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Boorish Grobian
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« Reply #45 on: October 02, 2012, 08:50:37 pm » |
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You guys mention freebies being handed out, Indycar hands out bucketloads of them at each race, to help boost attendance (and still nobody showed up the finale in California)
Usually one can walk into a local Honda or Chevy dealer and they'll hand you a fistful of comp tickets.
Funny thing happen to us a couple of years ago at the Indycar race at Kentucky Speedway. We parked in a lot near the track and hopped on a shuttle bus to take to the track, the bus just drove us straight into the track! Never even checked us for tickets. Basically if you bothered to show up, they were going to let you in. But they still couldn't put enough butts in seats to keep a title sponsor interested, and the race has been dropped from the calendar.
JDS, no offence taken at all, the name World Series is a bit OTT, but I guess one has to view it in the context of the era, when the baseball championship was first played, and that name was applied to it. Baseball was only played in the US at that time, so yes, I suppose it was a "World Series". The name's stuck, yes its outdated and inaccurate in a literal sense, but it is just baseball...
Fax
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« Last Edit: October 02, 2012, 10:08:28 pm by Fax MKII »
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Brad Zarse
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« Reply #46 on: October 03, 2012, 02:31:30 am » |
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the trouble with making endurance meetings too popular is every bugger wants to go.then camping pitches get marked out prices go up weird rules come into place like no handcuffs allowed.it will be a dress code next.hooray is sloane slang.i cant remember what for i was drunk when it was explained to me.viz top tip if you dont like the rules camp next to the motorway all weekend and get ratarsed.lm on the cheap every weekend.
p.s.i thought the bahrain race was a blinder.shame the toyota couldnt gaffa tap a tourch over their number board like ferrari did.
Fortunately, Sebring hasn't got to the point where they're banning handcuffs yet. I can tell you this from personal experience..... ......that is the last time I mess with a Yorkshire born American Copper and expect not to get well and truly stitched up..... .....In a bizarre twist to the thread, I do believe I was sat on Faxs chair at the time...... |
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« Last Edit: October 03, 2012, 02:33:12 am by Brad Zarse »
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goodduck
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« Reply #48 on: October 03, 2012, 11:14:07 pm » |
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Im not sure if i understand what is happening to Sebring. its off the WEC calendar but I read this week that WEC teams might still come to race anyway? That would be great to see Audi vs toyota there but are they going to justify the trip if its not for points? and if no WEC teams are there then its a 12 hour ALMS race?
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looking for 2 General Admission tickets for 2023 24H Le Mans race only but will buy anything available.
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Kristof
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« Reply #49 on: October 03, 2012, 11:29:10 pm » |
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Im not sure if i understand what is happening to Sebring. its off the WEC calendar but I read this week that WEC teams might still come to race anyway? That would be great to see Audi vs toyota there but are they going to justify the trip if its not for points? and if no WEC teams are there then its a 12 hour ALMS race?
Spot on ! WEC teams could use the race as some kind of pre-season test, they'll only have Silverstone and Spa ahead of Le Mans. Let's hope some teams make the trip to Sebring ! Audi could do it, as they always test at Sebring, would be great if Toyota follows them. Rebeillon might be there too, they'll be at the Petit also this year. Sebring has a big crowd, and is from a sponsors point of view way more interesting than a race on some deserted track in China or Bahrein ... |
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Boorish Grobian
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« Reply #50 on: October 04, 2012, 02:22:31 am » |
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If the COA enforces the same ridiculous spectator regulations for the WEC round, that they have the GP, the only spectators will be rattlensnakes and jackrabbits.
Brad, did you get sent to the red chair at Sebring? If so, what did you do to get exiled there?
