12 Hours of Sebring this coming Saturday. Any TMS folk attending? I will be there once again! Very excited!

 

Have a great time!! Sebring is on my 'list' to attend someday in the near future. Should be an outstanding race this year!

 

Have fun... we used to go every year and spend Thurs through Sunday there.

 

i was there last year. A job change and a father returning home from Kuwait are not allowing me to get there this year, have a good one.

 

I'd like to watch it, but I'm going to be at a car show. That's always a great race.

 

Wish I could go. One of these years...

 

Sebring 12hr rapidly approaches. P1, GT1 classes will no doubt be a snooze-fest; Porsche and Acura should keep things interesting in P2. Here's hoping that the GT2 class will provide some exciting racing like they did last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjWo8VdMb8I...feature=related

Hollywood couldn't have scripted a more exciting finish--in fact, if they did, it would be all CGI and melodramatic-actors-screaming-at-the-camera suckage.

The Ford GT will [finally] make its debut in American racing. Too bad it will have been AFTER the car officially went out of production. The Swedes have already shown that the GT is capable of winning races, across the pond in FIA GT3. Wonder if Robinson Racing/Doran will have worked out all the bugs in time? If nothing else, it will have brought more marques to GT2, make things a little more interesting...

 

Below is a link with the entry list . . .

http://www.planetlemans.com/alms-200...ing-entrylist/

 

Anyone hear if the BK Motosports Mazda LMP2 is out for the race? Did they have a back up?

 

I don't believe they have a backup car. A few years ago, they missed several races after a nasty crash at Lime Rock.

 

Good race! In my opinion ALMS needs 1-2 more P1 and GT1. Preferably manufacturer entries vs. private, but good racing nonetheless.

 

That's been the major downside of ALMS recently, Audi's dominance has caused an exodus of manufacturers who don't want to match their insane budget. Panoz in particular simply got spent under the table, and they were once one of the great Prototype marques. If P2 can continue to compete with P1, and the Frenchies can run with Audi, the series will be alot more watchable.

 

Shame that the Ford GT-R crashed out of the race. But Sebring probably isn't the ideal race for making a racecar's debut--the race is just so brutally hard on the cars.

I wonder why they went with completely different bodywork though? To fit [even] wider tires? Aesthetically speaking, it doesn't do the GT's body lines any justice at all. Interesting that they departed from already established aero-mods; i.e. Kinetic Motorsports developed the chin fascia/rocker panels back around '05; Matech Racing showed it's suitable for racing in the FIA GT3. Robertson Racing's body work kinda reminds me of the "tacked-on" mods Ford did with the original GT40's back in the early stages of their racing program.

Cool vid of a "suitably modded" GT: http://www.myvideo.de/watch/1166964/Burning_Ford_GT

The car seems very well-balanced. Towards the end, makes a nice pass on a Gallardo GT3. If you listen closely, you'll hear how much sooner the driver is able to get back on the throttle in the chicane, starts pulling away convincingly from the Lambo.

 

Here, this might help explain why they didn't take Matech's approach to race-prepping the Ford GT:
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/showth...24#post5533924
LOL, spent a good chunk of my morning checking out that site!

The Matech Racing Ford GTs are competing in FIA GT3, while the Ford GTR competes in the GT2 class with plans to eventually compete in GT1. Or something like that. =)

 

Meh, they'd be wise to keep the car in GT2. I think GT1 is nearing its climax--if not already past it. The less than impressive 3-car field this year doesn't bode well as an indicator of competitor interest in the series.

I have long considered sportscar/GT racing to be cyclical in nature. Every so often, we'll see a "golden age," where popularity among fans and competitors alike seems to hit a boom period; new series are formed, manufacturers and privateers bring a plethora of marques into said series, and fans delight at seeing their favorite exotics do battle in the given series. Then, one [or a combination] of a couple of scenarios may play out: 1. Given time, the cars become more and more heavily modified, less and less like their roadgoing counterparts; until they become more of a "sihlouette" series. 2. Rising costs associated with increasingly exotic machinery tends to usher in eras of dominance by factory "works" teams or "super" Privateers [Prodrive, etc.], with everyone else serving as back-markers. Competitors and fans tend to lose interest, until some racers say "hang it all" and look for greener pastures in another series, or branch off and form a new one; only to have the cycle begin anew.

Just a theory....

 

I think you hit the nail on the head with #2. The ALMS cars, particularly P1 and GT1, and increasingly P2, are insanely expensive. That's the main reason car counts are a lot better in Grand Am. Why spend millions to get your butt kicked by the Audis or C6Rs, when for maybe a 1/4 of the cost you can have a shot at winning in a DP?

 

If only those Grand Am cars weren't so UGLY.

 

I was hoping that the new cars would look better, then I saw the Doran/Dallara.

 

... Just when I thought they couldn't make them any uglier.

 

Kinda reminds me of the old VW Beetles with the Rolls Royce grill. They figured the Porsche RS Spyder was pretty sexy, so they just grafted to nose onto a DP.