Entries in ALMS (72)
Sebring
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 01:28PM
Well I joined Chairman Atherton's brave new world yesterday and watched the 12 hour on espn3.com. I have to admit to being a sceptic and was actually pleasantly surprised. After connecting my lap top to the TV via an HDMI cable which I already had, and some teething problems, it ran faultlessly all day. Could not use the lap top for anything else, but hey, I was watching the race. Not sure why some folks cannot get espn3.com? This is the first time I've been on it and it won't be the last. When I first connected my soccer team was being shown live.
The Radio Le Mans commentary added to the enjoyment, I turn the sound off on Speed and listen to these guys anyway so I was pleasantly surprised by it. The only jarring note were the required female and American in pit lane for the ABC highlights show presumably. When will they learn to keep their mouth shut unless there is something worth saying, and no we do not need to be told that the fuel goes in first at every stop. I particularly liked being told that the windscreens had to be cleaned because of the "daylight sunshine." That nightime sunshine can be deadly to. Mind you John Hindhaugh, the main man at Radio Le Mans has his Murray Walker moments. After a couple of hours of great racing John admitted he "could watch this all day." Well John it's a 12 hour race so your in luck. But I knew what he meant and love his passion and knowledge as we loved Murray's. Motor Sport had a great interview with Murray this month in which Murray said that commentators could not fake excitement or enthusiasm. Take note Lee Diffey, and no one could accuse Bob Varsha of faking either, Mr. Bland. I was amused by the number of comments on how hot it was. I guess if you come from the north of England it is, in which case do not come back in a couple of months time John.
To me it was more enjoyable watching this broadcast than Speed. Much less interruption for commercials, although the two we had got old very quickly. There were the inevitable "infomercials", but again these seemed less intrusive, perhaps because we were seeing so much of the race. Why oh Why does Atherton feel he has to talk to the commentators at every race, and who cares? Is it an insecurity complex? As I said before, Bernie never feels the need, nor Brian France. There were too many extended in-car camera shots, as good as they were, and static camera shots like the camera crew were on break, but this is nit-picking.
The race was a cracker, with three cars capable of winning down to the wire. Great to see Hughes de Chaunac's Oreca Team win it, and the tears in Hughes eyes are a testament to his passion for the sport despite the many years and great success he has had. Not to mention the incredible job done by Highcroft to finish second and nearly steal the race, in a petrol Honda that only turned a wheel a week ago. Well done Duncan, Brabs and the rest of the team, and on to Le Mans. Peugeot finished third in their new car, but both Peugeot and Audi ran into problems and each other, but let's not take anything away from Oreca and Highcroft, they were on the pace and not just lucky. Hard to see what the ALMS is going to do for LMP1 cars though, and the LMP2 were disappointing to say the least.
Not so the GT's who put on their usual performance with 5 or 6 cars running together most of the race. Well done Bobby Rahal and BMW, but we can expect the new Ferrari's to come back strong. Corvette avoided the debacles of last year to finish strong, so we are in for a stellar year, again. It is hard to accept, as the pit lane reporters seemed to do, that overseas professional teams did not know the rule book because it was their first time here. I'm sure Tony Dowe would not be making these mistakes wherever he went.
Corvette showed their in-car video display from the rear facing cameras which lead me to the question, why not build them into the wing mirrors?
The track played its part in the proceedings as is normal for Sebring. At what point do the bumps, that is a mild term to describe them, stop being "character" and become dangerous? We saw cars being destroyed thanks to Turn Seventeen particularly, and we were fortunate we did not see serious injury to Johannes van Overbook when his Jaguar was tipped into the fence through no fault of his own. It is time Don dipped into his wallet and spent some money to maintain this place.
So, is the "game changer" a success? Well for me as an enthusiast and a professional involved in the sport it was actually an improvement, but how many average fans are going to go to the trouble to do this? OK, the next generation are being brought up on live streaming on handhelds, but are they interested in motorsport anyway? The evidence says not. Is a two hour highlights show on ABC today going to bring new viewers? Perhaps, the average sports fan is brought up on a diet of two or three hour games, so watching twelve hours is unlikely. The viewing figures will tell the story, but again, will the average fan think our sport unimportant if not worthy of live TV?
