Even Less News
Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 10:26AM
With the Laguna Seca ALMS race starting tomorrow we finally have something to read about it. Lastturnclub.com has a preview and analysis of the competitors on its home page so check it out. To add to my question yesterday about the lack of coverage, do not be looking for it on TV this weekend. No, CBS is running it on May 29th! As if there is not enough racing that weekend we have to compete with, and is anyone going to care or remember by then! Way to go ALMS. How much did you pay for that prime coverage?
Grand Am is unfortunately the other half of our US sports car racing scene. I say unfortunately in the sense that neither series is doing well. Grand Am has about as much coverage as ALMS, and in their wisdom have decided to run a race at Lime Rock on Memorial Day. Is the All Star race, also part of NASCAR, The Turkish F1 GP and Indy 500 not enough? Most of us will be divorced if we watch all that. I believe Greg Sarni has been publicising the Grand Am cars on the streets of Boston today as a pre race event. Just looking at the map I would have though New York was closer, but I guess they know where their tickets sell.
The Canadians who are subsidizing the poor F1 teams are now concerned not only about the $4-5 m shortfall and lack of sponsors, but also about the age of the water system and the likelehood of them bursting during the race. Seems they have been having a lot of problems with this lately. Could be as much fun as if it rained. Could be the missing element to put a spark in the racing. A bit like musical chairs, who is going to be at that spot when it blows!
Aerodynamics, don't you just love it? Most of the overtaking problems are put down to it, the cost of wind tunnel time to refine it to find that nano second that will win you the race is enormous, and yet we see, as with Massa in Barcelona, you can damage that million dollar part and the car goes faster! Now we hear that Red Bull had to revert to an older diffuser at Monaco after McLaren disputed the one on the car, and it went faster! I know we will never "unlearn" this stuff, but there has to be some common sense brought into this sometime.
Common sense I know is not very common. So do we really believe the continuing rumors that the VW Group, now the world's largest car manufacturer with a great stable of makes, really needs to spend the money to go f1 racing? Most of its brands; Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat, even Skoda, have a history and reputation as performance vehicles. They are in sports car racing, touring cars, desert raids and rally, and their engines are the "moteurs de jour" in F3. Maybe as an engine supplier it makes sense, but unless they are really that mad about racing I cannot see where the benefit is. The penalty for not succeeding is extremely high.
Grand Am is unfortunately the other half of our US sports car racing scene. I say unfortunately in the sense that neither series is doing well. Grand Am has about as much coverage as ALMS, and in their wisdom have decided to run a race at Lime Rock on Memorial Day. Is the All Star race, also part of NASCAR, The Turkish F1 GP and Indy 500 not enough? Most of us will be divorced if we watch all that. I believe Greg Sarni has been publicising the Grand Am cars on the streets of Boston today as a pre race event. Just looking at the map I would have though New York was closer, but I guess they know where their tickets sell.
The Canadians who are subsidizing the poor F1 teams are now concerned not only about the $4-5 m shortfall and lack of sponsors, but also about the age of the water system and the likelehood of them bursting during the race. Seems they have been having a lot of problems with this lately. Could be as much fun as if it rained. Could be the missing element to put a spark in the racing. A bit like musical chairs, who is going to be at that spot when it blows!
Aerodynamics, don't you just love it? Most of the overtaking problems are put down to it, the cost of wind tunnel time to refine it to find that nano second that will win you the race is enormous, and yet we see, as with Massa in Barcelona, you can damage that million dollar part and the car goes faster! Now we hear that Red Bull had to revert to an older diffuser at Monaco after McLaren disputed the one on the car, and it went faster! I know we will never "unlearn" this stuff, but there has to be some common sense brought into this sometime.
Common sense I know is not very common. So do we really believe the continuing rumors that the VW Group, now the world's largest car manufacturer with a great stable of makes, really needs to spend the money to go f1 racing? Most of its brands; Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat, even Skoda, have a history and reputation as performance vehicles. They are in sports car racing, touring cars, desert raids and rally, and their engines are the "moteurs de jour" in F3. Maybe as an engine supplier it makes sense, but unless they are really that mad about racing I cannot see where the benefit is. The penalty for not succeeding is extremely high.
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