Scrutineering is central to motorsport, and always has been. These safety and technical checks are an important component of any event: they take place before the cars go out track, continue over the course of the competition and on through to the aftermath of the race. In the modern, high-technology world, scrutineering has become ever more sophisticated and today in the WeatherTech IMSA SportsCar Championship Bosch Motorsport plays a key role in the process.
“Scrutineering happens multiple times over the weekend,” explains IMSA data and electronics engineer Emily Rivera. “On the very first day of the race weekend we will have the safety inspection to make sure all the safety components on the car are functioning. After that we will do the technical inspection, and then after every session the top cars will come in for a check. They are required to come in, but each team also has three voluntary tech inspections.”
These technical inspections include scanning the bodywork surfaces of the cars in three dimensions to ensure they comply with their homologation. The specification of an LMDh prototype racing in IMSA’s GTP class is fixed when it goes through the homologation process and must not deviate from that form when it hits the track.
The teams are given what is called a “heat map” after this process, says Eric Haverson, Director, Technical Compliance and Scrutineering at IMSA. “We have tolerances — some are higher and some are lower — and the teams can see how much out of tolerance they are.” This transparent process gives the teams a chance to “fix anything that is out of spec”, adds Rivera.
Source: Autosport