tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21878982500345132672024-03-13T23:03:18.938-07:00Parc Fermé: Unfiltered Coverage of Motorsports and The Automotive Lifestyle Celebrating Motorsports and the Automotive Lifestyle.
In-depth coverage of Sport Car Racing and other Road Racing series such as IndyCar, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, V8 Supercars, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) and World Touring Cars.
All from a fan's perspective. Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.comBlogger85125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-62761135745785364102021-06-07T04:47:00.001-07:002021-06-07T04:47:35.363-07:00Haven't posted in years! Well lots has changed...<p> Well firstly I don't follow motorsports quite as closely as I once did. I do still follow pre-season driver changes in FIA GT by Fantec and AWS and in the Weathertech series (Formerly ALMS when I last posted).</p><p> <br />More on that when we come to the end of the 2021 season.</p><p><br /> Of course we've all been through a pandemic and it's still not over, though I think the worst is behind us, we'll see this winter if variants come an issue along with the annual influenza season especially in colder climates.</p><p><br /></p><p> Since I last posted I said I was unable to get a 2015 Focus ST. Well I ended up getting a 2016 Focus ST July of 2016. ST2 with Race Red with optional wheels.</p><p><br /></p><p>Long story short I started modding it not even after 24hrs of ownership. I mulled the idea of a Cobb AP but felt it was overpriced. The decision not to buy it was helped by the fact that Mountune USA which is in Carson, CA about 40 mins from my front door didn't have any units in-stock. So I went to craigslist instead and found somebody in Oxnard selling his SCT X4 flash controller. I contacted him and drove over to pick up the unit. He had unmarried it to his former Ford F-150 since he bought a brand new Dodge pickup.</p><p> He wanted $200 and that's what I gave him. I immediately order tunes from Torrie @ Unleashed Performance for $150 for lifetime updates. </p><p> I bought slicks for it and hit the track. First time out I forgot to disable traction control because it prevented me from doing a burnout to get the slicks hot. My 60 ft times suffered and it ran 14.0@99 mph. The tune was for 30% E85 (E30). Eventually I was able to run 13.96@99 on one of my last passes of the day. This was at Sacramento Raceway Park. </p><p> Fast forward to about the middle of 2017 and I had the car down to 13.14@102.3 mph and made it to the Semi finals of Import Face-off where my laziness got the best of me and I lost a race I could have easily won and been in the money.</p><p> As of 2019 I lost the Focus ST due to stupidity on my part. So I was in the market for another car. I also filed bankruptcy (Chapter 7) to prevent the Focus' loan from showing up on my credit. That succeeded and I was back to square one.</p><p> I was in the market for the last of the 2019 Ford Fiesta ST's because all the Focus ST's had been sold (last year was 2018), so when getting one of those proved to be very difficult. I started looking around for other options. I knew the Hyundai Elantra Sport existed but I found that the 2020 models only had DCT for an option. Being a drag racer and knowing the DCT shift quickly I briefly thought about that and decided against it for a few reasons I'll get into in a minute.</p><p> I wanted a manual and luckily Kia offered the Forte GT in both manual and DCT. The manual was $578 more, so they are asking enthusiast like me to pay more. Fine by me, I got 95% of the options found in the DCT GT2 model and Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires ($200 option).</p><p> After about two months of ownership I formulated a plan to go a different direction than people usually take when modifying a car, this is based directly off my experience with the Neon SRT-4 and the Focus ST. </p><p> When I found Burger Motorsports offered a JB4 for the Forte GT, I jumped at the opportunity especially after I found on Facebook some people had purchased it and performance was very good. I also decided to go a different direction with race tires. I would have purchased slicks again but this time I would go with drag radials..</p><p> The tuner community doesn't know it yet but they are about to find out despite the apparent performance advantage of the DCT transmissions, especially the VW/Audi DSG it's manuals that will be the fastest with drag radials which impressive ET's and trap speeds that will seem impossible to understand even with explanation.</p><p> I've talked about this beyond especially on the Focus ST forums but the results will speak for themselves. I've run into a few snags installing a key component so once that is sorted I hope by the middle of the week as I post this that I will be able to get some track testing in. I missed the most recent visit to California by Import Face-off, so the next event is the delayed CMI Spring Fling that is now scheduled for July 25th.</p><p> In the meantime I will get some testing in, but I also plan to return to Brazil where I visited in 2016.</p><p> I will finally start the blog that will cover more of that side of my life very soon. </p><p> I will talk more about my Forte GT in a upcoming post, stay tuned.</p><p> BTW it's run the best of 13.77@103.47 in trap speed and 13.75@101.9 mph for ET with bad 60 ft times. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-3989709447039687742015-09-26T23:39:00.002-07:002015-09-26T23:39:25.143-07:00Unrealistic Expectations - Why owner of some cars feel like the red-headed step child<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was curious about something while looking at the Scion iM website. There is a feature that allows you to compare it to other cars they consider direct market competition. One of those cars is Mk7 Golf 1.8T aka Poor Man's GTI.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was curious what sort of power you could get out of one of these things and I came across a post on the Vortex forums one of the most popular VAG (Volkswagen AG). This particular owner was whining that more tuning options weren't available. Apparently he either doesn't want the APR Stage 1 flash (which requires removal of your engine control unit) or is waiting for something that may never come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Having been on that side of the automotive community before, he has no idea what it's like to have virtually no choices when it comes to increasing engine performance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I've seen this play out on the internet since car forums became a popular thing to do with your time. I've been hearing that some forums are seeing less traffic, but that's due to changing demographics, especially when your talking about compact cars.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Yes I am going to go there. I've seen it posted more than once, that some guy has to trade in his high performance sedan or hatchback for a more "sensible" large SUV or Cute SUV because of a baby on the way or adding to the family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is their wives talking actually, the relationship dynamics in Western/Anglo culture.... It's totally off-topic, I will not go there, I will talk about subjects like this on my other blog that I haven't officially launched yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Anyway, guys whine about the choices they make (usually economic) then get mad when the performance aftermarket (about 2-4% of the entire automotive marketplace) doesn't cater to their every whim.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Recently I emailed BC Racing, makers of coil-over suspensions for cars to ask them if the product they offer for the Focus ST was rebound AND compression adjustable. I wasn't mad they didn't offer a product for a car I don't even own (yet), I asked what would it take to make a product like this possible?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The person I emailed said about 20 pre-orders (IE pre-paid) would get the ball rolling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> One thing I will cover on this blog when I get back into the high performance world maybe as soon as after the first of the year is how to get companies to make products for you, no matter what is it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If they believe there's no demand they won't make it. So you have to manufacturer some (demand).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Since BC's manufacturing is in China, it's far less expensive to make this product for twenty people and maybe sell a few more for profit. He did mention external reservoir which is similar to a type of coil-over you see in racing applications. This isn't needed, so come clarification needs to happen before moving forward. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So let's say the pre-order cost is $700 per set or $14,000 in developmental cost ($700 x 20). For your $700 you will get the product at a discount for help covering those cost. People that come after you will pay closer to retail pricing which could be double.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You just created a market where there wasn't one. This isn't the first time I have done this, again I will explain this more in-depth when the time comes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> PS -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The past few months I've been trying to buy a 2015 Focus ST. So far it hasn't gone as expected as my credit report still has some issues on it. I will break down what it took when I likely will pick this car maybe as soon as February 2016.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-88635779665612309672015-06-16T04:14:00.001-07:002015-06-16T04:14:10.690-07:00Haven't posted since mid 2014, but I have a reason this weekend...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Firstly I would like to congratulate Nick Tandy, Earl Bamber and Nico Hulkenburg (yes Sahara Force India F1 Hulkenburg....) on their maiden victory today at Le Mans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am still gutted about Ferrari snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. With about two hours to ago Toni Vilander who I consider a "safe pair of hands" was overly aggressive over the curbs at possibly at Muslane Hairpin and damaged the transmission.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After a very animated Gimmi Bruni started directing what his #62 crew what to do in order to get the car back out, it became apparent any chance of winning in-class was gone and gifted to Corvette.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Corvette Racing had a difficult week, the lost Magnssen/Garcia when Jan crashed it heavily. But as I told them on twitter they better enjoy it, it's short-lived because the Blue Oval is coming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In what is one of the worse kept secrets in motor sport Ford is returning to Le Mans in 2016 with a GTLM version of its new Ford GT.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is a mouth-watering prospect and my mind turned automatically to who would drive for the Blue Oval.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It was revealed in the announcement on Friday that two programs will be pursued. In what can only viewed as great news for the Tudor series; Ford as committed to two cars run by Ganassi who will shelve it's DP program after this season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Chip generally likes loyalty and experience (Kanan signing over say somebody much younger). So it's very likely one car will be assigned to Scott Pruett and Joey Hand.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> After that, it's up in the air, let's look at some possibilities -</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Looking at the current crop of Indycar drivers with 24hr/Endurance experience but currently unemployed:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ryan Briscoe*</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Justin Wilson</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I put a * by Briscoe's name because he's currently the 3rd driver for Corvette Racing and has won Daytona and Sebring this season. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He would be an excellent pickup.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Justin Wilson would be perfect for a OEM program like Ford's and deserves a chance.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Outside of that, pickings are slim. I would take a hard look at former Ford driver Colin Braun who's been dominating LMPC for the past couple of seasons proving he's still very fast. He also finished 3rd in GT back when there was no separate class at Le Mans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If Ford is in this for the long term, they can't have too many drivers over 30 in the seats. Braun is under 30 but so is Ganassi driver Sage Karam.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I could have just easily named all six seats for the Tudor program, Patron Endurance Championship and Le Mans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I actually have more interest in what George Howard-Chapel is going to do with his WEC effort.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If the four best GT drivers out there are -</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 2 Time WEC Champion and 2 Time FIA GT Champion "Gimmi" Bruni </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Defending Blancpain Endurance and 2013 Sprint Series Champion Laurens Vanthoor</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2013 Blancpain Endurance Champion Max Buhk</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">McClaren factory driver Kevin Estre</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Bruni has been approached before but he's Italian with a successful Italian team, I doubt even if you throw a ton of money at him he would leave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vanthoor is an interesting case. Former European F3 driver, he and Max Buhk have the field covered in Blancpain currently the toughest GT championship in the world. He is only linked to Audi via it's customer racing team WRT, IE his contract is with WRT. Audi may want to retain his services for possibly a seat in their LMP program (if they don't move to F1) or DTM program.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If Vanthoor has any long term interest in any of these programs, it might be a tough sell even if it's a factory GT program.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Max Buhk is signed to HTP and does what ever HTP does. HTP was linked to Mercedes Benz AMG Customer Racing from 2011-2014 but made the switch to Bentley this season; I think to get access to Buhk as well, because Buhk drives for the Bentley factory team in Blancpain not HTP. HTP runs their own Bentley with other set of drivers in the same series.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Long term I don't know what Buhk's goals are, I think he's only driven GT cars up to this point in his career.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Either one of these guy would be a surprise to many. Both have endurance experience and 24hr victories under their belt. Vanthoor just won the Nurburging 24 last month and Buhk beat Audi with HTP Mercedes at the Spa 24hr race in 2013 with Max Gotz (who's in DTM) and long time Mercedes driver Brent Schneider.