Elsewhere the MotoGP season is underway in Qatar in what should be a good race, at least for third as Julian Ryder said. C'mon Aussie! Bernie is up to his games again saying this could be the last F1 GP in Australia this week, he has to drop two races anyway to make way for Austin and Russia, so it may as well be Oz. Nice negotiating position. Vettel is making noises that if the drivers are not happy with the rules this year they may withdraw their labor. He needs to talk to the drivers who tried that on in South Africa a couple of decades ago. Bernie's position on drivers is like buses, there will be another one along soon.
The Radio Le Mans commentary added to the enjoyment, I turn the sound off on Speed and listen to these guys anyway so I was pleasantly surprised by it. The only jarring note were the required female and American in pit lane for the ABC highlights show presumably. When will they learn to keep their mouth shut unless there is something worth saying, and no we do not need to be told that the fuel goes in first at every stop. I particularly liked being told that the windscreens had to be cleaned because of the "daylight sunshine." That nightime sunshine can be deadly to. Mind you John Hindhaugh, the main man at Radio Le Mans has his Murray Walker moments. After a couple of hours of great racing John admitted he "could watch this all day." Well John it's a 12 hour race so your in luck. But I knew what he meant and love his passion and knowledge as we loved Murray's. Motor Sport had a great interview with Murray this month in which Murray said that commentators could not fake excitement or enthusiasm. Take note Lee Diffey, and no one could accuse Bob Varsha of faking either, Mr. Bland. I was amused by the number of comments on how hot it was. I guess if you come from the north of England it is, in which case do not come back in a couple of months time John.
To me it was more enjoyable watching this broadcast than Speed. Much less interruption for commercials, although the two we had got old very quickly. There were the inevitable "infomercials", but again these seemed less intrusive, perhaps because we were seeing so much of the race. Why oh Why does Atherton feel he has to talk to the commentators at every race, and who cares? Is it an insecurity complex? As I said before, Bernie never feels the need, nor Brian France. There were too many extended in-car camera shots, as good as they were, and static camera shots like the camera crew were on break, but this is nit-picking.
The race was a cracker, with three cars capable of winning down to the wire. Great to see Hughes de Chaunac's Oreca Team win it, and the tears in Hughes eyes are a testament to his passion for the sport despite the many years and great success he has had. Not to mention the incredible job done by Highcroft to finish second and nearly steal the race, in a petrol Honda that only turned a wheel a week ago. Well done Duncan, Brabs and the rest of the team, and on to Le Mans. Peugeot finished third in their new car, but both Peugeot and Audi ran into problems and each other, but let's not take anything away from Oreca and Highcroft, they were on the pace and not just lucky. Hard to see what the ALMS is going to do for LMP1 cars though, and the LMP2 were disappointing to say the least.
Not so the GT's who put on their usual performance with 5 or 6 cars running together most of the race. Well done Bobby Rahal and BMW, but we can expect the new Ferrari's to come back strong. Corvette avoided the debacles of last year to finish strong, so we are in for a stellar year, again. It is hard to accept, as the pit lane reporters seemed to do, that overseas professional teams did not know the rule book because it was their first time here. I'm sure Tony Dowe would not be making these mistakes wherever he went.
Corvette showed their in-car video display from the rear facing cameras which lead me to the question, why not build them into the wing mirrors?
The track played its part in the proceedings as is normal for Sebring. At what point do the bumps, that is a mild term to describe them, stop being "character" and become dangerous? We saw cars being destroyed thanks to Turn Seventeen particularly, and we were fortunate we did not see serious injury to Johannes van Overbook when his Jaguar was tipped into the fence through no fault of his own. It is time Don dipped into his wallet and spent some money to maintain this place.
So, is the "game changer" a success? Well for me as an enthusiast and a professional involved in the sport it was actually an improvement, but how many average fans are going to go to the trouble to do this? OK, the next generation are being brought up on live streaming on handhelds, but are they interested in motorsport anyway? The evidence says not. Is a two hour highlights show on ABC today going to bring new viewers? Perhaps, the average sports fan is brought up on a diet of two or three hour games, so watching twelve hours is unlikely. The viewing figures will tell the story, but again, will the average fan think our sport unimportant if not worthy of live TV?
