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ALMS, Audi, Bahrain, Bathurst, Daytona, Grand Am, India, NASCAR, Sportscars, V8Supercars
ALMS, Audi, Bahrain, Bathurst, Daytona, Grand Am, India, NASCAR, Sportscars, V8Supercars Entries in ALMS (72)
The State of Sportscar
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 10:50AM
Not good. That is the prognosis of Murphy The Bear, and he should know. His latest blog is as always to the point, but depressing for North American fans:
http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2011/05/19/190-assessing-alms-and-grand-am-prospects/#more-1089
It seems the ALMS "Game Changing" TV package is so good their chief of TV got fired for it. It is also a sad day for racing when Audi can sell more cars from plain old ads than from winning on a race track. "Win on Sunday, No One Notices Monday?"
The blog also picks up on the plight of NASCAR. As my readers will know I have been saying this is not just an "economy thing," but a lot of people do not want to believe it. On a similar note, I suggested that the VIR Grand-Am race could have been a fix for the Ganassi team to get beaten, but even I did not realize that the winning car is associated with Daytona, so the money went from one pocket to another as Murphy points out.
The Bahrain saga continues, with the June 3 deadline being real now apparently. The latest is for India to move to December and give Bahrain it's October date. Is this more because India will not be finished by October?
I had to laugh when I read that Bathurst is "secure" until 2034! Who knows what we will be racing by then, and whatever it is Bathurst will always be secure. V8Supercars needs Bathurst more than Bathurst needs them, so who is securing who?
http://murphythebear.com/blog/index.php/2011/05/19/190-assessing-alms-and-grand-am-prospects/#more-1089
It seems the ALMS "Game Changing" TV package is so good their chief of TV got fired for it. It is also a sad day for racing when Audi can sell more cars from plain old ads than from winning on a race track. "Win on Sunday, No One Notices Monday?"
The blog also picks up on the plight of NASCAR. As my readers will know I have been saying this is not just an "economy thing," but a lot of people do not want to believe it. On a similar note, I suggested that the VIR Grand-Am race could have been a fix for the Ganassi team to get beaten, but even I did not realize that the winning car is associated with Daytona, so the money went from one pocket to another as Murphy points out.
The Bahrain saga continues, with the June 3 deadline being real now apparently. The latest is for India to move to December and give Bahrain it's October date. Is this more because India will not be finished by October?
I had to laugh when I read that Bathurst is "secure" until 2034! Who knows what we will be racing by then, and whatever it is Bathurst will always be secure. V8Supercars needs Bathurst more than Bathurst needs them, so who is securing who?
Bernie and Murphy
Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 11:57AM
Have we finally discovered the true identity of Murphy the Bear! In his recent column Murphy says that Grand Am is greener than ALMS because there are no spectators using all that gas to get to events. Now I have had a rant about this silly green nonsense and the amount of gas used by say the Tour De France spectators, and now Bernie has picked up on it. In a release today Bernie suggested that F1 could be greener by reducing the capacity of the tracks by 10-15%, and mentioned the Tour and soccer as examples where more gas is used by those watching than F1 uses for its races. Perhaps I am Bernie and Murphy?
Bernie is always happier when there are fewer spectators. It is so much easier to get in and out, and you can put billboards anywhere without worrying who's view you have blocked. Just look at Turkey today and Phoenix in years gone by. It is just a coincidence that the "gate" is the only income stream he does not get a piece of, it is only the poor old promoter who is going to subsidize this green initiative.
Talking of subsidies, the Texas legislature is doing just that about the $25 m for the Austin F1 race. Apparently that has not been removed from the budget, yet, but there is plenty of opposition to it at a time of a budget shortfall in the billions. It seems some of the members doubt the $300 m economic benefit from the race each year. The first $25 m is to come from a State events fund, and then the increase in sales tax from the event is supposed to cover future payments. Now they are forecasting a crowd of 120,000. This is mainly a one day crowd, and a lot of them rich Mexicans. Really. Now the 1989 Australian Motorcycle GP had a real attendance over four days of 220,000. If you don't believe me watch the coverage and see the campgrounds. An independent survey showed a gross benefit to the State of $44 m, of which if I recall correctly, $2 m was sales tax. So good luck Texas. As one of the lawmakers asked, if they can raise private money to build the track, why can't they raise another $25 m to buy the race? I think we all know the answer to that.
