FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa

[nitrorocks]

Does the WEC stream have commentary? Or should I plan to boot up Radio Le Mans also?

They have Radio Le Mans. Well, it did at Sebring.

 

[Tower Turn 13]

Radio Le Mans is pretty much a staple of these races. I hope they cover it.

EDIT: actually it looks like they are, based on their website. I loled this quote:

"Don't be like Toyota and miss the last opportunity to get in some track time before we all head to Le Mans."

Haha such a great Le Mans resource. These races wouldn't be nearly as exciting without them.

 

[hawkeye122]

Radio Le Mans is pretty much a staple of these races. I hope they cover it.

EDIT: actually it looks like they are, based on their website. I loled this quote:

"Don't be like Toyota and miss the last opportunity to get in some track time before we all head to Le Mans."

Haha such a great Le Mans resource. These races wouldn't be nearly as exciting without them.

Luckily, they do the ALMS announcing also. Probably the best commentators for racing.

Now, I only need to hope that the Video Feed (Whichever one I use) Is synced up close enough to the Radio Le Mans feed.

 

[MarcoM]

I just got my tickets printed. Weather forecast is 12 degrees. And in the mountains of Spa that could mean fog and rain.

 

[peter_vod69]

I just got my tickets printed. Weather forecast is 12 degrees. And in the mountains of Spa that could WILL mean fog and rain.

Fixed

Should make things a little more interesting, though I suppose the result is a foregone conclusion anyway. Which is a pity, and as much it's a shame that Toyota won't be there, I don't think they would've changed things much.

 

[Jav]

Fixed

Should make things a little more interesting, though I suppose the result is a foregone conclusion anyway. Which is a pity, and as much it's a shame that Toyota won't be there, I don't think they would've changed things much.

Probably not, but they would've gotten pretty valuable track time that translates into a better performance at LeMans...

 

[Fruitcake]

Is it possible to buy tickets at the track?

 

[MarcoM]

Is it possible to buy tickets at the track?

I am sure it will be possible to do that. I got mine already online: 5 Euros saved. That means one extra beer

 

[Appie]

Is there a site where i can watch this great endurance race? I don't know if it will be broadcasted here live.

@ Fruitcake: Check this link here.

 

[peter_vod69]

Probably not, but they would've gotten pretty valuable track time that translates into a better performance at LeMans...

True, and I hope they do well. But the fact of the matter is that Toyota have made an art-form out of spending huge amounts of money to be also-rans (with the exception of their 90's WRC efforts). I don't think the 6-hour would've changed that, sadly...

 

[sumbrownkid]

In fairness, Toyota was far more competent in sports cars than in F1.

 

[Ardius]

True, and I hope they do well. But the fact of the matter is that Toyota have made an art-form out of spending huge amounts of money to be also-rans (with the exception of their 90's WRC efforts). I don't think the 6-hour would've changed that, sadly...

The GT-One can hardly be described as an "also-ran".

The only Toyota you refer to there is the one in F1. Elsewhere they were pretty successful.

 

[MarcoM]

Pretty succesfull in the Japan GT championship.

 

[peter_vod69]

The GT-One can hardly be described as an "also-ran".

The only Toyota you refer to there is the one in F1. Elsewhere they were pretty successful.

Ah yes the car that ran very very fast two years in a row and didn't win anything except a Token GTP-Class win? Sorry, but history only tends to remember the winners.

Pretty succesfull in the Japan GT championship.

That's like saying Holden do pretty well in V8 Supercars.

Don't get me wrong, I do hope they eventually win at something other than WRC but I won't be holding my breath.

 

[LongbowX]

Only remembering the winners is unfortunate, as it doesn't tell the whole story.

Toyota nearly won Le Mans after all. Such as in 1994, where they finished one lap off the win after suffering transmission problems during the last 90 minutes. Not to mention that in that race they were beaten by Porsche running the 962 as a GT1 car due to a quirk in the rules that Porsche exploited.

 

[sumbrownkid]

I think people remember Le Mans 99 for infamous flips and Toyota's shortcomings more over BMW's victory.

 

[hawkeye122]

So how bout this LMP2 field?

Hoping Starworks continues to run well, after a big win at Sebring. Ryan Dalziel really has a busy year of racing, it seems.

 

[nitrorocks]

Yeah. He is a busy dude. He almost won again at Daytona.

 

[MarcoM]

Toyota at Spa for at least photo's

http://www.facebook.com/fiawec#!/media/set/?set=a.356309864425474.83881.256388114417650&type=3

 

[peter_vod69]

Toyota at Spa for at least photo's

http://www.facebook.com/fiawec#!/media/set/?set=a.356309864425474.83881.256388114417650&type=3

I really do like that livery. I'm not a massive fan of the current, closed cockpit designs but that livery makes the Toyota the best looking of them.

