Endurance Racing Discussion Thread - WEC, ELMS etcSports Cars
- Thread starter Kowhai
- 825 comments
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- 1,421
- California
- WeaselKing707
- N/A
As nice as the convergence talks were, I think it will hurt the ACO in the short term because who wants to spend close to $60 Million (Or more) developing a car for a set of regulations that -at best- are either going to be grandfathered alongside LMDh cars in two years time or at worst phased out completely when a company could wait until next year, get in touch with one of the LMP2 manufacturers and do a LMDh program for a fraction of that ballpark cost?
As far as Aston Martin dropping the Valkyrie WEC program, I had a gut feeling it was going to happen the day that it was announced that Laurence Stroll had bought a stake in the company and that Racing Point F1 would be renamed as the Aston Martin "Factory" team in 2021.
As far as Aston Martin dropping the Valkyrie WEC program, I had a gut feeling it was going to happen the day that it was announced that Laurence Stroll had bought a stake in the company and that Racing Point F1 would be renamed as the Aston Martin "Factory" team in 2021.
- 26,811
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
Last night, I saw a live stream of the 2019-2020 season finale of the Asian Le Mans Series. It was a four-hour race around the Buriram Circuit in Thailand. I saw about the race since there was about 3:45:00.000 left in the race. It got pretty good in about the final hour of the event. Overall, it was a very good race.
David
Premium
- 2,732
Unfortunate that it was so far off, but at least they got data on 6 hours of green flag running. Either way it was cool to see the car up close. The line for autographs on pit lane was by far the longest in front of Corvette Racing and Toyota GR by a long shot. CotA is a very nice place to spend a day and man pictures and TV will never do that hill up to turn one justice.
Anyway, here are some more random shots from my phone:
- 26,811
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
Is this Hypercar class even going to live, let alone survive? I keep hearing of people backing out of these deals and stuff. I am surely intrigued about this whole deal. Thing is, I hear of hypercar classes being either delayed or finished entirely.
- 1,102
- GB
- ro_har_
Toyota is a confirmed manufacturer, along with glickenhaus and bykolles as possibilities to start this September.
Aston is a no but that now depends on Stroll and Peugeot(https://www.autosport.com/wec/news/148369/peugeot-evaluating-new-lmdh-rules-for-wec-entry) with the possibility joining in next year with a LMDh car.
Alot, but who knows at this point.
- 1,299
- So. California
- UnkaD
- 5,498
- Alabamistan
WEC shelves "Super Season" format and goes back to a single calendar year format.
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/wec-reverts-to-calendar-year-season-for-2021/
https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/wec-reverts-to-calendar-year-season-for-2021/
- 234
- London
- Meggido12
This is true, though I do appreciate that manufacturers have a choice of more than just 1 formula for the top class, even if LMDH would sound like the wisest choice in many aspects. All just sounds like a fun experiment.
Personally LMH had caught my intrigue being a truly new approach and all that. I guess the reality of it's success depends on interest like all race classes and of course revenue. It seemed like ever since LMDH was announced by ACO for the future, LMH was given second thoughts or dropped entirely by those who held interest prior.
Not hard to see why in a logicall sense.
Like many others I just hope that what ever formula 'wins' it works well to uniform itself with the existing classes clearly demonstrating the gaps in performance.
- 1,591
- United Kingdom
- VulcanSpirit
- 5,498
- Alabamistan
Bentley withdraws from IGTC
https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/bentley-withdraws-factory-m-sport-team-from-igtc-season/
I don't know if this is a total withdrawal from GT3 racing or just the factory M Sport team? I thought K-Pax was running a couple in the North American version of this series (the old Pirelli World Challenge).
https://sportscar365.com/sro/igtc/bentley-withdraws-factory-m-sport-team-from-igtc-season/
I don't know if this is a total withdrawal from GT3 racing or just the factory M Sport team? I thought K-Pax was running a couple in the North American version of this series (the old Pirelli World Challenge).
- 567
- S. Shields
I was let go from my job at the end of last year sadly. That explains why I was away from gtplanet for so long. So busy with lots of years of tough hours. One good thing is since I was not able to see much motorsport owing to a 3 shift rota of tough hours I can now watch some great motorsport. Of course now I was let go I was able to see some - but had to wait till the season started but by the time any series (be it Endurance, Single Seater, GT or Touring Cars) could start the virus hit us. It is only now I can finally see some good motorsport but there is a lot I have missed out on.