Glock and Barrichello are two unhappy drivers. Glock says he was taken out of context when he said he may as well go for a coffee as test the car. Seems he was talking about the tires.Rubens says he is not coming back if Williams do not improve. Rubens, you and Michael should buy a couple of old F1 Ferraris and go race for fun somewhere. Or join Kimi in the Camping World Series.
Bernie is always happier when there are fewer spectators. It is so much easier to get in and out, and you can put billboards anywhere without worrying who's view you have blocked. Just look at Turkey today and Phoenix in years gone by. It is just a coincidence that the "gate" is the only income stream he does not get a piece of, it is only the poor old promoter who is going to subsidize this green initiative.
Talking of subsidies, the Texas legislature is doing just that about the $25 m for the Austin F1 race. Apparently that has not been removed from the budget, yet, but there is plenty of opposition to it at a time of a budget shortfall in the billions. It seems some of the members doubt the $300 m economic benefit from the race each year. The first $25 m is to come from a State events fund, and then the increase in sales tax from the event is supposed to cover future payments. Now they are forecasting a crowd of 120,000. This is mainly a one day crowd, and a lot of them rich Mexicans. Really. Now the 1989 Australian Motorcycle GP had a real attendance over four days of 220,000. If you don't believe me watch the coverage and see the campgrounds. An independent survey showed a gross benefit to the State of $44 m, of which if I recall correctly, $2 m was sales tax. So good luck Texas. As one of the lawmakers asked, if they can raise private money to build the track, why can't they raise another $25 m to buy the race? I think we all know the answer to that.
Glock and Barrichello are two unhappy drivers. Glock says he was taken out of context when he said he may as well go for a coffee as test the car. Seems he was talking about the tires.Rubens says he is not coming back if Williams do not improve. Rubens, you and Michael should buy a couple of old F1 Ferraris and go race for fun somewhere. Or join Kimi in the Camping World Series.
Lack of Vision
Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 05:22PM
I was resigned to listening to the Spa 6 hour race this morning on Radio Le Mans, but thanks to Greg Sarni and his buddy I was told where to find a live stream of the race. It was on a web site I had not heard of, no surprise there, and I think it was a German TV feed, so listened to John Hindhaugh and his mates anyway. It is an amazing lack of vision on the part of TV stations in the US that races such as Spa, with the best cars in the world competing, on I think the best track, are not given any coverage whatsoever. We all know SPEED has gone the way of pandering to the lowest common denominator, i.e. NASCAR fan, but what about espn3.com who are streaming the ALMS series, and just about any sporting event on earth? Versus thinks it is a sports channel, and is there no one out there who can go back to where SPEED started and launch a channel for race fans? I know someone will say there is not an audience for it, but how did the original SPEED gather enough audience to make Fox want to buy it?
It makes no sense to me for the whole endurance race series not to be shown. It would be like showing one F1 race a season. Or one football match. How are you going to build or keep a fan base if you are not showing the whole series? Is SPEED covering Le Mans this year does anyone know?
More to the point this situation shows a complete lack of vision by the ALMS management. If your two key races that you promote, Sebring and Petit, are rounds of the Intercontinental Cup, the unofficial world sportscar championship, why on earth would you not do a deal for coverage of the other races in that series? You wonder why sports car racing is dying in the US. If the FI Teams think the series owner needs to do more to promote it, come and look at what is not happening here!
Peugeot won the Spa race by the way, a reverse of last year at Le Mans where they were fast and fragile, and Audi not quite as fast but luckier and reliable. Good race right through all the classes and down to the wire in most. Ferrari won the GT battle but BMW kept them honest, with Porsche in trouble. The winning Peugeot also won the "green challenge." And why not? As I have been saying, there is no need for another trophy, racing is about maximizing efficiency, so the winning car should by definition be the most efficient, especially if it is a diesel. Let's stop this pandering to the greenies and PC, or should I say BS.
Biaggi wrapped up pole at Monza with Checa still way off the pace. Troy Corser found some pace, or enthusiasm, to put himself on the front row, so tomorrow should be interesting.
