2014 Blancpain Sprint Series

[J Jay]

I have a BT Sports package (with ESPN), but I'm watching Moto3/2 over Blancpain.

Not as if we needed to be told this, but money talks.

Originally Posted by AndreasDavour

It's on? huh? Why is the live link on the official page not showing anything?

When does that mean the championship race starts in CEST, and where is it streamed online?

The main race will be starting at 15:45 CEST. Good luck watching it via live streaming though!

[Deleted]

And to think just five years ago we still had awesome gt1live.tv streaming for FIA GT. I remember it being a little jerky at times and definitely not HD, but it always worked, was not geoblocked, had awesome duo of Nichols and Tyler commentating, and the production values were miles better too. Nothing has ever felt the same in SRO world since Zolder 09! The championship is a shadow of itself obviously most of all but the TV prod is inferior as well.

[Deleted]

Oh just realized there's coverage on Eurosport of this thing. Now I might not approve this series or the format (FIA GT + SRO racing has been dead to me for years), however getting Eurosport back after such long period and having presence on US television market is pretty handy work from the SRO. Well done on this aspect.

[Martin Bull]

Well, I've just got back from Brands and have to say that my Dad and I (who have been to just about every International Sports/GT race there since 1969) both hugely enjoyed it.

The cars looked, sounded and I think were pretty quick. No-one walked away with it (at least, not until the pitstops in race 2 ) and through the trees out the back at Brands remains the way motor sport should be...

( at least, to a couple of oldies like us ! ).

A good day.

[cobraRed01]

Originally Posted by Accident

The channel that it comes on isn't available through my cable provider. This "monumental deal" isn't bringing anything to me in any fashion, it just means that I won't be able to watch the races.

The SRO stuff was on SPEED2 as well which made them geoblock the series for the last few years, and for at least the first few races of the season they did NOT unblock them after a few weeks. Admittedly, I could only bring myself to care for the first few races of each season and after that I'd just give up and move on and stop checking to see if they had been unblocked. If we are to the third race in the championship and I'm still not able to watch the first race, at that point I'm done.

Perhaps you should read closer before "chomping at the bit" as it doesn't say that the races will be live, it says that the BSS races will be broadcast "as live" on the same day (which is actually better than live in my opinion because they can be adjusted to better show times here in the US). It doesn't say anything about the BES races being live, but rather says they will be 1 hour long highlights packages.

My bigger issue is with the BES races being geoblocked. If they geoblock the BES races because of the 1 hour highlights packages then that means none of us here in the US will be able to watch the full BES races, as even the people with the channel available will only get 1 hour highlights packages. They have already geoblocked the Monza BES race so I'd be willing to bet the rest of the season will be geoblocked too.

Now I know everything can't work for me and that just because it doesn't work for me it doesn't mean its terrible, so I didn't say that they were idiots or accuse them of screwing their fanbase or call it a "horrible deal" or anything. Just because something works for you and you are excited because you misread something and think you can watch it live doesn't mean that I need to be excited when it means I won't be able to watch them at all.

+1!! As noted a number of times...we used to be able to watch FIA GT1 & GT3 online live or via immediate replay. Then the whole geo-blocked BS started. FIA GT went to Speed2 in the U.S. which millions...including myself... could not get. Lame. Put me off GT racing. Had hoped for a renaissance this year...but same BS. If GT racing is supposed to be an international phenomenon, no one should be geo-blocked and immediate replays should be available to account for time zone issues. If we're talking viewership we're not talking Nascar numbers here. The arrogance in GT racing is stunning. I have zero faith in "big coverage deals".

[cobraRed01]

Originally Posted by cobraRed01

+1!! As noted a number of times...we used to be able to watch FIA GT1 & GT3 online live or via immediate replay. Then the whole geo-blocked BS started. FIA GT went to Speed2 in the U.S. which millions...including myself... could not get. Lame. Put me off GT racing. Had hoped for a renaissance this year...but same BS. If GT racing is supposed to be an international phenomenon, no one should be geo-blocked and immediate replays should be available to account for time zone issues. If we're talking viewership we're not talking Nascar numbers here. The arrogance in GT racing is stunning. I have zero faith in "big coverage deals".

Couldn't edit my post. Just found the full Brands Hatch replay on Youtube. "The uploader has not made this video available in your country. Sorry about that."

No more anywhere...anytime online access. Same old bull.....

[TF110]

Race came on cbssn today. Not bad but the commercials were excessive. At least it came on. Kinda weird seeing the race cut from action to their promo then a commercial. DTM came on right afterwards also.

[Rodger Davies]

By the way, if you are geo blocked, you can put the YouTube link into something like keepvid or clip-converter and download it anyway

[Miguel]

And it's not worth upgrading your tv package if you want to watch all that racing live? Just saying...

[rich07]

Great to see Grasser win both races with the Gallardo. Damn that speedy Dutchman Jeroen Bleekamolen is worth his weight in gold.

