USCC (leave your axe outside)

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by Matt

Anyone know why Spirit of Daytona removed its C7 style headlight overlays?

I do remember a guy from Chevy saying they wouldn't be updating the Corvette DPs to a C7-esque configuration. Weren't SoD the only ones to do that?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by BullMan

I do remember a guy from Chevy saying they wouldn't be updating the Corvette DPs to a C7-esque configuration. Weren't SoD the only ones to do that?

All they were were transparent overlays on the headlights that depicted the C7 headlight LED's and turn signal. Didn't even escape the headlight lens.
http://vsa.photoshelter.com/gallery-...000k2Q0TzqHoys

[canamman]

Originally Posted by David Land

http://www.racer.com/imsa-memo-gidle...rticle/332100/

Update on Memo Gidley, positive news!

Thanks for posting that. We just left those stands 30 minutes before the crash.
Really glad we did not see it live. Just a sigh of relief when word made it to the track that all survived.

[Lizardfolk]

Looks like the DPs are going... I imagine with this new slant the DPs will start disappearing

http://sportscar365.com/wec/aco-imsa...rototype-regs/

[Ferrari333SP]

Great interviews with Tom Milner, Scott Atherton, and Ricky Taylor, getting their thoughts on the Daytona 24

http://youtu.be/NVXv4erWoNA

[belt driven]

Originally Posted by Mal

...One would hope that whatever they agree on it produces a car that can be used in all global prototype series as that would make so much more sense for all concerned.

We(US sports car fans) are a minority. A piddling 1.4 million viewers PEAK tuned in to the USGP..., SUNDAY NOON, BROADCAST CHANNEL, against NO FOOTBALL opposition. There are simply not enough of us to...

A. make the car manufacturers care
B. make sponsors care (and as a result of A and B)
C. get decent TV coverage
D. make Nascar care

...how the FIA and ACO do things.

Excepting Sebring and Petit(LeMans P & Q), Euro teams rarely showed up at ALMS races. From 2000-2006 it was practically a one-make series(Audi won 56 of 65 NA races). Nascar was having none of it at Daytona, and created the DP rules for 2003.

2 Doran, 3 Fabcar, 4 Mutimatic, and 1 Picchio chassis appeared at various races in 2003. Riley and Crawford built cars for 2004 and 17 DPs took the green at Daytona. Two years later there were 30, and 24 minimum at every other race. At its lowest point in 2012, there were 14 DPs at the Rolex and at least 9 at every race.

I don't know the max number of P2 cars that ever appeared at an ALMS race, but in 2011-12 there were races where they couldn't fill a podium. If you disregard the 2 development Mazdas and the chrome tricycle, there are 4 P2 teams(think OAK will be here after Sebring???) currently. USCR/IMSA is not likely to touch BoP until the Sebring test. I think the P2s will do better there with more medium speed corners plus the roughness in places favors a lighter car.

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by belt driven

A. make the car manufacturers care
B. make sponsors care (and as a result of A and B)
C. get decent TV coverage
D. make Nascar care

..

a/ ..and yet Porsche, Corvette, SRT, BMW, Ford, Mazda are all car manufacturers spending money to be there.
b./ Can't argue there.
c./ Can't argue there.
d./ They cared enough to buy out ALMS, and continue to run the show.

[Holt]

I expected the DPs to go in 2017, and Im happy they're working with the ACO on '17 cars, but I can't help be anything but disappointed the top TUSC class will be P2 cars which are limited in technology and scope compared to P1. The WEC really ruined it for everyone else.

Once the inevitable P1 crash happens after the current spending war will the ACO work to make the class more affordable again...hopefully they do.

Will 2017 TUSC allow a P1 car from Toyota Porsche or Audi come to the NAEC events to slaughter the field? Would the exposure be worth the embarrassment to the regulars? I think it would be. Afterall Peugeot and Audi did just that recently when they raced at Sebring and Petit. So theres still a chance we see P1 cars in TUSC from 2017 onwards, at least in the NAEC. If TUSC allowed P1 this year I think its a sure bet Audi and probably others like Rebillion would come to Sebring and Petit. In their second year with a car Daytona would probably be in the picture too

[nkoske]

Originally Posted by TF110

You should look at some facts. 90liter tank vs 110liter for porsche. Even bigger for Viper. A .1mm difference in restrictor size. Same 1225kg weight. How would you feel after the race when your average top speed was 177mph vs 181mph for the others? Then you get 20liters less fuel and can only do less laps per stint? Aston has a budget, but theyre not as big as Vette or Porsche. Their lineup was great btw. At least they showed up and want to race. Its called ballance of performance for a reason, its suppose to be ballanced

Stop...They ended the race 69 laps off the GTLM lead. If fueling was such a big issue why did the Aston stop only 21 times while the lead while the top three cars stopped 24, 26 and 24 times, respectively. They qualified a second off the pace. Assuming they lost a second every lap of the leaders 679, that would be just over 11 mins. or about 6 and a half laps. Not quite the 69 that they were behind. If it was just pace it's likely they'd been on the lead lap at the end because of all of the caution flags and lucky dogs. Potentially on the podium. But that's not what happened around lap 152 they were in the pits for nearly an hour. Again at lap 565 they spent nearly another hour in the pits.