Elsewhere the MotoGP season is underway in Qatar in what should be a good race, at least for third as Julian Ryder said. C'mon Aussie! Bernie is up to his games again saying this could be the last F1 GP in Australia this week, he has to drop two races anyway to make way for Austin and Russia, so it may as well be Oz. Nice negotiating position. Vettel is making noises that if the drivers are not happy with the rules this year they may withdraw their labor. He needs to talk to the drivers who tried that on in South Africa a couple of decades ago. Bernie's position on drivers is like buses, there will be another one along soon.
Stars
Friday, March 18, 2011 at 11:51AM
My April edition of Motor Sport arrived yesterday and Nigel Roebuck has a piece in his column about Kubica's accident and racers. He included a comment from Jimmie Johnson that "the car is never right, never good enough." That struck a cord, for the very best the car or motorcycle is never right, how can it be? They will drive or ride it until they find the limit. I recall after one practice session Wayne Rainey bitching about the bike. "Every time we fix something there is another thing wrong!" I told him of course there is, otherwise you would be doing 400 kph. There has to be at any one moment one component of the machine that is at the limit of its performance and therefore the machines. It may be power, tires, suspension, chassis or brakes, but as I told Wayne, if we find a better tire that will just move us up to the next limiting point which may be the front forks that cannot take the increased load.
Racing is about little improvements and racers who can work with their mechanics to find them and then exploit them. That is what the article said about Kubica, his "mechanics knew that if they find the minutest improvement in the car it will be instantly reflected in the lap times." That to me is the difference between good drivers and the great ones. We know all the guys who make the F1 or MotoGP grid have to be beyond good, but as I have seen, it is the three or four that have the guts, concentration, feel and determination to take it to the limit, and find it every corner of every lap that are the stars. I used to love looking in the eyes of someone like Rainey before a race. They said "If you want to beat me today you are going to have to drive faster and harder than you want to, and don't think you ever have me beat."
If a driver feels happy or comfortable with a car or motorcycle then he is not going fast enough. Phillip Island is a great example. I can recall driving around this fast flowing track and feeling great, only to find when I returned to the pits I was ten seconds off the pace. Then there was my one and only win in my class at the Australian Hill Climb Championship. Last run of the day, trailing, so gave it everything. Threw my Morgan up that hill and it felt terrible, more off the track than on and I thought I had blown it. Came back down to find I had taken a second off my time, in 40 + seconds and won!
So, it is the real racers who can find that edge, and are willing to keep it there without stepping over it too often, and are never satisfied. That's why Kubica went off an ran a rally, he has to be racing, and more power to him. The great news is he is likely to walk in three weeks.
In Qatar the MotoGP stars are out and Honda in the shape of Stoner continue to show the way, by over half a second, and he said he was only at 8/10ths. Rossi is doing better, but not as good as the private Ducati of Hector Barbera who was third fast, but apparently had a tow from Hayden. Shades of Criville and Doohan. Still early days, or is that nights? Despite Stoner's dominance there is only half a second between the next nine riders, so perhaps there is a good race is for second.
At Sebring the dark brought the Peugeot back to the top, and the diesels are again heading the timesheet. So much for equalization. Still, we will see in today's qualifying. As my wife commented, Sebring looks better at night.
Talking of equalization, it seems when it comes to driver's salary at Red Bull, some are more equal than others, as someone famous once said.
Racing is about little improvements and racers who can work with their mechanics to find them and then exploit them. That is what the article said about Kubica, his "mechanics knew that if they find the minutest improvement in the car it will be instantly reflected in the lap times." That to me is the difference between good drivers and the great ones. We know all the guys who make the F1 or MotoGP grid have to be beyond good, but as I have seen, it is the three or four that have the guts, concentration, feel and determination to take it to the limit, and find it every corner of every lap that are the stars. I used to love looking in the eyes of someone like Rainey before a race. They said "If you want to beat me today you are going to have to drive faster and harder than you want to, and don't think you ever have me beat."
