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JHS18

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According to SPEED, the three ALMS teams to get auto-invites to Le Mans next year are Level 5, Conquest and ESM.

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Other invites include: Starworks (P2 winner at Le Mans this year), Labre, (GTE-Am winner at Le Mans), Thiriet (1st ELMS), OAK Racing (2nd ELMS), JMW (1st GTE-Pro ELMS), JMB (2nd GTE-Pro ELMS), IMSA (1st GTE-Am ELMS) and Boutsen (1st LMPC ELMS).

Additionally, three cars each for Team Audi Sport Joest and AF Corse.

http://www.fiawec.co...-hours_825.html

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Speaking of Le Mans....(watched the movie the other week...still a good one even if there is no dialogue, and essentially no storyline)...what has become of the Delta Wing?

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I'm surprised Conquest has the resources to go to Le Mans (the ALMS handed out invites to teams they know will be able to go, which is why Muscle Milk didn't get one).

I can't wait to see those gorgeous ESM F458s out there. Very, very, very good team. I consider them an outside threat, having won Petit Le Mans. If they enter one car in GTE-Pro and one in GTE-Am, I figure they could win one of the two, as they have great drivers and cars.

DeltaWing raced Petit Le Mans; took fifth or sixth overall (something like 11 P1/P2s raced). It will run the entire 2013 ALMS season as a fully homologated LMP (they'll decide between LMP1 or LMP2 this winter). Not sure if the ACO will homologate it for Le Mans; I assume not.

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Rebellion will field a car full-time in the ALMS next year.

I assume they will also be in the WEC.

This is tremendous! The Pickett HPD ARX-03c versus the Rebellion Lola B12/60 Toyota should be very exciting. It's a shame for Dyson, of course, but still. I'm so glad Rebellion have chosen to help make the 2013 ALMS a great send-off (I realize that's not why they're doing this :P).

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Awesome news.

Just wondered if we know of any WEC/ALMS calendar clashes that might give us an indication on who they'll use in both championships.

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According to RLM, it could well be a case of ALMS over WEC instead of both. They raised the point as to what they want to do - be capable of winning races outright in the ALMS, or winning the unofficial privateer class in WEC.

Despite saying that, they said that they still think Rebellion will field at least one full season entry in the WEC, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

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http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/le-mans-inside-the-2014-lmp1-regulations

I'm a little confused on the quote about the fuel flow meter.

They want to eliminate strategy?! Seems to me that the strategy is what makes allowing different kinds of engines and fuels and all that interesting. Strategy in design and strategy in the race allow different strengths and weaknesses to be exploited to make a compelling, tense event.

So what's the goal here, if I'm reading that correctly? And wouldn't the fuel flow meter penalize teams running larger engines, negating the new freedom in that department?

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14 GTs in ALMS next year with the addition of two TRG Aston Martins and two RLL BMW Z4s. TRG will also field an Aston Martin GT3 in the World Challenge, adding yet another car to that grid (four Audi R8s and a Mercedes SLS had been recently confirmed with the new regulations allowing GT3s). Sounds like a good year for production-based racing is ahead in the U.S.

Meanwhile, a pair of Porsche 991s will be fielded by Manthey in the WEC next year, with a Larbre Corvette rumored to also be in GTE-Pro. Not bad at all.

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That is good news.

Seems Porsche realised they needed to do something in relation to their GT programme, and fast.

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Reading that Jorg Muller has been dropped from his BMW factory contract - Maxime Martin will get a ride in the ALMS.

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Toyota have confirmed they will have two full time entries in next year's WEC, as well as two cars at Le Mans.

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Mike Fuller saying that three DeltaWings have been sold, one of which will have a closed cockpit. Apparently, Dr. Don Panoz will restart his PMG team to campaign one next year.

It sounds to me like this might be indicative of a DeltaWing-only class, which totally defeats the purpose to me. Giving the car a trophy every week just because it's cool is pointless. Either run it as an LMP2 or run it unclassified. New ideas should be tested against the old ones, and only given a victory if they can beat the past way of thinking. Sure, it will get an overall position, but it shouldn't get to win because of that. I couldn't care less which team and which drivers can make their DeltaWing faster. I want to know if DeltaWing, in general, can beat P2s and P1s in competition.

I think the proper solution would have been unclassified in 2013, as it wouldn't be great to let something designed out of the rules magically become part of it, and then have it part of the new 2014 series' top class, whatever that will be (I've seen on DSC that it might be LMP2 as the top class, with DP and PC as a second-tier class behind that. GTE would be the pro GT class, and Rolex GT the pro-am one. I don't hate that lineup).

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Nah...competition breeds advances. If you just had a car aimlessly driving around in circles, what is the point? Just a race-day-test.