Turkey threw up few surprises. I was not surprised the Red Bulls did not go out again in the final Q3 session. It was worth the very small risk one or two guys were going to pip them for the front row to have an extra set of tires. Not sure that this is F1, but it is today's reality. Rosberg followed up his China performance with third on the grid and the Mercedes crew are getting on top of the car set up. Williams lifted their game, but not soon enough to save Sam Michael and co, but Sam says he already has something lined up. Virgin's supposed corner turning upgrade left Glock behind the HRT! Nice going Nick. Lotus are clawing their way closer to getting out of Q1, and it will be fun to watch Kobayashi doing a "Webber" from the back tomorrow. He is a demon overtaker anyway, so watch your mirrors boys.
It makes no sense to me for the whole endurance race series not to be shown. It would be like showing one F1 race a season. Or one football match. How are you going to build or keep a fan base if you are not showing the whole series? Is SPEED covering Le Mans this year does anyone know?
More to the point this situation shows a complete lack of vision by the ALMS management. If your two key races that you promote, Sebring and Petit, are rounds of the Intercontinental Cup, the unofficial world sportscar championship, why on earth would you not do a deal for coverage of the other races in that series? You wonder why sports car racing is dying in the US. If the FI Teams think the series owner needs to do more to promote it, come and look at what is not happening here!
Peugeot won the Spa race by the way, a reverse of last year at Le Mans where they were fast and fragile, and Audi not quite as fast but luckier and reliable. Good race right through all the classes and down to the wire in most. Ferrari won the GT battle but BMW kept them honest, with Porsche in trouble. The winning Peugeot also won the "green challenge." And why not? As I have been saying, there is no need for another trophy, racing is about maximizing efficiency, so the winning car should by definition be the most efficient, especially if it is a diesel. Let's stop this pandering to the greenies and PC, or should I say BS.
Biaggi wrapped up pole at Monza with Checa still way off the pace. Troy Corser found some pace, or enthusiasm, to put himself on the front row, so tomorrow should be interesting.
Turkey threw up few surprises. I was not surprised the Red Bulls did not go out again in the final Q3 session. It was worth the very small risk one or two guys were going to pip them for the front row to have an extra set of tires. Not sure that this is F1, but it is today's reality. Rosberg followed up his China performance with third on the grid and the Mercedes crew are getting on top of the car set up. Williams lifted their game, but not soon enough to save Sam Michael and co, but Sam says he already has something lined up. Virgin's supposed corner turning upgrade left Glock behind the HRT! Nice going Nick. Lotus are clawing their way closer to getting out of Q1, and it will be fun to watch Kobayashi doing a "Webber" from the back tomorrow. He is a demon overtaker anyway, so watch your mirrors boys.
Chinese Checkers
Monday, April 18, 2011 at 11:38AM
Well wasn't that interesting! Like chinese checkers with everyone passing and re-passing and not knowing how it was going to play out. Everyone seems to have enjoyed it, but I found it tough to follow. A number of factors played into that. I did not watch it live, midnight Saturday night here and we were off on a road trip early Sunday, hence no blog. So taped it as SPEED are not letting us record to disc, so quality is bad and graphics unreadable. Finally watched it in bed at 8pm last night after a couple of glasses of red, so not fully on top of my game. Lastly we have Mr. Varsha and co. doing the commentary, and I bet Coulthard and Brundle kept their viewers better informed.
Anyway, I think I am not feeling happy because I don't just want to be entertained, I want to understand what is happening and watch it unfold. To do that now it seems I need to be watching the timing screen and doing a lap chart while trying to watch the race. Doesn't sound much fun to me. Joe Saward said after Malaysia that following the race is not hard because he does a lap chart, but that's his job, not his entertainment. I am struggling to find a comparison. At the moment NASCAR is the closest where who changed how many tires when seems to decide the race. It would be like watching a soccer match where you can sub the players like basketball, and you take Ronaldo off for a spell and then bring him back at the end when the defence is knackered. Probably just me prattling on as an old purist.
Great result for Lewis, and even more amazing for Webber. He did avoid the problems of being in amongst the back end of the grid and drove a great race. "Just doing my job" he says in true Mark fashion. As it seemed in practice the Mercedes are lifting their game, but Ferrari are in trouble. Strangely it is Massa that is handling it better. It is telling when you see the fastest race laps that Trulli in the Lotus was quicker than Alonso! Very good for Lotus, finally beat a mid field team on pace. Pretty amazing that there was only one DNF and that was for a wheel not being put on correctly. There was the same amount of marbles as we will now become used to, but drivers are going out there anyway, especially Webber, it did not seem to faze him. It was interesting that there was probably more overtaking away from the DRS zone than in it, the combination of KERS and tires are having more effect.
