NOTE: IF YOU HAVEN'T
ALREADY READ DPi, PLEASE GO BACK AND READ THAT ONE FIRST. IT GIVES IMPORTANT
BACKGROUND ON THE NUMBERS.
GTD:
If ever there was an example of complete opposites, GTD Pro
and GTD fit the bill for the 2022 championship. It wasn’t known that Roman De
Angelis would be the victor of the season until the checkered flag fell on the
GTD battle. However, that makes it sound a LOT more competitive than it
actually was! Looking back on previous seasons, the average finish needed to
take the championship was the worst for the class to date!
The most competitive year was 2018 where the average finish
needed to take the title was 3. The previous record had been 5.09 in 2019 when
Trent Hindman and Mario Farnbacher claimed the season with two DNFs and only one
win. This year is directly comparable to last, and yet Roman’s record last year
in 2021 was far better than his record this year in 2022 to become champion.
Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the
positives! 8 different cars from 8 different teams won races this season! 46
drivers took home trophies, and the drivers who appeared most on the podium
were champion Roman De Angelis and the Sprint Champions, the Paul Miller Racer
duo of Bryan Sellers and Madison Snow, each of whom earned five podium spots
over the year.
As far as qualifying was concerned, both the 57 Winward
Mercedes and the 1 PMR BMW of Snow earned 3 poles a piece. It’s Snow’s 2nd
consecutive season of earning 3 poles! Zacharie Robichon and Kyle Kirkwood both
impressed as non-full season drivers getting a pole, and long time championship
leader Stevan McAleer earned his first as well. Robby Foley got one, and Frankie
Montecalvo earned a pair for himself and the 12 Lexus crew.
Qualifying points:
|
GTD |
||
|
Earned |
W/O Q Pts |
|
|
27 |
248 |
2650 |
|
16 |
225 |
2650 |
|
32 |
270 |
2590 |
|
96 |
235 |
2550 |
|
57 |
274 |
2440 |
|
1 |
259 |
2420 |
|
39 |
261 |
2390 |
|
12 |
252 |
2350 |
|
Manu |
||
|
Earned |
W/O Q Pts |
|
|
BMW |
307 |
3000 |
|
Merc |
305 |
2930 |
|
Aston |
273 |
2920 |
|
Porsche |
254 |
2750 |
|
Lambo |
281 |
2690 |
|
Lexus |
269 |
2670 |
|
Acura |
251 |
2510 |
These are the most interesting qualifying points of the
season, for both Manufacturer and individual car results. Let’s start with the
obvious. The car that scored the most points throughout all the races was the
57, polesitter three times. But look at the other car that took pole three
times, the 1 PMR BMW. They didn’t run Daytona, thus missing out on all points
from that race. Yet they still outscored the championship winning 27 Aston, the
96 Turner BMW, the 12 Lexus, and the 16 Porsche, all cars that competed in
every race! For this points tally, I did not include either of the Sprint races
since they didn’t count for the championship total, thus not including the pole
from Long Beach or the third at CTMP, both of which would’ve vaulted the 1 even
further in the qualifying points earned on the season. But I digress.
Let’s take a moment and focus on the other end of the
spectrum. The car that finished 2nd in the championship, the 16
Wright Porsche, did get a pole on the season and scored maximum points at
Sebring in the hands of 2021 GTD Champion Zacharie Robichon. This was by far
their best outing of the season. Qualifying, in fact, nearly cost them the
championship! They lost 23 points over the season to De Angelis in the 27
Aston, and 49 (!!!) to the Winward car. If you remove the qualifying points, the
season would’ve ended in a tie between Roman De Angelis and the Wright pairing
of Jan Heylen and Ryan Hardwick! This means it would’ve come to a tie break.
They had the same number of wins, at two a piece (Daytona and Laguna Seca for
Wright, Watkins Glen and CTMP for De Angelis), but the championship would NOT
have changed hands because the Porsche didn’t get another podium on the season.
