2013 12 Hours of Sebring

[brands]

Enjoyed the Motors coverage and the ALM stream when thy were off air. Of course having JH and JS as commentators was perfect.

[fieldodreams79]

Unfortunately, I had too much to do yesterday that I missed the first half, and was distracted through the rest. I did get to enjoy from dusk to the end uninterrupted. Not an epic Sebring but good to see the Corvette's back on the top step.

Penalties seemed to be handed out too easily.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

I lost interest after the 91 Viper had problems and flicked to some HBO movie, it just wasn't an interesting race, sorry If you don't like my opinion, even GT which was expected to be electric was rather tame compared to years past.

ALMS and WEC GT is going to be incredible this year though. I have a feeling Toyota is going to dominate P1, Audi wasn't really THAT impressive all things considering.

I agree with your second statement. The fact that the Vipers were quick and leading at one point during the race hints to us that they will definitely be a factor in the championship this year. The BMW's were fast as well. They were probably the quickest through the corners but definitely lacking on top end speed. The Risi Ferrari was extremely quick. All the cars were quick, basically!

As far as WEC goes, I think it will be close between Toyota and Audi, but Toyota will win overall. The GTE-Pro field is EXTREMELY tight in the WEC this year. I think the only weak links are Bruno Senna, Ko-Bash, and Beretta. It may take both Ko-Bash and Senna some time to get used to the car... Senna is definitely going to play second fiddle to Fred Makowiecki in the #99. With Ko-Bash and Beretta, I'm really not sure who's going to be the faster. Beretta really seems to get slower and slower every year. He was the slowest of the Corvette guys, and now the slowest of the Pro Ferrari drivers. He's never been lightning fast, but very consistent, I might add.

[Beryl]

Originally Posted by Beetle

I think the only weak links are Bruno Senna, Ko-Bash, and Beretta. It may take both Ko-Bash and Senna some time to get used to the car... Senna is definitely going to play second fiddle to Fred Makowiecki in the #99. With Ko-Bash and Beretta, I'm really not sure who's going to be the faster. Beretta really seems to get slower and slower every year. He was the slowest of the Corvette guys, and now the slowest of the Pro Ferrari drivers. He's never been lightning fast, but very consistent, I might add.

Senna put in some fast laps at Sebring. I think both (Senna and Kobayashi) will be fine. They are both youngish and F1-level talent so they should be good from the go, perhaps even great after they get more settled into sports cars.

Beretta will be racing in ALMS, only at Le Mans with the main team.

[DeathOrGlory]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Love to see Marcelli in a P2 car !

If there's a guy on the grid who deserves a P2, P1, or DP seat, it's him.

[Jonerz]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

I lost interest after the 91 Viper had problems and flicked to some HBO movie, it just wasn't an interesting race, sorry If you don't like my opinion, even GT which was expected to be electric was rather tame compared to years past.

ALMS and WEC GT is going to be incredible this year though. I have a feeling Toyota is going to dominate P1, Audi wasn't really THAT impressive all things considering.

I felt the GT battle was good. It wasn't sprint-race good once the race settled into a survival pace, but we missed a lot of the close action because SPEED's cameras were watching cars that the announcers had stories on. Even with Bob Varsha in the booth it felt like it was always three analysts in the booth. Once I turned down the TV and cranked up the snoop cam on ALMS.com I found the race to be much easier to follow. Jezzer and Hindy, despite relying on TV pictures that bounced between the cars as the SPEED announcers almost schizophrenically relayed their four days of research from the paddock to the viewer, actually followed the race as it unfolded on the track. That is something SPEED has never had a knack for. I love the conversational aspect of sport in general, but let it flow naturally with the events in the race. If you have a great story about the Corvette GPS-rear-view camera save it for when the Corvette is in the midst of a battle, don't shove it in when the top six in GTC are running nose to tail. Each class puts on a good race and great action at some point in the event, you need not worry about forcing TV time for one car or another because of some great anecdote you picked up during night practice on Thursday.

Chris

[Maelochs]

A.) Kyle Marcelli and Jeroen Bleekemolen both deserve faster rides—though both are on good teams (Bleekemolen is on about every team at one time or another in a season) both show excellent speed and judgment, IMO.

B.) I didn’t get to see or hear very much of any of the various broadcasts of the race, so I cannot comment—though I can say that Hindy and the RLM crew cannot do a bad job at calling a race.

