2014 United Sports Car Championship

[aarror]

I think that shows perseverance, determination, and drive. Three huge factors to winning a 24 hour race. That shows that if you play the strategy game correctly along with some good fortune on cautions, there is time to come back from an early mistake. I was cheering for the comeback

No way mate, that's huge disrespect to all the teams who keep it clean. They work their asses off to be in a position to fight at the end, and someone else who messed up earlier gets a free shot? Not okay. You go down 7 laps tough luck, that's racing. You fight your way back, not have the rulebook hold your hand and bring you to the front. It that showed a huge loophole in the rules I was sure they would correct for this year. Seems idiocy has prevailed again for this series. Just when things seem to be going well, something like this happens.

Races should be decided on the track, not in the rulebook.

 

[cnd01]

No way mate, that's huge disrespect to all the teams who keep it clean. They work their asses off to be in a position to fight at the end, and someone else who messed up earlier gets a free shot? Not okay. You go down 7 laps tough luck, that's racing. You fight your way back, not have the rulebook hold your hand and bring you to the front. It that showed a huge loophole in the rules I was sure they would correct for this year. Seems idiocy has prevailed again for this series. Just when things seem to be going well, something like this happens.

Races should be decided on the track, not in the rulebook.

So it's wrong to let cars around the pace car who are on old tires and desperate to get a lap back pass the pace car in order to reduce the amount of chaos on restarts.

Also, it wasn't a free shot either. The guys on the lead lap could've stayed out like the MSR #60 car did on those same yellow flags to prevent guys from waving around. The teams keeping it clean allowed a team to use the rules to their advantage in order to gain 7 laps back

 

[aarror]

So it's wrong to let cars around the pace car who are on old tires and desperate to get a lap back pass the pace car in order to reduce the amount of chaos on restarts.

I just don't see why anyone should get a free lap in a 24 hour race. Working through traffic is an integral part of endurance racing, like it or not. Besides, in a 24 hour race the restarts shouldn't be crazy anyways, there's too much at stake.

Also, it wasn't a free shot either. The guys on the lead lap could've stayed out like the MSR #60 car did on those same yellow flags to prevent guys from waving around. The teams keeping it clean allowed a team to use the rules to their advantage in order to gain 7 laps back

The way the rules are you can pit and still get waved around. It's a loophole that should have no place in the sport. It's like giving 7 goals to a team that's down 8-1 to give them a shot at winning. Kinda like last goal wins in Elementary School gym class. What's next, everyone gets a trophy for participating?

Although I suppose we should just agree to disagree, as I'm fairly certain neither of us will change our views.


Edited for spelling

 

[hawkeye122]

The ALMS picked up the first Class leader, correct? That seemed to work alright.

Let's all count our lucky stars that we don't do the multiple safety car crap they run at Le Mans, which is equally jacked up.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Except Le Mans are planing to run a zonal code 60 instead of safety cars this year.

This keeps the track green except in the areas being worked on. Heard that in Radio Le Mans.

 

[Jav]

I think that shows perseverance, determination, and drive. Three huge factors to winning a 24 hour race. That shows that if you play the strategy game correctly along with some good fortune on cautions, there is time to come back from an early mistake. I was cheering for the comeback

I think it is an insult to the teams who have been working hard and doing everything right from the green flag to have their hard work destroyed like that! Grand Am marshalling was a joke, yellows every half hour to create artificial "racing"? Please! I honestly hope that chapter is behind american Sports Car Racing now, crap like that is the reason I stopped watching Indy Cars 15 years ago!

 

[MrWednesday]

Just seems like a gimmick to manufacture a close finish.

Or it could be that they're trying not have any slower traffic in-class ahead of the class leaders in the pace line. (I feel like a broken record.)

I think this is legitimately worth doing for safer restarts, and there is the potential for interesting strategy decisions revolving around when to pit or not pit under FCY.

 

[Mac K]

I think that shows perseverance, determination, and drive. Three huge factors to winning a 24 hour race. That shows that if you play the strategy game correctly along with some good fortune on cautions, there is time to come back from an early mistake. I was cheering for the comeback

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here, the whole point of a race is competition, and you can argue that the lucky dog (stupid name by the way, thanks NASCAR) keeps the competition "alive" because without it, the chances of a car 7 laps down having a shot at winning are pretty thin.. Daytona is (or was) the only enduro I believe that uses the system and for a good reason.. Will it ruin the race? No, but a team doing well just based off some silly caution rule isn't what racing (endurance racing especially) is about to me..