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« Last Edit: October 04, 2012, 03:54:52 am by Fax MKII »
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Brad Zarse
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« Reply #51 on: October 04, 2012, 03:29:22 pm » |
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Trust me when I tell you, that at the time, which chair I was falling over, completely pickled, was the least of my worries..... The cropping of this photo, appears to have been intentional....  |
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« Last Edit: October 04, 2012, 04:16:01 pm by Brad Zarse »
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Kristof
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« Reply #52 on: October 04, 2012, 10:38:28 pm » |
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goodduck
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« Reply #53 on: October 04, 2012, 11:03:04 pm » |
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thats encouraging. “We hope to be able to go and we are planning to go at this stage, but the final decision has not been made,” he said. “It is a very good preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours.” Audi has traditionally used Sebring as a Le Mans warm-up and continued to compete in the event after the manufacturer withdrew from the ALMS at the end of 2008. It has missed the race only once, in 2010, since the start of its prototype program in 1999, and has notched up 10 Sebring wins. Gass also said that Audi's participation would be “a kind of a farewell” to an event that will be out of bounds when LMP1 machinery likely disappears from U.S. sports-car racing after the new, combined ALMS and Grand-Am series debuts in 2014. “It would be a nice thing to do after all the years,” he said. Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20121004/alms/121009920#ixzz28MmNy4kZ |
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looking for 2 General Admission tickets for 2023 24H Le Mans race only but will buy anything available.
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tn*c
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« Reply #54 on: October 05, 2012, 05:47:09 pm » |
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I presume that Sebring is still a LM qualifier?
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Robbo
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« Reply #55 on: October 05, 2012, 08:15:26 pm » |
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I presume that Sebring is still a LM qualifier?
Don't think it will be! |
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Pessimist - Glass half empty
Optimist - Glass half full
Engineer - Glass twice as big as needed
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Grand_Fromage
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« Reply #56 on: October 05, 2012, 10:05:35 pm » |
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Winning Sebring in 2012 does not earn an automatic invitation to the 24 hours of Le Mans as far as I know. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what will get you invited to La Sarthe as I understand it.... 1 Previous year's class winners at the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2. ALMS Season winners, (all classes) 3. ELMS season winners, (all classes) 4. Petit Le Mans winners 5 Michelin Green X Challenge season winners. 6 Champions in the Formula Le Mans category get an LMP2 invitation. I presume that Sebring is still a LM qualifier?
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Kristof
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« Reply #57 on: October 06, 2012, 12:18:12 am » |
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I wonder what will happen with the invitation for the ALMS champions after the merge.
After the 2013 season, LMP champions will get an entry for Le Mans 2014 but chances are high there won't be any LMP1 class left in the new series. And what about the "merged" series ? Will they still have any connection or automatic entries with LM ?
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Boorish Grobian
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« Reply #58 on: October 06, 2012, 02:33:04 am » |
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I suspect the new incarnation of Grand-Am/ALMS will be looking to distance itself from the ACO, and the FIA. I can see things reverting to the days of IMSA, and Group C, when the Rolex 24 (back then the Sunbank 24) and Sebring were the centerpieces of what was a North American championship, (frankly I can see the Petit LM name being ditched for the Road Atlanta 1000 miler) completely seperate from a FIA sanctioned series. I'm okay with that too. The FIA WEC had been a turkey, and I can see the North American Sportscar Championship (my guess for the name) going in a completely different direction. Especially with regard to prototypes. Personally I would like to see them go with a silhouette formula, I think fans here would buy it. I'm sure they've looked at the existing ALMS, and Grand-Am prototype car counts, and thought this isn't working. Getting big prototype counts for one or two races a year isn't going to make for a healthy series, and that's essentially whats been going on with the ALMS.
Fax
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Nordic
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« Reply #59 on: October 06, 2012, 09:29:30 am » |
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I'm sure your right, The USA will go its own way, not sure about the direction though.
Some kind of silhouette rules, there are already two competing major sets of regs for that type of car, in Japan and the DTM plus others in south America so that would hint at least some cars would be available they wanted to move quickly and have some form of common regs and entice car companies. If they want silhouettes that would be sensible think to do.
What is more likely is they will decide to write their own rules, a few teams will produce sketches and budgets for cars only a few of which will be built and you will end up with a class filled with off the shelf GT cars from Ferrari and Porsche and another for odd cars that look like three wheelers
They will then decide on a common platform and allow teams to put on whatever body they want, powered by a spec engine from Honda or Corvette. When that fails to take off they will sit down and and look across the water to France again and cycle will start again.
Looking back to the heyday of IMSA there were very few homegrown cars, and those that did appear where mostly financed from Japan or Europe.
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Some people will tell you that slow is good - and it may be, on some days - but I am here to tell you that fast is better.
H S Thompson 1937 - 2005
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