2014 SCCA World Challenge

[Matt]

Idk, there's just a few things that looked different between the two in general, I knew about the aero and such.

[MitchZ06]

Well that completely washed away any memories of the 12 Cautions of Sebring, can't wait for the next round!

[Nick Woodbury]

Originally Posted by MitchZ06

Well that completely washed away any memories of the 12 Cautions of Sebring, can't wait for the next round!

You hit the nail right on the head. For me, I may have come off in my earlier post a bit strong against TUSCC, but I was so disappointed to see how two of the most prestigious races on their calendar were tainted by...well, no need to beat that dead horse. But now that I witnessed such a fluid and well executed race at St. Pete it really gives me at least one North American series to look forward to with a passion, bring on the 2014 WC season!

[Canada ALMS fan]

Originally Posted by Matt

Idk, there's just a few things that looked different between the two in general, I knew about the aero and such.

It was the same car converted but they do have 2 cars so if they chose to do full season PWC and TUSC it wouldn't be a big deal. They are the ex-Marc VDS cars from the FIA GT series. A return to TUSC is sounding a little doubtful right now.

What a great race, it was fun to watch and the quality of cars on the grid is fantastic. Note to IMSA: that is how you deal with stranded cars. Enge was a monster!

[Accident]

Was a pretty good race, should be a pretty great season. Good to hear Shaw too, but I wish they would get a better tracker to put on the screen. It showed up a few times, but it was hard to keep track of the cars that weren't getting a lot of camera time, which was most of them.

Glad they uploaded the race to youtube so quick, hopefully they can keep that up throughout the season. For whatever reason my computer seems to hate world-challengetv.com as all the videos there play like a slideshow for me, so the only way I can follow it is by the youtube uploads.

[IndyMeister]

Originally Posted by Accident

For whatever reason my computer seems to hate world-challengetv.com as all the videos there play like a slideshow for me, so the only way I can follow it is by the youtube uploads.

Not even with direct link? I had the same problem but somehow it solved itself:
http://www.world-challengetv.com/#/races/905

BTW Great race by Enge! I assume he didn't stall on purpose to make it more exciting

[NaBUru38]

I couldn't watch it live, so I saw the full race last night.

The grid is really impressive. Having 50 V8-engined grand tourers, half of them GT3, running a 50 minute race at a street course, wow!

What the championship needs is more professional drivers. If it had live television on NBC Sports or MavTV, it would be easier to invite some DP or GTLM pros.

[Coach Ep]

Apparently Reiter's entry for Enge is full season but he's not shown on the Long Beach entry list (now at 41 cars despite the earlier announced 40 cars cap).

With Cunningham's Acura not appearing until Detroit, surely WC is letting their championship leader in for their West coast big event?

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Nick Woodbury

While I understand the schedule contains some tracks that are traditionally found on a PWC calendar I.E. Brainerd Raceway (Where and what the hell is that?) and quite a lot of street courses, I wish they would in the future, establish a calendar that contained more high profile tracks such as Road Atlanta, COTA (why are they not returning there?), and perhaps Watkins Glen.

This series now has so much potential and if they can establish themselves by spreading the word on more significant and prestigious North American tracks, then this series is golden.

Originally Posted by Cheyne

World Challenge is not a headline or stand alone series. They tag along with bigger series, normally Indy Cars, so if they do street races then WC has to do street races.

This year, the GT classes will only do St Pete, Long Beach, Barber, Detroit, Road America, Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Sonoma and Miller. Only two rounds aren't supporting IndyCar: Road America (Nascar Nationwide) and Miller (Nascar West).

The Mosport, New Jersey and Brainerd rounds are TC only. They also do all road courses except Sonoma, no street races for them.

[ttdriver2009]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

Same car converted. Lots of parts on the inside were changed to higher quality parts. The most obvious change on the outside is the bigger rear wing which is great. Those narrow rear wings in TUSK are so ugly.

I see that the rear wing is different and the dive planes are added plus a bigger splitter. I've heard that there are enduro parts and sprint parts (axles, gears, clutches, bearings, rotors and pads) are different because they are designed for a different purpose (50 minutes vs. 24 hours). I heard that a programming change in the ABS, stability control and traction control will allow those components to be disabled for TUSK. What better quality internal parts does SCCA allow over TUSK? Since they allow better components, it goes to show how TUSK is not giving us the best thing out there and SCCA is, I just want to have a list of the better quality internal parts.