From trackside, the race was exceptional, because there was always action. Even with a bigger field some other years, there didn’t seem to be as much non-stop passing and battling as there seemed to be this year.

Only four cautions, and they were spaced out widely enough that everyone got a chance to really run. Of course, because to was multi-class there was a lot of overtaking based on disparate speed potentials—they weren’t always battles for position—but from trackside, a Viper or Aston Martin which is a lap of a few down still looks cool fighting to get its lap back, even if it is ten places behind the car it is chasing.

P2 might have been decided halfway though by accident and mechanicals, but on track the cars were wonderful to watch. Same with PC, though I missed the very end of that. I also missed the final laps of the GTC battle, but what I saw on track was actually exciting, and usually GTC Porsches don’t do a lot for me. It was a matter of context, I guess—they were part of a great race full of great cars, so I paid more attention and saw that hey, those are real race cars really racing.

The #4 Vette seemed to be almost as fast as some of the PC cars on several occasions; that car Really works well right now. And it will need to—the Vipers were amazing, the Ferrari always has been, the Astons were at least as fast, and the BMWs seem to have the handling and I am sure they will find the top speed.

The fact that Audi had won the race before it started was irrelevant. It was like there was this great race going on, and every minute and a half these quiet white and silver sharks blasted through it at ridiculous speed.

For anyone who missed Sebring, I’d strongly suggest trying to get to Petit.

[Victor_RO]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

and the BMWs seem to have the handling and I am sure they will find the top speed.

Not too sure about that, the strongest point of the Z4 GT3 has always been handling, it has NEVER been the fastest GT3 car in a straight line. By a long way. And it seems as if the GTE offspring has inherited this trait.

[TF110]

That Aston #97 set the only 1:59 during the race and it was early. The 91 Viper had a 2 minute flat but did that much later in the race. It's a shame the two of them ran into issues, they would have made the race a LOT more interesting at the end in GTE. Rebellion beat MMilk like I thought. Audi wasn't even worth watching except that the pace of the 2013 car seems only as good or slightly better than 2012s.

[werner]

A.) Kyle Marcelli and Jeroen Bleekemolen both deserve faster rides—though both are on good teams (Bleekemolen is on about every team at one time or another in a season) both show excellent speed and judgment, IMO.

Bleekemolen will drive the full season At AJR. They are Championshipcandidate #1 now in my, probably slightly chauvinistic opinion.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by werner

Bleekemolen will drive the full season At AJR. They are Championshipcandidate #1 now in my, probably slightly chauvinistic opinion.

You are absoltely correct. AJR is a strong team in GTC, and with Bleekemolen paired to Cooper's talents they will be tough to top all year.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Jeroen Bleekemolen both deserve faster rides

Jeroen is probably one of the top sports car drivers in the business rite now, including factory drivers in any class. He's stupid fast, excellent with car development, excellent dealing with sponsors & fans, excellent with strategy, very easy to get along with in the trailer, great at helping his co-drivers and supremely smart in the car.

He's one of two drivers I've never heard anyone say a single negative thing about (including competitors). But, there's still a reason why the races have to be run before you can collect your hardware. :-)

-mike

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Jeroen is probably one of the top sports car drivers in the business rite now, including factory drivers in any class. He's stupid fast, excellent with car development, excellent dealing with sponsors & fans, excellent with strategy, very easy to get along with in the trailer, great at helping his co-drivers and supremely smart in the car.

He's one of two drivers I've never heard anyone say a single negative thing about (including competitors). But, there's still a reason why the races have to be run before you can collect your hardware. :-)

-mike

Thanks for the info Mike. And to the part I bolded above, you are exactly right; we have seen plenty of great drivers in GTC the past 2 years and they can't all win! One of the reasons the class works for producing great racing.

[skycafe]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Jeroen is probably one of the top sports car drivers in the business rite now, including factory drivers in any class. He's stupid fast, excellent with car development, excellent dealing with sponsors & fans, excellent with strategy, very easy to get along with in the trailer, great at helping his co-drivers and supremely smart in the car.

He's one of two drivers I've never heard anyone say a single negative thing about (including competitors). But, there's still a reason why the races have to be run before you can collect your hardware. :-)

-mike

He really is a 'make it happen' kind of driver. Just keeps driving results. He deserves his success and much more.