[AndrewCherry]

It was an excellent meeting, and I had a great time. Wonderful machinery. The main race was a slight disappointment post-pitstops, but you can't do much about that - Grasser got it spot on, and once Bleekemoelen came out in the lead the writing was on the wall for that one.

Organisation on the day was also pretty much top notch, the only oddity coming in the last Radical race where the leader was wrongly waved past the safety car. Not sure it made a huge difference to the overall result, but it seemed to properly screw over second place at the time, though they didn't help themselves by getting their pit call totally wrong under the SC.

GT Cup (the first time I've seen it) seems to have a bit too much of a spread in terms of classes to be a great spectacle, though it wasn't helped by some of the GTO entries having issues. To win a 20 min race by about 40 seconds though should maybe prompt a slightly closer look at levels!

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by rich07

Great to see Grasser win both races with the Gallardo. Damn that speedy Dutchman Jeroen Bleekamolen is worth his weight in gold.

Give Proczyk his dues as well, he held off the HTP Mercedes handily (in fact, he was far enough ahead to not have to drive defensively most of the time). Good wins for Grasser.

[cobraRed01]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

By the way, if you are geo blocked, you can put the YouTube link into something like keepvid or clip-converter and download it anyway

Thanks for the tip! I will check it out.

Of course, the "Sorry about that" message on Theirtube will not endear race fans to the BES/BSS when they have to resort to nefarious means to see their races.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by AndrewCherry

GT Cup (the first time I've seen it) seems to have a bit too much of a spread in terms of classes to be a great spectacle, though it wasn't helped by some of the GTO entries having issues. To win a 20 min race by about 40 seconds though should maybe prompt a slightly closer look at levels!

I thought the GT cup races were excellent - there was plenty of scrapping all the way through the field (it also answers the question as to where all the Carrera Cup GB cars have gone!). The cars at the front (with the exception of 935) were all out in British GT last year (pretty sure about that - and the Z4 is competing in British GT this year) and were being run by professional teams - Triple Eight and United Autosports don't mess about - they won by a distance and that was only to be expected. I'm not sure what the lap times were like when the GT Cup is compared with the Blancpain guys?

[AndrewCherry]

Yeah, fair points on that - there was some good close racing through the field, it was mainly the GTO battle that seemed to be rather unluckily scuppered by issues in both of Sundays races (not entirely sure what they were, tyres for the Balfe Ferrari in race 1, not too sure in race 2 - given the sudden drop back I would guess an incident out on the long circuit). It left the Z4 without much competition - and yes, to be fair they didn't muck about - it's a quick car and they pedalled it well.

I was also interested to compare the times for the Z4 in GT Cup with the Sprint Series, but the lap times for GT Cup don't seem to be about yet. I would guess a couple of seconds off, but that's a rather subjective impression. Still, fantastic day of racing from my perspective overall - has made me especially itchy to try and get a kart out on the long circuit one day though. Happens every time I watch...

[snowen250]

Comparing the times of the two Z4s may be interesting......it cant just be me that noticed the GT Cup car was far, far quieter!

Do the Blancpain cars run different spec to the British GT/GT cup cars do we think?

Simon

[outnumbered]

Brilliant day out at Brands on Sunday. Really enjoyed the racing in all classes.

It was my home circuit when I was a lad, and the Flying Tigers 1000km race in the late 70s was what got me hooked on Endurance racing. Haven't seen a race there since BPR in 1996 I think! Since then I've been mainly to Silverstone, and the comparison with Brands for spectating is just not funny. It'd be superb to see ELMS at Brands...

[FIRE]

Enjoyed race 1. Not seen race 2.

[IndyMeister]

There's a collection of various galeries from the BSS event at Brands Hatch. Link is here.

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by IndyMeister

There's a collection of various galeries from the BSS event at Brands Hatch. Link is here.

Thanks for including mine (oalfonso)

[Purist]

I found a couple of other YouTube channels that have the Brands races and the Silverstone race that I can watch here in the States.

If you do searches for "blancpain sprint series brands hatch" or "blancpain endurance series silverstone", and set the search filter to videos of 20 minutes or more, you'll find them on the first page of results.

[BudLightJaguar]

This weekend Blancpain Sprint Series visits in Zandvoort. What I'm happy about, we can watch this race only as another GT3 race. Presumably it won't develop as much debate as Grand-Am* race in the Glen did.

There will be an official stream from Saturday qualifying and the main race on Sunday. http://www.blancpain-gt-series.com/live

*this was intentional

[rich07]

Good qualifying race in the rain. Fantastic to see Grasser win again with Proczyk and Bleekemolen winning his home race. The team were most happy

Wonderful!

[Miguel]

My respect for Jeroen Bleekemolen is growing with each race he does. Every weekend is this guy racing somewhere and usually fighting for wins. Awesome. It's reaching the point where it's becoming a man crush.

[carbon_titanium]

bleekemolen is already one of the best GT driver worldwide, indeed is strange that porsche still doesn't hire him as factory driver.