Saturday, January 25, 2014

Rolex 24 Predictions (Updated!)

 Busy last night so here's a quick and dirty -

 In Prototype I am going to go with Extreme Speed #1 Fuel Economy is going to play a role and these are the safest pair of hands in the field.

 In GTLM, I am going with Risi. Despite my concerns with Fisichella they are going to be depending mostly on Mauchelli and Bruni to carry the water in the overnight.

 In PC, its hard to bet against one of the RSR cars since they have the strongest lineups, but I think I will. Colin Braun has been in the zone since last season in this PC cars and Mark Wilkins is very underrated.

 Finally in GTD, its a complete toss up. The Ferrari's have the strongest driver line ups, so.... Give me the AF Corse or should I say Spirit of the Race #51. Jack Gerber is the difference here.

 Enjoy the race I know I will.... 

 Quick Post Race Analysis -

  Don't care about Chevy's podium sweep, that advantage will go away at Sebring and beyond so they better enjoy it.

 As I said above CORE coming through was hard to bet against and I was right. They are going to be a tough team to beat the entire season.

 Congrats to CORE/PCNA for winning their first time out. Bruni started at the tail end of the field and was 2nd/3rd by the 2nd hour. That horrible accident is a setback for Risi and it looks like Mauchelli will be okay for Sebring, it was fellow California resident Memo Gidley who took the grunt of that accident, speedy recovery to him.

 Totally disappointed with the end of a great final lap GTD fight. Despite my reservations on how Scott Tucker funds his operation and that its only a matter of time before he's indicted and the whole thing comes crashing down (see John Field), his Level 5 operation is first class.

 The #555 should have won, no reason to flag Pier Guidi for non-existent "avoidable contact"; there was NONE! The only thing I can think of was not the 2nd or 3rd time Winkelhock tried to pass him, but the first contact that happen with two laps to go at the bus stop.

 If Pier Guidi didn't make a mistake going into the bus stop on the very next lap, allowing Winkelhock to pass him (he got him back on the banking) and was able to gap him by a second or two, no penalty would have come down.

 This is the very reason why emotional responses should be tossed to the side. We saw this a few years back when a bunch of Brits and Nationalistic Americans tried to toss (still try too) Gimmi Bruni under the bus for wrecking Joe Hand at the end of Sebring when the ILMC joined the ALMS there.


 Video evidence is conclusive, Bruni didn't touch Hand, its really close, but HD cameras show there was no contact.

 Yet Blind Anglo Saxon jingoism keeps Bruni in the doghouse in many fan's minds. Yes I have stooped to name calling because constructive debate in Western Culture does not work; at least not with sports fans who toss intelligence to the wind and run on pure emotion.

 Overall the race was okay. It was disappointing that none of the P2's factored into the final results. Oak was fast and could have factored into the race for the podium if it wasn't for niggling problems.

 Oh well, a full month to recover and reboot, then off to Sebring where I think the tables will be turned on the DP's who have little test mileage there and HP isn't nearly the factor handling and fuel economy is.

 Quickly another reason why Risi and the Level 5 cars should have won is fuel economy, there would have been no final stop for Risi or Level 5 and Level 5 didn't stop....

 Update #2

 It looks like IMSA has reserved its decision post race and reinstated Level 5 as the GTD winners. There is only a Twitter response and I haven't quite figured out how to screen cap Twitter. If you follow IMSA on twitter you will see the updated tweet about the incident. 

  

2 comments:

  1. Just because you don't care about the Chevy sweep doesn't mean your predictions for P2's winning Daytona were completely wrong. It's okay to be wrong. Don't be bitter about it. I hope the P2's can get a win Sebring too but I won't count out any of the DP's winning considering how dominate they were at Daytona and how fragile the P2's seemed to be. I wonder if Mazda is even trying.

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  2. Who's bitter? :) BoP is going to be thorny issue all season.

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