So blaming their result on anything other than the unreliability of their car is disingenuous and simply whiny.

Who knows what would have happened if they were anywhere near the front at the end. But no they want to blame BoP not the nearly 2 hours in the pits.

Read their press release here: http://www.astonmartin.com/racing/ne...2-ff00007a0a98

When you read that tell me where they place the blame for their performance. They mention BoP three times, say the hour stop at lap 152 was, "a small issue that caused us to lose some time," and don't mention the nearly hour long stop near the end of the race. They whine three times about BoP, but nothing else was a big deal.

There's nothing for them to whine about. Their car broke. That's why they didn't have a good result. Can you win a 24 hour race being a second off pace. Yes, Yes you can. Can you win a 24 hour race if you spend nearly 2 hours in the pits. I sure hope not. Maybe AMR should spend less time whining about the result and more time figuring out why their car broke 152 laps into the race.

Isn't one of the things we all love about sports cars in the unpredictability? The fact that an old Panoz can win Le Mans after 24 hours. The fact that 3 slow Audis can sweep the podium. One could go on and on and on.

On top of that they whine about BoP at a track that's not representative of the full season and threaten to pull out. Like Fogel said, "don't let the door hit you on the way out."

IMSA has plenty to do to fix things and placating to a bunch of whiners should be no where near the top of the list. In fact should even be on it, IMO.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by nkoske

Stop...They ended the race 69 laps off the GTLM lead. If fueling was such a big issue why did the Aston stop only 21 times while the lead while the top three cars stopped 24, 26 and 24 times, respectively. They qualified a second off the pace. Assuming they lost a second every lap of the leaders 679, that would be just over 11 mins. or about 6 and a half laps. Not quite the 69 that they were behind. If it was just pace it's likely they'd been on the lead lap at the end because of all of the caution flags and lucky dogs. Potentially on the podium. But that's not what happened around lap 152 they were in the pits for nearly an hour. Again at lap 565 they spent nearly another hour in the pits.

So blaming their result on anything other than the unreliability of their car is disingenuous and simply whiny.

Who knows what would have happened if they were anywhere near the front at the end. But no they want to blame BoP not the nearly 2 hours in the pits.

Read their press release here: http://www.astonmartin.com/racing/ne...2-ff00007a0a98

When you read that tell me where they place the blame for their performance. They mention BoP three times, say the hour stop at lap 152 was, "a small issue that caused us to lose some time," and don't mention the nearly hour long stop near the end of the race. They whine three times about BoP, but nothing else was a big deal.

There's nothing for them to whine about. Their car broke. That's why they didn't have a good result. Can you win a 24 hour race being a second off pace. Yes, Yes you can. Can you win a 24 hour race if you spend nearly 2 hours in the pits. I sure hope not. Maybe AMR should spend less time whining about the result and more time figuring out why their car broke 152 laps into the race.

Isn't one of the things we all love about sports cars in the unpredictability? The fact that an old Panoz can win Le Mans after 24 hours. The fact that 3 slow Audis can sweep the podium. One could go on and on and on.

On top of that they whine about BoP at a track that's not representative of the full season and threaten to pull out. Like Fogel said, "don't let the door hit you on the way out."

IMSA has plenty to do to fix things and placating to a bunch of whiners should be no where near the top of the list. In fact should even be on it, IMO.

You veered off the issue. They were clearly off the pace. Even if they had no issues they were not in a place to challenge. You can talk all you want about why they placed where they did, no one brought that up. The ballancing of their car against the others was a sham. Thats the point being made. Their participation in future races depends on that ballance. Why you say they shouldn't pay any mind to their participants is confusing. "Dont let the door hit you on the way out"? Lmp2 cars were complaining too, maybe they should be shoved out the door as well? The funny part is they had the data from the tests yet did little to help. Thats why most people found the race up front to be lacking. Clear favortism towards certain teams and cars.

[carbsmith]

The Aston has a smaller fuel tank because they don't run E85 and thus have a higher energy density. I am pretty sure that is listed right in the BoP chart. Similarly the Viper's oversize tank is because of their oversize engine killing gas mileage.