If a driver feels happy or comfortable with a car or motorcycle then he is not going fast enough. Phillip Island is a great example. I can recall driving around this fast flowing track and feeling great, only to find when I returned to the pits I was ten seconds off the pace. Then there was my one and only win in my class at the Australian Hill Climb Championship. Last run of the day, trailing, so gave it everything. Threw my Morgan up that hill and it felt terrible, more off the track than on and I thought I had blown it. Came back down to find I had taken a second off my time, in 40 + seconds and won!
So, it is the real racers who can find that edge, and are willing to keep it there without stepping over it too often, and are never satisfied. That's why Kubica went off an ran a rally, he has to be racing, and more power to him. The great news is he is likely to walk in three weeks.
In Qatar the MotoGP stars are out and Honda in the shape of Stoner continue to show the way, by over half a second, and he said he was only at 8/10ths. Rossi is doing better, but not as good as the private Ducati of Hector Barbera who was third fast, but apparently had a tow from Hayden. Shades of Criville and Doohan. Still early days, or is that nights? Despite Stoner's dominance there is only half a second between the next nine riders, so perhaps there is a good race is for second.
At Sebring the dark brought the Peugeot back to the top, and the diesels are again heading the timesheet. So much for equalization. Still, we will see in today's qualifying. As my wife commented, Sebring looks better at night.
Talking of equalization, it seems when it comes to driver's salary at Red Bull, some are more equal than others, as someone famous once said.
Fighting
Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 12:24PM
Sorry about yesterday, my software would not let me in.
The FIA is continuing its nonsense about the Bahrain GP, promising to "respect" the May 1st deadline for a new date to be decided. There are people dying in the streets or had they not noticed? How can you condone even contemplating staging a race there.
Bernie has also come out fighting, but only verbally. He has come out against the 2013 engine rules as not being what the spectators want. Nice of him to care, I had not noticed that we were high on his agenda before. He says that talking to the businessmen he meets, he would hardly talk to one of us, noise and Ferrari are the two things they want. Ferrari are of course the most outspoken of the teams, "Not Formula One" is Montezemolo's comment. So the businessmen are afraid that Ferrari will not participate if the engine rules are not changed. But as Joe Saward said in his blog today, the deal is done. Also from my memory the 1.5 liter turbos were louder than the current cars. But as I have said, this is back to the future stuff, hardly cutting edge and "green."
Bernie is also fighting back about the Gribkowsky bribery case, offering to go to Germany to assist the investigation, but only if they promise to let him out again. However this turns out you have to admire Bernie, he can make money coming and going. He sells his shares and eventually gets a "Finders Fee" of $61m for helping the poor bank that is now stuck with the shares to find a new buyer in the form of CVC.
Continuing the money theme, there are reports today that the Belgian F1 GP is saved by Shell buying the sponsorship for the race. Now it is my understanding that signage and sponsorship are Bernie's, if not all then a fair chunk, so how does Shell tipping money in help Spa? Maybe Bernie will cut his fee by this amount? Nah, can't see that can you?
Australia in the shape of Melbourne are vowing to be tough with Bernie over the cost of the next contract. The Major Events Minister says they want the race, "but we're not going to be bunnies in contractual negotiations." Lambs to the slaughter I would say, and Easter is coming.
Over at Superbike Planet the AMA has issued a lengthy press release to explain the debacle at Daytona. After reading it I for one think it sounds even more of a circus.
Sebring officially kicks off today, and we can all watch qualifying tomorrow via ESPN3.com.
Happy St Patrick's Day everyone.
The FIA is continuing its nonsense about the Bahrain GP, promising to "respect" the May 1st deadline for a new date to be decided. There are people dying in the streets or had they not noticed? How can you condone even contemplating staging a race there.
Bernie has also come out fighting, but only verbally. He has come out against the 2013 engine rules as not being what the spectators want. Nice of him to care, I had not noticed that we were high on his agenda before. He says that talking to the businessmen he meets, he would hardly talk to one of us, noise and Ferrari are the two things they want. Ferrari are of course the most outspoken of the teams, "Not Formula One" is Montezemolo's comment. So the businessmen are afraid that Ferrari will not participate if the engine rules are not changed. But as Joe Saward said in his blog today, the deal is done. Also from my memory the 1.5 liter turbos were louder than the current cars. But as I have said, this is back to the future stuff, hardly cutting edge and "green."
