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Which means that F1 in Romania will probably become even more inaccessible, over the last 3 years it moved from national TV to a sports channel that was exclusive to only one of the big 3-4 cable providers in the country. So I’ll have to continue with dodgy streams then sadly… if F1 is still worth watching next year.
Going to Le Mans for the first time this year. Only from Thursday to the end of the race, but still I’m really excited. :)
And who would have believed that, at this stage during the season, we’d have to say “Takuma Sato leads the Indycar points standings”…
F1: Sebastian Vettel
GP2: Felipe Nasr
GP3: Robert Visoiu (oh come on, there’s a Romanian in a major racing series, I have to be nationalistic for once :)) )
Formula Renault 3.5: Antonio Felix da Costa
IndyCar: Scott Dixon
MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo
WRC: Sebastian Ogier
WEC: Alex Wurz/Nico Lapierre in prototypes, Darren Turner/Stefan Mucke in GTE
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Jimmie JohnsonIt may be another manufacturer entry that starts out as a cynical badge engineering hackjob, but it does look rather good. :)
@Polishboy808 The people on the technical side of things with ALMS and Grand-Am have said repeatedly since the announcement of the class structure that the top class will be running to the pace of the LMP2 cars. DP cars are 6-7 seconds slower nowadays at most tracks, but according to people in the know, about 3 seconds of that difference is down to just a single thing: tires. Better tires for the DPs, along with more downforce from the underside of the car (DPs aren’t even running a proper diffuser nowadays, the addition of that would increase downforce by a significant amount) and slightly more power would do a lot towards equalizing the cars.
As for the tires, Conquest Racing tested alongside the DP teams at Daytona back in November on DP tires instead of the Dunlops used in the ALMS and was only 0.5 seconds faster than the DPs (even though it was a short run without an ideal setup).
The 2014 merged series is NOT “internalised for US audiences”, at least not the GT side of things. GM was the main push behind keeping the GTE cars in the merged series, in order to race the Corvettes in the exact same specification both in the merged series and at Le Mans. LMP2 cars are allowed and DP cars are speeded up to match LMP2 pace, not the other way around, so LMP2 cars can race in the same specification at Le Mans, Daytona and Sebring if someone wants to do so.
Short ovals are safer than the cookie-cutter 1.5-mile ovals; despite the amount of traffic that is involved in running 20-25 cars on just about a mile of tarmac, average speeds are 40-50 mph lower, and higher downforce means cars handle better and might be able to maneuver easier to avoid accidents. Average speeds at Vegas in qualifying for that race were in the 220-225 mph region, the lap record at Iowa is in the 180mph bracket and at Milwaukee around 170mph.
I hoped that Pocono would be a 500-mile race. But then again, Fontana was supposed to be a 400-miler this year and they decided two months before the race to extend it to 500 miles. So there’s still hope that the Triple Crown will be all-500-milers.
Yap yap yap, as ever in press releases. Read between the lines and it says “We’re switching to two hybrids because Toyota are starting to beat us and we don’t like it.”
Latest rumour is that LMP2 and DP regulations will be kept stable and not tampered with for the first two-three years of the unified series (up to, and possibly including, 2016).
Hand throttle would work the same way as a hand clutch and would allow sensitivity and gradual operation between 0 and 100%. Indycars now have hand clutch and paddleshifts as well, so it would be a matter of another paddle on the steering wheel. As for the brake, Alex can operate the brake pedal using his prosthetic legs with enough force for a racing brake pedal (I heard 80 kgf, the rumoured figure for full application on F1 brakes is around 90).
Rumours are of the top class being a combination of LMP2, LMPC and DP, ALMS GT being kept, question mark over how Grand-Am GT would be integrated though.
his partner there, who’s name escapes me, is also good. at le mans, he had some some excellent racing stories from the good/bad old days.
Jeremy Shaw. Ex-pat Brit, runs a “driver ladder” for young US drivers and used to commentate on CART alongside Ben Edwards for Eurosport.
