A Few Things - Tudor LBGP Mini Preview, BES shaping up to be the best season yet, World Challenge better than Tudor? (Updated!)

Tudor rolls into Long Beach with 21 entries -

There are a few storylines going into the first sprint race of the new Tudor United Sports Car Championship.

 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. 

 The other driver is TBA. 

 If you remember from last season, the pairing of Bruni and Fisichella in the WEC was broken up due to two questionable performances by Fischella which put their defense of the 2012 championship in jeopardy.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 Tamiya 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 website. 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.

 Those of you in California looking for reasonable discount on tickets to the Tudor race or the entire weekend, go Goldstar. Since 2011, I have been purchasing my tickets for the race from them. There prices are very good, you don't pay full pop. *Saturday's Tudor Race, Toyota Celeb Race, Formula Drift and Indycar Qualifying is now sold out on Goldstar, $48 on LBGP website. 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.

 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.

 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.

 This just in - Dane Cameron will be in the car with Fischella, here's the presser

 So does that mean....

World Challenge is the better GT/Road Racing series in America after only one event?

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.

 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.

 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.

 If they provide a better overall show than GTLM? There will be more questions than answers over in the Tudor camp.

Blancpain Endurance and Sprint Series best seasons yet?

 I will reserve my thoughts on the Sprint series when more news comes out about potential grids.

 The grid for the season opener at Monza for the Endurance series however is shaping up to be a barn burner.

 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).

 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. 

 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.

 There has been some driver movement and driver pairings broken up that I hope to cover with somebody connected to the series, stay tuned.

Robby Gordon starts the Dakar with minor problems but cost him over 2 hours to the Stage Winners and Other Stuff (Updated)

Dakar 2014

 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.

 They were towed that last few miles to the finish (133rd). He said that the problems will be sorted out overnight.

 If you wanna keep track go to Robby page - http://www.planetrobby.com/ 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.

 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.

 Roar @ 24

  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. 

 More changes upcoming

 Sometime, the next installment of my series "How To Fix Auto Racing" will be ready in a few days.

 Let me know anything else you wanna see here.

Mike Hedlund echos what I have been saying about GTC/RolexGT/GT-D vs FIA GT3 (European Spec)

 Mike Hedlund has made a brilliant observation 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.

 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.

 He also mention FIA GT3 cars look cooler, I agree -

 911 America (991)

The Euro spec GT3 997

 Since Porsche is a valued partner of both series before they merged, it shouldn't shocking what has transpired.

 So we have clipped Grand Am Spec GT3 cars to look forward too and half the field being Porsche Americans, fantastic! (Sarcasm).

 This month's test at Daytona should be very interesting....

 In the meantime you got Pirelli World Challenge to look forward too which will feature FIA GT3 cars next year including the current FIA GT3 Porsche GT3-R and likely the future 991 based car.

 PWC recently announced a new Pro-Am subclass in GT as its expected that factory involvement will get a major boost next season.

 If you really wanna see FIA GT3 cars in America, pay attention to the Pirelli World Challenge Championship.

 I see grid sizes in GT doubling....

  

Professional Motorsport Death Watch

 NASCAR's ratings continue to decline and empty seats is increasingly become commonplace even at popular venues like Daytona and Bristol. NASCAR's 2014 schedule doesn't offer any relief for what ails the media darling of the early 2000's.

 NASCAR is saying wait until 2015 when NBC comes aboard to replace ESPN, returning Sprint Cup series to the free HD airwaves. Oh, what's coming?

 A shorten schedule  = Unlikely
 More Road Courses = Possibly
 Road Courses in the Chase = Doubtful

 To say NASCAR followed the NFL model is an understatement and while that might be okay for the hardcore NASCAR fan, for the rest of us, it's turned into NASCAR fatigue.

  That said even if the hardcore fans don't notice or notice but choose to ignore it, is that NASCAR has reached the top and its downward slide is actually picking up speed.

 It seems attendance is back to pre-Financial Crisis levels, but the ratings are still down and while overall attendance might be back up, its hard to believe statements like that when the stands are visible emptier than just a few years ago.

 3 races at the home of NASCAR (Charlotte) was a bit much then and it's really too much now. I would highly suggest the series consider adding the All Star event to the Coke 600 schedule, technically it is, but it happens a week before the Coke 600/Indy 500 weekend or at least move it around to other tracks to make it interesting.

 That's just for starters, I'll save the rest for the 2nd in a series of YouTube videos.

 Indycar's atrocious attendance at Fontana for the season finale with the series championship on the line came and went with a resounding THUD.

 What about Indycar's schedule? How about just like NASCAR, more of the same... Just like we reward failure in Government and Big Business, I guess we'll continue to do so in Motorsports because these people are related to politicians and big business tycoons.

 The only bright spot was the ALMS finale at Petit Le Mans, but we have trouble in those waters as well. The NASCAR way is already being felt by the IMSA Safety Crews. There's a strong possibility that the people that know them best in an accident might get the ax as cost-cutting measure. 

 Fanstatic! (Sarcasm)

 Thus far, the changes coming for next season in the Tudor series is expected this one however sort of blindsided the community in road racing and drag racing who is used to having traveling safety teams.

 So is racing really in trouble? YES IT IS! To prove it too you, you'll have to come back... Thanks to Autoextremist for posting a similar rant before I did, I just happen to agree with Peter; 100% and thought I would add my 2 cents.