Grand-Am 2011 Discussion

[Acid09]

You can argue about the racing being fabricated with all the cautions but Grand-Am really does a good job in making the racing close.

Having three cars within half a second after 21 1/2 hours of racing is insane.

It also gives struggling teams a great chance to make a comeback, the #10 Dallara lost over 10 laps during the night and is about to get back on the lead lap.

[Acid09]

And the #45 goes off in flames...too bad

I´m pretty baffled that there's not more interest in the race here, the battle for the lead is really exciting..if this was an ALMS race everybody would be wetting their pants and praise the series...

The #10 Sun Trust Dallara should move up to the lead lap now, watch out for Max the axe....

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Acid09

The #10 Sun Trust Dallara should move up to the lead lap now, watch out for Max the axe....

Leaders staying out denies him that chance... coming in would have been the smart move, so they must be really afraid of Max.

[Acid09]

Originally Posted by Speed-King

Leaders staying out denies him that chance... coming in would have been the smart move, so they must be really afraid of Max.

He's definetely running the times of the leaders, only Pruett is a tad quicker right now.

If only they could get back on the lead lap...

[Adam43]

For UK viewers it is now live on Eurosport 2.

[Hepatic]

hooray, no more choppy internet feeds wish speed showed more of this race and eurosport were able to show more as a result. its one of the best enduro races in the world yet hardly anyone pays it any attention.

[Acid09]

Final caution, too late though...the race will end under yellow.

[Acid09]

No it won't, they will go green again..this could be a killer finish!

[Deleted]

That was like a true Nascar finish to 24h race... but with actual racing cars and a real reason for yellow flags. Sure there were plenty of cautions and controversy, but nowadays you could never have that close LMP1 finish battle at Le Mans. Nice last-minute moves from Brundle as well.

Great start for the 2011 sportscar season. No reason to follow Grand-Am for another year though

[nasdriv87]

it's over ganassi won 1/2 thxs anyway... this yf should be a punishment to them...

[ascarracinguk]

well done to ganassi, but for me the united autosport team take the plaudits for 4th overall....not badd for a couple of old farts and sometime f1 drivers!!!....great drive for them

[Victor_RO]

Excellent job by the Brundell brothers! Martin has definitely retired from racing far too soon, this result must have sparked his appetite for this endurance malarkey back into life.

[Yakuncha]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Excellent job by the Brundell brothers! Martin has definitely retired from racing far too soon, this result must have sparked his appetite for this endurance malarkey back into life.

Brundle - Blundell, they might both have the initials MB but thats about it

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Yakuncha

Brundle - Blundell, they might both have the initials MB but thats about it

That was the joke, the names are similar. :P To quote Foghorn Leghorn, "You missed it, son! Flew right past ya." I know they're not brothers.

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by AUSRSR

From what I saw on telly earlier, seem to be a lot of full track cautions rather than localized yellow clean ups..Some of them could have been easily done with a local double yellow..

I'm sorry, this is Grand Am! Unfortunately, they don't know what a local yellow is!

DK

[FordCosworthPanoz]

When you see Ganassi 1-2 on the results board you'd think it was a boring race, not so. Also, suprised by the level of competition some teams gave Ganassi and I think we would have seen a different result if Suntrust didn't have it's problems. Can't believe how much competition has improved in this series since that sham of a race in 2003. Should be a good season and after what we saw at Daytona, it looks like we'll see Ganassi vs Suntrust vs Action Express, but I still wouldn't count out Gainsco. As an ACO/ALMS fanboy I hate to admit it, but that will probably be better than Le Mans this year.

[dxk1]

Much as I hoped something besides a Riley would win, it really was a masterpiece of driving, team management, strategy and some luck for Ganassi to pull off a 1-2. Pruett once agains shows he really is the best. Congratulations to Ganassi but I agree with ascarracinguk, the United Autosport team was the highlight of the race.

DK

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

That was the joke, the names are similar. :P To quote Foghorn Leghorn, "You missed it, son! Flew right past ya." I know they're not brothers.

haha yeh i loved the commentators remark that it was cruel to hire both of them at Yamaha F1 back in the day, i can imagine with all the japanese engineers things got confusing LOL!

[Adam43]

As mentioned they've been known as the Brundell brothers since the Brabham days. A great race from them. And Brundle was up for it at the end.

A fun finish. Great result for Ganassi. They run a good team.

Always a good start to the year.

[fiend540]

Damn, I slept through Scott Pruetts "hi to my kids" speech

[DavyC412]

this was just a proper endurance race. just an amazing story played out over the past 2 days. just awesome stuff.

[hindhaugh]who ever said endurance racing had to be boring? [/hindhaugh]

[rich07]

Great race.

This was the first time I had watched the race extensively (thanks ONE) and the vision of the pack of about a dozen or so cars on the banking at night will stick in my mind for a long time yet. Shame those DPs are so ugly though.

Congrats to Chip Ganassi, it was nice to see the 01 car win after what happened last year, hats off to Joey Hand for driving the ass off that car after the penalty.

Best highlight of the race goes to the Brundell brothers , fantastic to see them finish just off the podium, I remember someone saying that Blundell lost 30 pounds in the lead up to the race, great commitment there and watching Martin's face light up after he got out of the car was terrific, they might not be as young as they used to be but they still got it in spades.

[Hepatic]

Yep, absolutely brilliant. Kinda wish MB hadn't dived on the 1st corner but maybe a couple of corners later, but superb effort by that team and the 01 for coming back from what i thought was a killer penalty. I'll always remember Hands monster accident a few years ago but he surely stood up and got counted this weekend

[porsche91722]

I found myself glued to the TV for the two parts of the race that Speed / ONEHD showed. Great race, and great finish. Bit disappointed that the Lizards efforts went unrewarded as they clearly had the quickest car over the weekend, but that's endurance racing.

[joeb]

I used the timing and scoring on my phone during the race, and it worked flawlessly, and refreshed automatically as soon as a car crossed the line. My only problem with it was that it didn't tell you what team or type of car it was, the cars were only classified by their number, and I didn't know everybody's numbers. But all in all, a really good mobile timing job done by GA.