2013 ALMS Race News, Results, and Insults

[Desertdawg]

I finally got thru my recording...

I think they put a gag on OConnell, at the end when they are talking about how great the bimmer and viper's are, Johnny should have jumped in and talked about the CR BoP crap......

I wouldnt have known about it without this thread..... Thanks!

[MOTV8]

Marc, I don't think teh Viper Wolf took out was in teh lead, but then again my memory gets a little fuzzy for some odd reason.

Dawg, if this game isn't rigged, then teh Bimmers should also receive 30lbs of BoP weight penalty, right? Teh reasoning at Sebring was teh winning vette was able to come back from way way down and win. Teh winning Bimmer at Long Beach was also way down after that early missed corner, and yet came all the way back to win.

But I bet you a beer teh ALMS will not add one pound. We'll see....

IN THE COCKPIT: Jan Magnussen, Long Beach

Long Beach was an interesting race for us. Walking away with a fifth place finish was not really what we had hoped for...

Long Beach was an interesting race for us. Walking away with a fifth place finish was not really what we had hoped for.

We were looking to get closer to the podium, especially with Antonio and myself having a fast Corvette C6.R. But sometimes it goes like that.

It seemed like anybody who got in trouble at the beginning of the race, and got out of sequence on the pit stops, ended up on the podium.

But there was more to it than just the pit stops. I think we could have run a different tire compound and got a little more out of it. It seemed that we lost our way a little bit on that.

Something positive from the weekend was that the car was fast and we didn't really have any huge problems. Coming home from Long Beach, without hitting the walls, I suppose is a good thing.

At this point in the year, everything we do is part of our Le Mans preparation. We try to learn as much as we can every time we go out and see if it's something we improve on.

The four-hour format of the next round at Laguna Seca will open up to being creative with the pit stop strategies and stuff like that. In terms of setup, there's not much we can take to Le Mans, but it's all about preparation.

But I love Laguna Seca. It's one of my favorite tracks in North America and I'm always looking forward to going back there. It's not really a high grip circuit but it has a great flow to it. There's quite a bit of undulation and it makes it an enjoyable weekend for sure.

Aside from my duties with Corvette Racing, I've been busy with race programs in Europe. I'll be doing a round of the International GT Open this weekend, so that will be a new experience for me. Back in Denmark, the Danish Touring Car Championship kicks off the weekend after.

In the DTC, we're going to be as well prepared as we can, even though we've had some setbacks. The other driver on the team was sick, and he was important to a lot of the pre-season preparations. So we got a little bit behind but I think we'll be fine.

I've also been following my son, Kevin, to see how he gets on in this weekend's Formula Renault 3.5 Series race at Motorland Aragon. I really, really hope he will be able to build on Monza, where he scored two second place finishes.

It's not one of his favorite places in the world but if he races the same way as he did at Monza, then he should have a good result there as well.

Talk to you all again after Laguna!

Jan

[P51tj]

I know teh Tommy lost like 8 lbs. to help but it didn't.

Qualifying was dominated by......

VIPER POWAH!

1) Farnbacher - Viper

2)Sellers - Porsche

3)Bomarito - Viper

4) Mags - Corvette

5) BMW

6) Milner - Corvette

"wallowing thunderpigs out there."

LOL NICE!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZvsZNBHUK8

[MOTV8]

Wow, that's bad music. You were doing better with teh Accept in teh What Are You Listening To thread!

Anyway, found a piece on teh BoP...maybe it will stimulate some debate here. Anyone got ideas to replace teh BoP as is, what could they do differently to 'level' teh playing field???

Finding Balance… Or Not

The words ‘Balance of Performance’ have become almost as hated and criticized as ‘smoking’ and ‘fiscal cliff’. The original idea behind the concept was brilliant and critical to the development of GT racing; yet over the years the idea has become diluted, and it is now time to find a new way to ensure close and competitive racing.

Under the original concept, front-, mid- and rear-engine cars, with four-, six-, eight- and 12-cylinder engines; those suited for the race track such as the Lamborghini Murcielago; and those that aren’t (Nissan GTR), could compete on a level playing field. The idea was to reduce the cost of development to help the private teams on which endurance racing thrives, and place the emphasis of success on the human element of racing – the drivers, mechanics and strategists.

It started well in endurance racing in Europe but the idea morphed, and as competition closed up, arguing the balance of performance between cars became a powerful tool in the armory of competitive teams. They used it as a way to find an advantage… or hobble an opponent.