Roman finished 2nd at VIR, Lime Rock, and Belle Isle. Crazy effect
of qualifying points, eh?!
For the manufacturer championship battle, we see a similar
result! BMW still takes the cake, with a two-point advantage over Mercedes for
qualifying points. They would still have taken the championship, 3000-2930. The
car that claimed the third highest number of points, Lamborghini, would still
have been fifth in the championship. Porsche, interestingly, earned the second
least number of points from full season entrants at 254, yet still would’ve
finished 4th in the championship. The correlation between strong
qualifying and strong races can’t be ignored in this category as far as the
season end shows, so I wonder if maybe the manufacturers will put a little bit
more importance into their teams’ qualifying next year.
Qualifying to Race:
As we’ve just discussed above, it’s easy to see who
qualified well and who didn’t based on points earned. It comes as no surprise
then that the Wright Porsche was the biggest mover of the season, gaining 38
spots on the year, due to mostly lacking performances on Saturdays. It went the
other way, though, for the Winward Mercedes. The 57 qualified on pole three
times, won two races and stood on the podium in one other, but lost a total of
30 spots across their 12 races, largely due to their three DNFs.
As done with GTD Pro, here’s the breakdown for the results
by manufacturer in GTD, with the average pertaining to the best finishing car
of each race.
Manufacturer Wins 2nds 3rds DNFs Average Best Finishing Team
|
Acura |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
8.1 |
Gradient 5x,
Rick Ware 7x |
|
Aston Martin |
2 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
4.7 |
Heart 10x, Magnus
2x |
|
BMW |
3 |
1 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
Turner 7x,
PMR 5x |
|
Ferrari |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
4.3 |
AF Corsa 2x,
Cetilar 2x |
|
Lambo |
0 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
6.9 |
Carbahn 9x,
NTE 1x, T3 1x |
|
Lexus |
1 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
6.5 |
VasserSullivan
12x |
|
McLaren |
0 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
6.7 |
Inception 6x |
|
Mercedes |
2 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
3.6 |
Korthoff 8x,
Winward 4x |
|
Porsche |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
5.4 |
Wright 10x,
Hardpoint 1x |
Mercedes had the best average finish, but also the second
highest number of DNFs, and the DNFs did not include any of the
disqualifications that came across the season.
The Average Fast Lap by Manufacturer was interesting too.
These numbers were a lot more varied than what we saw in GTD Pro.
Manu Avg. FL
Position Fastest Driver (# of times)
|
Acura |
10.9 |
Eversley (5) |
|
Aston Martin |
5.8 |
Martin (7) |
|
BMW |
9.8 |
Sellers (7,
PMR 9) |
|
Ferrari |
2.3 |
Fuoco (2) |
|
Lambo |
10.4 |
Westphal (7) |
|
Lexus |
8.6 |
Telitz (6) |
|
McLaren |
4.6 |
Pepper (5) |
|
Mercedes |
4.8 |
Ellis (8) |
|
Porsche |
9.7 |
Heylen (11
and every) |
The first takeaway is how fast the Ferraris were when they
raced. We only were treated to the prancing horses in four events, (Daytona,
Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Petit Le Mans), but the speed was undeniable. Twice,
Antonio Fuoco was the fastest man in those cars, and helped move the average
Fast Lap position of the brand to a stunning 2.3! To put this into context, the
McLaren had Fast Lap of the class in 4 of the 7 races in which it competed, yet
it’s average fast lap position was double that of the Ferrari! Now that’s some
insanely impressive consistency!
