DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Things are about to get a bit busier out at Daytona International Speedway as NASCAR gears up for the Great American Race, the Daytona 500.
But weeks before the stock cars pull in, It was all about the sports cars for the 2024 Rolex 24 at the Speedway.
News 6′s Trooper Steve Montiero has been going out on patrol now for several months focusing on all things road safety, so we thought it would be a good idea to send him out to the track to get an inside look at how safety operations are run for races there.
The Rolex 24 is sanctioned by IMSA, the International Motor Sports Association, as part of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. This is IMSA’s flagship series, which competes at 11 of North America’s leading sports car venues. Competition takes place in four classes - Grand Touring Prototype (GTP), Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2), GT Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) and GT Daytona (GTD). Prototype cars are innovative, using the latest automotive technology designed for the racetrack, while GT cars are based on models you’d find on the roads.
Regardless of the type of car a team is entering, before the vehicle even gets to the track for the race, IMSA technical inspections happen in the garages to make sure teams are following the rules and everything is ready to safely rock for the race. IMSA has all of their own specially-calibrated equipment to do it that is packed up and loaded on trucks to be taken to each track for each race.
The inspection garages is where Trooper Steve met IMSA Racing Supervisor Official Jim Fowler. He’s one of several supervisors in the technical inspection area for the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.
FOWLER: We have a very comprehensive rulebook, both in terms of technical regulations and sporting regulations. We publish Balance of Performance documents that apply to certain parameters on the cars before each event. And as the sanctioning body, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we measure and confirm that the cars are in compliance at all times.
STEVE: In these three bays, there’s a lot of moving parts, a lot going on. What does it take to get everything all set up and ready to go?
FOWLER: We do a lot of work before we get to this point. All of this equipment has to be set up and calibrated. Much of it is very sensitive, the scales have to be leveled and flat. The scanning equipment behind us has to be warmed up, if you will, because it’s very sensitive equipment has to be calibrated, there’s actually a very detailed process that’s that’s conducted to make sure that when we scan everything, that the hand applied scanners are reading the information that they’re supposed to be. And likewise on the other plate that’s behind me, the GTD plate, it has lasers in it. And it’s also the whole surface is a weight platform or scale. This is the master, it has to be calibrated with no measurement error whatsoever. And so we go to great lengths to make sure that we have processes and procedures and tools to help us achieve that level of accuracy.
STEVE: This is pretty much where all the work happens for you guys.
FOWLER: It is. Once the cars have been scanned on the lift behind me, then they’ll come around to our surface plate which has four weight scales embedded in it so we can take on their corner weight, total weight and split axle weight. We have our colleagues from Bosch and Williams here to do electronic checks. From a safety standpoint, we have to confirm that the the electrical systems are functioning as designed and as expected. And so that’s part of the safety checks that we do. We also do a number of safety checks inside the cockpit. We’ll get hands all over it. Seatbelts, expiration dates, fire suppression, expiration date, fuel cell expiration date, also what manufacturer is it, does it meet the specifications? Is it damaged, does it have to be replaced? We look at all of that.
STEVE: All the equipment out here, how much is actually for safety and what’s for compliance?
FOWLER: So we measure safety and tech at the same time by appointment. And from a safety standpoint, what the teams are trying to achieve is a compliance decal that looks like this. In order to achieve that, they must pass all of our safety checks. And some of them I mentioned previously, seatbelts and fire suppression, but even the decals, even the driver names, the height and the location of them. The lighting that’s on the car, the number boards are illuminated because we run part of our races after dark, certainly during a 24 hour race. And those are all checked for functionality to make sure that when they’re on the track that those systems are functioning. If they do not have that compliance decal that I just showed, they’re not allowed to go on the track. So it’s a big deal.
STEVE: Now the heavy question, what if you find something here that’s just not right? What do you do?
FOWLER: So if it’s an inspection, let’s say it’s weight, because every car has to meet a minimum weight, we will review the data, we will verify that if it’s close, there’s no error in the process. So when we’re absolutely correct, or validated that this car is underweight, we’ll have a conversation with the crew chief and or the car chief and a discussion internally, of course, as well. And there’s very likelihood that it could be disqualified. In most cases, it is disqualified.
Also, one clarification-- there are voluntary inspections that are different from involuntary inspections. A voluntary inspection would be when a team will come through and we’ll do a full inspection. And they may have things that are out of specification such as weight, for example, they may be one kilogram under. And we’ll tell them when they come through post-qualifying and post-race, there’s no tolerance. They have to meet those requirements, whether it’s a minimum weight or wheel camber, or the specifications that we have for rear wing and among other things.
STEVE: So first time I’ve ever seen this, it’s 2024. We even have now electric race cars out here, I’ve never seen this before.
FOWLER: Yes, so new for 2023, we introduced the GTP class. These are hybrid electric racecars, they have an internal combustion engine, and a motor generator unit and a battery pack. And that battery pack is 800V DC. So the safety aspects of it are incredibly important. I won’t go into a lot of details in terms of what can happen to a person if they come into contact with that.
STEVE: I think our viewers at home understand that they’d be toast.
FOWLER: It is instantaneous. And so there is a protocol that we follow when we actually interact with the car, if there’s no green light present, we don’t touch the car. There’s other lights, there’s a red light, there’s a blue light, but the green lights, those are the ones that in tech we’re looking for. And so after a period of time, it can timeout and then if we see that the green light has gone out, then we’ll tell everyone to stand back from the car. They’ll go in and reactivate that time circuit. And then we’ll go in and reengage with the car at that point in time.
STEVE: I think the quality of inspection, it blows my mind, but it shouldn’t be even a surprise, though. These men and women are high speeds in thousands of pounds out there. That should be standard pretty much everywhere you go.
FOWLER: Well, it is what you would expect in a series such as the IMSA WeatherTech Series, it’s top-level racing. And we put a lot of time and thought and energy into how we check and measure the cars. Each manufacturer brings to us different challenges. You have different engines, you have six cylinder engines, you have eight cylinder engines, turbocharged, non-turbocharged, the cars are shaped differently. They go through extensive wind tunnel aerodynamic analysis before they even show up at the racetrack. So once you put all that together, there are still adjustments that are required because you want to make the cars as equal on track and have the drivers settle the results. If you have a car that completely dominates every single race, it presents problems. right? And so there’s a lot of discussion about that. There’s a lot of analysis that goes into that. The weight, the fuel capacity, aerodynamically. There’s a lot of adjustments that are made, you know, throughout any given season to make these cars perform as equal as possible. It is absolutely a science.