Bernie is also fighting back about the Gribkowsky bribery case, offering to go to Germany to assist the investigation, but only if they promise to let him out again. However this turns out you have to admire Bernie, he can make money coming and going. He sells his shares and eventually gets a "Finders Fee" of $61m for helping the poor bank that is now stuck with the shares to find a new buyer in the form of CVC.
Continuing the money theme, there are reports today that the Belgian F1 GP is saved by Shell buying the sponsorship for the race. Now it is my understanding that signage and sponsorship are Bernie's, if not all then a fair chunk, so how does Shell tipping money in help Spa? Maybe Bernie will cut his fee by this amount? Nah, can't see that can you?
Australia in the shape of Melbourne are vowing to be tough with Bernie over the cost of the next contract. The Major Events Minister says they want the race, "but we're not going to be bunnies in contractual negotiations." Lambs to the slaughter I would say, and Easter is coming.
Over at Superbike Planet the AMA has issued a lengthy press release to explain the debacle at Daytona. After reading it I for one think it sounds even more of a circus.
Sebring officially kicks off today, and we can all watch qualifying tomorrow via ESPN3.com.
Happy St Patrick's Day everyone.
Trouble
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 11:38AM
It's terrible to see what is happening in Japan and let us hope it does not get worse, one Chernobyl in this world is enough. If you want to read a great book about Chernobyl read "Wolves Eat Dogs" by Martin Cruz Smith, the guy who wrote Gorky Park. Japanese MotoGP is postponed for a second year due to mother nature.
Trouble of a man-made kind in the Middle east with the situation in Libya beyond description. As I said, why do troops do these things to their own people? Bahrain is getting there with a "peacekeeping" force from their neighboring states, particularly Saudi Arabia, coming in to help the Royal Family keep hold on power. That is never going to work in the long term. We need to look no further than Northern Ireland to see what a suppressed people will do when desperate. So, a rescheduling of the F1 race is impossible with a three month "State of Emergency" being declared. More to the point, does F1 want to be seen in a country that so obviously is repressing its own people? Silly me, we are already doing that aren't we?
On a happier note, it is great to see the HPD LMP1 car doing so well in practice for Sebring. Despite only turning a wheel this last weekend the Highcroft run car is mixing it with the Peugeots and Audis. We are still off last years times, but not by much and that could be down to the restrictions placed on the diesels. Are we to see a level playing field at last? Looks like being a good race, if only it was televised live.
In what must rate as one of the most outrageous pieces of spin ever Colin Kolles, when asked if he thought HRT would feature in the top 10, he said: "I think so yes. I think that others are more desperate than we are to be honest with you." Colin was responding to Bernie's opinion that F1 really only needed ten teams, and of course the media had to ask HRT where that left them. Colin supported the idea!!!
Nice to see Daniel Ricciardo setting the pace in FR3.5 testing. Let's hope he can win the Championship this year and continue his progress to F1. That other Aussie, Casey Stoner looks on course to be the favorite for this year's MotoGP Championship with another chart topping test session in Qatar. But it gets real this weekend when the first race is run under lights. Ben Spies is not far off on the Yamaha and capable of mixing it with the Hondas on paper. Strange it is de Puniet on the private Ducati that is leading the way for the marque. Rossi had another get off and ended up thirteenth. If this is sandbagging it is world class.Sorry to hear Cal Crutchlow lost the tip of his finger, but he is in some illustrious company there. Let's hope it is a good omen.
In other news, Jean Todt in Melbourne for the GP says Australia should keep its race, but he is not paying for it is he? Horner is stirring the pot suggesting Lewis Hamilton will be looking to drive a Red Bull if he has another disappointing season. Is this to replace Vettel? Lewis meanwhile has a new manager and is reported to be open to "music and film" to expand his career. Whatever.