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Kevin Estre came out of no where with a one-off drive in Baku in 2013. He was then signed by McClaren to factory contract. He has plenty of Porsche experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Out of all these guys, I don't think you can go wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> What I haven't mentioned is the slew of GP2, GP2 European F3 and WSR drivers.... There just too many to name. Still more driver that used to drive in those series are now trying to ply their trade in sports cars in the hopes of becoming a factory driver mainly in LMP1.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ford is going to have two teams and four cars. How often they run four cars remains to be seen. Most teams in the WEC like to trout out the 3rd car for Spa; since the last race in America is Laguna Seca in early May; the Ganassi cars could be sent over right after that race. All four cars don't need to do the Le Mans Test Day but that being said, usually with terrible weather conditions for the test (more often than not), how you going to cycle through upwards of 12 drivers in and out of cars on such a limited schedule with just two cars?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> That is if Ford picked the majority of it's drivers with little to zero or recent Le Mans experience. This is why I think both teams may go after veterans like Darren Turner, Richard Westbrook, Rob Bell, drivers from the defunct Viper program and some of the current LMP2 drivers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Exciting times and I will end up writing more about this soon, cheers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-50191062576336704612014-07-02T14:36:00.000-07:002014-07-02T14:36:41.152-07:00International GT Open Round 2 Portimao + Jerez<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once again Ben Evans has been gracious enough to give us his thoughts on both races the last two weeks.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ben take it away!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So some thoughts from Jerez and Portimao:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The championship is going to be awesome this year, as there are four cars all with a good chance of claiming the title. The challenge for the Ferrari squads is to get a good result in Budapest next weekend, as thereafter all the tracks suit the Corvettes a little bit more. How the teams manage the pit stop handicaps will be key. In particular don't expect either Villorba or SMP to look too glum if their cars are off the Super GT rostrum next time out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The transmission failure for the SRT Corvette could be a game changer for the title, to miss out on points in both races is a big blow, but I still expect them to be on pole in Hungary.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Car balance. I think Jerez really showed how nicely the performance balances out. The Corvettes like long straights and fast corners, the Ferrari's the mid and low speed turns. A key factor in the title race this year will be compromise set-ups. Both SMP and Villorba have gone the wrong way with race set up at least once this year, particularly noticeable with the SMP car in R1 at Portimao, where it looked very twitchy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The weather has been kind to the Super GT runners, Jerez was a good 15C cooler than everyone expected, which meant the Dunlops lasted a lot longer. A hot weekend in Budapest will really put the cat amongst the pigeons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- It was mega to see the Nissan on the grid in Jerez, and Craig Dolby is super-fast driver. If they decide to continue for the whole season I think they could challenge for GTS honors. Amazingly that was just the second race with the car for the Nova Race team. At this stage I don't know their plans for the rest of the year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- I am also intrigued to see how the Novadriver Audi goes for the rest of the year. It always goes well in Jerez, but there was a notable step change in Aditya Patel this weekend, who seemed much more assured behind the wheel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The Autorlando Sport driver pairing is great fun, Joel and Matteo really complement each other. I would suggest they could be very strong candidates for the GTS title, where consistency is often key.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Miguel Ramos is having a really good season, he and Nicky are making a good driver pairing and Nicky's very analytical approach suits Miguel well. Plus he seems much more relaxed out of the car. His performance at Portimao was no great shock as it is his favorite circuit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- There are some interesting, lower profile, but high caliber drivers achieving success this year. Particularly Dennis Retera as you pointed out, and also Jose Perez-Aicart who has been rapid in each and every race. Paolo Ruberti is also a class act and a welcome addition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The clashes are unfortunately one of those things, especially in June where there are lots of F1 races, several WTCC rounds, and the Le Mans & N24 hours. Ultimately however GT Open is playing to a different audience and customer to the big endurance races. I think the Silverstone round will be a showpiece round for this season, with as I understand it a number of additional cars on the grid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- The only date clash I don't understand is <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_321182601" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; position: relative; top: -2px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ" style="position: relative; top: 2px; z-index: -1;">October 18/19</span></span> when every major series in Europe seems to be racing, with nothing on the surrounding weekends. To that end, I am also surprised that nobody has taken the plunge to schedule a couple of August races this year, given that there will be a dearth of live sport on European TV</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-35419512967269254342014-06-20T00:01:00.001-07:002014-06-20T00:01:38.934-07:00The Death of Racing Supplemental - Terrible Le Mans Coverage!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The technology showcased at this weekend's 24 hr of Le Mans (refreshing to not see any corporate sponsorship of the race, yet) is very relevant to the road cars you will be purchasing in the future. However the presentation that Fox (Speed) does is TERRIBLE and is just as old as carburetors and bias-ply tires.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> First they are too cheap to send a crew over on location. They figured if this works for F1 (they pioneered this) it will also work for sports car racing especially Le Mans and nobody will notice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the very least they could fly out on Test Day weekend or even up to Thurs qualifying race weekend and talk to the teams and drivers. But they don't; they don't the teams or driver's well and I get tired of Dorsey Schroeder always referring back to his limited experience with the Audi R8 when he drove it briefly in the early 2000's. Dude that was over a decade ago and the R18 has about as much in common with the R8 as it does with a A8 road car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Bob Varsha and Calvin Fish at least know personally many of the younger drivers (and veterans) at Le Mans because they have come up through the feeder series ranks, like GP2 or F3000. In my personal opinion these should be the only two guys to lead Tudor races and lead the extended broadcast of races like the 12 hours of Sebring or the 24 hrs of Le Mans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We don't need a 3rd person in the booth. For some series it works, for most it doesn't, especially when they have almost nothing to add of value, except to constantly refer to his belief that technology has made the race cars of day easier to drive (Dorsey Schroeder).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If you must have a 3rd wheel, Tommy Kendall's information is relevant as he was at Le Mans in 2013 with the SRT (Dodge) Viper team.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I finally had enough about mid way through the race and switched to Eurosport. That's not the complete truth. I had errands to run on Saturday and spent 8 hours getting caught up to the live coverage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Next year I may purchase the WEC stream and use RLM for audio, I've had it. I am tried of the commercials that have to be run every 15-20 mins, cutting right away from a great GTE Pro race. Even worse is to cut away to talk to their friends at Corvette and Audi.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The coverage of major motor sport in America is TERRIBLE! If that offends hardcore fans like myself, imagine what it does the so-called casual fan?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Congratulations to AF Corse #51 of Bruni, Vilander and Fisichella for winning the GTE-Pro class without one mistake and changing the brakes further into the race than anybody else.</span></div>
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It was also the best race of the weekend, if you watched the race or was there, then you know what I am talking about.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-8531739340302577802014-06-05T10:28:00.000-07:002014-06-05T10:29:23.852-07:00The Death of Racing Part 1 - If they don't do something, its all over...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I have been a fan of auto racing since I was very, very young. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It has survived everything from a serious accident at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster" target="_blank">Le Mans in 1955</a> that came close to killing the sport over safety issues; to mid 70's fuel crisis and tightening emissions/noise pollution regulations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Now I believe the greatest threat is coming from several directions -</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Gen Y is generally uninterested in racing and cars in general. Traditional racing such as <a href="http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2153755,00.html" target="_blank">stock cars</a> and Indy car has sunk to <a href="http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2014/06/tv-ratings-memorial-overnights-up-on-cbs-also-indycar-pirates/" target="_blank">all time lows</a>. Some blame the terrible television coverage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> On this week's <a href="http://audio.rpix.org.uk/mwm/9/mwm9-22.mp3" target="_blank">Mid-Week Motorsports</a>, a good chunk of the show was devoted to talking about the mishmash that is internet streaming of racing including; horrible highlights packages, geo-blocking to protect local viewing contracts and other shenanigans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As was touched on, old media has no clue about new media. Otherwise it would be more widely used. But honestly I think they are protecting senior leadership that operates the cameras and makes the decisions in the production truck.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Moving to robotic cameras and using three man crews (the call, color and pit-lane) reduces production cost significantly. For example this weekend's Tudor PC, IMSA Lite race at Kansas won't be seen anywhere, unless you go to the track. It could easily be done with two/three man crew and four cameras because its a roval. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> All that said, giving access and gauging interest are basic marketing failures by all the major racing series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no explanation for camera and audio problems that plague SCCA World Challenge. What the hell was the TC/TC-B race in New Jersey? One camera on top of the timing tower, really? I mean REALLY???? Since the start of this season they have eliminated post race interviews, forcing fans to watch the highlighted coverage on NBC-SN.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is 2014 there should be no excuse for this. What's hard to understand is why the fanbase is so quite about it? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In Part 2 like my video -</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I'll break down what all these series can do. One of them is to secure your base before pursuing the mythical casual fan. They could start by NOT REPEATING THE RULES at every single race!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-67117382650760192752014-05-19T18:22:00.000-07:002014-05-19T18:23:47.087-07:00International GT Open Round 1 Race 1&2 with Interview from Ben Evans <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Two weeks ago International GT Open kicked off it's season at the famous Nurburgring, along with its companion series Euro Formula Open.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You can watch the highlights and full races <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ3mYX-fUs4" target="_blank">here</a>. I was able to interview via email veteran racing TV commentator Ben Evans who has been doing the English call of the series for the past few seasons (originally known as the Spanish GT Championship).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Check it out and I hope it becomes a regular feature of the blog.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hi Anthony,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Firstly apologies, I thought this had been sent but was stuck in my inbox.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wow lots of questions, I'll answer what I can, but there are some that I'm afraid I don't know the answer to, as the teams won't tell me everything for obvious reasons.</span></div>
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<b>I noticed <a href="http://www.villorbacorse.com/" target="_blank">Scuderia Villorba Corse</a> has entered their GT3 car. I believe this is the same car used in the Blancpain Series both sprint and endurance.</b></div>
