81 replies to this topic

[Victor_RO]

The FLM09s only have at most another year to live beyond this season. As for Daytona attendance, from what I've seen from people talking about the event, the attendance is still in the tens of thousands, but concentrated in the infield.

[SonnyViceR]

They can keep the FLM09 alive for another five years if they wish, no one is stopping them... look at Indy Lights, they've kept that old piece of junk Dallara there for a decade. It's a spec car, it's not like it really matters what's under the hood. Performance levels can always be maintained...

 

Everyone attending the Rolex keeps telling of the tiny crowd, on top of what we can see from the TV screens. Now while grandstands are barren one thing that actually appears to be packed is the infield - but how many people can you fit there, especially considering that big amount of that space is taken away by the teams etc anyway...

 

Sebring is the king of the hill. I feel sad that it's not really part of the international scenery anymore, just another round for the local series. And PLM, same thing, but also not awarding auto LM entries anymore as has been the case for few years now...

Edited by SonnyViceR, 04 January 2014 - 16:59.

[Victor_RO]

At least on Google Maps, the infield looks big enough for quite a large number of people, there's a lot of marked camping/motorhome/RV spots all around the infield. Particularly inside speedway turns 3/4 and between speedway turn 2 and the infield hairpins. This, of course, being well-separated from the actual paddock space behind the pitlane. There's enough space in the paddock for TUSC and Conti Challenge, since the paddock at Daytona routinely has to accommodate about 140 cars when Nascar rocks up with all three series.

 

LMPC should be replaced by the new LMP3 cars, which should be in the same pace bracket (but based on carbon-tubbed variants of CN cars), but let's see whether IMSA take up the choice.

[jonpollak]

Hey Gang...

Which car is this one?

 

Jp

[Risil]

Good to see there's a seat for Ana in there too

Edited by Risil, 04 January 2014 - 17:47.

[Afterburner]

Hey Gang...
Which car is this one?

 
Jp

Starworks! <3

It's an LMPC, but at least they're there.

[SonnyViceR]

Yes it's the #7 LMPC

[SonnyViceR]

LMPC should be replaced by the new LMP3 cars, which should be in the same pace bracket (but based on carbon-tubbed variants of CN cars), but let's see whether IMSA take up the choice.

 

I have a feeling that the LMPC gang isn't very keen on switching machinery for no reason (from their point of view), and unlike their European cousins it's not like there's shortage of those cars up there. They probably have the same public outcries as the DPs did last year about speeding up their precious tube frame dinosaurs.

[HaydenFan]

Starworks! <3

It's an LMPC, but at least they're there.

 

Any word as to why they dropped back to the PC cars? They were pretty quick with their DP car last year and the P2 car they ran in WEC. And with the ability to hire some top drivers, they cannot be that desperate for funds. 

[Vepe1995]

Any word as to why they dropped back to the PC cars? They were pretty quick with their DP car last year and the P2 car they ran in WEC. And with the ability to hire some top drivers, they cannot be that desperate for funds. 

 

They are second on the Prototype reserve list. Maybe that's why the are running PC's

[SonnyViceR]

Any word as to why they dropped back to the PC cars? They were pretty quick with their DP car last year and the P2 car they ran in WEC. And with the ability to hire some top drivers, they cannot be that desperate for funds. 

 

WEC LMP2 was dropped because of lack of funds.

 

Baron entered two cars for LMPC as that class doesn't have any issues with BoP. Also they were unhappy with the late rule package announcements among other things. They have one Riley DP entered for P as well but it didn't get accepted by the IMSA/NASCAR, only on the reserve reserve list atm

 

 

They are second on the Prototype reserve list. Maybe that's why the are running PC's

 

Actually they are pretty much the only reserve left as Libra (lol) and 8star Corvette are most likely out.

 

And that's got nothing to do with the PC program, that was confirmed ages ago

Edited by SonnyViceR, 04 January 2014 - 19:13.

[HaydenFan]

WEC LMP2 was dropped because of lack of funds.

 

Baron entered two cars for LMPC as that class doesn't have any issues with BoP. Also they were unhappy with the late rule package announcements among other things. They have one Riley DP entered for P as well but it didn't get accepted by the IMSA/NASCAR, only on the reserve reserve list atm

 

 

 

Actually they are pretty much the only reserve left as Libra (lol) and 8star Corvette are most likely out.

 

And that's got nothing to do with the PC program, that was confirmed ages ago

 

Didn't 8Star test back in November? I recall seeing Yacaman driving for them w/ Bia. Wasn't the most competitive car though last year. Even with Sarrazin behind the wheel they never challenged during the season. As for Libra, they have always been on the fence the last few years. 

[SonnyViceR]

Didn't 8Star test back in November? I recall seeing Yacaman driving for them w/ Bia. Wasn't the most competitive car though last year. Even with Sarrazin behind the wheel they never challenged during the season. As for Libra, they have always been on the fence the last few years. 

 

Dagys said 8star were unlike to race even if the free grid slot appeared.

 

Not hard to guess for the reasons why the Libra entry was rejected and why Dawson cannot really be trusted

[SonnyViceR]

Apparently, according to Hindy, at least the first 9 hours of Daytona will be on Fox Sports 2 - channel no-one has access to and which got 7000 viewers for live Grand-Am Kansas last year. FS1 is busy showing whatever college football stuff they usually do. Also no word on IMSA streaming, but seeing as FOX usually has exclusive US TV rights for these one shouldn't be too confident about live coverage

Edited by SonnyViceR, 04 January 2014 - 22:50.

[Victor_RO]

I reckon we should move the discussion relating to the Daytona 24 and the Roar before the 24 (results, TV coverage, live race discussion etc.) to a new thread.

[SonnyViceR]

I reckon we should move the discussion relating to the Daytona 24 and the Roar before the 24 (results, TV coverage, live race discussion etc.) to a new thread.

 

Probably, I've used this as I've been too bored to create another one

[GSiebert]

Can somebody explain to me how they managed to get the LMP2 cars slower than DPs at Daytona ? 

[SonnyViceR]

Can somebody explain to me how they managed to get the LMP2 cars slower than DPs at Daytona ? 

 

LMP2: Spec Continentals, Le Mans Aero, no upgrades - also extra weight but apparently not in use at Daytona

DP: Performance upgrades (high downforce aero, carbon brakes, forged wheels, slightly less spec components etc), more horsepower, usual BoP shenanigans

+ Daytona suits DP better (on paper)

Edited by SonnyViceR, 05 January 2014 - 18:12.

[GSiebert]

BoP ?

 

I thought DP was all about being cheap. How many teams will afford the new package ?

[HaydenFan]

LMP2: Spec Continentals, Le Mans Aero, no upgrades - also extra weight but apparently not in use at Daytona

DP: Performance upgrades (high downforce aero, carbon brakes, forged wheels, slightly less spec components etc), more horsepower, usual BoP shenanigans

+ Daytona suits DP better (on paper)

 

Seemed to be the only race the series cared about, so it'd be fairly truthful. 

 

And GS, the cost thing has seem gone away 

[SonnyViceR]

BoP ?

 

I thought DP was all about being cheap. How many teams will afford the new package ?

 

BoP stands for balance of performance, ie things like air restrictor tweaking etc.

 

The costs of DP have increased and many Grand-Am team owners have strongly moaned about it (as unlike everywhere else where you need to invest on your car to be competitive, traditionally in GA they have only been forced to pay when new DPG ruleset has come out as the class is mostly spec and performances are extensively controlled by NASCAR). Still, as you can see from the entry list -most- of the DP teams of the last few seasons are still there. Some are out which was expected. But everyone thought that the ratio of LMP2s and DPs was going to be different, now it's pretty equal when you take the NAEC DPs off.

Edited by SonnyViceR, 05 January 2014 - 18:34.

[SonnyViceR]

wave arounds for everybody, cars will be brought back to contention from 7 laps down

 

Confirmed that this shall continue, yuippee...    also Grand-Am point system adopted and cars can receive points and trophies without actually finishing the race, or even certain percentage of it.

[SonnyViceR]

Well, however much we moan and bitch about the classes, at least it is a very colourful bunch of cars running together. And while 68 cars for Daytona isn't really anywhere near the record numbers from years back, it bigger than for some time and makes the track look rather packed. And of course, with the entry list being limited, you don't have those filler teams there blowing up engines after 5 minutes etc (Tho the Lola Mazdas might just do that)

 

[Red17]

http://www.autosport...t.php/id/112183

 

So, it appears that only Sonny saw the BoP Hammer coming into effect after the Roar. Did the DP entries forgot the series is owned by Nascar?

[SonnyViceR]

DP teams are always moaning about everything, nothing to see here. Also NASCAR bops the field down every single year after the Roar so everybody knew it was coming... the first of many, many, many, many, many in-season adjustments

 

Also for complete listings, refer to official IMSA bulletins

P & PC http://www.imsa.com/...etin #14-24.pdf

GTLM & GTD http://www.imsa.com/...etin #14-26.pdf

 

As I said on the GTE thread, the Viper especially is the crown joker of all (even more than before) when you look what's under the hood...

[GSiebert]

This balance of performance thing makes me want to puke. What's the bloody point of having different cars if you're going to make them egal anyway ? Ah yes that ****in show ...

Edited by GSiebert, 18 January 2014 - 23:06.

[SonnyViceR]

In this context, 'illusion' is probably the word you're looking for.

[Ross Stonefeld]

The Show is what keeps the series alive, it's the trade off of being able to watch it at all.

[SonnyViceR]

I don't think that's the best of analogies. I mean GT3 is probably the category best suited to describe definitions of "fake", but pretty much no-one watches or gives a crap about series involving those cars anyway. It's not really done for the entertainment purposes (though I'm sure organizers wish it was AND now that NASCAR is in full charge of the series in question the landscape is changing) but for having as many entries as possible...

 

While the old ALMS did have some BoP, in no way was it ever close to Grand-Am levels, not even in the final years when especially GTE started to boil. But now it's all Grand-Am 2.0 in that perspective... the only thing that actually is improving is the decrease of ancient tube framer GTs, and -hopefully- the phase out of the dinosaur DPs in coming years. Also slightly, just slightly less spec components in cars

Edited by SonnyViceR, 19 January 2014 - 15:55.

[Ross Stonefeld]

If you don't balance the cars you end up one with being better than the others. Which means the teams overwhelmingly favour one kind(there goes diversity) or everyone goes for homologation prototype craziness(there goes your series).

[SonnyViceR]

If you don't balance the cars you end up one with being better than the others. Which means the teams overwhelmingly favour one kind(there goes diversity) or everyone goes for homologation prototype craziness(there goes your series).

 

Oh god, not this same argument and discussion again. I am backing out of this, tired of repeating the same lines to every people over and over again.

Edited by SonnyViceR, 19 January 2014 - 15:57.

[Ross Stonefeld]

You make it sound like a problem at your end?