Quote:
Originally Posted by Bentley03
To be honest mate, I think it was the exclusion of PLM from the WEC that hurt most. The inclusion of Bahrain, and on the same date, just dug the knife in a bit deeper. I don't think the adjustment to the calendar has fundamentally changed anything, PLM is still not part of the WEC.
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I will have to disagree with that. It's been known for quite some time that Petit was not the primary target for the 2nd American date. In fact, it wasn't the primary target for 2011 either. South America could not get signed in time or whatever so Petit snook in the 2011 calendar, but it seemed almost assured that things would get finalized in South America for 2012. Maybe there was some optimism, but it wasn't realistic optimism.
Still, the initial 2012 WEC calendar announcement was a bombshell. Alone, Petit not being on there would not be a surprise at all. Tough scheduling around the Petit date would not have been a surprise either. Not to me at least, I was calling that prior to the announcement. The bombshell was A) Bahrain getting on the calendar in the first place (it was rumored a few months back, but that seemed to be dismissed and the common thought was that Malaysia would be the extra race) and B) that Bahrain was on Petit's date. That was nuclear right there. "You're going to race on the same day as Petit? AT BAHRAIN??!?!" was the thought. As a racing fan, I expect stupid to happen, but that level of stupidity was shocking! I don't know what caused the change, but it did happen. There's still a lot of issues and concerns, but the most pressing matter seemingly has been taken care of.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FstrthnU
IMO, LMP1 still seems rather small. I know that LMP2 is also potentially going to be bigger (way bigger?) than LMP1 in the WEC, but I wonder if there's anyone looking into ALMS LMP1 2013 onwards. Maybe the Detroit and Oklahoma City (and apparently tentative VIR) races will encourage at least 1 more team to join?
Unless LMPs in general tank in the near future
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I think it's way to early to determine what might happen in 2013. It's year-by-year or even race-by-race with what we have now so looking 12+ months into the future is very difficult. I would not expect miracles though. Detroit and Oklahoma City are not races that are going to make owners say "damn, I'm in" and it's hardly a guarantee that the ALMS will be at either even if paperwork says otherwise. Just look at Baltimore.