Having a goal, in this case, a little plastic trophy (or whatever), and competition between a few teams means that the advances in the technology will move along faster than if it was one team, and a bunch of drivers thinking "man, I coulda been racing in that car...".

They will still prove whether or not the car can out perform the "old" cars, and if they prove successful, then others will want to join them. If they don't, then the teams will leave the "experiment".

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Competition breeds advances, so they should compete against the other LMP2s and make them all better for it. Competing in a spec class leads to no advances because the rules will dictate what a DeltaWing can and cannot be. It'll be an IndyCar snoozefest within an already cluttered field of five classes.

Something interesting about the coupe version of the DW: Patrick Dempsey's insurance doesn't allow him to race an open-cockpit car, and some "big news" is coming from that team. A Skyactiv-D DeltaWing? It makes some sense to me, because the Skyactiv-D is thought to have less power (but tons of torque).

In that case, at least the class would have some variety. But even better, to me, would be running all three as LMP2s.

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Larbre won't field Corvettes in 2013.

ALMS GT, with 13-14 cars confirmed at present, will get another one. A team not currently in GT, but not new to American sports car racing, will field a Porsche in the class next year, joining PMR and Team Falken in that regard. Good stuff.

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I'd like some Vipers in the WEC, too.

Manthey confirmed driver lineups for the Porsche 991s in WEC GTE-Pro. Lieb and Lietz in one car, with Bergmeister and Pilet in the other. Dumas and Bernhard, who will develop the LMP1, will run the 24 Heures du Mans in the cars.

Another Porsche driver, Marco Holzer, will take over for Sascha Maassen at Paul Miller Racing in the ALMS. Michelins and Holzer...sounds like PMR might have a good year next year. Also fuels speculation about Maassen's role at Porsche; perhaps he'll be involved in the LMP1 project, too? He did race the LMP2 for Penske.

A ton of Rolex 24 entries being confirmed, too. Having a hard time getting excited for that one, personally. I didn't have any problems with Grand-Am until it became the North American series, rather than just one option. ;)

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Just three weeks left until the 2013 racing season starts.

Here's the entry list for the opener, a 24 hour race in Dubai. It will be streamed live on YouTube, which is excellent. I love when series provide live, free streaming on legitimate, reliable websites. Very excited for this one.

http://www.24hdubai.com/Entry-list-24h-Dubai-2013

I can't wait to hear the Gallardos. Saw one on the highway once; the noise is just outstanding. The lineup in that RAM Ferrari looks really stout.

Also very interested in the debut of the VDS GT 001-R.

Tons of classes. Endurance racing. Looks good to me.

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Looking forward to both the Dubai and Daytona 24 hours in January, it is always nice to watch some early year motorsport. Good to see that there are plenty of top drivers entered for both events too.

Eric knows I have been raving about British GT recently, and here is why. Daily Sports Car has compiled a list of who has announced what so far, and who else we could expect. It is looking like being a very strong entry list once again.

http://www.dailyspor...BD88C41DB29CD12

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Neat. GT3 field looks really nice, and there are some cool things in GT4 I don't think I've seen racing before (MX-5, GT86).

2014 Grand-Am/ALMS classes will be announced on January 4. Right now, the only confirmed class is GTE. We'll see...

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Roger Penske confirmed that he is in negotiations with Porsche to run the LMP1 program for them in 2014. Not a massive surprise there.

Penske mentioned that Dumas, Bernhard, and Rockenfeller will drive, which was expected. I've heard Heidfeld, Vernay, and Maassen linked to it, so that could be a nice second car lineup, no?

I can't wait to see it. Audi v. Toyota v. Porsche, at a minimum, sounds like a lot of fun to me. Also will have a new HPD and a Lotus T128 LMP1 out there. Potentially a project from Dome, or one from Glickenhaus. Cool stuff.

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That's good to hear, but as you say, not really a surprise. Other Porsche affiliated teams like Manthey don't have the experience of running a prototype, and it'd be cool to see Penske finally at Le Mans.

Not surprised with that line-up either, except the Rockenfeller bit. Isn't he contracted to Audi? He's most likely going to be an Audi DTM driver again next year unless something bizarre has happened that I'm not aware of. I know for Bernhard and Dumas it was different, as they were effectively on loan to Audi from Porsche.

But Porsche has a great pool of drivers to choose from. I'd love to see them promote one of their leading GT drivers to see what they could do in a prototype.

Still see the occasional comment about people doubting whether Audi and Porsche will race each other. I hope so. Unless I'm being very thick (which wouldn't be unknown) and I am missing something, surely VWAG having two of their manufacturers racing is a GOOD thing, not a bad? It increases the chances of success if you own two of the three top manufacturers competing in LMP1 in a couple of years.

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