Edit: Jav sums it up above better than I do

 

[RACECAR]

So it's wrong to let cars around the pace car who are on old tires and desperate to get a lap back pass the pace car in order to reduce the amount of chaos on restarts.

Thing is in an endurance race, there's plenty of time for an opportunity to get a lap back. Now if its slower class cars infront of the overall leaders, I could understand that since the ALMS has done that plenty of times (and not that three pace car nonsense the ACO did at Le Mans while in the rain). Just because it works in one series doesn't mean it'll do so in another.

 

[Mac K]

A marathon runners loses his shoe or trips, should everyone need to stop so he can put it back on and now be back in the race?

 

[cnd01]

A marathon runners loses his shoe or trips, should everyone need to stop so he can put it back on and now be back in the race?

But if all the other runners stop for water and the one who tripped doesn't to catch up

@Jav it's the same procedure that the ALMS had.

 

[Jav]

And it was stupid there too!! Instead of waving the lapped car by they should just get them out of the way and send them to the back still 7 laps down!

 

[aarror]

But if all the other runners stop for water and the one who tripped doesn't to catch up

@Jav it's the same procedure that the ALMS had.

Just think how pissed off you would be as a driver/team owner if you lost the race to a car that benefited from this rule. I guarantee if Shank won last year they would have realized how stupid it is and got rid of it. Under the rules if Shank pit he still got the lap back.

Race control will authorize a Lap Down Wave By for any car behind the safety car that was not on the lead lap at the time of a full-course caution that is ahead of the first car in their class on the lead lap at the time of the full-course caution.

Meaning that as long as you are in front of the leader in your class when the SC comes out, you get a free lap, even if you pit.

 

[Mac K]

But if all the other runners stop for water and the one who tripped doesn't to catch up

What?

 

[Jav]

But if all the other runners stop for water and the one who tripped doesn't to catch up

He'll cramp up and end up in the floor, besides the real runners don't stop to drink water... So yeah, ok...
:-p

 

[cnd01]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here, the whole point of a race is competition, and you can argue that the lucky dog (stupid name by the way, thanks NASCAR) keeps the competition "alive" because without it, the chances of a car 7 laps down having a shot at winning are pretty thin.. Daytona is (or was) the only enduro I believe that uses the system and for a good reason.. Will it ruin the race? No, but a team doing well just based off some silly caution rule isn't what racing (endurance racing especially) is about to me..

Edit: Jav sums it up above better than I do

Meh, I'd rather see guys fighting it out at the end. Sebring, and the PLM have used the same rules. The only difference being that the ALMS pit stops take 40 forevers and make it where the guys can't beat the pacecar out of the pits. It's a combo of shorter pit stops and that the caution lap at Daytona takes soooo much longer than the at pace lap than at a place like Road Atlanta not to mention the distance of the track. It's possible at Sebring as well even with the longer stops just Audi kept staying out and preventing it from happening from what I saw

 

[Jav]

We all want to see two guys fighting at the end of the race, but we want it to happen naturally with no bogus yellow flags or rules assisting the guy who lost the race 20 hrs ago... Think of Le Mans 2011 where after 8+ hrs of green the two leaders where about 12 seconds appart, that was real racing, real endurance racing and real strategy!

 

[Earth]

The only real way to fix the situation would be to dramatically reduce the number of full course cautions.

That would mean implementing European style local yellow flags. I know they do that now to a point, but they need to take it further.

 

[Jav]

97% of the yellow flags we see are really not needed, thise are incidents that can be handled with just a local yellow flag. Yes I know the announcers make it sound as if it was such a dangerous situation to have a paper wrapper on the track or some stupid crap like that, but that's exactly their job to exagerate everything and create the drama!

 

[cnd01]

We all want to see two guys fighting at the end of the race, but we want it to happen naturally with no bogus yellow flags or rules assisting the guy who lost the race 20 hrs ago... Think of Le Mans 2011 where after 8+ hrs of green the two leaders where about 12 seconds appart, that was real racing, real endurance racing and real strategy!

