Michelin Daytona Notebook

Ahead of this weekend’s WeatherTech 240 at Daytona International Speedway as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship resumes its 2020 season, Michelin provides pre-race statistics, notes and data.

Tire Allocations:
DPi, 9 sets, IMSA Hard
GT Le Mans, 9 sets, GTLM range
GT Daytona, 6 sets, Michelin Pilot Sport GT S9M

Tire and Transporter Variance: To support three IMSA series and seven race classes, Michelin brought approximately 12,500 tires to Daytona in January. With only one series and three race classes, Michelin will bring 1,500 tires to Daytona in July. From a transporter standpoint, while there were 20 transporters on site in Daytona in January, there will be only eight in July.

Personnel Variance: In January, there were 40 Michelin staff present, including technical leaders, engineers and motorsport tire specialists. There were also 60 support staff members from operational and logistics partner Jackson Motorsports Group. The numbers for this race in July are six Michelin staff and 17 support staff.

Temperature and Compound Variance: To help deal with significantly warmer temperatures in July compared to January, the DPi and GTD teams will all be running the designated Michelin hard compound. The GTLM teams still have the full range of their proprietary Michelin Soft, Medium and Hard compound options available. In the event of rain, all the WeatherTech Championship cars will use the same Michelin commercial wet race tires.

Daytona Victory Count with Michelin: Active WeatherTech Championship automotive brands that have won racing with Michelin at Daytona since 2014 include BMW (2019 and 2020), Cadillac (2019 and 2020), Chevrolet (2015 and 2016), Lamborghini (2019 and 2020) and Porsche (2014). The first four brands have two wins apiece with Michelin at Daytona in that time, and Porsche has one.

Automotive Brands Entered: The 26 cars entered feature 12 automotive brands present. These are Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mazda, McLaren, Mercedes-AMG and Porsche. Audi, McLaren and Mercedes-AMG have Michelin Pilot Challenge class race wins at Daytona the last two years.

Second Trip to the Track: This is the first time since IMSA unified in 2014 that the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is running multiple points-paying races at the same venue in the same season. Michelin has not done this in top-line North American sports car racing since the 2005 American Le Mans Series season, racing both in April and October at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Taking it to The Bank(s): The 31-degree banking at Daytona International Speedway presents a totally unique challenge in wet conditions. The banking dries before the flat infield sections of the 3.56-mile circuit, which produces higher tire temperatures and wear on the treaded right rear wet tires, especially on the DPi and LMP2 prototypes as they speed across the drier surface before entering the still wet infield sections of the circuit. Michelin race tire engineers developed an effective approach at the 2019 race to help teams complete full stints even in mixed conditions.

TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold Promotion: Michelin is offering a limited number of complimentary TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold subscriptions with the code: MICHELINIMSA. Click Here for more information.

IMSA Radio Coverage: As part of its extensive live, commercial free, flag-to-flag session coverage, IMSA Radio features both Michelin Countdown to Green and Michelin Post-Race Tech book-ending the race broadcast of the WeatherTech 240. Stay tuned to hear an interview with Tony Ménard, director of motorsport, Michelin North America, on IMSA Radio over the weekend.

Torque Show Remote: The Torque Show, presented by Michelin, will air live during the weekend from its remote studio in Los Angeles rather than on site. Stay tuned to its social media channels (@TorqueShowLive) for air times.

Social Media Handles: Follow Michelin at the WeatherTech 240 with these handles:

Facebook: @MichelinUSA
Twitter: @MichelinUSA and @MichelinRaceUSA
Instagram: @MichelinUSA
Web: michelinracingusa.com