What else do we glean from this information? Maxime Martin
will be missed by his brand. He not only stretched a tank of fuel for what
seemed like an eternity in two races, he set the fastest lap for the mark in seven
different races. Paul Miller Racing showed up in their first year with the BMW
roundel on their chests, as the fastest car for the mark in 9 of the 11 races
they ran. Philip Ellis is a huge not so secret to Winward’s success in 2022, in
IMSA and SRO! Take nothing away from the pace we saw from Russell Ward, who had
a breakout year, but Phil deserves a lot of praise too! Also, and this comes
into play later, the 2021 Porsche Cup winner showed why he earned that award
and Jan Heylen was never out paced by another GTD Porsche or a teammate in
2022. That’s mega!
On Track by Driver Performances:
Alrighty, time to let the numbers speak for the individuals.
I’ve previously praised Heylen, Pepper, and Ellis, but the numbers tell us it’s
a different driver who is GTD MVP for the season. He was the only driver to
compete in the majority of races and never set his fast lap outside of the top
10. While he didn’t set a Fast Lap during a race, he was among the top 5
drivers 6 times out of his 11 races. In terms of full season drivers, he was on
average 0.511 seconds off the fastest lap, beaten only by Philip Ellis (0.475).
When compared to his teammate, he was outpaced twice by Snow, but our MVP was
on average 0.024 seconds off. This was only bettered by Pepper and Heylen (who
were never slower than a teammate) and Toni Vilander (who only did 4 races).
That’s right, Bryan Sellers was the most consistently fast driver and therefore
the MVP for the GTD Class in 2022.
We can’t talk about the good without noting the bad too. The
furthest driver off Fastest Lap pace over the season was the Sebring 12 Hours
winner Roberto Lacorte, with an average of 47.25. The full season driver furthest
off the pace was the 24 Hours of Daytona winner and championship runner up Ryan
Hardwick on 32.27! Worth noting also, he was also the only full season Bronze
driver. Ryan was also the full season driver who was furthest off Fast Lap
(2.505) and off teammates (1.709), but it was John Potter who was most off both
of those at 2.747 for Fast Lap and 2.161 off co drivers respectively.
Who to watch in 2023? Well, Kyffin Simpson demonstrated some
serious speed at Petit Le Mans, a race he won, to wrap up the 2022 season. He
didn’t have a great lap during the Rolex to start the season, and didn’t get a
lap during the Watkins Glen round, but his pace was good enough cumulatively to
put him amongst the most impressive drivers and only 0.662 of a second off Fast
Lap on average! That young man has a bright future. Richard Heistand was the
strongest of the Bronzes, but we know he’s going to be moved to Silver for the
upcoming year. Brendan Iribe got 2 podium finishes and was a very consistent
