th. So, 5-2 get 2 points over the car behind them , and 1st gets 3 points. So, as you can see, they are stressing top 5 finishes more than anything else. Which isn't great in an 8-9 car class, but works better with the larger classes.
Originally Posted by Mcrider
This championship is owed to the 3 pit crew and the incredible thrashing they did behind the pit wall to get the car out so fast, and absolutely to the 4 car and the immense pressure it put on the 67.
Without the 4 car stepping way up like it did, the 67 could have coasted to the finish, but it wasn't going to be like that. The final pit stop where the 4 came out AHEAD of the 67 I think set the stage for the rest of the race, that they were going to go for the win, and they were going to do everything in their ability to make the 67 have to race the race of it's life to win that championship.
Garcia and Magnussen may have their names on that trophy, but it damn sure belongs to the entire Pratt & Miller C7 Racing TEAM.
As you mentioned, the crew was totally fantastic in getting all those parts replaced in 4 minutes. The 4 car also had a great run. The #3 crew and the #4 team should all be recognized for their efforts.
That said, it turns out none of that mattered, as the 67 dropped back for whatever reason. The #3 could have parked the car after the accident and still won the championship from the garage.
This championship is owed to the 3 pit crew and the incredible thrashing they did behind the pit wall to get the car out so fast, and absolutely to the 4 car and the immense pressure it put on the 67.
Without the 4 car stepping way up like it did, the 67 could have coasted to the finish, but it wasn't going to be like that. The final pit stop where the 4 came out AHEAD of the 67 I think set the stage for the rest of the race, that they were going to go for the win, and they were going to do everything in their ability to make the 67 have to race the race of it's life to win that championship.
Garcia and Magnussen may have their names on that trophy, but it damn sure belongs to the entire Pratt & Miller C7 Racing TEAM.
I agree. I was there, it was a very exciting race....
Well, it was great to watch, but after dark you don't see much over on spectator hill.....I did get lots of pictures during the day before the sun went down. The race was a pretty good nail-biter for multiple class championships and wins! Had a great time!
Thanks Dale....and I'm still fairly new and waiting for my new Z to show up....so I don't have too much to contribute yet :-) But I'm around! Car was built Thursday and waiting for it to be delivered! Then I can really start contributing!
10-13-2018, 09:30 PM
2018 IMSA GTLM Championship
Kind of a good/bad season, the cars were consistent, but poor decisions likely cost Corvette at least a couple wins, maybe more (Lime Rock, Road America, Laguna Seca come to mind), but today the Crew bailed Antonio out after he made an uncharacteristic mistake. To repair the damage and get back on track in under 4 minutes was pretty impressive, but that's why they plan and practice for scenarios just like that. Looking forward to next season, I'll be at the opener for the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January and the Sebring 12 Hours in March to watch the action. Hope for a good send-off for the C7R before the C8R debuts in 2020.