2011 Le Mans was a stunning race. More times that not; however, it ends up being where the race has long since been over and the guys are plugging laps making sure they don't break anything. There's been multiple cars on the lead lap for idk how many consecutive years now in the Rolex 24. "Manufactured" or not, it's a darn good race to watch on tv or in the stands like I am

Edit: I agree though that a lot of cautions are manufactured. Some cautions should be thrown and aren't though. Think about Rolex at Road America at the end of the race. The entire back bumper from the Stevenson Camaro was sitting in the racing line at the braking point to Canada corner. The last 10 minutes of that race was run under green with the bumper laying there.

Also one car caused 5 of the 9 cautions at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2011. A lot of times that's the case. It's a problem when there are too many mandatory pro-am classes and you get guys who can't drive. Even though there's no mandatory pro-am in grand am, you still see the Tracy Krohns of the world in cars that can cause problems

 

[Jav]

That kind of thinking is what has put american racing where it is right now, evryone jumped on the "for the fans" bandwagon 15 years ago and guess what? Didn't work for CART, didn't work for IRL, didn't work for ALMS, didn't work for Grand Am and it won't work for anyone but NASCAR, it does not work!
What's the point of having an endurance race if you're certainly gonna be throwing bogus caution flags every 90 minutes?

 

[cnd01]

That kind of thinking is what has put american racing where it is right now, evryone jumped on the "for the fans" bandwagon 15 years ago and guess what? Didn't work for CART, didn't work for IRL, didn't work for ALMS, didn't work for Grand Am and it won't work for anyone but NASCAR, it does not work!
What's the point of having an endurance race if you're certainly gonna be throwing bogus caution flags every 90 minutes?

They had to do something when good ole Uncle Sam banned tobacco advertising here. The tobacco industry was the thing marketing IMSA back in the GTP days. People actually watched it because it was advertised and marketed on a large scale. That was back the majority of the cars racing were sponsored by companies we see everyday like Red Lobster, Apple, Rain X, Texaco Havoline, etc. Today, basically every car in the field is sponsored by a rich bored guy, the company of said rich bored guy, a South American country, or a company/car dealership that's owned by the team owner. Motorsports has to do something to make people watch. Sports car endurance racing will never be anything more than a niche market sport at best if certain criteria aren't met. Grand am and the ALMS didn't meet enough criteria on their own, and under the current track the USCC is going, I don't see those criteria being met. What the criteria is is up to debate.

 

[Mac K]

 

[RACECAR]

Is it just me or do the Corvette DPs (at least the 10 car anyway) sound abit different from the last two seasons?

 

[cnd01]

Is it just me or do the Corvette DPs (at least the 10 car anyway) sound abit different from the last two seasons?

They sure do because most are now running the exhaust out of the side because of the additions to the car and space limitations. Not to mention an additional 50 or so bhp

 

[Jav]

Is it just me or do the Corvette DPs (at least the 10 car anyway) sound abit different from the last two seasons?

They do, and they sound glorious!

 

[RACECAR]

Didn't think exhaust relocation could make such a huge difference (and the extra horses helps too). Its sounds more rich and crisp.

 

[hawkeye122]

Didn't think exhaust relocation could make such a huge difference (and the extra horses helps too). Its sounds more rich and crisp.

I think of it like a trumpet and a trombone? You've got the same guy with the same lungs blowing into the same (roughly) mouthpiece, but they sound different.

 

[Wilbur]

Can we all just stop complaining and enjoy the sport as a whole? Sure the yellows might be a crap shoot either way you look at it but it doesn't bother me in a race that long. There are times with a simple mistake can ruin someones race but this keeps everyone pushing hard through a race hoping for that lucky yellow(s) or the race leader from taking it too easy.

 

[cnd01]

http://www.racer.com/imsa-roar-test...na-bop-adjustments--prototypes/article/328755

DP adjustments because they're too fast at Daytona (no surprise)

http://www.racer.com/imsa-roar-test...t-daytona-bop-adjustments--gt/article/328761/

Gt adjustments as well as the pit procedure. Also, the supposed anti-sandbagging rule.