GTP Teams on “Unpredictable” Strategies in Double Stinting

Photo: Rick Dole/IMSA

IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP teams are facing “unpredictable” strategies with their competitors thanks to reduced tire allocations that has forced cars to complete double stints in races.

While three different manufacturers and teams have visited victory lane in the first three races of the new GTP era, last month’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach came down to a strategic call by Porsche Penske Motorsport to complete the entire race on the same set of Michelin tires.

It propelled Mathieu Jaminet and Nick Tandy to the win, the first for the Porsche 963 in global competition, in a call that has left drivers now expecting the unexpected heading into this weekend’s fourth round of the season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

“This race in the past has come down to pit stops and risking how you short-fill the car,” Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Autosport’s Ricky Taylor said.

“But as Long Beach proved, going off strategy and trying something crazy with not changing tires, there’s no way of really controlling a race like you used to in the past.

“You used to put the car in the lead, save fuel, and then make the other guy take a bigger risk on the last stop or vice-versa.

“Now, somebody can do something and force your hand and not take tires at one stop. It makes the races unpredictable.”

While GTP teams were limited to two sets of Michelin tires for qualifying and the 100-minute Long Beach race, a total of three sets can be used in this weekend’s two-hour and 40-minute contest, with a separate allocation for practice.

With the 2.238-mile circuit not having been repaved as initially planned for this weekend’s event, teams are expecting another race with high tire degradation that could play an even bigger role than what unfolded at Long Beach.

“I think double stinting will be difficult,” BMW M Team RLL driver Connor De Phillippi said. “Generally it’s a high deg track.

“Everyone’s going to be creative. A lot of strategies will play out so I’m sure it will be an exciting race.

“You do have to double stint some tires but obviously you want to avoid being on those tires as long as you can.

“It’s going to be kind of a lottery of who takes that hit early, who takes that hit late, like we already saw in Long Beach.

“You had people willing to take the hit on cold tires.

“I think that’s the big thing: we don’t know yet… Obviously Laguna puts a lot more energy into the tires so the warm-up phase is going to be a lot different than Long Beach.

“Long Beach, you saw in qualifying, it took everybody 11, 12, 13 laps to get the tires to really switch on and I don’t think that’s going to be the case at Laguna.”

Porsche Penske’s Jaminet, meanwhile, admitted that tire deg hasn’t been the Porsche 963’s strength, despite winning Long Beach.

“We might be expected to struggle a little bit [at Laguna] but at the end of the day you never know,” the Frenchman said.

“From my side, I’m happy the track has stayed the same (and not being repaved).

“I always enjoyed racing in Laguna before so I think it will be a nice challenge for the teams to make it work if we have to double stint on tires. Then we will see how it goes.”

Alexander Sims, of Action Express Racing, said he’s also up for the challenge this weekend in the No. 31 Cadillac V-Series.R.

“Maybe I’ll be kicking myself in saying I was looking forward to it before the weekend, if we do struggle with tire deg through the race,” he said.

De Phillippi added: “There’s a lot of unknowns. We can hypothetically speak about a lot of different things but everyone’s going to be trying different avenues and it’s going to be really entertaining to see in the end which one works out best.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John