[werner]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

Jeroen is probably one of the top sports car drivers in the business rite now, including factory drivers in any class. He's stupid fast, excellent with car development, excellent dealing with sponsors & fans, excellent with strategy, very easy to get along with in the trailer, great at helping his co-drivers and supremely smart in the car.

He's one of two drivers I've never heard anyone say a single negative thing about (including competitors). But, there's still a reason why the races have to be run before you can collect your hardware. :-)

-mike

I've seen him racing a lot at Zandvoort, and I agree on almost everything you write about him. In national races he usually is the best driver by a large margin. If there is anything that might be considered about him, it is that he sometimes can be a bit whiney.

[Brake dust]

I've seen him racing a lot at Zandvoort, and I agree on almost everything you write about him. In national races he usually is the best driver by a large margin. If there is anything that might be considered about him, it is that he sometimes can be a bit whiney.

Would have thought Porsche would have pursued him for one of their works drivers.

[Koenigsegg]

Originally Posted by Brake dust

Would have thought Porsche would have pursued him for one of their works drivers.

The Netherlands is not a big market for Porsche. That was one of the reasons according to Michael Bleekemolen (his father). He said that during the 24h of Daytona while doing Dutch commentary.

[CTD]

Originally Posted by Koenigsegg

The Netherlands is not a big market for Porsche. That was one of the reasons according to Michael Bleekemolen (his father). He said that during the 24h of Daytona while doing Dutch commentary.

I don't think that Porsche selects their drivers based on where there is a market.
If Audi was to do the same, Tom K wouldn't have a seat anymore.

[dxk1]

I haven't had a chance to comment since the race was run on Saturday and I just wanted to say that I was really pleased to see Corvette win the GT Class as I am a big fan but I was even happier to see the Falken Porsche make the podium!! Congratulations to Corvette and Risi (really happy to see them back). Especially congratulations to Falken since you guys have been great supporters of the forum and all of us piston-heads and have been so patient to answer all of our questions with class. Keep up the good work and good luck for the rest of the season.

DK

[cmk]

Jeroen just does have a certain je ne sais quoi about him, likeable and intelligent and quick in anything from the off like the heroes of yore. I wouldn't have thought that him being Dutch would bother Porsche, though they do like drivers from Germany, Austria and France I never thought that was because they only cared about selling cars there! I remember reading that the shootout process to get a factory ride was quite intense. The drivers were given purposely beastly 911s to drive at Weissach with the intention being that you didn't just have to be fast, you had to be able to figure out how to fix the setup in order to be fast. Wonder if he's ever been invited?

[Breitling24]

Originally Posted by Brake dust

Would have thought Porsche would have pursued him for one of their works drivers.

Who's to say Porsche won't. There's always next year.

[cg7aa]

Originally Posted by werner

...If there is anything that might be considered about him, it is that he sometimes can be a bit whiney.

Interesting, that's the impression I got after I heard one or two interviews when he was in the same team with Tandy in the Supercup (I may be mistaken), Tandy was then the new boy and was proving very fast so I guess the established man was feeling a bit irked perhaps. Perfectly natural of course!

Still, he's a fantastic driver, fast and adaptable, he has driven everything from P1s to GTCs I think.

[werner]

The question is also weather Jeroen want's to drive for the factory. I can imagine that being a Porche-driver, you can not drive other cars in races you want to. And Jeroen drives a lot of races around the globe, in a lot of different cars and brands. This year for instance he also drove and won the Dubai 24h in a (near factory) Black Falcon Mercedes. And last year, according to http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/jero...emolen/career/, he drove over 40 races in no less than 20 championships. In cars from cup-Renault Clio's to a New Zealand Supertourer Ford Falcon, a lot of cup-Porsches and Mercedes SLS-es in several championships to the Rebellion Le Mans racer. Maybe he does not want to give that up.

[MitchZ06]

Interesting point, 1:58.4 was the GTE pole time in 2012 and 1:58.8 in 2013 whilst the last GT1 pole in 2009 was a 1:57.8. Can imagine just how fast the GT1s would be nowadays following similar development.

[gregtummer]

Originally Posted by MitchZ06

Interesting point, 1:58.4 was the GTE pole time in 2012 and 1:58.8 in 2013 whilst the last GT1 pole in 2009 was a 1:57.8. Can imagine just how fast the GT1s would be nowadays following similar development.

Another interesting point is that Corvette took the GT1 pole at the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans at a 3:47.6