In the early days of BoP, the Maserati MC12 was up against Ferrari's 550 Maranello, Aston Martin's DBR9 and Corvette's C6 in the FIA GT Championship. Everything about the Maserati was better for competition, from its mid-engine layout to the fact that the roll cage and door hinges allowed drivers to roll out of the car faster than the Corvette boys during pit stops.

Series organizer Stephane Ratel turned to the FIA, which put the matter in the hands of its technical consultant Peter Wright. Wright came up with a system that would allow fair competition between the cars. With Steffan Kosuch of DATAS, the performance of the Maserati was mapped, and then used real track data to equalize the cars. Air restrictor sizes were a key part of the equation, as was weight and, if the results still favored one car over another, the volume of fuel carried could also be changed. “If, over two races, we see anything more than a half-second difference between the cars, then we act,” Wright said at the time. ‘We can generally get them to within a quarter of a second of each other.’

Yet as the competition became closer, there was an opportunity to create grey areas in this black and white world, and it all began to unravel. The FIA GT Championship introduced a standard ECU, built by Magnetti Marelli, to help map cars more accurately. But ‘success ballast’, awarded to cars that finished races well placed, rather complicated the issue. How could a car that had collected 100kg of success ballast be accurately mapped? Teams started to create a strategy around a complete season, ensuring they were carrying minimum weight at crucial points of the season, and arguing for performance breaks where they could.

It was cheaper to have an argument than it was to develop a car. As a member of the media, I was never that far away from an argument whichever side of the Atlantic I stood.

The last series that used Wright’s method for its true meaning was the FIA European GT3 Championship, which took place without a technical rulebook. The series was designed for the gentleman driver. While a professional expected to be within a second of his fellow professionals, there could be seconds between a good amateur and a bad one. Actual performance of the cars was incidental. They needed to be in the ballpark, and no more.

To that end, it was satisfactory for drivers of the caliber of Christophe Bouchut and Jean Marc Gounon to test the cars at a preseason event, making sure that the cars performed as expected, and give their feedback to the FIA. “It is racing, but not as we know it,” lamented Prodrive’s George Howard Chappell as the company tested its GT3 Vantage at Paul Ricard in southern France. There was no performance testing required – it was purely reliability. This was perfect. For Ratel’s gentlemen drivers, they needed to know that, on their day, they could win.

However, the system was also being introduced into ever more professional series, and that’s where the problems really started. The FIA tried a more scientific approach to Balance of Performance, mapping each of the FIA GT World Championship cars at Michelin's facility in France, but still the method was not entirely accurate.

In the World Touring Car Championship – contested by Chevrolet, BMW, SEAT and Alfa Romeo – balance of performance used rev limits and weight handicaps. An FIA Bureau was set up, and new measures were being issued at each race. Balance of Performance had to accommodate saloon cars with hatchbacks, front-wheel drive with rear-wheel drive, H-pattern gearboxes with sequential, and most controversially, diesel power with gasoline.

Then, there was Le Mans. Audi and Peugeot ran factory cars on diesel, while the privateers ran on gasoline. The privateers couldn’t hope to compete, even though the organizers did their best, using a combination of turbo boost pressure, weight, fuel tank size and even ride-height.

The alternatives are not decisive. The FIA and the ACO have introduced the idea of a fuel flow meter under the 2014 regulations. This will limit the performance of the engine, and increase the emphasis on efficiency. The idea is to ensure that not only will the most efficient engine win, but privateers will have their chance to shine too. So while the manufacturers will put their development money into hybrid systems, privateers will be able to run large capacity engines far below their optimum performance, and be able to win.

“It is down to fuel consumption, and you need the best you can get,” says engine builder John Judd. “I am confident that we can produce a good petrol engine. The average power over a lap will be achieved by the engine that has the best fuel consumption - grams per kilowatt hour. We have ideas how to do that, and they include producing a light engine, low revving, reduce friction losses and we can do that OK. The question is whether or not anyone will be there.”

GRAND-AM’s solution currently is to limit engine power and map the cars aerodynamically, and impose tight restrictions. It takes control of the development, and the regulations make the cars run below optimum performance. In 2014, the new series will run a plethora of categories as it amalgamates with the ALMS, and the arrangement is to simply deploy the survival of the fittest strategy – keeping the most successful and dropping the least popular.

One thing is clear; Balance of Performance as we know it has had its day, and now it is time to move on.

Andrew Cotton is currently editor of the magazine Racecar Engineering, and as a freelance has covered endurance racing in Europe and North America since 1999.

[P51tj]

The Shifter brought up the "wallowing Thunderpigs" and thats what I googled...u r right...BAD just as bad as this whole BoP thing!

