Sebring Postscript, TUDOR Media and Kevin Magnussen

Sebring Race, Streaming and Overall Media

 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 would not have a traveling safety crew that has became apart the ALMS family.

 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?

 If you feel the same as I do about this, contact IMSA (386-310-6500). As an ardent supporter of the American Le Mans Series, I find this completely unacceptable.

 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.

 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...

 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.

 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.

 Orchestrated finishes? Ganassi (a long time GA supporter) granted victory? You be the judge...

A chip off the old block

 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.

Blog change delays

 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. 

 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. 

 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?

 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.

What will really happen when the two combined car in Prototype race together for the first time, I think I have an idea...

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.

1.  Scott Pruett in an interview with Gordon Kirby on his website confirmed what I think will happen. The upgrades to the Daytona Prototypes means these cars will enter uncharted waters with unknown impacts on 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.
2.  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.

  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.

 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.

 In other words the HPD's won't have to dominate qualifying or the race to win it.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 All this does is make for an exciting and interesting season from the sharp end of the grid to the blunt end.

 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.

 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.

 If anything it will be interesting won't it?

Gnashing of Teeth - Fan Reaction to USCC Schedule

 Somehow I knew we wouldn't get through a complete day with the announcement of the long awaited 2014 USCC schedule; without the gnashing of teeth from some fans especially those not hosting a race at a nearby track.

 As I said in my previous post from all the information I gathered from sources around the web, I came up with the schedule I thought we would see and guess what? I was RIGHT!

 I had to make a small revision and move Laguna Seca to mid May and IMS to mid August, but I had the right number of venues and even some details about the split races.

 Enough patting myself on the back. I was hoping Mid Ohio was back on the schedule but its not, I know why and I guess if Mid Ohio wants to use a round of the USCC in the future they know what they need to do. This dilemma also faced Lime Rock a few years ago. There was rumblings that the series did not what to race there unless some improvements were made to the track itself. 

 Nonetheless Lime Rock is gone and you can read about why here

 I really wasn't shocked at the reaction to losing a couple of iconic circuits but saying because these track were off the schedule made it worse somehow is just emotional, magina garbage.

 There are legitimate reason why did add them and I covered some of these in previous post, but I don't mind repeating myself...

 1) Cost: The ALMS paddock is adding 30 hours of racing too its schedule and that does not include Le Mans which all of the factory teams will be going plus a few privateers.

 The Grand Am paddock is adding at least 22 hours as we don't know the time and race lengths for Laguna Seca which is often 4-6 hours or Road America which has been 500 miles/4 hours in the past as well.

 Teams are now getting budgets based on hours the car runs. The cars have become so bulletproof that many key parts don't need to be replaced unless damaged and some only after a certain number of hours have been run on it.

 If you remember Gunnar Jeannette father's team ran G-Oil recycled Synthetic Oil in its LMPC Chevy small block for the entire season and only opted for a refresh for Petit Le Mans because they had been losing hp over the course of the season, despite winning some races.

 That's just one example. 

 Ryan Dalziel and his team owner Peter Baron have both said carbon brakes which are on all the ALMS cars but GTC; the rotors can go for one complete season, while you're only replacing the pads for every race. That is a dramatic cost savings compared to the steel brakes Grand Am runs on all its cars.

  Again under cost, Grand Am DP team will be forced to upgrade their cars to get closer to LMP2 performance. The final specs have not been announced but according to Ricky Taylor who drives one of the DP Corvettes, it will consist of -

•  Rear Carbon Diffuser
•  Dual Element Rear Wing
•  Longer splitter
•  Paddle Shifting (available to Pro Am drivers currently)
•  Increase in restrictor size (more air = more power)
•  Carbon Fiber brake system

 While not cheap, its not overly expensive for a professional racing team but must be factored into the increased running cost (more hours run than before).

 2) Historical Connections and dated facilities

 Marshall Pruett said on Mid-Week Motorsports this was the reason why Mid-Ohio was left off the schedule. I have heard some of the same criticism coming from the Indycar and Pirelli World Challenge paddock too.

 The USCC by merging the two series envisionsions itself as the premiere sports car series in North America. Think I am lying? Bruno Senna is looking to do more races here and I know more than a few drivers and teams are considering running the North American Endurance Championship part of the schedule (Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen and Petit Le Mans) along with their Europeans commitments.

 Not that Mid Ohio is apart of that, but as I said with woeful bathroom facilities, unpaved portions of the paddock (especially when it rains) and the timing tower that dates back to the late 1970's; its time for the family to pony up some money to upgrade if they want back on the schedule.

 Now Lime Rock is a different case because as I said previously (I believe this was around 2007) LRP management (Skip Barber, et-al) was told by the ALMS it would not return to the track next season unless upgrades were made to the facilities and the track itself. Skip asked people who use the track for HPDE mostly to invest back into the track, which they did. So various upgrades and safety improvements where made.

