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JHS18

Sports Car Racing Thread

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After qualifying second in class, Level 5 have withdrawn the #95 and will only run their #055 car. I guess they couldn't make the math work for Scott Tucker to run both cars and be within the rules for minimum and maximum drive times.

That leaves...three LMP2s. Congratulations to Dempsey Racing on their podium... :P

Still, I think it will be one hell of a race...it's so close with those LMP1s. I am excited so I'll say it again: www.alms.com 3 PM GMT -5 LIVE VIDEO TELECAST DO IT DO IT DO IT!!!

Wooooooo.

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I can't believe I'm saying this, but even the Prius SuperGT300 looks and sounds good, in addition to the CRZ of course.

Will be looking forward to the race, if I can wake up. My timezone is GMT +8. That makes it 4 a.m. here when the race starts.

The name's Simon by the way. tongue.png

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Welll this sucks for me:

ESPN2 is live at 4:00 PM...but the race starts at 3:00 PM...so the U.S. doesn't get the first hour at all. ESPN confirmed it will just be the final 1:45.

Damn. There are only four live ALMS races on U.S. TV all year...and now even those aren't shown in their full. I'm too paranoid about computer security to disguise myself as being outside the U.S. and watch the stream...but missing the first hour blows...I was so excited for this.

On a different note, John Dagys says that there is a rumor going around that a "veteran U.S. sports car team" will be switching brands and classes for 2013. He describes it as "full-time," "significant," and a "unique brand" to U.S. sports car racing. He also hinted that it could be part of a migration of teams from one series to another, but would not specify if it was Grand-Am to ALMS or ALMS to Grand-Am. This is all on his Twitter page...he's very good for getting the rumors within North America for the series only people outside North America can actually watch live coverage of. tongue.png

Should add that the live feed is alms.com/camera/live-broadcast

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The less I say about the Lime Rock race the better...

The race itself was probably fine, but ESPN did such a horrible job producing and commentating that I never would have known. They missed a lot of key moments (including the entire first hour), the commentators said the same clichés multiple times, the entire thing felt like an infomercial...just sucked. They ruined what was probably a much better race than I'll remember it for. ALMS needs to rethink the TV deal with ESPN because anyone who watches this coverage will tune out. If it's losing even a diehard like me, it sure as hell isn't getting anyone else interested. Wretched.

Only redeeming factor? ESPN has pulled out the decades old National Hockey Night theme (hockey is no longer on ESPN) for ALMS coverage...I was shocked to hear it again...maybe the best one in all of sports...they were using a little different version but it's the same old song...

But outside of the music and the few things they did show, I was left very disappointed with how this was all covered. If ESPN and ALMS (and their partners) had any interest in decent coverage, they'd get a guy on ESPN's staff (Paul Page) and a producer who understands racing (someone who most definitely wouldn't be on ESPN's staff).

Oh well. The races I get most excited for often disappoint...imagine that. :P

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Congratulations MuscleMilk!!

Now, to get Honda to win Le Mans....

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There's a Prius, a CR-Z, a Riley prototype...why am I not watching this?

You forget the HSV's with formula Nippon engines, of which the project director said was chosen on the basis of engine sound

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It was a hell of a comeback for Pickett Racing to win that one. Making up that many laps in a 2:45 race, with all that traffic, incredible stuff, a lot of it from Lucas Luhr. Just wish I could have seen some of it, since the producer missed everything...but oh well.

One of these F1 off-weekends, the most recent Super GT race might accidentally somehow magically end up on my computer. ;)

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Some BMW news in regards to their GT/LMGTE plans:

http://auto-racing.s...-to-z4-in-2013/

It sounds like the plan is to do ALMS with a Z4. No real Le Mans or WEC plans, since the focus is on DTM, though they obviously won't close the door on anything.

It could also send the M3s out to a non-works team. It's a very competitive car, so if they're for sale, any team would do very well to pick them up. There were rumors last year of a few interested buyers for the M3, though no one did purchase them in the end.

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Over my little fit about ESPN's broadcast, I think some credit should go to:

Scott Tucker, who deserves to be in prison and will end up there soon enough, for holding off Martin Plowman. The caution at the end helped, of course.

Conquest Endurance...Plowman and Heinemeier Hansson nearly won LMP2 and got a podium overall. Great run for the Morgan LMP2 Nissan, which is not as good of a car as the HPD ARX-03b Honda by any means.

Extreme Speed Motorsports...they should have had one car third and one car fourth...but it all went wrong. They've figured the F458s out pretty well this year, though. I wonder if Risi not being around has gotten them a little more love from Ferrari?

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What has a closed [size=4]c#ckpit but doesn't have a fin?[/size] Whatever it is, Oreca's making it...

https://twitter.com/Oreca/status/222337712944988160/photo/1/large

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According to Dyson Racing, about an hour into the race, Guy Smith got in the car, and immediately had to pit again because of a punctured tire, which allowed Lucas Luhr to get multiple laps back.

