zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
Would More Speed Separate The Pros From The Amateurs In Endurance Racing?
Would More Speed Separate The Pros From The Amateurs In Endurance Racing?-March 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:29

No. 67 Ford GT driver Ryan Briscoe had one of the best suggestions I’ve heard on how to improve the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship: let the all-pro GT Le Mans class go faster, for the good of both the cars and the series.

Jalopnik met up with Briscoe and the rest of the two-car American Ford GT squad at a practice day ahead of this weekend’s Lone Star Le Mans mega-event. Briscoe, whose car runs in GTLM, has noticed that the pro-am GT Daytona class is pretty quick nowadays—too quick, he explains:

One thing I would love to see in the future, though, is an overall increase in speed for the GTLM cars as a class, because as it is right now, the [pro-am GT Daytona cars] are actually quicker than us on the straights. They out-brake us because they’ve got ABS. The quickest race lap at [Virginia International Raceway] was a [one minute and] 43.8 [seconds] in GTD and we didn’t get out of the [one minute and] 43s. It’s way too close, and there needs to be separation.

Briscoe’s memory was a little fuzzy there on lap times, as that 1:43.864 in GTD was set by the No. 48 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in , not during the race. The best in-race lap from that same GTD car there was a 1:45.030.

Still, peek at the for the same race and you can see that the the all-pro GT Le Mans class and professional/amateur GT Daytona cars finish awfully close. Leading pro teams managed 90 laps at VIR, and the pro-am winners did 88.

One of the biggest reasons why Briscoe would like to see more of a speed differential is so that his own race car can run a bit better:

These [GTLM] cars are built to have more power. We’re being held back so much on horsepower. We just need to let the engines run a bit more. These turbos were completely choking on the motor. It’s almost bad for the engine now how little boost we’re running.

Running cars closer to their default configuration might have the added bonus of making it easier to spot when a car isn’t performing as it should be, like, oh, did before the 24 Hours of Daytona this year. Perhaps the series could then be more accurate when balancing out the performance of all these different sportscars—something that’s been a in sportscars this year.

I can’t help but think that there should be another component to Briscoe’s argument, though: slow down the GTD class.

At a time when amateurs (who often help fund these pro-am teams) are that GTD cars have become too hard for them to drive in order to remain competitive in the class, enough’s enough. WTSC needs to ensure GTD cars stay easy enough for the necessary moneyed amateurs to handle and in the process, make them slightly slower.

Managing traffic is part of the game in multi-class endurance racing, so I doubt a small decrease in speed for the amateurs would change much. Putting amateurs in cars they can handle may even make the racing safer! Most of all, though, it could help prevent other teams from following the GTD-class WeatherTech Porsche’s lead by dropping the series to .

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
The Lamborghini Countach QVX Was The Lambo Group C Car That Never Quite Made It
The Lamborghini Countach QVX Was The Lambo Group C Car That Never Quite Made It
Lamborghini is known for fast cars but it isn’t known for race cars. While they have had some success in GT racing in recent years (and mostly with the cars built under ), the Lamborghini racing story is rather short. That said, there have been some attempts in the...
Mar 3, 2026
What The 2020 Indy 500 Would Look Like If The IndyCar Reunification Had Never Happened
What The 2020 Indy 500 Would Look Like If The IndyCar Reunification Had Never Happened
The 2008 reunification is, to this day, one of the most significant events in racing history. The infamous Split and continuous infighting had transformed the booming landscape of US into a few pithy little series that struggled to stand on their own two feet—and, as a result, the reunification...
Mar 3, 2026
F1 Midfielders Want More TV Time, Reminding Us That We're Missing All Of The Good Stories
F1 Midfielders Want More TV Time, Reminding Us That We're Missing All Of The Good Stories
A staple of modern is the fact that it’s split into two tiers: the top teams and the rest of the field. But there have been grumbles in the rest of the field for a while now, and those grumbles have been over how much television attention they’re getting—which...
Mar 3, 2026
After 1989, Chicanes Changed Le Mans Forever
After 1989, Chicanes Changed Le Mans Forever
One of the most thrilling features of the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been its road course. Since 1923, the Automobile Club de l’Oest (the ACO) has cordoned off stretches of road between the town of Le Mans and the villages of Mulsanne and Arnage to create Circuit...
Mar 3, 2026
How Motorsport Has Evolved, 2004 Through 2019
How Motorsport Has Evolved, 2004 Through 2019
Jalopnik began in 2004, which, in internet years, is a long time ago. But it’s also a long time ago in motorsport years, because the plethora of changes to racing over the past 15 or so years have transformed the sport into something entirely different than it was back then—generally,...
Mar 3, 2026
Ferrari Actually Wants F1's Budget Caps To Be Stricter
Ferrari Actually Wants F1's Budget Caps To Be Stricter
While many big-name teams aren’t all that happy about the new being implemented in 2021, there’s one team that’s not happy with the restrictions for a completely unexpected reason. doesn’t think the caps are going to be strict enough. If you need a refresher, F1 teams will only be...
Mar 3, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved