Club Arnage

17/03/2012 : 12 Heures de Sebring (USA)
05/05/2012 : WEC 6 Heures de Spa-Francorchamps (BEL)
03/06/2012 : journée test des 24 Heures du Mans (FRA)
16 & 17/06/2012 : 80e 24 Heures du Mans (FRA)
25/08/2012 : 6 Heures de Silverstone (GBR)
16/09/2012: 6 Heures de Sao Paulo (BRE) tbc
30/09/2012 : 6 Heures du Mont-Fuji (JAP)
20/10/2012 : 6 Heures de Bahreïn (BAH)
11 or 18/11/2012 : 6 Heures de TBA, (CHI)


No Petit ... bastards !
Seems like Sao Paolo, Mont-Fuji, Bahrein and some track in China put most dollars on table to get a race.   

Only one visit to each country I'm afraid. They said as much in the Silverstone press release. The choice was Petit OR Sebring and to my mind they made the right one, and also opened up a window at the tail end of the season.

ridiculous that Petit is not on there.

I agree - Petit is great

Even more ridiculous that the Petit date is head to head with Bahrein

I get the idea of wanting a "World Championship" but I think it would have been wise to include both Sebring and the Petit.  There will probably be more camels in attendance at Bahrain than paying spectators.
Fax

IIRC there's not that many camels in Bahrain.  I only ever saw about 5 wild ones the whole time I lived there so the guys from the karting track (whom I am sure would pay good money to attend the race) may out number them... just.

I'd rather watch a race at Petit.  Gotta love that place!   ;D

Dx

Not exactly ridiculous. The WEC is a "World Championship" not just a series, and as such needs to have world-wide exposure for sponsors/manufacturers. That means visiting as many countries and continents as possible. Bearing that in mind, it would be hard to justify two visits to the USA in an 8 date calender. They had to make a choice between Petit and Sebring and to my mind the choice was sound. 

f**k the french   ;D

Agree completely that between the two, Sebring is the obvious choice, second only to Le Mans in prestige among the endurance classics still active.  My point was simply that if your going to start a WC, its a good idea to begin with "blue ribband" events that are a known quantity.  I realize this is a world championship but Bahrain and China have a hard enough time getting people to show up for their own GP's.  As far as having one event per country, good lord how many years have Italy, Germany and England hosted multiple GP's?  And look at MotoGP, how many races are were Spain and Italy this year?  The answer is because they know they'll get support.
All that said, this is the FIA, and as we know, competitor and spectator turnout is irrelevant with these guys, its about how much money they can extort from the organizers for the right to host a race.
Fax

Hi Grand Fromage,
                         While I agree it was overly optimistic of ALMS to get two in such a small calendar. IT is both a slap in the face and a slam of the door to an organisation that has been instrumental in the worldwide revival of Endurance racing.  Since 1999 ALMS has supported and co-operated with ACO. if they had left the Petit date open on the WEC calendar who knows how many teams might have made the trek to Atlanta.

Phil

On the plus side for us here in the UK, it does mean that we get 2 sports car races. The Le Mans Series at Donington on 15th July, and then the WEC race at Silverstone on 25th August. :)

audi and peugeot want to sell cars.it makes sense to move races around and show up and coming bits of the world what their yen etc. will buy.i guess us is a rising diesel market,but let everyone get a chance.

Have you got an info link for the July event - it could become the new LM Classic the way the tickets are going

>Martini...LB