Trouble of a man-made kind in the Middle east with the situation in Libya beyond description. As I said, why do troops do these things to their own people? Bahrain is getting there with a "peacekeeping" force from their neighboring states, particularly Saudi Arabia, coming in to help the Royal Family keep hold on power. That is never going to work in the long term. We need to look no further than Northern Ireland to see what a suppressed people will do when desperate. So, a rescheduling of the F1 race is impossible with a three month "State of Emergency" being declared. More to the point, does F1 want to be seen in a country that so obviously is repressing its own people? Silly me, we are already doing that aren't we?
On a happier note, it is great to see the HPD LMP1 car doing so well in practice for Sebring. Despite only turning a wheel this last weekend the Highcroft run car is mixing it with the Peugeots and Audis. We are still off last years times, but not by much and that could be down to the restrictions placed on the diesels. Are we to see a level playing field at last? Looks like being a good race, if only it was televised live.
In what must rate as one of the most outrageous pieces of spin ever Colin Kolles, when asked if he thought HRT would feature in the top 10, he said: "I think so yes. I think that others are more desperate than we are to be honest with you." Colin was responding to Bernie's opinion that F1 really only needed ten teams, and of course the media had to ask HRT where that left them. Colin supported the idea!!!
Nice to see Daniel Ricciardo setting the pace in FR3.5 testing. Let's hope he can win the Championship this year and continue his progress to F1. That other Aussie, Casey Stoner looks on course to be the favorite for this year's MotoGP Championship with another chart topping test session in Qatar. But it gets real this weekend when the first race is run under lights. Ben Spies is not far off on the Yamaha and capable of mixing it with the Hondas on paper. Strange it is de Puniet on the private Ducati that is leading the way for the marque. Rossi had another get off and ended up thirteenth. If this is sandbagging it is world class.Sorry to hear Cal Crutchlow lost the tip of his finger, but he is in some illustrious company there. Let's hope it is a good omen.
In other news, Jean Todt in Melbourne for the GP says Australia should keep its race, but he is not paying for it is he? Horner is stirring the pot suggesting Lewis Hamilton will be looking to drive a Red Bull if he has another disappointing season. Is this to replace Vettel? Lewis meanwhile has a new manager and is reported to be open to "music and film" to expand his career. Whatever.
Day Two - No Change!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 10:36AM
There is a very funny Billy Connolly sketch in which he uses this expression, and in Barcelona it is all the same, just different drivers. Vettel is atop the timesheets and the rest are struggling. McLaren had car problems again this morning and appear to have some real problems with it. Hard to believe that all that equipment needed to be on the nose just to record some stress/strain information. They had easier ways than that I'm sure. Peter Geran sent me a photo off twitter of the Red Bull front wing dragging the end plates on the ground again a la 2010, so much for stronger tests. Petrov is doing well in the Renault, but Rosberg and the Mercedes are still struggling and Virgin are still 7 secs off the pace.
HRT have finally signed Luizzi so all the seats are filled now, and the new car is supposed to be at the track Friday.
Interesting that Suzuka has only extended its deal to stage the GP for one year? Bernie usually likes multi-year deals. Suzuka says it only makes a marginal profit, which is an achievement in itself, but is owned by Honda who quit F1 so is presumably reviewing the benefit of still staging the race, especially if Bernie is upping the fee.
Nice to see David Brabham confirmed to drive Duncan Dayton's HRD LMP1 at Sebring. Not much time to get the car shaken down, but Duncan's cars are always top class so it will be a great addition to the LMP1 field.
HRT have finally signed Luizzi so all the seats are filled now, and the new car is supposed to be at the track Friday.
Interesting that Suzuka has only extended its deal to stage the GP for one year? Bernie usually likes multi-year deals. Suzuka says it only makes a marginal profit, which is an achievement in itself, but is owned by Honda who quit F1 so is presumably reviewing the benefit of still staging the race, especially if Bernie is upping the fee.
Nice to see David Brabham confirmed to drive Duncan Dayton's HRD LMP1 at Sebring. Not much time to get the car shaken down, but Duncan's cars are always top class so it will be a great addition to the LMP1 field.