ESPN2 did not show Smith pitting with a puncture.

They never mentioned Smith having a puncture.

They never acknowledged how the ticker at the top went from Luhr -4 to Luhr -1.

I'm pretty livid about that. That's like, the biggest development in the entire race is the overall leader getting a puncture, and not a single person on the entire broadcast team noticed that?! Gaaaah.

I've had better luck watching on-board camera streams and live timing/scoring than this...someone calm me down and tell me:

When is the next WEC race? And will it be streamed on the website like Sebring was and Le Mans sort of was?

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The next WEC is at Silverstone (I know, I know, everything seems to be at Silverstone at the moment :P) on the 26th August. I may be going.

I believe they do stream the race on their website for free. I know sometimes it can be different in whatever region you live in, but I was able to watch the Spa race online there and there were different onboard cameras etc. The website is www.fiawec.com

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Thanks.

Glad it's in August, with F1 taking the entire month off. I'll need something to watch, especially since that's the one week of summer break I have. :P

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ALMS is working on a GT-Am class:

http://auto-racing.s...s-for-2013-aco/

They are keeping GTC.

So let's get it straight: you have LMP1 and GT, which aren't for amateurs. You have LMP2, which requires one amateur driver. You have LMPC, which requires one amateur driver. You have GT-Am, which requires one amateur driver. You have GTC, which requires one amateur driver.

It's not a bad thing, but what the hell does it accomplish? What void does the six-class structure fill that the five-class one didn't?

This doesn't do anything to encourage new teams, not at all...because teams that would fall under "GT-Am" regulations were always more than welcome to just run normal GT as it is!

All this does is take GT's field of about 11 cars and move Flying Lizard's 44, ESM's 02, and Paul Miller Racing's 48 so that they can have their own little place to play...but whether it was GT or GT-Am, they would have been on the grid anyway, so why does it matter at all?

I mean, if there's some team that was eligible to do GT, but didn't want to unless they could contend for a class win, it would expand the grid...but what such team exists?

I just don't see what this adds to the grid. It doesn't subtract anything (other than making it even more confusing), but it's just taking what they already have and calling it something else. Having two classes that don't allow amateurs and four classes that REQUIRE amateurs just seems really, really redundant to me...what was wrong with one class that doesn't allow amateurs, three that require them, and one that you can do whatever the hell you want with?

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What has a closed c#ckpit but doesn't have a fin? Whatever it is, Oreca's making it...

https://twitter.com/...0/photo/1/large

Ooops, should have read just above. :P

Yeah, it is for the SPEED (nothing to do with the channel) Euroseries - a form of racing for baby prototypes effectively. It counts as a series where drivers get early experience in a prototype like car.

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In a shocking twist I saw coming from a mile away, Pennzoil Ultra will sponsor the #93 SRT Viper in ALMS. Debuting at Mid-Ohio on August's first Saturday, along with the #91 Forza Motorsports-sponsored entry.

12_0630.jpg

Drivers will be Dominik Farnbacher (who holds or at least held last I knew the Nürburgring Nordschleife record in a production Viper), Marc Goossens (the team is run by Riley Technologies, who have worked with Marc Goossens in everything, including NASCAR Sprint Cup racing when he drove for Riley's team at Watkins Glen), Kuno Wittmer (a Viper driver in another series, plus a Québécois so he has huge Dodge support), and one other to be announced.

Ryan Hunter-Reay will join them for endurance races; his ties go back to Barber Dodge, and he has raced a Riley Daytona Prototype if I recall correctly. Could RHR be going to NASCAR with his owner Michael Andretti, rumored to be heading the Dodge Charger program there? We'll see.

The other driver for endurance races is also yet to be announced.

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Next up for ALMS: Canadian Tire Raceway (formerly Mosport) in Bowmanville, Ontario. Dempsey Racing will not be there, so it's an even more abbreviated abbreviated LMP1/2 field. Also, Extreme Speed Motorsports may only field one car at this race due to the damage sustained at Lime Rock to their other Ferrari F458 Italia.

For a BMW Z4 to run GT in ALMS next year, it needs to clear a lot of waives, as the Viper did. Reality check: actual GT3 cars are faster than both ALMS GT and LMGTE cars. Maybe everyone already knew that but it surprised me. Turns out a GT3's lap time is on par with a Daytona Prototype and an LMPC, which are both faster than GT/GTE cars...wow...

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The date for the 90th running of the Le Mans 24 hours has been confirmed.

It'll take place on the 15th-16th June. The test day will take place on June 2nd.

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This year was the 80th...when are they going to run the other nine Le Mans races between now and June? :P

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This year was the 80th...when are they going to run the other nine Le Mans races between now and June? tongue.png

hey, I'd watch that!!

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This year was the 80th...when are they going to run the other nine Le Mans races between now and June? tongue.png

My mistake. Took that straight from the ACO Facebook apge without thinking about it. Must have got it wrong. :P

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