If you want to look at something it's 2 of the 3 cars that got BoP breaks between the Roar and the 24 qualifying 1-3 and running 1-4 most of the race until the Vipers started falling apart.

[JoestForEver]

The main problem with Vantage is hardly BoP but reliability IMO. Not for sure about USCC, but in WEC they've been revising the waivers against Aston the whole last year after silverstone win. But everytime Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke car has a problem of this or that to ruin their race. This is just frustrating for me. Probably Aston budget is limited comparing to others, but please use it to make the car easier to repair other than lobbying.

[jeast]

Originally Posted by Holt

Will 2017 TUSC allow a P1 car from Toyota Porsche or Audi come to the NAEC events to slaughter the field? Would the exposure be worth the embarrassment to the regulars? I think it would be. Afterall Peugeot and Audi did just that recently when they raced at Sebring and Petit. So theres still a chance we see P1 cars in TUSC from 2017 onwards, at least in the NAEC. If TUSC allowed P1 this year I think its a sure bet Audi and probably others like Rebillion would come to Sebring and Petit. In their second year with a car Daytona would probably be in the picture too

This is all I ever wanted from nascar. I'm sure Porsche would of shown up too with the PNA money that is aplenty involved. But it's NASCAR so only murican teams should win murican races in the all murican series.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by TF110

You veered off the issue. They were clearly off the pace. Even if they had no issues they were not in a place to challenge. You can talk all you want about why they placed where they did, no one brought that up. The ballancing of their car against the others was a sham. Thats the point being made. Their participation in future races depends on that ballance. Why you say they shouldn't pay any mind to their participants is confusing. "Dont let the door hit you on the way out"? Lmp2 cars were complaining too, maybe they should be shoved out the door as well? The funny part is they had the data from the tests yet did little to help. Thats why most people found the race up front to be lacking. Clear favortism towards certain teams and cars.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but BMW was well off the pace and ended up with a chance to win. So it can happen.

[Articus]

I think the BMW really only had a chance because of the caution rules allowing teams to get a lap back. That car was 2 laps down at one point. But to have to rely on that is not very convincing for the win. We saw very early in the race what the relative performance of the cars was. The Porsche, Ferrari, and Viper were untouchable on the straights. The Vette was somewhere in between the Aston and the BMW which were further behind.

[ACFlinn]

Originally Posted by jeast

This is all I ever wanted from nascar. I'm sure Porsche would of shown up too with the PNA money that is aplenty involved. But it's NASCAR so only murican teams should win murican races in the all murican series.

TUSC is an all-American series?

Hmm.

Porsche and Ferrari won both of the GT classes at the Rolex24 last weekend. Only 5 "murican" cars in both TUSC GT classes (total of 40 cars) combined. There hasn't been an American car in the GT winners circle at the Rolex24 (actually, American cars have had much better success at Sebring) in more than a dozen years.

But keep grinding that NASCAR axe.

Andy Flinn

[cmk]

Goodness guys, cool your jets. He said an American-made car hadn't won in GT at the Rolex in over a dozen years, not ever. He's not really wrong there, no matter how much one wants to play with the semantics of class names.

It's 2014. Oreca Viper won overall in 2000, Corvette Racing in 2001. The Rocketsports Jag won in GTS in 2002, which was basically American no matter what the branding was, while a Porsche won in GT. Since then, it's been all Porsche and Speedsource Mazda (guess we could debate whether those are American until the cows come home?) until Audi in 2013 and Ferrari in GTD this year. Ergo, basically a dozen years.

I get that some posters can be infuriating, but there are enough ridiculous statements made on this board to get in a tizzy over while leaving alone the factually accurate ones.

[Aysedasi]

Thread edited. Enough. Again. Saying the same things for the hundredth time doesn't make them any more useful or clever.

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Aston Martin has always done this.and yes LDWB helped bmw get on the lead lap 10 min to go, but still the bmw was able to runa consistent race and stay 2-3 laps back all day.again daytona is a special place and a few cars prosperd through design and strengths while others struggled from weakness.aston has always done this,back in the gt1 days they did it too. got their wish and were never seen from again.they did the same thing last year too,had a horribleness race early on at sebring and complained right after.

I liked aston when they came back to gte in 2012, they were almost an under dog but needed waivers and massive bop to be competetive.then 2013 came and they were fastest car on because bop and waivers,and threw 5 cars at every race and yet couldn't win or finish every race let alone the happenings of Le Mans.but still complained when the aco started to pull back bop.

I see it as the same thing with bmw when they ran the m3 few years ago. Run a sports car not a bop'd pig then complain for more.if aston wants a faster car, then run the season and develop it to the u.s. Tracks and specs with full pro drivers.

crying after one race at a special track that doesn't reflect on the season,where they had issues is borderline comical.

