[ELMS] ELMS (was LMS) 2012 discussion

[Francesco]

Stirling's times where WAY off the pace, while the best of the field lapped consistely on 51-52 he couldn't get under 54 with his best time, but at least he made no mistake and i think that with some more time in the car he can improve... but putting him straight into a 24h race with LMP1s and so on mmm doesen't seem a good idea. really impressed with the other 2 Status GP drivers, Sims was flying

btw i really enjoyed today's race, it felt a bit like 2005 when there where quite a good amount of privateers with different weapons (Zytek, Pescarolo, Audi etc...) challeging for the win and a nice pack of midfielders ready to get a podium spot, honestly i liked this even better than last years ILMC! i hope that the series will have a bright future and i think that maybe we just need some more competitive GTE cars to come on the market at a good price, otherwise they should make some good promotion for the "GTC" class.

I think that there where very few people who knew that they could race 1000kms with 997 cup cars!!! this is clearly a transition year but i can't see why the series should stop, competition is great, LMP2 have become (finally!) true turn-key customer cars and you really need something between VdeV and WEC, imho.

[KA]

Originally Posted by Great Dane

cancellation official. They are hoping some of the cars will get an entry for Spa... more about that next week

Suggestion in post-race coverage from Ricard on DSC is that Jota intend to put in an entry for Spa- don't think there has been any news on other teams' plans. Obviously Pecom will be there in their WEC guise anyway, as will OAK- and I'd suspect that as it's now the last chance for some pre-LM race, rather than test, mileage Greaves would be likely to field their ELMS car alongside their WEC entry, but how about the others?
With no sign of JetAlliance so far, IIRC Status GP would become 1st reserve for Le Mans, which might suggest they'd want to take in Spa as well?

Any indication yet how this is going to work?- if the teams who run Spa score full ELMS points there, it's going to put those teams who might not be able to run there (for example Loeb, who've got Minassian and Sarrazin already committed to WEC drives) at a disadvantage

How about the GTE teams- are they being 'invited' to Spa as well?

[KA]

Originally Posted by Francesco

btw i really enjoyed today's race, it felt a bit like 2005 when there where quite a good amount of privateers with different weapons (Zytek, Pescarolo, Audi etc...) challeging for the win and a nice pack of midfielders ready to get a podium spot, honestly i liked this even better than last years ILMC! i hope that the series will have a bright future and i think that maybe we just need some more competitive GTE cars to come on the market at a good price, otherwise they should make some good promotion for the "GTC" class.

I think that there where very few people who knew that they could race 1000kms with 997 cup cars!!! this is clearly a transition year but i can't see why the series should stop, competition is great, LMP2 have become (finally!) true turn-key customer cars and you really need something between VdeV and WEC, imho.

If they can maintain the LMP2 entry over the full season, and hang on to most of those teams for next year, and do something about the GTE issue, then I agree they've got a chance of making a go of this.
I'm still surprised by the meltdown in FLM/LMPC numbers though...

[Marcel ten Caat]

Originally Posted by courageous

An october race at lautitz (sp) has been mentioned - oh goody a roval

And on what day did I mention that on Twitter ? ;-)

[KA]

October poses some potential problems for the teams who are also running WEC though, with fly-away WEC races on 29th Sept, and 14th/27th Oct. Even if the ELMS manages to avoid direct date clashes, I'm sure Pecom and AF Corse are going to be thrilled by the prospect of shipping their cars from Bahrain to Fuji and Shanghai via the Lausitzring...
I wouldn't be too surprised to see a slightly fairly depleted grid for this one, or those teams maybe skipping one or more of the late season WEC rounds, depending on how their respective seasons pan out...

Doesn't help the remaining chances of there being any European entries at PLM much either!

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by KA

Any indication yet how this is going to work?- if the teams who run Spa score full ELMS points there, it's going to put those teams who might not be able to run there (for example Loeb, who've got Minassian and Sarrazin already committed to WEC drives) at a disadvantage

Though ELMS teams might be invited to the Spa race, it isn't an ELMS round, so I'm quite sure there won't be any points for the ELMS to score. They are just trying to provide the ELMS teams another opportunity to test in race conditions before Le Mans.

[Fogelhund]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...ound-canceled/

"The various partners involved in the European Le Mans Series have given themselves the time to assemble a field of 25 cars minimum for the Donington round on July 13-14-15."

So if that 25 cars minimum isn't met, I gather the event gets cancelled? If so, is the series just dead then?

[KA]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...ound-canceled/


So if that 25 cars minimum isn't met, I gather the event gets cancelled? If so, is the series just dead then?

So are we about to see the circuits and the ELMS management offering good deals on race-by-race entries for the rest of the season, in order to tempt some additional cars out, even if they just do a one-off at their local round?
The frustrating thing is, that if they can keep them all turning up for the full season, we've got about a dozen LMP2s, which is enough to make the core of a very respectable race- What we're lacking is entries in GTE and the two 'spec' support classes...

[Speed-King]

Ratel: Sorry ELMS, but no GT3s for you

Not sure if he has any say in that if teams decide to do ELMS with their GT3s, but his stance surely doesn't make things any easier.

[Marcel ten Caat]

Ratel says he believes GT(3) has no place in the championship because they will always play second fiddle to the LMP2 cars.

[Chiana]

Originally Posted by Marcel ten Caat

Ratel says he believes GT(3) has no place in the championship because they will always play second fiddle to the LMP2 cars.

Few years ago he also said that GT1 shouldn't be the "third division" class in Le Mans...

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by Marcel ten Caat

Ratel says he believes GT(3) has no place in the championship because they will always play second fiddle to the LMP2 cars.

This is the guy that over the last few years launched gt3 and gt4 to support and play second fiddle to gt1 and now has had to use his 'lesser' gt3 teams to prop up the world championship.....dilusional or what!

[pablocomics]

I think that the sollution for all the ELMS weak grids problems are the CN prototypes, not the GTs. They are much cheaper than GTs (but less glamourous)

[SALEEN S7R]

According to a source of mine who is very well informed but wishes to remain anonymous the reason behind the ELMS cancelation of Zolder is more to do with financial issues rather than low entry numbers. Didn't go into specific detail but it is interesting.

[kober]

Originally Posted by pablocomics

I think that the sollution for all the ELMS weak grids problems are the CN prototypes, not the GTs. They are much cheaper than GTs (but less glamourous)

Are CN protos capable of running a six-hour race?