[Shifty]

We'll see if IMSA removes it's collective cranium from it's constantly romanced rectum, and at least pulls teh weight that they threw at Corvette for no other reason than that they were trying to throw teh Vipers a win to get more viewers, and not letting CR run away with it like teh GT1 days, where Corvette's only competition was teh other Corvette!

[Shifty]

BTW: If any team out there should be teh wallowers, it should be teh Vipers for being allowed to run an 8.0 in a 5.5 class...

[Desertdawg]

I can agree with a BoP thats fair, but you need an impartiial judge to rule the power, not the ones with open pockets!

After reading that article I have to laugh, so you penalize the Maserati MC12 because by design it allows the drivers to enter and exit faster?

BullCrap! If you can't desing your rollcage and doors to allow better access then tuff shit!

The BoP should be based on lap speeds/times from the last race and your qualifing speed/time for the current race, add or subtract weight based on those numbers and you will also limit fudging to get a better BoP position.....

The BoP can be applied minutes before the race allowing the teams just enough time to tweak thier settings if they want.

And BoP should only be weight, no areodynamic changes because you could then tip the scales in favor or against a team based on track layout and car design....

If they doesn't even out the field then we might as well go the way of nascar, everyone gets the same car, if you want to win you need to have better commercials!

[Shifty]

United Sports Car Racing will only have a couple of years to get it right, or they are probably going to witness a mass exodus, and hemmorage race fuel. It's kind of pathetic to watch right now, knowing how teams have tampered with bank accounts for a winning season...

It seems to me that teh BoP at Sebring was pretty close, maybe lighten teh Porsches by 15 kilos, but other than that, it was very competitve! Corvette, though it went on to win, didn't set teh fastest laps, and Viper was right in there then, why mess with a good thing? Check teh IMSA officials' bank accounts, and I'm willing to bet that there is a few checks from SRT recently deposited. BMW should be a little behind, since they are supposed to be developing that Z4

[MOTV8]

BMW should be a little behind, since they are supposed to be developing that Z4

LMAO!

I just read a post on CF from some guy claiming Doug Fehan stated teh following, so I vadered it:

All manufacturers in GT are less than thrilled about the new BMW's. They said they all (manufacturers involved) accepted the z4/v8 platform, but were not prepared for this radically modified/bodied z4. No one is happy, and letters are sent/received.

C7R

Chassis done just about...engine/wiring starting.

Testing to begin in july

Color will be yellow based. Doug said they "own" yellow, are the only yellow car out there and it is just synonomous with the corvette team

No c7R at any of this yrs races....not to test, not to view

C7R will have special scheme for daytona race...and Doug said its juicy! He didnt use that word but...he rubbed his hands together and said he cant wait...then he talked about pulling out his "apparatus"...

C7R will run CURRENT ENGINE in 2014. Doug said that with the new series, they know what the performance figures currently are to keep the BOP in order. Additionally, he said they (united sports) are concerned about all the new corvette technology hitting the scene and that just the new chassis alone has other people concerned. He said trying to shove LT1 down their throat is just too much at once.

Gt class will remain unchanged for next yr....no aero changes, weights, nothing.

With DP's and GT's in same series...what happens to the teams that share current drivers? They dont know yet...

How is the C7 better than C6 where the racecar is concerned?

Way stiffer chassis

Much better airflow over the roof and down backside

Though c7 production car has split tanks, the chassis was designed to give the race team room for one tank...now fueling times are faster than any car out there (though alms will likely put in fueling restrictor as a result)

[Shifty]

Well, that answers a couple questions that I had anyway....I'd really like to know what teh driver sitch is though. I just don't get why they don't just ram teh LT1 down their throat-Viper and Bimmer have no problems doing it.....

[Desertdawg]

I'm with teh Shifter there, stuff that motor in there and stick the LT1 up thier butts......

Yet I still would be wary of the entire new engine platform the very first year, teh way we get shafted there would be a BoP impossed on CR before they roll out of the pits.

[Shifty]

I've been thinking about this chit alot (when I go running at 4am, there isn't a lot to do....).....

Since teh business side of production car racing is about selling cars, CR asked teh IMSA to let them loose for 2012 to help sales on an outgoing model that was going to have a bad sales year, simply because it's going away? Viper needs to get teh fans involved to sell their new machine....etc....

Conspiracy theorists untie!

[MOTV8]

Untie what?

Running at 4 am is against my religion, jsyk.