Bronze, proving he’s a very good candidate to claim the Bronze cup if he runs a
full season!
|
By Avg. Pos FL |
D24 |
S12 |
LB |
LS |
MO |
BI |
WG6 |
CTMP |
LR |
RAm |
VIR |
PLM |
|
FL |
Avg.
P |
|
|
1 |
Sellers |
|
5 |
7 |
9 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
10 |
6 |
10 |
|
|
5.64 |
|
70 |
Pepper |
1 |
6 |
|
|
7 |
|
15 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
2 |
6 |
|
21 |
Vilander |
5 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
14 |
|
|
|
|
4 |
|
|
6.75 |
|
27 |
Martin |
|
|
2 |
16 |
4 |
|
5 |
2 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
|
|
6.89 |
|
57 |
Ellis |
9 |
15 |
19 |
|
1 |
|
6 |
1 |
8 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
|
2 |
7.1 |
|
51 |
Eversley |
|
|
13 |
4 |
10 |
6 |
|
7 |
9 |
9 |
12 |
|
|
|
8.75 |
|
12 |
Telitz |
19 |
|
5 |
5 |
13 |
1 |
12 |
12 |
2 |
3 |
7 |
28 |
|
1 |
9.73 |
|
1 |
Snow |
|
16 |
10 |
12 |
12 |
9 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
18 |
16 |
5 |
|
|
10.18 |
|
16 |
Heylen |
2 |
21 |
8 |
2 |
11 |
15 |
18 |
|
7 |
7 |
5 |
16 |
|
|
10.18 |
|
66 |
Farnbacher |
24 |
17 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
11.75 |
|
51 |
Read |
|
|
18 |
23 |
18 |
10 |
|
4 |
13 |
17 |
11 |
|
|
|
14.25 |
|
39 |
Westphal |
50 |
37 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
8 |
24 |
|
3 |
5 |
9 |
|
|
|
14.7 |
|
96 |
Auberlen |
68 |
2 |
9 |
7 |
16 |
14 |
8 |
5 |
|
4 |
13 |
18 |
|
|
14.91 |
|
27 |
De
Angelis |
40 |
20 |
12 |
6 |
14 |
11 |
11 |
10 |
14 |
19 |
20 |
13 |
|
|
15.83 |
|
12 |
Heistand |
6 |
25 |
|
|
17 |
|
7 |
|
|
|
|
25 |
|
|
16 |
|
32 |
McAleer |
31 |
23 |
6 |
18 |
9 |
13 |
17 |
|
16 |
16 |
4 |
23 |
|
|
16 |
|
44 |
Lally |
28 |
27 |
|
|
|
|
2 |
|
|
|
10 |
|
|
|
16.75 |
|
96 |
Foley |
66 |
7 |
14 |
17 |
3 |
18 |
21 |
9 |
19 |
13 |
1 |
17 |
|
1 |
17.08 |
|
66 |
Simpson |
39 |
11 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
|
|
17.67 |
|
47 |
Sernagiotto |
13 |
12 |
|
|
|
|
33 |
|
|
|
|
14 |
|
|
18 |
|
32 |
Skeen |
30 |
38 |
15 |
|
8 |
4 |
29 |
|
6 |
6 |
18 |
30 |
|
|
18.4 |
|
57 |
Ward |
20 |
19 |
21 |
20 |
20 |
17 |
26 |
8 |
15 |
14 |
15 |
26 |
|
|
18.42 |
|
12 |
Montecalvo |
42 |
29 |
20 |
10 |
15 |
12 |
22 |
11 |
12 |
20 |
19 |
33 |
|
|
20.42 |
|
42 |
Conwright |
56 |
33 |
|
15 |
|
|
19 |
|
|
15 |
|
11 |
|
|
24.83 |
|
39 |
Megennis |
63 |
44 |
23 |
24 |
19 |
16 |
31 |
|
11 |
12 |
17 |
15 |
|
|
25 |
|
99 |
Legge |
23 |
46 |
24 |
19 |
|
|
25 |
|
|
|
14 |
38 |
|
|
27 |
|
59 |
Holton |
32 |
30 |
17 |
|
|
|
32 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
27.75 |
|
59 |
Miller |
26 |
35 |
11 |
|
|
|
42 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28.5 |
|
70 |
Iribe |
36 |
43 |
22 |
26 |
21 |
|
36 |
|
|
|
|
32 |
|
|
30.86 |
|
16 |
Hardwick |
75 |
45 |
26 |
25 |
22 |
19 |
44 |
|
18 |
21 |
23 |
37 |
|
|
32.27 |
|
21 |
Mann |
64 |
13 |
|
|
|
|
39 |
|
|
|
|
19 |
|
|
33.75 |
|
99 |
Ferriol |
65 |