Montezemolo says the Ferrari form is totally unacceptable, and in a speech like he was practicing for being President, he said, ""This cannot and must not be the team's level," he said. "It's a very delicate moment. I expect our engineers to act with determination and know-how, unleashing the maximum of their capacity to improve the performance of the car in a short time. I want Ferrari to be at the level that both we and our fans demand it should be." Rah, Rah.
Peter Geran responded to my comments on attendance in China and how it is now a major market for manufacturers, but I believe that has happened in spite of the GP, not because of it. Rumors continue this morning about the Indian F1 track not being finished. Here we go again.
Over in Assen the Checa show hit a speed bump in the first race with Rea winning on the Honda, but normal service resumed in the second race and Carlos now has a handy lead in the Championship. BMW fared better in the race than practice, but that's not saying much. Good to see young Australian Mark Aitchison finish tenth in the first race, his best finish in his rookie season on not the most competitive machine.
I caught a few minutes of the Long Beach ALMS race at odd times on live streaming, and there always seemed to be a caution out. Very sad race. Why not just run a GT Championship and get the other cars out of the way for them?
Anyway, I think I am not feeling happy because I don't just want to be entertained, I want to understand what is happening and watch it unfold. To do that now it seems I need to be watching the timing screen and doing a lap chart while trying to watch the race. Doesn't sound much fun to me. Joe Saward said after Malaysia that following the race is not hard because he does a lap chart, but that's his job, not his entertainment. I am struggling to find a comparison. At the moment NASCAR is the closest where who changed how many tires when seems to decide the race. It would be like watching a soccer match where you can sub the players like basketball, and you take Ronaldo off for a spell and then bring him back at the end when the defence is knackered. Probably just me prattling on as an old purist.
Great result for Lewis, and even more amazing for Webber. He did avoid the problems of being in amongst the back end of the grid and drove a great race. "Just doing my job" he says in true Mark fashion. As it seemed in practice the Mercedes are lifting their game, but Ferrari are in trouble. Strangely it is Massa that is handling it better. It is telling when you see the fastest race laps that Trulli in the Lotus was quicker than Alonso! Very good for Lotus, finally beat a mid field team on pace. Pretty amazing that there was only one DNF and that was for a wheel not being put on correctly. There was the same amount of marbles as we will now become used to, but drivers are going out there anyway, especially Webber, it did not seem to faze him. It was interesting that there was probably more overtaking away from the DRS zone than in it, the combination of KERS and tires are having more effect.
Montezemolo says the Ferrari form is totally unacceptable, and in a speech like he was practicing for being President, he said, ""This cannot and must not be the team's level," he said. "It's a very delicate moment. I expect our engineers to act with determination and know-how, unleashing the maximum of their capacity to improve the performance of the car in a short time. I want Ferrari to be at the level that both we and our fans demand it should be." Rah, Rah.
Peter Geran responded to my comments on attendance in China and how it is now a major market for manufacturers, but I believe that has happened in spite of the GP, not because of it. Rumors continue this morning about the Indian F1 track not being finished. Here we go again.
Over in Assen the Checa show hit a speed bump in the first race with Rea winning on the Honda, but normal service resumed in the second race and Carlos now has a handy lead in the Championship. BMW fared better in the race than practice, but that's not saying much. Good to see young Australian Mark Aitchison finish tenth in the first race, his best finish in his rookie season on not the most competitive machine.
I caught a few minutes of the Long Beach ALMS race at odd times on live streaming, and there always seemed to be a caution out. Very sad race. Why not just run a GT Championship and get the other cars out of the way for them?
China
Saturday, April 16, 2011 at 05:57PM
Hello everyone, missed you yesterday but I was at an event in San Diego, driving a Lamborghini Superleggera and Aston Rapide. All very nice and not on a track.