 

[MarcoM]

They will not race though:

http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/toyota-ts030-photographed-at-spa_101.html

This weekend Round 2 of the FIA World Endurance Championship will take place at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, with the race debut of the new hybrid Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Unfortunately the Toyota challenger for the World title suffered a setback in testing a few weeks ago and the Japanese manufacturer was forced to delay the race debut of its hybrid challenger, the TS030, until the 24 Heures du Man in June. However the Toyota TS030 made a small detour to Spa when travelling from the team base in Cologne on the way to the next test at Magny Cours and was photographed with its rival, the Audi R18 e-tron.

 

[freshseth83]

Practice one in less than an hour!

 

[Hun200kmh]

Nice to see the end of the "Philishave" look 👍

According to the ACO site (french version, the english one is, as usual, a bit late) the TS030 was passing by, from Cologne to France (for private tests, Paul Ricard maybe?) and the guys decided to pay the Spa-Francorchamps track a corteous visit. From that came the idea of putting the two main rivals together for a picture and that was that. The TS030 bid farewell to Spa, returned to the truck again and is now in France.

(I wonder if this was a report from the set of Disney's "Cars III" and not from the ACO )

 

[MarcoM]

Nice to see the end of the "Philishave" look 👍

According to the ACO site (french version, the english one is, as usual, a bit late) the TS030 was passing by, from Cologne to France (for private tests, Paul Ricard maybe?) and the guys decided to pay the Spa-Francorchamps track a corteous visit. From that came the idea of putting the two main rivals together for a picture and that was that. The TS030 bid farewell to Spa, returned to the truck again and is now in France.

(I wonder if this was a report from the set of Disney's "Cars III" and not from the ACO )

to Magny Cours

 

[Bram Turismo]

Ah yes the car that ran very very fast two years in a row and didn't win anything except a Token GTP-Class win? Sorry, but history only tends to remember the winners.

The GT-One was created entirely for Le Mans, and nothing else.

I guess you missed the bit where the TS020 cars were dominant during most of, if not all, sessions at Le Mans '99, but ultimately got beaten by pure bad luck.

The same can be said about the 787b. It wasn't even a fast car compared to the rest of the field, and it only won Le Mans because of other teams' bad luck. Yet everyone remembers the 787b.

 

[nitrorocks]

Toyota at Spa for at least photo's

http://www.facebook.com/fiawec#!/media/set/?set=a.356309864425474.83881.256388114417650&type=3

That looks awesome. But hopefully Toyota will learn from this and have some spare Monocoques at the shop.

 

[Tired Tyres]

The GT-One was created entirely for Le Mans, and nothing else.

I guess you missed the bit where the TS020 cars were dominant during most of, if not all, sessions at Le Mans '99, but ultimately got beaten by pure bad luck.

The same can be said about the 787b. It wasn't even a fast car compared to the rest of the field, and it only won Le Mans because of other teams' bad luck. Yet everyone remembers the 787b.

Actually the BMW beat the Toyota because of greater efficiency.

The Toyota was pitting every 45 minutes and the BMW every 55 minutes and there was no way the extra speed of the Toyota could claw those extra stops back.

It was clear that the BMW was going to win, reliability allowing, less than a hour into the race.

 

[Bram Turismo]

That BMW only ever got there because the fastest cars were put out of the race, and Toyota's third, and last, GT-One basically had driven cruising laps for as long as the two main cars were in the race.

There was definitely a chance for the last BMW and Toyota to finish close, had that final tyre puncture not occurred for Toyota.

 

[Tired Tyres]

The fastest BMW was way ahead of the fastest Toyota's. Efficiency killed any chance Toyota had.

Think about it. The 4th Toyota pitstop is at 180 minutes, the 4th BMW stop is at 220 minutes, the kicker is that the next Toyota stop is just 5 minutes after that at 225 and then again at 270 minutes. that's 6 stops.

The BMW doesn't make it's 5th stop until 275 minutes.

That's one completely free pitstop after 275 minutes of racing.

The Toyota was not fast enough to make up the difference. Fact.

That was absolutely clear 55 minutes into the race. Only reliability could change that.

Edit. Radio Le Mans coverage of Practice 2 has started.

http://www.radiolemans.com/

 

[sumbrownkid]

Katayama's Toyota was actually on pace to catch up and take the lead from the lead Kristensen LMR. If that puncture didn't happen, he would have caught the BMW with a couple laps to go. He was only a lap down when it happened, after having clawed back lost ground.

Besides, other factors like traffic skew stuff like that.