IMAS GT Championship - Round 1 - Daytona 24

The IMAS GT Championship gets its start just a month into the new calendar year with the prestigious 24 Hours at Daytona; the longest and most grueling race on the whole schedule. Despite the relatively simple layout of the Daytona International Speedway, the wide open Superspeedway sections will strain even the most bulletproof engines, and the low temperatures promise to challenge the drivers into the night as the tires struggle to maintain heat, with even the most aggressive pilots struggling to warm up their rubber. Despite the rather spacious width of the track, lapping cars will still have to be quite careful; one wrong move going three wide could cost you the race altogether. Even finishing the event is an achievement in of itself, but to win it guarantees racing immortality.

Aleph Racing Developments come in as the defending race winner and they don't plan to relinquish their honors as Daytona's finest anytime soon. Their strong testing results last week proved they will be the team to beat. After losing the title by a hair's width last season the Toyota stable will look to begin where they last left off. Unfortunately, their incident in the Roar Before the 24 has cost them valuable testing time as they rushed to repair the damage after the now rather internet viral Bunnychan scuffle. Will their car perform the same after the rebuild, or could CoreTech and Scarlet Devil Raceworks finally pinpoint the issues with their experimental DCU and return to their expected form?

Bunnychan Rennsport believe they have cracked the code; their KTM X-Bow exhibited great speed in testing and the Belgian squad are looking to not only grab their first Daytona 24, but their first ever win in IMAS competition. It hasn't come without trials and tribulations however, as team principal Bunny Chan was hit with a rather hefty fine after her team's shenanigans whilst Theodora Inaba fumbled with the car's electronic systems for multiple laps, becoming a moving chicane and prompting a length red flag with the aforementioned incident. Bunny Chan hopes that this plucky team can gain back the approval of racing fans and pull off the upset win. It will take a miracle though -- last year the team failed to finish half the season's races due to constant mechanical issues.

Layout preview:


Battle Data
General
Number of Race laps: 6 hours (condensed from 24 hours) (222 laps est.)
Qualifying Duration: 20 minutes
In-Universe Race Time: 12:30 PM, January 29th, 2022
Track Type: Infield RoadCourse

Deadlines
Tuning Setup submission: November 8th, 7 AM GMT/12 AM US Pacific
Strategy submission: November 9th, 7 AM GMT/12 AM US Pacific
Twitch Broadcast Time: TBA

Special Rules
The Daytona 24, along with other endurance races on the calendar, require at least 3 drivers per car. Teams must declare their endurance drivers before the first practice session of the race begins. (OOC: Endurance drivers do not count towards Support Points or the squad's driver rating. They are simply for flavor text purposes.)

This race also serves as the first round where the IMAS Endurance Challenge Cup comes into play. At the 2 hour, 4 hour and 6 hour mark points will be paid out to the top 5 drivers per class. The points are as follows:
5 (1st) / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1 (5th)

Strategies
Getting the most out of your stints will be vital for success. Hard tires can be a life saver for squads that struggle with tire wear. They could also help with nabbing a few extra Endurance Challenge Cup points, if you are interested in going for those honors. For those that have great conservation, your options open up a lot more.

For Battle Data, click this link to see Google Sheets for both GT Daytona and GT Suzuka. (Please keep in mind that some data may change or some functions may be broken at this time.

To submit a valid tuning setup and strategy, please PM me in an existing message thread for your team this following information:

Aero Ducts: x/10
Downforce: x/10
Driveline: x/10
Suspension: x/10
Practice Focus Points: Pace/Strategy/Tuning (out of four levels each, all teams start out with 2 points to allocate, can only be applied in practice sessions and bonuses will apply on race day)

Tire Compound: Hard/Medium/Soft (BEWARE: this cannot be changed from qualifying to the race, nor through pit stops.)
Pit-in Laps: XY (up to 4 pit-in laps, keep in mind that the length of the LONGEST stint determine the length of the rest of the stints; this is a limitation of the game engine)

You can have different tuning setups for both Practice 1 and 2, however the tuning setup you submit for the race will also apply for qualifying. For more information, refer to the System Reference Document, or contact maikoheart on the RHU Discord for questions.