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<b> Has Villorba Corse abandon their GT2 Ferrari car ahead of the rules changes to GT cars in 2016 or was this to streamline things a bit?</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I wish I could tell you more, I don't know the specific reason for the switch, but my guess is that its a range of factors - availability of GT2 spares, factor support & as you said the prevailing trend to GT3. Last weekend was the first time that Villorba ran the GT3 on Dunlop tyres, and given that Friday was a washout the team did a lot learning in the races. I would expect to see them challenging for wins in Portimao. Andrea Montermini is right at the top of his game & Niccolo Schiro is quick, learning and has the right attitude.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Do you think recent adding of GT3 cars to European Le Mans Series has had an impact on GT Open grids?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I thought the grids were very good at the weekend, 24 cars was up on the season average for last year, and more than we're seeing in Blancpain Sprint. Generally however it has been a difficult winter for all GT championships. The GT Open grid feels very different because there are so many new cars, but it still has a very healthy grid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Has the series seen more international interest since moving to YouTube?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Yes I think so, having a live non geo-blocked HD stream is a huge plus. The series (and EuroFormula Open) have lots of global interest. For example we are back on Argentinian TV this year with the return of Juan Manuel Lopez, and also extensively across Asia with Tanart Sathienthikarul and Sandy Stuvik in EuroFormula. It's great, after most weekends I'll get emails from people all over the world who've watched the races.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>Is <a href="http://www.isaactutumlu.com/" target="_blank">Isaac Tutumlu</a>'s blow up in his <a href="http://www.orlandor.com/" target="_blank">Autrolando Sport</a> Porsche signs of budget concerns?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I would say not, there were a couple of other factors. Firstly it was absolutely freezing at the Nurburgring over the weekend and that can always make engines vulnerable. Secondly he had a big moment at the chicane which i think knocked an oil pipe or similar loose. This is my third season with the GT Open & only the second time I can remember a mechanical issue with an Autorlando car as they are as a rule superbly prepared. I really felt for Isaac Tutumlu though as he is an excellent driver who as yet in GT Open hasn't had the luck. All things being equal I wouldn't be surprised to see an Autorlando victory in Jerez.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>On that note have the Porsche teams been notified of a replacement for their GT3-R's? I know Porsche Motorsport was bleeding personal due to the work load for the LMP1 car; that has to carryover into preparing production based cars like the GT3-RS (GT2/GTLM) and GT3-R (which hasn't been announced yet).</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I'm afraid I don't know & I didn't see anyone there from Porsche to talk to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>What changes are allowed to make a GT3 car competitive in Super GT versus FIA/ACO GT2 cars?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll get a detailed answer for you but need to ask around as don't know the full technical details.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>What is the series doing about clashing weekends? Just this past week was the Tudor series at Laguna Seca and WEC at Spa. Not only that but British GT, DTM and WTCC. I managed to watch all of these but I am not the average fan. Are heavy motorsport weekends like this impacting attendance and viewers online?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Unfortunately clashing weekends are one of those things. Last weekend was a good time for all the championships you. mentioned as there was no F1 clash which is the big driver for all Europe based calendars. Planning the following year's calendar is a year round process. The starting point for GT Open is going to the tracks the drivers love & then building a calendar around when works best to visit each track.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b>What is your summary of both races this weekend?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It was a really intriguing weekend and I am excited about the season. The big takeaways for me were: the strength in depth is immense, all the Super GTs have race winning potential. Additionally the balance of performance works, even with such a change in cars there were close battles especially in GTS. On paper it may appear as if the Corvettes dominated, and no doubt they were strong, but at Portimao and Jerez tyre management will be an issue. It was freezing cold and that helped the big cars increase tyre longevity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The driver talent is awesome this year, Montermini, Pastorelli and Tomas Enge could/should have become superstars, I could watch them all day. In particular Tomas Enge was just sublime on Sunday & set fastest lap after fastest lap. Daniel Zampieri is so exciting to watch, he just wrings everything from the car. He & Roman Mavlanov could be genuine title contenders. Likewise Catsburg/Soulet are both very rapid, Matt Griffin is always superb, Joel Camaithias, Stefano Gattuso, Andrea Piccini - I could go on all night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other big unknown is the pace of the Valsecchi/Venturini Lamborghini which ended up the wrong side of the wall after a monumental crash in Saturday qualifying & so didn't race. Once the car is repaired I'd expect it to be strong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> No thank you Ben! You can follow him on <a href="https://twitter.com/bencommentator" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can catch all GT Open events live on YouTube. Archived races from 2013 are also located on their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/GTOPENseries" target="_blank">YouTube channel</a>.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-89544781600142313712014-04-17T12:45:00.000-07:002014-04-19T15:47:20.570-07:00Marginal Long Beach Races Postscript and Lots Of Action In Europe Easter Weekend (Updated!)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> To hear some of the spin coming out of the media on two very marginal sports car races at Long Beach is a bit galling. I understand the desire to make this merger work, but that doesn't diminish the fact that we still have problems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tudor United Sports Car Series -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 1) Ed Brown single-handedly ruined what could have been a good GTLM battle. The Pro-Am element rearing its ugly head.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 2) Questionable BoP between Daytona Prototypes and P2 Prototypes</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Sigh, this is why I beat up on Pro Am drivers. When not causing accidents, they get in the way of pro drivers. Even if they are in supposedly faster prototypes, they are tentative in medium speed turns and because of the lack of downforce are actually slower at corner entry and mid corner speed compared to a GTLM car.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So until GTLM teams had to change strategy to get from behind Ed Brown. In the meantime, Antonio Garcia jumped Brown at the start and put him between himself and the #55 BMW.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> This resulted in a 10 second lead in about 8-9 laps and as we know with the close lap times in GT, that meant game over unless their was a caution period. When we didn't need one at the end of the Sebring race, we didn't get one here and the action on the track suffered a bit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Don't get me wrong the battle for 2-4 was very good, only broken up by pit stops which also broke up much of the battling for the podium.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Scott Pruett won, but didn't I say that <a href="http://pfmotorsports.blogspot.com/2014/04/predictions-lbgp-pwclgbp-tudorlbgp.html" target="_blank">earlier</a>?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Barbosa and Fittipaldi lead the championship by a few scant points. Lots of racing left, but if the P2's can't break through, the murmuring will continue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Marshall Pruett said something on Mid-Week Motorsports on Wed (4/16) that I think should be kept in mind when you read my rantings about USC. He said that ESM because of its current makeup is not one of the fastest teams in the paddock. It's pretty obvious that Ed Brown is a typical Gentlemen driver and Scott Sharp is in the twilight of his career. Leaving Ryan Dalziel to do all the heavy lifting in the lead #1 Honda HPD.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> With Pickett/Muscle Milk missing Long Beach, all P2 hopes seemed to be put on the European Oak Racing team. On Twitter somebody said he believed Olivier Pla was the fastest driver in the paddock. I don't disagree, given his single seater experience. Its Oak's lack of track data that prevents me from giving them the nod. But I expect them to factor into the podium at Laguna Seca.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Pirelli World Challenge -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This race was about as exciting as the Tudor GTLM race, ho hum... I did expect Team Cadillac to do well, they have 3 years of data here. I picked Lazzaro because I thought if he could find his way past both Cadillacs, he would pull away as his car is better through the tricky bits because of the additional downforce. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> That didn't happen, so he held station and finished 3rd.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I don't think any performance balancing is needed. The teams that run GT3 cars need to step it up as Johnny O'Connell has already said, once the GT3 teams find the sweet spot, the Caddies will be toast and I don't disagree.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This begs the question however, when this crossover happens and the GT3's dominate in the hot summer months, will GM do its typical thing and pull the plug instead of developing (via Pratt-Miller) a GM Customer Racing Program where they sell not just the Cadillac CTS-V R GT3 cars but the Corvette C7R GTLM car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> That scenario is very possible, as Corvette Racing (P&M) has expressed interest in selling new cars to other teams. Previously they put last year's car up for sale where people could buy them. New cars are built for the team only and aren't available. Some people on the internet would have you believe the cars are available to anybody that wants to pay for them. That's simply untrue because many teams and individuals have expressed interest in buying new cars from GM.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> With the Callaway C7 program being delayed by Callaway Competition in Germany, this leaves a window open for Pratt & Miller to generate some income.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Now that <a href="http://www.racer.com/pwc/item/102812-pwc-dyson-racing-enters-series-with-factory-bentley-continental-gt3-program" target="_blank">Dyson</a> is entering the fray with Bentley's, not that Cadillac is direct competition but it certainly would like to be the high luxury brand that can compete with Bentley directly on the race track if not in the showroom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is also a further poke in the eye at Tudor for not accepting full GT3 cars because it wanted to appease Porsche who doesn't have a GT3 based on its new 991 platform. All of it's resources have been burned on preparing GT Cup cars for the various championships around the world, building a handful of GTLM customer cars and of course the LMP1 program which according to rumors has been <a href="http://www.mulsannescorner.com/newsmarch14.html" target="_blank">bleeding personal at a furious pace do to workload</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The issue was talked about on Mid-Week Motorsports along with Marshall's previous comments about the quality of the P2 teams might be the cause of the lack of P2 success thus far.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You can listen to this week's podcast <a href="http://audio.rpix.org.uk/mwm/9/mwm9-15.mp3" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> While it seems like a slow Easter Weekend for domestic based series like Indycar and NASCAR, what else would you expect coming from a "Christian Nation"? That isn't the case in Europe as there's plenty of racing action.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Blancpain Sprint Series (Formerly FIA GT Series/FIA GT1) -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The new name brings familiar faces as not much as changed from last year. The biggest news coming into this season is the return of former CART Champion Alex Zanardi to the cockpit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Other new drivers to the series include Jeroen Bleekemolen who should be familiar to those of us that followed the ALMS, two-time GTC Champion and winner in the P2 class at Le Man back in the Porsche Spyder era. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He'll be driving for Grasser Racing along with Hari Proczyk who is pretty quick in these Reiter Engineering Lamborghini.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If you're wondering why Nelson Piquet Jr. is missing from the NASCAR paddock its because he's returned to Europe to drive for Team Brazil-BMW.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Seems to me theres plenty of interesting reasons to tune in this weekend. You can watch the stream <a href="http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live#live-timing" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Other series - </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Like I said there's plenty going on this weekend outside of America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As of 2am this morning Lewis Hamilton has claimed pole for the Chinese GP.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.fiawtcc.com/" target="_blank">World Touring Car Championship</a> rolls into France as well (joining Blancpain) as it runs at the Paul Ricard TT circuit for the first time in a very long time and the first time in its current iteration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They are joined by the <a href="http://www.fiaetcc.com/html/" target="_blank">European Touring Car Championship</a> as it starts its season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Also this weekend is the British Touring Car Champion @ <a href="http://www.btcc.net/" target="_blank">Donington Park</a> with its full lineup of support series.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> Finally the British GT Championship gets underway @ <a href="http://www.britishgt.com/" target="_blank">Oulton Park</a> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> World Endurance Championship (WEC) -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The WEC season opener is already underway, you can listen to coverage of practice, qualifying and the race on <a href="http://radiolemans.com/" target="_blank">radio lemans</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Announced yesterday however is that the WEC stream will no longer be free outside of certain markets with connected TV's.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/a-new-and-interactive-way-to-follow-the-fia-wec_1865.html">http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/a-new-and-interactive-way-to-follow-the-fia-wec_1865.