 However with the potential of entries nearing 40-45 and having already planned split events elsewhere; the movers and shakers at IMSA felt the track just wasn't up to par anymore.

 This lead to quite a bit hurt feelings on the interwebs (Facebook, Racer and I'm sure elsewhere) especially those that live in the Tri-State area (NY, NJ, Conn) who had grown used to seeing Camel GT, then Grand Am and ALMS all come to the track.

 As I said I feel bit sorry for Skip and all the gang, but that's how the cookie crumbles and he had a plan B just in case he wasn't included, read the link above.

 I am looking forward to 2014 even more and keep saying to the disbelief of some, that the ALMS community will come out of this much better than the Grand Am community does. As soon as the Grand Am fan base comes to terms with this, the quicker the healing can begin, but I doubt that will happen, especially despite the upgrades to DP's, P2's end up dominating the series, which I think might happen.

 That's for another post however.

 PS - 

 Further changes are coming to the site especially as the ALMS season comes to a close and more announcements from teams coming, going, changing classes or leaving the series.

 My post will be forward to Motorsport.com as soon as they let me know that will start happening. To make this more seamless, I will be switching to Wordpress.

 Stay tuned...

More Goofy Sh*t and more sussing out the schedule (Updated!)

 While there's no regulations outlawing me from promoting my blog, nonetheless there's always some grade A asshole who minds me plugging my blog.

 I'll be changing some things around soon to make it more clear that anything I post is from a fan's point of view, not a press release masquerading as the news which is what most Americans are used too these days.

 I will always link to proper journalism but also have a personal take.

 With that out of the way, Marshall Pruett and John Dagys have started to piece together the 2014 United Sports Car Racing schedule.

 This first three events seem to be locked in, with only an announcement pending; some say next week at the combined ALMS/WEC event at COTA.

1.  24 hours of Daytona
2.  Mobil One 12 hours of Sebring
3.  Toyota Long Beach GP

 Let's stop right there for a second... Marshall stated during Mid-Week Motorsports this week, that while Long Beach might be a GT only race, he said that the possibility of it being a full grid USCR race is still there.

 This would be ideal of course if paddock issues could be solved. It makes for a very solid first 1/3rd of the season and some interesting storylines. 

 It could easily go pear shaped if you DNF at Daytona, but you must finish on the podium at Sebring. Otherwise if for some reason you don't finish well at Long Beach where its easy to destroy the car, you might never recover.

 On the flip of that, if you finish your class in first place at all three races, you have two double points rounds and standard 2:45 race at Long Beach. You could just finish in the Top 5, occasionally podium and still win the Championship.

 Many an ALMS season has been made or broken at Sebring. If you do badly at Daytona, you could recover at Sebring, but its important that you get solid finishes.

 The racing should be great and very contentious, especially if there any penalties for avoidable contact.

 The rest of the schedule is less clear at this point because no dates have been set. But it seems Laguna Seca is going to be apart of the inaugural season of USCR. 

 Tracks on the bubble -

•  Mid-Ohio
•  VIR
•  Baltimore

 I am not including Laguna Seca on the bubble as Marshall seemed pretty certain that it will be apart of the schedule. Where does it land? Does it return to its current status of being a 4-6 hour event before Le Mans Test Weekend or return to its former status at a race into the evening as the last race of the season?

 What's also not completely clear is the status of Mosport, Detroit and Baltimore. 

 Detroit seems to be penciled in as a Prototype only race, but just like Long Beach could be a full grid race as well.

 Mosport has a letter of intent but has not signed yet, which is my guess and Baltimore is looking for a date and from that we'll know if it will be included on the USCR schedule or not.

 Revised Scheduled as follows... (10 Full Field, 2 Partial unofficially)

1.  Rolex 24 @ Daytona (Jan 25/26)
2.  Mobil One 12 Hours of Sebring (Mar 15)
3.  Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix (Apr 12th) *Pro Classes Only
4.  Laguna Seca 
5.  Detroit GP (Pro Am Classes Only?) *Le Mans Test Weekend
6.  Watkins Glen 6 Hours
7.  Canadian Tire Motorsport Park
8.  Brickyard 400 Weekend (IMS Road Course)
9.  Road America (4 hours/500 Miles?)
10.  Circuit of The Americas (COTA) 
11.  Virginia International Raceway (VIR)
12.  Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta)

The strong rumor is its 12 races, not 11 as previously thought. News coming out of Baltimore is that the B-More GP is not going to happen in 2014 because a date can not be found for Indycar. Looks like the Autoextremist was right, though I think he thought it was because of the $1.9 Million dollars worth of damage (from Mid Week Motorsports) in that race opening accident, requiring new tubs for Falken Tires, Core Autosport and I think Miller Racing (all Porsches, interesting). Level 5 also had to order a new tub since the suspension mounting points damaged the original (IE pushed though)

 Rumor has it the full schedule will be announced during the WEC/ALMS weekend at COTA next weekend, so stay tuned to see how correct I, John, Marshall and others are.