50 |
27 |
21 |
|
|
45 |
|
|
|
21 |
39 |
|
|
38.29 |
|
66 |
Bechtolsheimer |
62 |
40 |
|
|
|
|
37 |
|
|
|
|
27 |
|
|
41.5 |
|
21 |
Perez-Companc |
72 |
36 |
|
|
|
|
40 |
|
|
|
|
29 |
|
|
44.25 |
|
44 |
Potter |
73 |
49 |
|
|
|
|
43 |
|
|
|
24 |
36 |
|
|
45 |
|
47 |
Lacorte |
69 |
42 |
|
|
|
|
38 |
|
|
|
|
40 |
|
|
47.25 |
* Bold Denotes Slowest Driver of Class
|
By Avg Time Off FL |
By Avg Time Off Co-driver |
||||||
|
57 |
Ellis |
0.475 |
16 |
Heylen |
0 |
||
|
70 |
Pepper |
0.482 |
70 |
Pepper |
0 |
||
|
21 |
Vilander |
0.495 |
21 |
Vilander |
0.018 |
||
|
1 |
Sellers |
0.511 |
1 |
Sellers |
0.024 |
||
|
66 |
Farnbacher |
0.578 |
57 |
Ellis |
0.025 |
||
|
27 |
Martin |
0.606 |
99 |
Legge |
0.026 |
||
|
66 |
Simpson |
0.662 |
27 |
Martin |
0.028 |
||
|
12 |
Telitz |
0.7 |
51 |
Eversley |
0.03 |
||
|
16 |
Heylen |
0.795 |
66 |
Farnbacher |
0.035 |
||
|
39 |
Westphal |
0.85 |
66 |
Simpson |
0.074 |
||
|
51 |
Eversley |
0.859 |
12 |
Telitz |
0.081 |
||
|
44 |
Lally |
0.889 |
39 |
Westphal |
0.098 |
||
|
47 |
Sernagiotto |
0.925 |
42 |
Conwright |
0.114 |
||
|
1 |
Snow |
0.93 |
44 |
Lally |
0.134 |
||
|
96 |
Auberlen |
0.973 |
59 |
Holton |
0.141 |
||
|
12 |
Heistand |
1.005 |
59 |
Miller |
0.224 |
||
|
32 |
McAleer |
1.065 |
96 |
Auberlen |
0.234 |
||
|
96 |
Foley |
1.094 |
96 |
Foley |
0.24 |
||
|
32 |
Skeen |
1.096 |
12 |
Heistand |
0.296 |
||
|
27 |
De
Angelis |
1.134 |
32 |
McAleer |
0.391 |
||
|
42 |
Conwright |
1.203 |
51 |
Read |
0.423 |
||
|
51 |
Read |
1.251 |
32 |
Skeen |
0.426 |
||
|
57 |
Ward |
1.26 |
1 |
Snow |
0.443 |
||
|
12 |
Montecalvo |
1.321 |
27 |
De
Angelis |
0.553 |
||
|
59 |
Holton |
1.324 |
12 |
Montecalvo |
0.645 |
||
|
21 |
Mann |
1.358 |
57 |
Ward |
0.661 |
||
|
59 |
Miller |
1.407 |
47 |
Sernagiotto |
0.784 |
||
|
99 |
Legge |
1.519 |
21 |
Mann |
0.881 |
||
|
39 |
Megennis |
1.582 |
39 |
Megennis |
0.912 |
||
|
66 |
Bechtolsheimer |
1.646 |
99 |
Ferriol |
1.011 |
||
|
70 |
Iribe |
1.754 |
66 |
Bechtolsheimer |
1.016 |
||
|
21 |
Perez-Companc |
1.839 |
21 |
Perez-Companc |
1.362 |
||
|
47 |
Lacorte |
2.178 |
70 |
Iribe |
1.41 |
||
|
99 |
Ferriol |
2.504 |
16 |
Hardwick |
1.709 |
||
|
16 |
Hardwick |
2.505 |
47 |
Lacorte |
2.037 |
||
|
44 |
Potter |
2.747 |
44 |
Potter |
2.161 |
||
What does all this tell us? Why do I do it? Well, it gives
credit where credit is due. That’s something that doesn’t always happen during
the season. It allows us to reflect on what was another great year of sportscar
racing while focusing on some of the brightest spots we couldn’t see at the
time. It shows who should be strong in the future, where people can improve and
where they already excel. Mostly, it allows me to get a good read on what
happened and to get even more excited for the future! January is coming soon,
and when it does, I’ll be standing on the pit lane in my happy place, ready to tell
you even more stories about this series I love!