[extramundane]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

Since they allow better components, it goes to show how TUSK is not giving us the best thing out there and SCCA is, I just want to have a list of the better quality internal parts.

It's all ball bearings these days.

[Canada ALMS fan]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Apparently Reiter's entry for Enge is full season but he's not shown on the Long Beach entry list (now at 41 cars despite the earlier announced 40 cars cap).

With Cunningham's Acura not appearing until Detroit, surely WC is letting their championship leader in for their West coast big event?

Oh I hope so, was thinking the same. I would assume von Thurn und Taxis is funding it though so if his car doesn't get an entry as well then maybe they won't be at Long Beach???

[JoeMaters]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

They are not on the Entry List for Long Beach and that one has been closed by now: http://www.world-challenge.com/image...g-Beach-v9.pdf

That is weird cause even in one of the articles in the Reiter page, said that at least, the black car will race on the GT-A....

[Canada ALMS fan]

And during the broadcast Jeremy Shaw mentioned TRG would have a GT3 spec Aston too.

[David Land]

Really liked what I saw from PWC. Honestly the Am class within the GT(3) class was kind of pointless because the Am drivers seemed to be able to compete with the pros easily.

The SCCA might be wise to look at opening up a class for P2 teams as well.

[Canada ALMS fan]

Long Beach entry updated:
http://www.world-challenge.com/image...-Beach-v10.pdf
Lone Star SRT Viper GT3R added, still no Lambos, Turner, or GT3 Aston.

[Mike Hedlund]

PWC has increased their live streaming capacity for Long Beach... nice quick response to the feedback from the fans and teams!

http://www.world-challenge.com/news/...each-race.html

-mike

[Maelochs]

I see a lot of sports car fans are realizing that PWC offers all the racing and none of the ...other stuff ... that TUSC delivers.

[jasonjessica09]

To be fair remember that PWC does not have to worry about pit stops. But I liked how they only threw the FCY if the accident or stalled car interfered with the racing line.

A couple other things that would nice to see:
1. More of a BMW presence. I guess Turner won't be at Long Beach but after that they will hopefully be full time

2. A Mercedes on the grid that can compete up front. So far it seems that Tim Pappas is not able to do that, so I hope perhaps that a big time team gets a new Mercedes to run in PWC or perhaps the HTP team will bring in Gotz, Buhk and/or Bernd Schneider to run in some events.

[ttdriver2009]

I was at St. Pete and talked to a guy at the Mercedes tent. He told me that there was lots of interest in running that car in PWC and more will show up soon. Can't wait.

Hopefully, Rahall moves over to PWC. Looks like to me, that they would help out the BMW cause.

[MoMedic9019]

This will hopefully turn into a pure GT3 championship....we need our own series here..I think it could be massive.

[ttdriver2009]

Originally Posted by MoMedic9019

This will hopefully turn into a pure GT3 championship....we need our own series here..I think it could be massive.

Does anyone know if the CTS-V and TLX (starting at Detroit) are pure GT3 cars? Everything else is (Porsche, Lamborgini, McClaren, Corvette, Viper, Ferrari, GTR, Audi and BMW) as I see them run in Europe in GT3. I haven't seen the CTS-V running in GT3 and can't find any info on it. Hopefully, SCCA doesn't go the route that Grand-Am did where they had two sets of rules (Prep 1 and Prep2) for the same class. Grand-Am ruined their GT class by not staying pure to one set of international rules. SCCA has gone the GT3 route but I wonder about these two cars that are not on the list of FIA Homologated cars for GT3.

[Speed-King]

The Caddy and the Acura are not FIA GT3-spec cars. Neither are the Nissans and the Vettes (is there one running in WC this year?), by the way.

But then, GT3 doesn't have a rulebook anyway and there have been national homologations in some European series as well. So in a sense whatever car runs in a GT3-field is a GT3.

[ttdriver2009]

Now I'm confused. There is not set FIA GT3 worldwide rulebook and there are cars that are running in PWC that go by no FIA specifications at all? What FIA GT3 ruleset do the GT3 cars go by? Then what did PWC determine for the non-FIA GT3 cars ruleset to run? This is almost sounding as bad as TUSK (balance of performance thing). I was told that the TUSK cars run inferior internal parts as opposed to the PWC cars, but now I don't know who to believe. Why not have a single set of rules and if you can't build it to that, then go away? Sounds simple to me.

Are you guys jerking my chain? It's really becoming confusing to me.

[Matt]

there really are no rules for GT3.

all the cars get sent to SRO at the beginning of the year and are balanced to a 911.