So Vettel is on pole again and by a big margin, but why did he sit in the car so long after qualifying? Webber's qualifying was a complete disaster, and going by the last two races he is going to have trouble staying out of trouble and moving up the field, especially if the KERS is not working and the car is now in parc ferme. Hard to see how the McLarens are going to beat Vettel on this pace unless he has a problem. Rosberg looked good through practice and qualifying, as did Michael, which is encouraging, it would be good to see Nico up there and challenging. The Ferraris are way off the pace again, but can they repeat their Malaysian trick in the race? Lewis played it canny and kept a set of softs for the race to avoid last weeks problems. I discovered the problem with my recording the sessions, SPEED are coding the broadcast so it can't be recorded on DVD, VCR works OK but of course the quality sucks. Does anyone else have this problem?
Still on F1, it seems that HRT have found enough pace to avoid the nasty 107% rule, so long as Vettel does not feel like turning it on in Q1. Pirelli came out prior to the event to say that the cooler conditions should result in fewer "marbles." Well not from what I saw after just 15 minutes of Q1 when presumably they were mostly using the hard tire.
Alexander Rossi won the FR3.5 race at Motorland Aragon, onward and upward. He has joined the Lotus, the Malaysian one's young driver group. That court case is supposed to have a verdict handed down this week.
The ALMS race is at Long Beach with two, yes 2, LMP cars, four of the spec series challenge cars and then the GTs. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Scott Tucker's two LMP2 cars did not set a qualifying time so will they race? There are really only 16 cars that should be out there aside of the grid fillers. Thank goodness for GT. Not that you can watch it anyway.
Montezemolo has continued his war of words with a warning Ferrari will stay in F1 as long as it is not "artificial" which he considers it currently is, mentioning that in 2012 the Concorde Agreement runs out. Pit Pass also has a piece about Mercedes and a breakaway series, which PP believes is never going to happen. Bernie has been to have a nice chat with the German Authorities and all seems to be well apparently, but Pit Pass has more on this. They have some very good sources or excellent researchers. Go to http://pitpass.com
David Coulthard stated the obvious, China is not interested in F1, and Malya said of India getting interested it was like playing cricket in Italy. Nice one.
Checa again took pole at the Assen WSBK round, with the BMWs surprisingly off the pace.
So Vettel is on pole again and by a big margin, but why did he sit in the car so long after qualifying? Webber's qualifying was a complete disaster, and going by the last two races he is going to have trouble staying out of trouble and moving up the field, especially if the KERS is not working and the car is now in parc ferme. Hard to see how the McLarens are going to beat Vettel on this pace unless he has a problem. Rosberg looked good through practice and qualifying, as did Michael, which is encouraging, it would be good to see Nico up there and challenging. The Ferraris are way off the pace again, but can they repeat their Malaysian trick in the race? Lewis played it canny and kept a set of softs for the race to avoid last weeks problems. I discovered the problem with my recording the sessions, SPEED are coding the broadcast so it can't be recorded on DVD, VCR works OK but of course the quality sucks. Does anyone else have this problem?
Still on F1, it seems that HRT have found enough pace to avoid the nasty 107% rule, so long as Vettel does not feel like turning it on in Q1. Pirelli came out prior to the event to say that the cooler conditions should result in fewer "marbles." Well not from what I saw after just 15 minutes of Q1 when presumably they were mostly using the hard tire.
Alexander Rossi won the FR3.5 race at Motorland Aragon, onward and upward. He has joined the Lotus, the Malaysian one's young driver group. That court case is supposed to have a verdict handed down this week.
The ALMS race is at Long Beach with two, yes 2, LMP cars, four of the spec series challenge cars and then the GTs. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Scott Tucker's two LMP2 cars did not set a qualifying time so will they race? There are really only 16 cars that should be out there aside of the grid fillers. Thank goodness for GT. Not that you can watch it anyway.
Montezemolo has continued his war of words with a warning Ferrari will stay in F1 as long as it is not "artificial" which he considers it currently is, mentioning that in 2012 the Concorde Agreement runs out. Pit Pass also has a piece about Mercedes and a breakaway series, which PP believes is never going to happen. Bernie has been to have a nice chat with the German Authorities and all seems to be well apparently, but Pit Pass has more on this. They have some very good sources or excellent researchers. Go to http://pitpass.com
David Coulthard stated the obvious, China is not interested in F1, and Malya said of India getting interested it was like playing cricket in Italy. Nice one.
Checa again took pole at the Assen WSBK round, with the BMWs surprisingly off the pace.