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In short, there's a app for iDevices and Android devices as well. Its available on both the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/US/app/id852396979?mt=8" target="_blank">iTunes store</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.netcosports.andwec" target="_blank">Google Play Store</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> The <a href="http://www.fiawec.com/live.html" target="_blank">live stream</a> is also available for laptops and desktop computers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The cost is $27.99 US for the whole season (pre/post race, practice, qualifying and races) including the 24 hrs of Le Mans. I am fairly sure Fox Sports will be carrying the 24hr race so you may opt for the next tier which is $6.20 US. If you know you'll be away from a TV over the Le Mans weekend for $13.80 US you can have full access to the race weekend on your laptop or tablet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Some are outraged over this, but frankly considering you get most of your racing either as a part of a overall pay tv package (cable/sat) for which there is no premium cost as Fox Sports (Tudor), NBC Sports Network (Indycar + F1) and ESPN (NASCAR) are all available on most system as part of a basic package. You would pay a premium for HD broadcast, but still its not that expensive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You can avoid paying this fee if you are in UK/Mainland Europe as the WEC will be shown on Motors TV.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> These things are connected, let me explain. There is a way you can watch this and everything I mentioned above for free. But you'll need to invest in some hardware to do it. The price of hardware has been reduced to a point that anybody can afford it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Since the WEC is the first major series to do this, others may follow if it proves successful. So its best to prepare for future as this sort of thing will become more commonplace especially for Americans wanting to watch series outside the US, which admitted has small audience of its home country (F1 being the exception).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I will prepare a tutorial on how to build a internet based PVR and also two ways you can get content onto your flat screen if you don't have a connected TV or even if you do. For example if you have a LG or Samsung Smart TV, you have a YouTube app. Unfortunately you can't watch the Blancpain GT series (Sprint and Endurance) because its Geo-blocked but you can watch German DTM in English via YouTube its not blocked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So having a smart tv is not a complete solution while mine is. More details to follow and in an effort to increase readership to my blog I may limit access to the tutorial.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I can already tell you it will cost less than $100, which sounds like much more than the $28 for WEC or $37.30 for a <a href="https://www.v8supercars.com.au/v8superview" target="_blank">full season of V8 Supercars</a> but it will be less than <a href="https://secure.motogp.com/en/Subscribe" target="_blank">a season</a> of MotoGP ($137.83).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I should also mention that if you want to watch WTCC or BTCC there's no more Speed2 and while Fox Sports has created another streaming website I currently don't have the URL for, I don't think they'll be carrying obscure series like the BTCC or WTCC in the States unless its planned for the off-season like they used to do on Speed/Speedvision.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So the only other way you'll be able to watch this is through my tutorial if you're in the US.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Keep checking back as I should have this up by the next WEC race at Spa. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-56913164714504273282014-04-12T10:48:00.002-07:002014-04-17T11:49:15.871-07:00Predictions - LBGP, PWC@LGBP, Tudor@LBGP, Blancpain@Monza, WTCC@Marrakech<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Disappointed I won't be attending the Toyota Long Beach GP weekend. Its just I had a financial setback at the start of the year, plus I dropped my expensive smartphone which the screen will take $160 to repair. So in the meantime I picked up an $70 Android phone that runs Jellybean (4.1) and is dual core but memory limitations put it on par with my Samsung Infuse 4G that's doing desktop/alarm clock duty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Anyway so with that here my predictions for the weekend, enjoy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Verizon IndyCar Series -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Hmmm, qualifying hasn't happen yet but going off practice times and previous history of strong performances, I think I'll go with Simon Pagenaud. He topped the timesheets yesterday afternoon and has many miles here in the ALMS and Indycar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> For the second race in a row Takuma Sato is in the Top 3 in practice times. Some might be surprised, but I'm not. Given Sato's lower formula results this really shouldn't be shocking. F1 is much more about being in the right place at the right time, so his F1 career shouldn't be indicative of future performance. I expect him to win (defending race winner) in this series and win often, challenging for a series titles if he can clean up his penchant for over-aggressive driving.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In fact I expect to see a Honda rebound here since Chevy sweep the podium in St. Pete.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pirelli World Challenge -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A near FIA spec GT3 car won this race last year (James Sofronas) so I expect a GT3 car to win this race which at some point we'll see if GM starts complaining.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Mike Skeen was 3rd in practice in a car that's brand new to him and his team as they have abandoned the Nissan GTR. They had just taken delivery last weekend, but given the excellence of Audi Customer Sports (who have a busy weekend) this shouldn't be that shocking. The have fresh data from the Baku race a few months ago that ended the FIA GT series for 2013 and of course GMG's data from last year's victory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But he won't be my pick, we'll see if given the same equipment as everybody else he finally starts challenging for victories more often. I don't question his talent, we'll see if the team itself is up to it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My pick for the GT part of the GT/GT-A class will be Anthony Lazzaro. Its been a long time since Anthony has went to victory lane without sharing a car. In fact I think his last victory is at the 2005 Lime Rock Grand Prix in ALMS if I am not mistaken, if I am wrong correct me or I'll do a quick search later and fix it. But I don't think he's won a race alone since his Toyota Atlantic days. I think he won here in an Atlantic car, again if I am wrong let me know but I think I am right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He was strong at St. Pete so I expect him to challenge for the victory, especially if Tomas Enge is in Europe at the Blancpain Endurance Series season opener at Monza, which I thought as next weekend, nope the race is Sunday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I don't care much for the GTS classes so no comment on them, but I wish everybody a safe race.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tudor United Sports Car Series -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately, I think the DP's will have their way which will further fuel speculation amongst the fanbase. I think another round of BoP is on the way. The P2's are still not back up to 2013 specs with the fear that the DP's would suffer. Well I would say their fears were not justified. It's hard to say without Muscle Milk/Nissan Pickett Racing being here, but that car is new them and they don't have enough miles on it yet. They opted not to come here this weekend because they didn't want to potentially tear up a brand new car. That might be the given reason, but I think the <i>real</i> reason is they believe BoP is unfairly tilted towards the heavily modified DP's who have thus far lead the most laps and taken two straight victories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So my pick is Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, enough said, let's move on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In GTLM (the only other class this weekend), its hard to say and while my favorite team Risi is a bit handicapped without it fastest driver who's on probation and one race suspension from his boneheaded return to the track after wrecking his car at Sebring (Turn 1). They have drafted in Dane Cameron who's continued to impress since being given the chance to drive a DP and put it on pole at Road America last year. He turned the GTC class fastest lap during Sebring in the Tuner BMW Z4 GT3. In the limited practice they have had he's been on pace but not the ultimate pace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I think if they can avoid any problems, they may finish on the podium but I think any chance of winning is very slim. I just have no faith in Fisichella. I don't think he's even turned a race lap this year. Remember, Malucelli was in the car when Memo Gidley slammed into him. Gimmi Bruni started the race and was actually on the entry list at Long Beach until Risi announced Cameron was given the job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Fisichella qualified the car and will start 7th, just behind the factory Porsches (Core) and the factory SRT Vipers who seem to be struggling this weekend.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I guess I should go ahead and pick who I think is going to win....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am going to go with Redondo Beach native Bill Auberlen and Former WTCC Champion Andy Priaulx. He and Maxime Martin who has been drafted into a DTM seat this season for BMW pretty much replacing Priaulx who struggled; surprised last season by winning here. No reason not to pick them again and I think Priaulx has a bit of extra of incentive that the other drivers in the paddock don't quite have.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am going to stop this post here, as the Tudor race is five hours at the time of this post and I don't have quite enough info on the other series to release my picks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Comeback in a few hours and I should have updated this post. </span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-69154658137735704782014-04-07T20:07:00.000-07:002014-04-07T20:07:02.363-07:00A Few Things - Tudor LBGP Mini Preview, BES shaping up to be the best season yet, World Challenge better than Tudor? (Updated!)<h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tudor rolls into Long Beach with 21 entries -</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are a few storylines going into the first sprint race of the new Tudor United Sports Car Championship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> With Malucelli suspended for one race for the unsafe return to the track following his collision with the T1 tire wall at Sebring; Gimmi Bruni has been drafted into Risi to replace him. But that's not surprising. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The other driver is TBA. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If you remember from last season, the pairing of Bruni and Fisichella in the WEC was <a href="http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111630" target="_blank">broken up due to two questionable performances by Fischella</a> which put their defense of the 2012 championship in jeopardy.</span></div>
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ultimately AF Corse was able to defend their title and repeat as champions, but they paired Bruni with his old FIA GT GT2 class championship winning teammate in Toni Vilander who was teamed with current F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi in the other AF Corse WEC entry who couldn't find a suitable F1 seat last season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Its very possible Bruni doesn't want to be teamed with Fischi after almost losing the championship and with little track knowledge, maybe its better to bring in two hot shoes since Risi has had two straight DNF's at the two longest races with the most points on offer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If they can get a victory here, they could be back in the Team's Championship if the Driver's titles are completely out of reach at this point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I would look for Toni Vilander to again pair with Bruni for this race since both have track knowledge and have qualified well here before.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My picks for this race sometime should be released sometime on Friday as I will be making my annual trek down to the City of Long Beach, the LBC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://www.tamiyausa.com/LBGP/" target="_blank">Tamiya</a> is no longer offering completely free entry on Friday. Starting last year you now have to buy up to $10 worth of product or merchandise on their <a href="http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/store.php#.U0EAH_ldWSo" target="_blank">website</a>. You haven't seen it yet on here but I am a huge Tamiya fan and have previously owned several Tamiya R/C cars/trucks. This won't be the first time I will be mentioning them here, so stay tuned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Those of you in California looking for reasonable discount on tickets to the Tudor race or the entire weekend, go <a href="http://www.goldstar.com/events/long-beach-ca/toyota-grand-prix-of-long-beach" target="_blank">Goldstar</a>. Since 2011, I have been purchasing my tickets for the race from them. There prices are very good, you don't pay full pop. *<i>Saturday's Tudor Race, Toyota Celeb Race, Formula Drift and Indycar Qualifying is now sold out on Goldstar, $48 on LBGP website</i>. You can still purchase a ticket for all three days for same general admission price for Sunday Only ($55) and $20 less than if you purchased it off the LBGP website.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> DP's have won the first two races and IMSA sees no point in major BoP changes. Ganassi was helped out by one of those phantom caution periods that seem to follow NASCAR around. So in reality, maybe there doesn't need to be any adjustments since the bulk of the schedule will be high downforce tracks. The only team with previous data this weekend is Extreme Speed, since they ran their HPD chassis here last year. The DP's are completely different from how they were the last time they were here, I think that was 2005-2006. That doesn't mean simulators aren't working hard back at GM and Riley Technologies however. That said I expect the Sharp/Dalziel car to be fast right off the truck.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The entry list dropped from a possible 25 cars down to 21 since Muscle Milk won't be making the grid. In their PR they said it was because they were behind in development, but many think its because they want some further BoP adjustments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>This just in - Dane Cameron will be in the car with Fischella, here's the <a href="http://www.imsa.com/articles/dane-cameron-joins-risi-competizione-ferrari" target="_blank">presser</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So does that mean....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">World Challenge is the better GT/Road Racing series in America after only one event?