Participating at this week’s mandatory IMSA test, BAR1 Motorsports had their first opportunity to shake down the team’s new Multimatic –Riley Mk 30, P2 car. This was the teams first significant opportunity at a thorough test with the car, engineers and potential driving personnel.
“For the past six years we’ve competed in IMSA with the ORECA Prototype Challenge cars,” said team owner, Brian Alder. “This test date was a great idea by IMSA. It gives the Series and the teams an opportunity to assess and better understand the new cars. The Multimatic P2 is completely different beast.”
The test was mandated by IMSA to give teams and officials an opportunity to establish a base line for performance heading into the 2018 season.
“I’m really please with the results over the two days,” added Alder. “We were able to give drivers an opportunity to get a feel for the car and allow the engineers and crew a chance to become familiar with what they’ll be working with for 2018. It’s a fairly steep learning curve and there’s very little time. We’re going to be running flat out between now and the Rolex 24.”
“We learned a lot this week,” Alder continued. “The car ran flawless all test and without a single issue over the 2 days. The crew did a great job assembling the car for this event. Starting with everything new completely changes your approach to a test. In a sense, you have to put lap times out of your mind… at least for the time being. There are lots of things that might make you faster… but they have to be weighed against endurance. Going faster is great… wearing out your tires… not so much. This is definitely a process.”
Gustavo Yacaman was on hand putting in laps, testing setups and providing feedback to the engineers.
“Gustavo did a great job reporting back information to the engineers,” added Brian. “He’s was a great asset this week. He fully understands our need to get data… including the data on changes that don’t work. He’s extremely patient and fully understands our goal is to learn the car. We’ll be looking to go faster at future tests and when we come back for the ROAR.”
The team is scheduled to be in Daytona December 12th as they continue their testing schedule for 2018.
Daytona International Speedway was the site of the two-day sanctioned test. Sebring International Raceway will have four days of testing on Feb. 20-23, 2018.
The Daytona test was open to all registered IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Prototype (P) and GT Le Mans (GTLM) only. IMSA required mandatory participation from entrants representing selected manufacturers and constructors. Each of four WeatherTech Championship sessions across the two-day test were two-hours, 45-minutes in length.
The 2018 season will kick off with the annual three-day Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona test session on Jan. 5-7. The test is mandatory for all Rolex 24 participants. The 56th Rolex 24 At Daytona will run on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 27-28, followed by the 66th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida on Saturday, March 17, which also completes the season-opening “36 Hours of Florida.”