[miatanut]

Originally Posted by belt driven

We(US sports car fans) are a minority. A piddling 1.4 million viewers PEAK tuned in to the USGP..., SUNDAY NOON, BROADCAST CHANNEL, against NO FOOTBALL opposition. There are simply not enough of us to...

A. make the car manufacturers care
B. make sponsors care (and as a result of A and B)
C. get decent TV coverage
D. make Nascar care

...how the FIA and ACO do things.

Excepting Sebring and Petit(LeMans P & Q), Euro teams rarely showed up at ALMS races. From 2000-2006 it was practically a one-make series(Audi won 56 of 65 NA races). Nascar was having none of it at Daytona, and created the DP rules for 2003.

2 Doran, 3 Fabcar, 4 Mutimatic, and 1 Picchio chassis appeared at various races in 2003. Riley and Crawford built cars for 2004 and 17 DPs took the green at Daytona. Two years later there were 30, and 24 minimum at every other race. At its lowest point in 2012, there were 14 DPs at the Rolex and at least 9 at every race.

I don't know the max number of P2 cars that ever appeared at an ALMS race, but in 2011-12 there were races where they couldn't fill a podium. If you disregard the 2 development Mazdas and the chrome tricycle, there are 4 P2 teams(think OAK will be here after Sebring???) currently. USCR/IMSA is not likely to touch BoP until the Sebring test. I think the P2s will do better there with more medium speed corners plus the roughness in places favors a lighter car.

I think that's an argument for adopting the ACO spec. One car, you can race there or here. Before the sportscar racing civil war, IMSA was healthy, and that was even with the US spec being different from the ACO spec. The civil war did a lot of damage to the sport. It's rebuilding time now.

[jeast]

Originally Posted by miatanut

I think that's an argument for adopting the ACO spec. One car, you can race there or here. Before the sportscar racing civil war, IMSA was healthy, and that was even with the US spec being different from the ACO spec. The civil war did a lot of damage to the sport. It's rebuilding time now.

IMSA was healthy up until around 2008. This Civil war didn't make much difference Grand-Am has never been a factor. It has more to do with the economy sucking.

[TF110]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

Aston Martin has always done this.and yes LDWB helped bmw get on the lead lap 10 min to go, but still the bmw was able to runa consistent race and stay 2-3 laps back all day.again daytona is a special place and a few cars prosperd through design and strengths while others struggled from weakness.aston has always done this,back in the gt1 days they did it too. got their wish and were never seen from again.they did the same thing last year too,had a horribleness race early on at sebring and complained right after.

I liked aston when they came back to gte in 2012, they were almost an under dog but needed waivers and massive bop to be competetive.then 2013 came and they were fastest car on because bop and waivers,and threw 5 cars at every race and yet couldn't win or finish every race let alone the happenings of Le Mans.but still complained when the aco started to pull back bop.

I see it as the same thing with bmw when they ran the m3 few years ago. Run a sports car not a bop'd pig then complain for more.if aston wants a faster car, then run the season and develop it to the u.s. Tracks and specs with full pro drivers.

crying after one race at a special track that doesn't reflect on the season,where they had issues is borderline comical.

Aston left the alms around the same time theyre lmp project was beginning. Then more than they left the alms too. Not to mention their business was not good. Im sure their ownership issues were going on about that time as well. They complained about the bop in the wec because their car was about on equal terms with the others, but since they had no issues they won Silverstone. Whats telling is the aco went against them then turned around and went for them leading up to LeMans. Bop exists, teams ask for it. No cries about Porsche being able to run their 2014 car in 2013? With wider tires and the same favorable bop the 2013 car ran. It works both ways, not just Aston Martin.

Joeb, I know they may have stood a chance to podium if they ran faultlessly, but the stint length and top speed were worse than even bmw. Magically the Z4's were turning consistent 1:45's in the last hours closing the gap. Maybe tires? Maybe wing adjustments?

[Accident]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

Great interviews with Tom Milner, Scott Atherton, and Ricky Taylor, getting their thoughts on the Daytona 24

http://youtu.be/NVXv4erWoNA

"...and the stands had people in them." - Ricky Taylor

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Ferrari333SP

Great interviews with Tom Milner, Scott Atherton, and Ricky Taylor, getting their thoughts on the Daytona 24

http://youtu.be/NVXv4erWoNA

I found Atherton's comments regarding MRN most interesting.

[jasonjessica09]

Although nothing he said was direct I think Mr. Atherton got the idea that the last phantom yellow and the MRN/Fox coverage left much to be desired by the public.