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well according to Elton Julian, who said as much after everyone is congratulating themselves for a successful weekend, despite Race #1 being rained out the day before. Elton has driven cars in the ALMS and been an owner/team manager as well, he would be one to take his statement at face value.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> IMHO, one of the biggest mistakes IMSA made was appeasing its legacy supporter Porsche who had a new version of the its 911 Grand Am GT car already on the drawing board. Porsche is little stretched for resources and hasn't built enough 991 based 911 Cup cars for customers let alone design a new FIA GT3 spec car. Everybody is running the older 997 based car in GT3 spec. There is no ETA on a new GT3 car and they barely build new tubs for CORE Autosport in time Daytona. Falken got their car too late to run at Daytona.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Its because of this seemingly small decision has benefited Pirelli World Challenge. I will be very interested in the lap times turned by the FIA GT3 cars compared to the GTLM in the Tudor series. GT3 cars because of their traction control (which is on GTLM cars) and ABS (which is not on GTLM cars) they have an advantage on slippery surfaces. A street course by nature is low grip, so I expect these cars to be just as fast if not faster around the Street of Long Beach.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If they provide a better overall show than GTLM? There will be more questions than answers over in the Tudor camp.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blancpain Endurance and Sprint Series best seasons yet?</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I will reserve my thoughts on the Sprint series when more news comes out about potential grids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The grid for the season opener at <a href="http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/news/191/66-cars-on-the-blancpain-gt-series-grids" target="_blank">Monza</a> for the Endurance series however is shaping up to be a barn burner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> HTP one of AMG's partner teams has thus far signed Harold Primat fresh off being replaced by Lee Holdsworth at Erebus-Mercedes (who won race 2 this weekend at Winton). The other drivers have been signed by HTP but I would look for defending champion Maximilian Buhk to be back in the car along with Maximilian Gotz (his ADAC GT teammate).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Thus far there are no strong Ferrari teams as Kessel is focusing on ELMS and trying to get an automatic bid into the big race for 2015. Kessel will still contend in the Pro Am class, but they'll have a hard time beating defending Pro Am champs Nissan GT Academy - RJN, as they return with some of last year's drivers, Pro Am drivers champ Alex Buncombe and resent winners of the competition Nick McMillan (US winner) and Miguel Faisca (European winner). I am an ardent supporter of GT Academy and of course Gran Turismo is one of my all time favorite racing games. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> These guys are very quick but lack experience so they should be classified as Sliver drivers but of course the true Captains of Industry in the UK who race in the British GT Championship (also run by SRO) didn't want to race these guys, especially after they won a race at the end of the 2012 season.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There has been some driver movement and driver pairings broken up that I hope to cover with somebody connected to the series, stay tuned.</span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-10624858008103808142014-03-29T11:10:00.001-07:002014-03-29T11:10:45.508-07:00IndyCar 2014 and Pirelli World Challenge Mini Preview <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For Indycar I will focus on who I think as the best chance at winning the overall championship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For World Challenge I will focus only on the GT and GT-A classes.</span></div>
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Verzion Indycar Series -</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Verizon takes over as series sponsor from Izod who basically abandoned the series after Dan Wheldon's fatal accident at Las Vegas at the end of the 2012 season. They only did what was mandated to finish out the contract.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Verizon will continue to sponsor Will Power but also will sponsor Juan Pablo Montoya's return to Indycar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You can get more detailed information from <a href="http://racer.com/indycar" target="_blank">Marshall Pruett's</a>/<a href="http://audio.rpix.org.uk/mwm/9/mwm9-12.mp3" target="_blank">Midweek Motorsport Indycar season preview</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I think this will be a tight battle down to the last race. I am going to say James Hinchcliffe: <a href="http://www.hinchtown.com/" target="_blank">The Mayor of Hinchtown</a> will be your 2014 Indycar Title Winner. He's shown dominance on all the different tracks Indycar runs on. You could say the same about his teammate <a href="http://ryanracing.com/" target="_blank">Ryan Hunter-Reay</a> which could mean an inter-team rivalry could develop.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This should also give <a href="http://andrettiautosport.com/home.php?cid=drivers" target="_blank">Andretti Autosport</a> the Team's title and <a href="http://hpd.honda.com/" target="_blank">Honda</a> the Manufacturer's title.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You can check out the Round 1@St Pete GP on your local ABC station on Sunday.</span></div>
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Pirelli World Challenge GT/GT-A -</h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Also this weekend is the Pirelli World Challenge season opener. All races will be live on http://www.world-challengetv.com/ and taped delayed by a week on NBC Sports Network.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I think my pick will come as a shock to some, but I don't think its that shocking. Look at the time sheets already in practice and it will make sense. My pick for 2014 World Challenge GT Champion is Tomas Enge. Why you might ask? He has lots of test and race miles in the Reiter Engineering built Lamborghini Gallardo. He also has direct sprint race experience in the car via the FIA GT1 Championship which is now the Blancpain Sprint Series. So this format is familiar too him. He also has standing start experience from his single seater days and finally he has track experience at many of the circuits they will be visiting this season from his days with Petersen-White Lightning Racing when the made the switch from Porsche to Ferrari.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-41743993227882759532014-03-25T00:13:00.000-07:002014-03-25T00:13:36.823-07:00Its official - SRT will not be going to Le Mans this year, is this connected to car sales or ?<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Steven Cole Smith who's been writing about the ALMS until last year, has been reporting on the combined <a href="http://www.imsa.com/" target="_blank">Tudor</a> series. Last week he reported that it was possible for the SRT team not going to Le Mans for the 24 hr race.</span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Well it, its true <a href="http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140324/UNITEDSPORTSCAR/140329918?utm_source=Alert20140324&utm_medium=enewsletter&utm_term=missedarticle1more&utm_content=20140324-SRT-Vipers-will-not-race-at-24-Hours-of-Le-Mans&utm_campaign=awAlert" target="_blank">they won't going</a>. Of course Ralph Giles of SRT won't blame on poor Viper sales.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/onN-9Z9hsUI" width="480"></iframe></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Speaking of Autoline Detroit, Ralph will be on Autoline Afterhours at 3pm PST or 6pm EST, I think that's 22:00 GMT but don't quote me on that. I doubt you'll get any straight answers but if you want to see if you can get a decent excuse out of him, tune-in on Thurs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As a long-time Viper fan, sure this is disappointing but not unexpected. After all, Audi, Porsche and Toyota's LMP programs are run out of the engineer budgets. The additional money for racing comes out of increased engineering budgets, not from the adveristing size of the business like it with much of Ford's, GM and Chrysler-Fiat's operations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If sales are poor, its best to claw back and focus on beating Corvette at home. I guess that's a decent PR answer, but Vipers are popular with fans in Europe, it would be just as beneficial to race there as it would here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I don't know if there is much they can do about sales actually. The Viper is six-digit sport-car while if restraint is used on the Corvette's option sheet, you can get a new C7 for about $60K out the door. Performance is about equal between them - </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> That's the main problem, why pay more for equal performance? Americans really love a value and usually see no point in spending more when they don't have too. Especially when there's nothing overly special about the Viper other than its more rewarding to control all that power and its still a bit rough at the limit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> SRT is going to have to beat the standard Stingray into the ground to justify the higher cost or bring the cost down without making the car harder to control or reducing creature comforts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is a tough task and I wish them well, because of sales don't pick up, there won't be much justification for a halo car in this weak economic climate.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-29529758211448886162014-03-16T13:10:00.000-07:002014-03-16T13:10:56.681-07:00Sebring Postscript, TUDOR Media and Kevin Magnussen <h3>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sebring Race, Streaming and Overall Media</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The qualifying stream provided by IMSA was appalling. Three fixed camera positions and tower PA only provided on the media/timing tower camera. That just smacks of cost-cutting, similar to the story that IMSA/NASCAR <a href="http://motorsportstalk.nbcsports.com/2013/10/23/swift-support-comes-for-imsa-safety-team-after-report-it-may-go-away/" target="_blank">would not have a traveling safety crew</a> that has became apart the ALMS family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If this is suppose to be a destination series then ACT like it! For years the ALMS had qualifying shows, especially when it cut its deal with ESPN3. These were high quality used all the different cameras around the track along with booth talent. Why not continue this in the new series?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> If you feel the same as I do about this, contact <a href="mailto:info@IMSA.com" target="_blank">IMSA</a> (386-310-6500). As an ardent supporter of the American Le Mans Series, I find this completely unacceptable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Also during the Continental Tire Race (CTSC) on Friday, the Timing/Scoring feed impacted the streaming, dropping frames when it updated. If you experienced this as well, please contact IMSA to make sure the code of their website is fixed. I believe it might have been because the stream of the final nine hours of the 12 hours was excellent, accept for the last 90 mins that was plagued with buffer issues.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Seems to me if IMSA is going to offer these services to fans, maybe they shouldn't have fired much of the production company that produced the ALMS broadcast for Speed and ESPN3...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The race itself was a bit disjointed early but turned into a descent race after half way. At the time of this writing I don't believe its a record but 11 caution periods marred the event. The race never reached 300 laps as it had done in previous years. With almost as many cars as the final ALMS at Sebring last year, there we're only four cautions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Disappointed ESM was impacted by the questionable final caution when the Whelen Corvette stopped OFF COURSE. If you were watching the stream you would have found one of the rules of the new series is that corner workers are not allowed to leave their assigned post. I think its pretty obvious to see why this was done. It forced a 20 min shootout; where #02 Ganassi car that spun coming into the pits for its final stop (or was pushed by the Action Express Corvette, depending who you wanna believe) ended up with a 5-6 second victory. ESM's Ryan Dalziel had built up a 7-8 second lead over the Ganassi #02 after a restart from caution #10.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Orchestrated finishes? Ganassi (a long time GA supporter) granted victory? You be the judge...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A chip off the old block</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Kevin Magnussen finished 3rd on debut in his first F1 GP. Congratulations to Kevin and his father Jan who I have been a fan of for a very long time. With Ron Dennis back in control of McLaren F1, I think we may see a victory from Kevin before the year is out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blog change delays</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am still finalizing the look of my blog, its not super important, but I want it clean and simple so I can just add content and focus on promotion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I will be reporting from the Long Beach GP weekend. At this point I don't know if I will attend all three days or just the Tudor race which is traditional for me the last 5-6 years. If I do attend all three days, I will be focusing not just on Tudor but the Pirelli World Challenge who has seen a doubling of its grid in less than twelve months. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Did IMSA/NASCAR made a mistake by not accepting full house FIA GT3 cars, instead balancing those cars against a car that was already in the design stage (Porsche GT3 America) which meant the removal of traction control and ABS from the cars but also meant a restriction in rear downforce by mandating a spec wing?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> We'll find out because I am eager to compare lap times between the Tudor GTLM cars and standard FIA spec GT3 cars in World Challenge GT.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-61910084325003396592014-03-07T01:24:00.001-08:002014-03-16T13:11:24.063-07:00Is the media and fellow teams in GTLM discounting Ferrari? <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Seems as though everybody wants to talk about the direct factory teams and its understandable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They have millions invested, great staffs and fast, reliable drivers. However....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It seems some in the media, okay most of the print, online and TV media is discounting Ferrari and Risi Competizione. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Before the huge accident that marred the race, Bruni who started shotgun on the field was able to make it up to first place before handing the car off to Malucelli and getting hit from behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I know some feel the Ferrari F458 is a bit fragile but its still one of the fastest cars with the fewest waviers considering its competition...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I say, discount them at your own risk. Malucelli was back in the groove, showing no affects from his accident at Daytona and laid down some fast laps in the Krohn Racing Ferrari; who is partnering this year with Risi as Tracey Krohn needs to be closer to his business. They will be doing the Patron North American Endurance Championship, maybe more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> V8 Supercars - </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Well it seems I forgot the V8 season got underway down under, I haven't seen the race and unfortunately I know who won. I will watch the race and report back in a few days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Change is coming, it is slow but it will be worth it.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-62375603931355077022014-02-27T21:04:00.002-08:002014-02-27T21:04:21.980-08:00Knowing when your on the right track <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love how people like to ignore things, especially in sports. It just proves sports for many is an escape from the harsh realities in their lives. However that is no reason to suspend critical thought on issues of morality, fairness and criminal activities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It was recently reported that former team owner Greg Loles was convicted and faces 25 years in prison - <a href="http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20140226/man-who-embezzled-21m-from-orange-church-sentenced-to-25-years">http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20140226/man-who-embezzled-21m-from-orange-church-sentenced-to-25-years</a> which is just another in a series of White Collar Crimes that auto racing, specifically sports car racing covers up.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> When Greg was first arrested, it wasn't reported on the ALMS' own website. What that means of course is that as long as the bills and entry fees are paid it doesn't matter where it comes from or who is behind it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Did I mention since being arrested back in </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Anybody remember "Solo Al" <a href="http://lastturnclub.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=147&Itemid=1" target="_blank">Al Solaroli</a> (read all three parts) and the Porsche LMP2 that never was? What about John Field's <a href="http://cincinnati.com/blogs/developingnow/2011/08/17/cadillac-ranch-under-investigation/" target="_blank">tax issues</a>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The list of White Collar crimes committed by these people is astounding. Americans want to be outraged by the nefarious activities of the six largest banking institutions in the country, yet let this sort of stuff slide and keep cheering, amazing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There's an even bigger fish in the Tudor United Sports Car Series. Ha, I was recently threaten with legal act for just mentioning this teams name and owner. For the time being I won't mention these people directly until I can get the legalese sorted out here. But I find his threat funny, much of what I am going to end up saying is already public knowledge....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> These are serious issues, because people get hurt by these actives, the least of which are the members of these race teams who support families of their own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Wouldn't you like the series you follow to be above board? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Site News - I know I keep saying changes are coming, but they are, so stay tuned its about to get really interesting around hurr.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> PS - Thanks to outlets like RACER that selectively report the news makes it hard to take them seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-70723580655718852012014-01-25T07:45:00.000-08:002014-01-26T15:30:42.583-08:00Rolex 24 Predictions (Updated!)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Busy last night so here's a quick and dirty -</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Enjoy the race I know I will.... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Quick Post Race Analysis -</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Don't care about Chevy's podium sweep, that advantage will go away at Sebring and beyond so they better enjoy it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Video evidence is conclusive, Bruni didn't touch Hand, its really close, but HD cameras show there was no contact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Update #2</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-70552726184158295092014-01-13T13:53:00.000-08:002014-01-13T13:53:55.681-08:00Tudor Series continuing taking shape <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rolex 24</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As predicted (by me :) ) Nissan will field at least one JRM built Nissan GTR-GT3 modified to ridiculous GT-D rules by mid-season. It is rumored Pickett Racing will be fielding the car. This make perfect sense to me because there are no other teams with links to Nissan in the United States with prototype or international GT experience. Yes Doran is one of those team with tenuous links at best but its likely going to be Pickett to simplify operations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Its expected current US GT Academy winners will drive the car. You can read more about this "exclusive" (read: official announcement) <a href="http://sportscar365.com/imsa/tusc/exclusive-nissan-planning-mid-season-entry-for-gtd-spec-gt-r/" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Thanks to John Dagys of <a href="http://sportscar365.com/" target="_blank">Sportscar365</a> @johndagys on Twitter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Risi has also announced its Rolex 24 line up. It will be Malucelli from last season plus WEC regulars and current champion Gimmi Bruni and Fisichella. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I expect soon the second regular season driver to pair with Malucelli will be Ferrari factory newcomer Davide Rigon or maybe Bruno Senna. Senna said publically that he would like to join the newly merged championship last season at the WEC/ALMS double-header at COTA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> With some of the recent announcements with the single AMR entry for the Rolex race and possible driving lineups for the upcoming WEC season, it seem Senna has been excluded from those plans further fueling speculation on my part about his next move.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This would also be a perfect place to get in-line for the very possible Ferrari LMP-1 La Ferrari seat that has been seen testing in Spain recently.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Stay tuned for that development.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dakar Week 2</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Robby Gordon continues to struggle with his brand new Gordini HST based on one of his SST chassis. He's regularly passed 20+ cars when forced to start down the order. His best finish thus far was 3rd when he started 16th on Stage 4. However he missed a waypoint, so after the time penalty he was bumped down to 6th place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Again be sure to follow the rally on Robby's <a href="http://www.planetrobby.com/" target="_blank">website</a>. Live Timing and Scoring can be followed on <a href="http://dakar.com/">Dakar.com</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If things go as planned later this year (Summer of 2014) its very possible I could be on-site for next year's Dakar.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There some core things I need to do in order to make this possible, so please be patient. </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-53315073827540484012014-01-06T22:08:00.002-08:002014-01-06T22:09:42.610-08:00Robby Gordon starts the Dakar with minor problems but cost him over 2 hours to the Stage Winners and Other Stuff (Updated)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dakar 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crowd favorite Robby Gordon had problems right from the start with vapor locking issues. Not just the coolant but other fluids which likely include transmission, diff and power steering as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> They were towed that last few miles to the finish (133rd). He said that the problems will be sorted out overnight.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If you wanna keep track go to Robby page - </span><a href="http://www.planetrobby.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.planetrobby.com</span>/</a> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and set your DVR to record the 30 min highlight show on NBC-SN (NBC Sports Network). They are roughly 12 hours behind, so if you don't want to spoil it for yourself sort of ignore the internet racing sites.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Okay I just got the email from Planet Robby and he had to stop again today, he's currently 28th overall though, so he made some progress, however he's 1 hour 33 min behind now. I hope he solves his reliability issues for one of the longer stages tomorrow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">Roar @ 24</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I was surprised to see Risi pull out of the test but they released a statement saying they had all the data they needed. With the only other GTLM being the Krohn Aviation Ferrari who had the best time of 1:48.xxx which is over 2 seconds off the times set by the factory Porsche, Corvette and Viper Teams, I hope Risi puts together a solid driver lineup. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;">More changes upcoming</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sometime, the next installment of my series "How To Fix Auto Racing" will be ready in a few days.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Let me know anything else you wanna see here.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-47479242451435987812013-12-30T20:19:00.000-08:002013-12-30T20:20:10.332-08:00DTM in America??? Full House at Rolex 24, Full House at Sebring??? More Changes Coming!<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I hope most of you reading this thing are staying on top of things. I am trying to develop a regular schedule of posting and the format for the podcast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My series of how we fix racing in America will also continue into 2014 as we have less fragmentation but more confusion than ever????</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As a regular follower of racing since my childhood and hardy supporter of the ALMS since it started in late 1998, I can say that having one united series is a good thing, but watching how the sausage was made much how Government law is hashed out in real-time was a bit messy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>2014 Dakar featuring Robby Gordon</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> That said I am excited for 2014 to get started and it kicks off with the Dakar (in South America) Rally. If you didn't know Robby Gordon will be there, not with his Hummer (they have been sold) but with a new car based around one of the chassis he developed Short Course series. The rumor is this new SUV is based on a production SUV Robby will debut sometime in the future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> You can check out some pictures <a href="http://www.planetrobby.com/photo/2014-robby-gordon-dakar-rally-hst?context=user" target="_blank">here</a>, the car, chase trucks and equipment was shipped with the rest of the European teams equipment, cars, etc. So for the first time Robby will have his stuff through customs hopefully with less missing parts than in previous years. This is not the first time I've heard of shady customs in Latin America but I will talk about that another time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This narrower, shorter wheelbase car will be much better in the early stages of the rally which runs through river beds and access roads.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Good Luck to Robby and BJ Baldwin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tudor United Sports Car Championship</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> IMSA has released its <a href="http://f.cl.ly/items/01333Y1U1U2r1V0w1Y2M/2014%20Roar%20Entry%20List%20(1).pdf" target="_blank">entry list</a> for the official test session for the Rolex 24 @ Daytona. This list is pretty much has the cars, teams and driver line ups not only for this race but the entire season.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> As I have said in previous post, the premium of drivers will be key to any success next season, especially in the Pro Am classes of LMPC and GT-D. GT-D as expected is oversubscribed and some teams will be turned away, even at Daytona. The Roar list has 65 entries on it (was 67) and there is (to my knowledge) only 60 spaces at Daytona, so some GT-D entries will either have to qualify to get in or won't be invited.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Some might view that as a bad thing. I think its good, it will ensure a quality field for the race. It will be interesting to see how IMSA handles this and the PR problems it might create with the fanbase.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> While the Rolex Race might be fully subscribed, that may not be the case for the next race which is the Sebring 12 hours. Some teams focused more on their European activities will go back to Europe. That said, some teams have setup US operations, so it will be interesting to see who stays and runs the entire schedule, which is likely if they end up being highly placed in the championship after the first two races which should be double points.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>DTM in America, again????</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> One would think with a merged championship, not even a complete rules package there is crazy talk about a United States version of the Pan European DTM series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I have nothing to say really, this subject doesn't really deserve a blog post, so tell you what, I will just let The Racing Insiders hash this out for you, ugh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Not sure I will be posting again before the end of the year as I am finalizing the transfer over to Wordpress for this blog and submitting content to Motorsport.com. All these changes come with a new look and a new host. The URL will be the same but the register.com logo at the bottom of the screen will disapear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I will also be adding some new content not normally featured on automotive websites but its related to racing and cars in general.