A little late...but nice vid, Corvette Racing Recaps 12 hours of Sebring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l6NLGtAp59I

[Shifty]

Let me say this....my definition of dawn, is when teh sun is straight overhead, but that's teh only time I have to do it, and teh ALMS has my blood pressure up, so I gotta do it....

[MOTV8]

Well if it keeps you from going postal then by all means...

NEWS FLASH: Teh terrifying visage of Patrick Long's mongoloid cranium has made an appearance. Patsy will apparently be joining teh party at Laguna Seca. Mebbe Jan can stuff him into a wall as a welcome back present!

Read it and see video evidence: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/alms-core-autosport-porsche-to-debut-in-monterey/

[Shifty]

Just like a turd, he floats to teh surface to stink it up for everyone....

[Desertdawg]

aww, it will be fun watching him stuff it in teh wall......

[Shifty]

I'm still miffed that CR has to sport teh "chubby" package for Laguna Seca.....at least they get to go on a diet in France...maybe IMSA will have that much needed rectal-cranial inversion by teh time they get home from frogland.

[MOTV8]

I check teh IMSA website everyday....still no BoP issued for a post-Long Beach adjustment.

Translation = no penalty weight for BMW's winning waiver-mobile! Teh check is in teh mail!

[Shifty]

If teh stinkin' beemers do it again, I'll cal IMSA myself....:

[Desertdawg]

Post the phone number, i'm good at imatating Beemer owners ( hanging around with Chad to much...) I'll call in a bunch of time asking for the weight to be added so it will be fair.

[MOTV8]

Post the phone number, i'm good at imatating Beemer owners ( hanging around with Chad to much...) I'll call in a bunch of time asking for the weight to be added so it will be fair.

Work on your eastern european accent first....

International Motor Sports Association

1394 Broadway Avenue

Braselton, Georgia 30517

Phone: (706) 658-2120

Fax: (706) 658-2130

Scot Elkins , Chief Operating Officer

[Shifty]

[MOTV8]

Gavin and Corvette Racing gearing up for endurance racing in California

The Briton Oliver Gavin will once again be taking his Corvette C6.R into the thick of an intense, and no doubt thrilling, GT battle and talk about it in a interview.

Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin is en route to California for the second time in a month with the aim of taking his second win from three races at the four-hour American Le Mans Series Monterey at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 9-11, round three of the ALMS.

The Briton will once again be taking his Corvette C6.R into the thick of an intense, and no doubt thrilling, GT battle, the last race in the USA before the team head to Europe to compete in the world’s biggest sportscar race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Here, the Yardley Hastings, Northamptonshire (UK), resident gives his views on the weekend ahead:

Do you think the nature of the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track will even up, or accentuate, the power advantage that GT competitors such as the Vipers appear to have? "I think it could even up that power advantage as Laguna has a low top speed relative to somewhere like Road America; it’s not necessarily a power track. There are some corners which, if you have a torquey engine like the Vipers do, you can punch out of, but it’s not an out-and-out horsepower track and that will suit us well."

How does the longer race allow you to vary your strategy, and do you think this will play into your hands? "A: I think the longer race format is going to play into our hands. We have performed well over the longer races recently and I really feel we have got the best team. We regularly make up time on people in the pits, either with quick tire changes, how we play our fuel strategy or the strategy in general: we’ve got a great group of guys.

These races are so tight it sometimes comes down to when you take your last stop and how much fuel you take on and, with a longer race, you’ve got a far wider strategy window to play with. We’re, of course, not the only ones who are good at that side – BMW and Rahal Letterman Racing has always been very strong on strategy – but everyone is improving and it’s going to be close."

Can you tell who your main rivals will be or is it too close to call? "It’s honestly too close to call for this race. Porsche has always been good there and the new Core Autosport entry can’t be underestimated. Whether they have everything together yet to compete at the same level as everyone else, I don’t know but they will be quick. Ferrari has traditionally been good at Laguna, and Falken has been improving race on race, so it’s difficult to pin point who is going to be our main rivals."

What track conditions can you expect for the race weekend? "Looking at the forecast, it looks as though it could be quite cool (low 60s) so how well you make your tires work could steer the outcome of the race; they will certainly play a big part in the weekend. There’s likely to be plenty of cautions and incidents with 36 plus cars in the field, it makes for a full race track.

Additionally the track surface is always very dusty which adds to the challenges. The GT class drives round in a high speed train and it only really gets broken up when there’s an incident, or when you come against faster or slower traffic.

You have to be 100% on top of your game and concentrating fully; you can’t afford one slip up otherwise you won’t finish in the top five let alone on the podium."

Corvette Racing

-AND-

Speed's Preview: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/alms-monterey-preview1/