I don't know whether to add GT's or Sportscars to F1 on my list of motorsport passions. I recently tried to get Sky TV but it was not possible so had to return to Virgin Media and add the Skysports channels (Inc. Skysports F1).
Which is better right now? GT's or Endurance? Which looks to have the best long term future?
I don't know whether to add GT's or Sportscars to F1 on my list of motorsport passions. I recently tried to get Sky TV but it was not possible so had to return to Virgin Media and add the Skysports channels (Inc. Skysports F1).
Which is better right now? GT's or Endurance? Which looks to have the best long term future?
- 864
- PA
- attilag78
- TheHun99
First of all, I'm sorry for you losing your job, I truly hope you get a new one asap (or you already got one).
Sports car racing is a very wide category, it goes from sprint races to 24h enduros and everything in between. You can have prototypes (Radicals, Pragas, LMP3, LMP2, LMP1, DPi or or the Ligier JS P4 as examples) and GT cars (GT3, GTE, GT2, GT4, Ferrari, Lambo, Porsche and Ligier cup cars etc.). A typical sports car race is multiclass, so you often see prototypes and GTs mixed and if you check out NLS, Creventic's 24H Series or IMSA's Michelin Pilot Challenge, you're gonna see touring cars like TCR mixed in, too.
Even before you add any paid subscription, check out YouTube, there's an immense amount of official free content available, including live broadcasts of the GT World Challenge races, ELMS, Michelin Le Mans Cup etc. Sometime last year I created a Google Sheet about this kind of content, feel free to explore it (needs some updates but overall should work):
I believe that sports car racing and endurance are here to stay - which series or events is of course always a question but as format it's not really I'd say.
- 864
- PA
- attilag78
- TheHun99
First program launched with an eye on LMDH, Phoenix Racing going to AsLMS with LMP2 (Oreca) and potentially also with an LMP3 program:
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/09/09/phoenix-racing-confirm-lmp-programme.html
http://www.dailysportscar.com/2020/09/09/phoenix-racing-confirm-lmp-programme.html
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- Kansas City
Im glad we're back racing
- 864
- PA
- attilag78
- TheHun99
2020 edition of 24h Le Mans is a go, qualifying has just finished, the Toyota whining is again laughable, 4.5 seconds faster than the fastest non-hybrid LMP1. LMP2 and GTE-Am are very close, GTE-Pro is close but a tiny bit bigger gaps.
Hyperpole for the top 6 cars in each category will be tomorrow.
Hyperpole for the top 6 cars in each category will be tomorrow.
- 15,383
- TRAPPIST-1g
- ProjectWHaT
Eurointernational team gets a 1,000 euro fine for not being on Discord
- 662
- France
A first look at what could be the new Peugeot Le Mans Hypercar:
Images doesn't show up so direct link:
https://www.endurance-info.com/fr/peugeot-sport-presente-son-programme-le-mans-hypercar/
Images doesn't show up so direct link:
https://www.endurance-info.com/fr/peugeot-sport-presente-son-programme-le-mans-hypercar/
Tired Tyres
Premium
- 12,539
- West Yorkshire
- Tired_Tyres
- Tired Tyres
Just subbed for the race on the WEC site. 9.99 Euro's. Wasn't going to watch Le Mans this year. I lasted until one day before the race to change my mind.
- 15,383
- TRAPPIST-1g
- ProjectWHaT
https://www.bykolles.com/news/195-bykolles-confirms-pmc-project-lmh-for-2021.html
ByKolles confirmed LMH entry
ByKolles confirmed LMH entry
- 864
- PA
- attilag78
- TheHun99
Asian Le Mans Series to do their 2020/2021 season on Yas Marina: https://sportscar365.com/lemans/asian-lms/asian-lms-moves-entire-season-to-abu-dhabi/
They plan "to utilize two different configurations of the multi-layout Yas Marina facility and combine night, day and evening conditions".
Certainly interesting prospect and I can understand their reasoning. As AsLMS draws a lot of European teams, they probably are quite happy that they won't have to got to the Far East. and the season will be done in 2 weeks basically with 2 races on the 2 weekends each.
They plan "to utilize two different configurations of the multi-layout Yas Marina facility and combine night, day and evening conditions".
Certainly interesting prospect and I can understand their reasoning. As AsLMS draws a lot of European teams, they probably are quite happy that they won't have to got to the Far East. and the season will be done in 2 weeks basically with 2 races on the 2 weekends each.