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Finally I may turn this thing into a forum/blog hybrid because to really discuss the problems that threaten racing long term really need a better platform so we can share our ideas in a threaded format so its easy to keep track of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Until then Happy New Year!</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-72116258126317072012013-12-08T15:46:00.000-08:002013-12-08T15:46:00.823-08:00What will really happen when the two combined car in Prototype race together for the first time, I think I have an idea...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When it was first announced and later confirmed Daytona Prototypes would be upgraded to match the pace of the ACO spec P2 cars, I knew right away that a P2 car will be the one to have and here's why.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Scott Pruett in an interview with Gordon Kirby on his <a href="http://www.gordonkirby.com/categories/columns/theway/2013/the_way_it_is_no407.html" target="_blank">website</a> confirmed what I think will happen. The upgrades to the Daytona Prototypes means these cars will enter uncharted waters with unknown impacts on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">reliability. With limited testing time between when the new aerodynamic parts (tunnel + rear diffuser) being delivered and all the upgrades being added to the cars (paddle shift, carbon brakes, different dampers and spring rates to deal with the added downforce, etc) means many teams will suffer at Daytona with balance problems and parts failure.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The P2 cars are fully sorted. The only changes are the mandated aero package for Daytona, Sebring and IMS which reduces overall downforce to match it closer to the DP with the changes. While teams may appear to lose a performance advantage will be able to gain some of that back. Under ACO rules, as long as a car manufacturer releases new body kit at the start of the season, updates are allowed once per season. For HPD teams, that means Wirth Engineering will go back to its computers and try to recover some of that lost downforce. Because the drivelines are pretty much bulletproof, I don't expect many failures even if these cars have never run on the Daytona banked oval before.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> By the time the checkered flag drops on the new era Rolex 24, I think you'll find a P2 in the winners circle, barring anything like accidents of course. Besides Daytona, the only other place where P2 cars have no data is IMS (Indy). If they a P2 car can finish on the podium at Daytona, again at Sebring and again at Petit; it doesn't even have to worry about finishing on the podium at IMS, the North American Endurance Title would be a P2 victory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is with the on-going BoP (Balance of Adjustment) that's going to be made throughout the season. It will be a cat and mouse game, this is where having professional drivers will be important. Wirth Engineering has a simulator located at their design studio where once some data is available from this months BoP test at Daytona where Extremespeed will be attending, they will be able to upload the track data, put a driver in it say Guy Cosmo who has tons of tire testing under his belt and come up with a predictive lap time they could run to win the race with more consistent driving, better pit stops and better fuel economy than outright speed since the extra power DP's have automatically means less mileage.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In other words the HPD's won't have to dominate qualifying or the race to win it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I expect by Long Beach; the first sprint race of the season, DP teams will screaming for competition adjustments. Again with tons of on-track data at Long Beach despite those adjustments I think a P2 car will win again.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> By mid-season however DP's might go on a bit of a streak at places such as Mosport and Road America where handling and horsepower are important. But again at Road America fuel mileage because of the track length and uphill front straight will come into play and could be another P2 victory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I think its safe to assume that a P2 will end up dominating the first season of the new series and it will be interesting to see what the deeper pocketed teams do either at the end of the year or mid-season. Both Starworks and Ganassi made engine switches just beyond the midpoint in the season last year. Its totally possible that a team like Ganassi might park his converted DP's in favor of a P2 car of some description, especially if they are in the championship hunt and need to be on equal footing with the P2 cars. They are one of the few teams with very deep pockets and might willing to make the move.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> All this does is make for an exciting and interesting season from the sharp end of the grid to the blunt end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <i>I made this post originally before the testing accidents with the upgraded DP cars. Since that point however potential P2 teams like Greaves and Pecom have dropped their plans to run the Tudor Championship.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> However my original thought still stands by Petit Le Mans, I predict all Extreme speed will have to do is start the race and they'll win the title. This will be after a season of fist waving, sh*t talk and BoP.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i> If anything it will be interesting won't it?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-67588390017034296622013-12-08T00:03:00.001-08:002013-12-08T00:04:28.708-08:00Season Entries Released: Its about as expected<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I've been tracking this since before the season ended for both Grand Am and the American Le Mans Series.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> The only surprise thus far is that Dane Cameron doesn't have a ride yet considering his performance last season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Andy Priaulx will be exiting DTM (as predicted by me) to join the Team BMW RLL squad while Maxime Martin (winner at Long Beach with Bill Auberlen) will move into Andy's DTM seat effectively. It's likely we'll see Maxime when schedules don't clash with with DTM because Joey Hand, who I think should be focusing just on DTM will be back as a part-time partner to Dirk Muller who just missed out on the driver's title last year. When schedules do clash, expect to see John Edwards. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Dirk Werner was also reassigned and it looks like he'll be on VLN duty the majority of the year but also suspect he might be doing ADAC GT, Blancpain and the Spa 24, if not the Dubai 24 and 12 hours of Bathurst.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> And that folks is just the movement within BMW! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I expect Porsche's drivers for both its WEC and Tudor USCC be to announced before or just after Christmas. For Tudor I wouldn't be shocked if you saw the return of familiar faces to driving the factory Porsche cars. I expect Pat Long for sure, but with Marc Lieb looking like he's going to get a shot at driving one of the Porsche LMP1 cars, that leaves a seat open, stay tuned or that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But I think you can pencil in a few people besides Long. Hint: Anybody with more than a full season of starts in the ALMS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Speaking of Porsche that is one program whose resources are being stretched to the limit. Only four official Jr drivers was recently announced, that leaves two LMP seats open, six GTLM seats open and of course any 12 GT-D Porsches entered into the series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is why I think if you don't have an experienced Porsche shoe in your GT-D car (one of the reasons Potter tied up Andy Lally early) they are going to struggle for pace and will be looking high and low for experienced drivers, even if its only in the regional Porsche Cup series...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Ferrari drivers will also be busy, as Risi will be running two cars, one the entire season (no surprise) and one with Tracy Krohn. I don't think Tracy will be driving, this is why he's recently tested an LMP2 car for WEC and I believe he'll be trying a PC car sometime soon. So who does that leave? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Given Olivier Beretta's struggles last season, possibly be responsible for throwing away a victory at the final Petit Le Mans for the ALMS (while in the lead) and Risi's low tolerance for mistakes (see Jaime Melo) I think Matteo Malucelli will have new teammate. I wouldn't be shocked if Robin Liddell was given the nod. For never have driven a Ferrari before, he led the race in trickey wet-dry conditions during the early stages of Petit Le Mans. As it started drying out, he was near the pace of Malucelli. Malucellli is really fast behind wheel of one of these cars and just as fast as Melo was when his confidence was at its highest (2006-2008) which puts him on par with Ferrari pilot par excellence Gimmi Bruni. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I have no idea how they shuffle the deck here. I think Fisichelli will be reassigned as he struggled in the middle of the season (WEC) for pace and was able to only complete single tire stints in the car several times. That is the reason why AF Corse to protect their point lead not only in the team and manufacturer standings but also the driver's title; split up Bruni/Fisichelli and paired Bruni with long time teammate Toni Vilander (former FIA GT2 Champs). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So with Malucelli needing a teammate and Bruni needing a teammate, who knows what will happen but I know one person that's in the mix and that's former GP2 driver Davide Rigon. Rigon helped 8Star win the GT-Am Team's title and lead the Blancpain series the majority of the season with Cesar Ramos and Daniel Zampieri even after an engine failure while battling eventually winner of the Spa 24. With a slim point lead going in the final race, a practice crash put them on the backfoot and basically they were uncompetitive all day, a shame. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But Rigon has gotten the call up and I doubt will be back with Kessel next season. Last time Risi had two young hot shoes it was Melo and Bruni and yes they were fast (On Pole five times) but only had three victories and DNF'ed I think four times. Melo was penalized a few times for aggressive driving and the straw that broke the camel's back was crashing the car in practice in 2011 in morning warm-up for 2011 Petit Le Mans. The car was so badly damage that it couldn't be repaired in time (ala Allan McNish) to make the race, rumor has it Melo was fired on the spot and left the racetrack before the race started.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> We haven't seen him since, his website is hardly updated regularly but I last heard he was back in Brazil driving in the Brazilian GT3 Championship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I don't know if Giuseppe Risi is ready for another possible roller coaster season. Thus far Rigon and Malucelli have been very safe with the car while being fast, so I am going to go out on a limb and say it will be Malucelli, Davide Rigon and Robin Liddell for the longer races.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I've got quite a bit more to say about the possible driver lineups in light of the <a href="http://www.imsa.com/articles/gtlm-gtd-teams-selected-tudor-championship" target="_blank">season entry list</a> being announced, so stay tuned.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-66113129759495596302013-11-01T15:43:00.000-07:002013-11-01T15:43:05.750-07:00What the Pirelli Tire World Challenge Series got right and up to this point USCC has got wrong with GT3 cars.<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Magnus Racing has taken delivery of the new Porsche 911 GT3 America (somewhere between a Cup car and the Supercup car) and is on the entry list for the Nov test that IMSA has planned in preparation for the premier season of the Tudor United Sports Car Championship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He'll be there with Scuderia Corsa will also be there with their Ferrari F458 GT3 "Grand Am" spec car. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It will be interesting to see who shows up with a pure FIA spec GT3 car, because IMSA (Scot Elkins) will need all three cars to gauge where and how to slow down the FIA cars because they are up at least 4 seconds a lap faster than the current Grand Am spec GT3 car. The other unknown is how much faster is the 911 America than last year's Grand Am/ALMS GTC Porsche GT3 Cup cars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> From my understanding, I don't have all the specs, but the America has ABS which the Cup cars don't have (Porsche Supercup cars do) and possibly traction control? I am unsure but Elkins said a few months ago, they would allow FIA GT3 car into GTC with minor modifications. What those "minor" changes are nobody know and not many are even speculating. One rumor has it that traction control will have to be defeated on FIA spec cars but ABS will be allowed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This seem plausible because the traction control system is really just a wheel sensor and programmable routine in the car's computer that's connected to the ignition system. While ABS is much more involved and changes need to be made to the brake system itself to either add or defeat it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I don't know if that will be acceptable to many teams that have ordered or have already bought 2012 FIA GT3 cars from Europe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is causing quite a stir among the potential drivers in the GT-D class, like the outspoken Mike Hedlund, who got involved in a twitter discussion with fellow driver Ryan Eversley about allowing pure FIA GT3 car into the series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Why the America was built in the first place has likely the due with the fact that current GTC/Rolex GT teams already had to pay to upgrade their current cars, especially the Porsche Cups to ABS, TCS, Single Hub Wheels and other things. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There was talk of the FIA cars using a spec rear wing designed by Crawford Engineering in NC. The FIA GT3 cars have tremendous downforce, much more than the Grand Am spec and GTC spec cars. This would give them an advantage at many tracks in the new series, however the reduction in rear downforce on these cars has proven fruitless.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Example, Fall-Line Motorsport, who took over the Audi R8 LMS program run by APR a well known VW/Audi tuner. They had so much trouble with rear grip that they decided to park the cars and revaulate what needed to be changed by continuing to run one car instead of two.