2010 24 Hours of Le Mans, LMS and ALMS news

[RacingManiac]

I think that if required they could have been faster even of some P1 cars.
Really no game there.

And they were in ALMS since they debuted. I don't think a lot of observers in Europe realized how developed that Acura is and how much work Wirth have done to a car that started out as the LC70, despite their Honda backing they were working with a much smaller budget compare to Porsche spent on RS Spyder...

Same CFD approach and everything, I think given time and a bit more favorable rule there is no reason why they can't do well in F1 with Virgin F1....

[BOESEL]

At Paul Ricard Audi present a really good car, a great step from last year version. The two driver were really satisfied at the end of the race, particularly Capello. The Italian driver was sure of that yet in February when he had an interview about his career. If you want know something more about him, you can read it at this specific address:
ConnectingRod.it

[RacingManiac]

ALMS a Long Beach....great race.....High Croft vs AMR with Intersport Lola in there for a bit. Last lap pass by Pagenaud on Fernandez to win the race....


Too bad the rest of the season there aren't any big teams until the big races....I'd go to Mosport this year if there is something else to watch other than the Acura/HPD.

[LTSmash]

ALMS a Long Beach....great race.....High Croft vs AMR with Intersport Lola in there for a bit. Last lap pass by Pagenaud on Fernandez to win the race....

It was an interesting race for sure. But the commentary said, again, that Long Beach is comparable to Monaco...

What do you think of combining LMP1 and LMP2?

[RacingManiac]

For ALMS its about the only thing they CAN do...Not enough cars. The 2nd rung P1 cars like the old Lola(well you can't tell from today though, Jon Field was epic) can be somewhat of a match to the new P2s. Highcroft and Dyson are going to be the standard for the class though, the RS Spyder doesn't have fast enough driver(and without the DI V8 they are slower than the Acura anyway). The Lola coupe SHOULD be faster, but I think the team and the drivers are holding it back. So it makes the top of the field with closer battle.

I hope AMR will come back more often. The car should be closely match by the P2s. The diesel will be much faster...too much perhaps.

In a sense Long Beach is better than Monaco. You can't race side by side like that on Monaco....



Side note, LMPC is WAY too slow. They need to make them go faster in a straight line. GT cars are as fast as they are in traffic. And it makes the racing hard for both class.

[LTSmash]

For ALMS its about the only thing they CAN do...Not enough cars. The 2nd rung P1 cars like the old Lola(well you can't tell from today though, Jon Field was epic) can be somewhat of a match to the new P2s. Highcroft and Dyson are going to be the standard for the class though, the RS Spyder doesn't have fast enough driver(and without the DI V8 they are slower than the Acura anyway). The Lola coupe SHOULD be faster, but I think the team and the drivers are holding it back. So it makes the top of the field with closer battle.

I think it's a stretch to do it but I understand the reasoning. When the big races happen and Audi and Peugeot are competing they just end up sandbagging the event and taking points away from what is essentially P2 cars competing for the championship. The organizers and manufacturers need to think of something to attract more LMP cars though, whatever it may be.

Side note, LMPC is WAY too slow. They need to make them go faster in a straight line. GT cars are as fast as they are in traffic. And it makes the racing hard for both class.

Agreed. Completely useless to have two different classes running at the same speeds.

[Dino Scuderia]

The only bright spot in ALMS this year, besides GT2, is Peugeot will battle Audi at PLM Road Atlanta.

[henk4]

The only bright spot in ALMS this year, besides GT2, is Peugeot will battle Audi at PLM Road Atlanta.

and in the context of the Intercontinental Cup, they will also show up at Silverstone, so we will have five real races this year (Spa, LM, PLM and SStone, and somewhere in Asia)

[RacingManiac]

Dome's open letter to explain their "withdrawal" from 2010 race. It covers a lot more than that though. Be patient and read through it if you can...
http://www.dome.co.jp/column/images/...ad_le_mans.pdf

[henk4]

That is truly fascinating. For explanation, driver "J" is Jan Lammers. We also have guesses about the amateur driver and the team owner, but these are not for publication.
Overall I think the mentality of Mr. Dome can be described as naive, and a bit blinded by his desire to win Le Mans.

[RacingManiac]

He is a enthusiast first, gearhead/engineer second, and not really a manager/PR person as one would expect to run an outfit like Dome. Also illustrates that really they aren't that big. Not that many people left like that in the world, and yet there are plenty of people who would want to take advantage of that....

Another thing is he does not see his LMPs as products, he sells open wheel cars, and he sells Super GT cars(actually not sure of that, he makes them for Honda which have several teams running them, maybe not really sells but contracted to produce). The LMPs he builds for DOME's use. I wonder though if he can actually support a customer program in the same vein as Lola or Zytek if he were to sell customer cars. If he "sell" them, I think the contractual obligation is less complicated. Though who can afford a factory level P1/P2 car is another question.

[Kitdy]

Was out earlier today and just got back in - have been watching the race at Laguna Seca from ALMS' live feed. Just went down unfortunately.

The racing in GT for the short time I have been watching has been excellent!

Anyone else watching? I'm looking at you LTSmash.

[Dino Scuderia]

Fabulous GT race...Radio LeMans guys said it was the best sportscar race they'd ever seen.

[wwgkd]

Fabulous GT race...Radio LeMans guys said it was the best sportscar race they'd ever seen.

We need a tv channel that actually covers this stuff. Speed is getting even more nascar centric than they have been. They had reruns on instead of any other race coverage.

[Dino Scuderia]

We need a tv channel that actually covers this stuff. Speed is getting even more nascar centric than they have been. They had reruns on instead of any other race coverage.

Well CBS had the coverage of this race and decided to condense it to 1.5 hours and show it a week later! I think some smart cookie saw this was bad and setup the whole six hours commercial free live streaming on ALMS site.

The feed was good 95% of the time, and full screen.