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> When Grand Am wrote the rules to allow FIA GT3 cars in the series, they wanted to keep their current Rolex GT teams from having to upgrade their cars (sound familiar?). So they mandated some changes be made from the European spec already highly developed by the manufacturers who built the cars (either in-house or contracted out). This meant defeating the ABS system, Traction Control, removing the rear diffuser and running open side windows. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> At first Audi's were forced to use the production V10 clutch assembly which cause both cars to drop out within the first two hours of the race with clutch failure. They had to lobby to use the Tilton racing clutch developed for the car originally. They struggled all that season the few times they appeared. That was 2011; in 2012, Audi showed up armed with lots of German being spoken in the paddock. Alex Job Racing who was contracted to run an Audi for the Audi Customer Sports Program out of Germany for this one race ended up winning his class. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It seems downforce was an issue but since Daytona is a high speed track where some downforce is given up for the infield section to get a higher trap speed from the chicane to NASCAR 4, through the Tri-Oval and past Start/Finish, it didn't prevent them from winning (and finishing 3rd) but reared its ugly head at the tracks were downforce was needed and the cars were uncompetitive. A minor cure was during some wind tunnel testing Audi engineers found that running without side windows for which the Europe spec calls for vented but closed side windows disrupted air going over the rear wing. They found changing the attack angle got back some of the downforce they were looking for. Results really didn't change the car was still too loose and burning up rear tires. Brad Kettler who runs Audi Customer Sports North America asked for the R8 LMS Ultra's rear diffuser to be allowed on the car. They allowed the to add it by the Laguna Seca race, one race from the final race of the season and of Grand Am. By Lime Rock they found it helped again, but didn't have enough track time to get the balance right and suffered a bit in overall pace.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So let me get this straight, they demanded the car be slowed down and did it by removing rear downforce mainly, only to give them back the majority of their downforce later as it proved they were not competitive without it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This is why I was in favor of not allowing any Cup cars, the America or any Porsche but the Porsche 911 GT3-R which is the car Porsche teams run in European GT3 championships like ADAC, British GT and of course Blancpain.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> While IMSA tries to sort out this mess or potentially end up with a grid of majority Porsche Americas and maybe only the Fall Line Audis and few Ferraris (the count of Porches is already up to about 9-11 teams with a few running more than one) and a max of 21 cars allowed at the majority of races. World Challenge has announced they will be accepting full FIA spec Porsche 911 GT3-R's into their series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> There is no team announcements that I know of but its likely you'll see an explosion of FIA GT3 cars now and I expect major factory involvement especially with the additional annoucement that Pro-Am drivers will be given their own podium ceremony and Sportsman Cup for winning the Pro-Am class within the current GT class.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I expect heavy involvement from Audi who has previously won in World Challenge competition, Mercedes Benz who was involved with Black Swan racing last year, likely Ferrari, McLaren, SRT Viper and others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Accepting pure FIA cars is how IMSA went about this. But I guess the cost of adding all the additional hours to the series was just too much for GT-D teams to swallow. The America is $269,xxx that is over $200-$250K cheaper than a brand new FIA spec GT3 car from the majority of companies that offer them. The car isn't really the issue its the cost to run it and it is more expensive to run a FIA GT3 car, very similar to the GTLM (GTE) cars actually.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> While I understand the price issue, ALMS fans have asking for FIA GT3 cars be accepted into the series and that door was always left open by the ALMS all the way until the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Now it seems we're going to get some watered down version again, just to appease a few legacy teams and Porsche who I am sure isn't hurt by the sales of these new cars as it looks like about 10 have been ordered/sold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> That seems unfair to me.....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-16454522545549939032013-11-01T15:40:00.000-07:002013-11-19T11:57:53.417-08:00Mike Hedlund echos what I have been saying about GTC/RolexGT/GT-D vs FIA GT3 (European Spec)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="https://twitter.com/mike_hedlund" target="_blank">Mike Hedlund</a> has made a brilliant <a href="http://www.endurance-info.com/en/mike-hedlund-why-dont-i-like-gtd-in-thefuture/" target="_blank">observation</a> of the nonsense happening behind the scenes at Daytona Beach. Despite them, it looks like GT-D will hit its class limit (21), which of course makes no sense at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I agree with Mike that if they were going to make the teams spend money on a new car anyway, why not FIA GT3 where the homologation is already set? All they would have to do is maybe slow the cars down a bit with an intake restrictor and rock hard tires.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> He also mention FIA GT3 cars look cooler, I agree -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 911 America (991)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://img.newcarspressreleases.com/2013/08/2014-Porsche-911-GT-America-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://img.newcarspressreleases.com/2013/08/2014-Porsche-911-GT-America-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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The Euro spec GT3 997</div>
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<a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/01/911gt3r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/01/911gt3r.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Since Porsche is a valued partner of both series before they merged, it shouldn't shocking what has transpired.</div>
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So we have clipped Grand Am Spec GT3 cars to look forward too and half the field being Porsche Americans, fantastic! (Sarcasm).</div>
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This month's test at Daytona should be very interesting....</div>
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In the meantime you got <a href="http://www.world-challenge.com/" target="_blank">Pirelli World Challenge</a> to look forward too which will feature FIA GT3 cars next year including the current <a href="http://www.world-challenge.com/news/story.php?story=3386" target="_blank">FIA GT3 Porsche GT3-R</a> and likely the future 991 based car.</div>
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PWC recently announced a new Pro-Am subclass in GT as its expected that factory involvement will get a major boost next season.</div>
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If you really wanna see FIA GT3 cars in America, pay attention to the <a href="http://www.world-challenge.com/" target="_blank">Pirelli World Challenge</a> Championship.</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-13325894009241410962013-10-29T02:15:00.001-07:002013-10-29T02:15:47.159-07:00Will the Tudor United Sports Car Championship be better than the WEC? YES and here's why...<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Come 2014, the WEC will be in its 3rd season. Like the majority of the other FIA World Championships (beyond F1) however they are poorly attended affairs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I've made this statement a few times already that the Tudor series will be much better than the FIA World Endurance Championship and my comments have come under fire not surprisingly from Europeans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I am not one to wave Old Glory like my sometimes fellow Conservatives and even some Progressives/Liberals like to do but the facts are the facts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> WEC is poorly attended, no where near capacity and mighty expensive for the limited TV coverage. I also think the standard and inflexible 6 hours or 1Km format is a bit ridiculous and not TV friendly, which explains why Eurosport only shows you the first hour and last hour of the six hour races. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> If ESPN did that with NFL or NBA games there would be calling for scalps. You can't even do that with Indycar races and why since the races run about two hours anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> My point is that WEC appeals to the hardcore endurance racing fan only. But until now, the only alternative was Pan European championships like European Le Mans Series which is also poorly attended I might add.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> So its not shocking to me at all when its rumored several teams in both the ELMS and WEC are considering full season if not partial seasons in the new series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The WEC paddock got the message when the ALMS race out attended the WEC race by good margin, <a href="http://www.roadandtrack.com/voices/columnists/marshall-pruett/paddock-pundit-column-how-to-improve-attendance-at-circuit-of-the-americas" target="_blank">some estimate 20-25%</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It impacted the WEC paddock so much that drivers like Bruno Senna announced he would like to drive more in America next season. <a href="http://www.endurance-info.com/en" target="_blank">Endurance Info</a> is reporting that several P2 teams, Krohn Racing, Aston Martin and AF Corse are all interested in running here next year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Why? Because they'll be racing in front of somebody! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Series in Europe have the unfortunate habit of racing at circuits design to house 50-100K of rabid F1 fans. This is especially glaring at places like Silverstone and Monza. It was repeated at COTA, a place that housed 165K F1 fans last season for the first race ever there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Most of the tracks the ALMS goes too and that Tudor will have on its schedule next season have much smaller grandstands because the majority of fans use the surrounding topography (IE grassy areas and hills) to watch the cars as they go around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The only major test in terms of attendance next season will be the Six Hours of The Glen, which in the Grand Am era was not as well attended as the NASCAR race there (much worse). Even Indycar has done poorly and they dropped it from the schedule. That is an exchange of venues for the Tri-State area as the series will not be returning to Lime Rock, which is very well attended and even that's an understatement its PACKED.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The Long Beach race is at least 40K and might increase this season, if the races before it (Daytona and Sebring) prove to be exciting as I think they will be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The way I see it, you can race in a new series with some momentum behind it, with familiar teams, schedule and tracks or you can do another series in a respected but poorly attended championship with contrived GT-Pro Am class and teams losing interest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> This is especially the case when budgets are considered. Rumor has it the Tudor series with four very long races and a slew of 2:45 sprint races cost about the same as FIA WEC. According to <a href="http://specutainment/" target="_blank">John Hindbaugh</a> it will cost $1.5M British Pounds more to run Tudor over WEC. I am going to assume that includes shipping the car back to Europe for Le Mans. That doesn't sound unreasonable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> But it seems some teams don't have a problem with that. Greaves Motorsports has already announced they will enter the new series for the entire season. Others rumored to be coming are Murphy Prototypes (who raced in at Petit Le Mans last season and loved it), TDS Racing and Pecom which is run by AF Corse and I already said they are interested in running at least the long distance races next season.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> When all it said and done as the teams must commit to the Tudor series starting Nov 1st, I think the grid will be at or very close to the 60 entry threshold.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> All the races will be well attended and nothing improves a team's moral than to run in front of supportive and enthusiastic fans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Those are the reasons why the Tudor series in ONE season will prove to be superior to the WEC despite its world championship status, which seemingly is only important to Europeans...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2187898250034513267.post-30393041879821442902013-10-28T21:37:00.004-07:002013-10-28T21:39:36.054-07:00This is pretty much a No-NASCAR zone, but congrats to Darrell Wallace Jr....<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For doing what only Wendell Scott has been able to do up to this point, win a race.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I pretty much ignore Nationwide (which is going away as title sponsor next season with no replacement announced yet) when not racing on a road course so I hadn't heard or seen the Black DW before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2013/10/27/darrell-wallace-jr-wendell-scott-nascar-historical-win/3280559/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2013/10/27/darrell-wallace-jr-wendell-scott-nascar-historical-win/3280559/</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At least NASCAR has a diversity program which is more than I can say about Indycar or Sports Cars, despite historical figures such as Willy T. Ribbs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Of course there's Bill Lester who's tasted victory in often ignored and now defunct Grand Am series which is NASCAR owned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> I will be talking much more about the lack of diversity in motorsport. As much as Supercross, NHL and Golf were last frontiers for Black Americans. Racing IS the last frontier because you're asking a community of people to spend hundreds of thousand of dollars which they don't have or spend on other things, such as BW women spending 8 Billion dollars a year on hair replacement products, such as wigs and weaves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Stay tuned I can guarantee that it will be very interesting and should get the conversation started that largely went dead with the moderate success of Danica Patrick.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">http://feeds.feedburner.com/Speedhunters</div>Anthony Thomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06812336910817845404noreply@blogger.com0