Most liked posts in thread: United Sports Car Championship (USCC)

minimark · Oct 6, 2014

One might wonder if you were Fiat if you would really want to spend money on a Viper racing program that is competing directly with Ferrari.....

CHKMINI · Oct 6, 2014

The cost to field a car in Tudor is way more than it was in Grand Am. I was told by a team that it cost them $300K more this year to field one car than it did last year to field 2 cars. The France family probably came out alright this year but no one else did. Is there a France Family member named "Bernie"?

mrntd · Oct 7, 2014

The WC announced that the GS cars would be running separate from the GT cars so that there could be a bigger GS field. The mass exodus from Tutor.

They are also adding more races not less like Tutor.

Now for a little better TV coverage.

Jan · Oct 7, 2014

they are going to kill ANOTHER great series..............

Steve · Oct 7, 2014

ScottinBend said: ↑

WC is a great series, but the TV coverage SUX! ! ! !
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Second that.

WC would be on my DVR schedule if the coverage was any good...and consistently available. Sad to say that matters so much because it's expensive to implement, but it matters a lot if your only practical means to enjoy a race is via TV.

TUDOR coverage is available but I don't like it much...I tend to blame the commentary when I lose interest and click away but I suppose I don't really know what it is. I'm hoping the IMSA Radio biz helps because I like endurance racing and that, for me, is an advantage of TUDOR.

CHKMINI · Oct 7, 2014

Not me. Until they get their head out of their arse and bring back Mid-Ohio I'll find other grassroots racing to spend money on and get my racing fix.

CHKMINI · Oct 7, 2014

minirab said: ↑

I miss going to MO.
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I remember a guy that drove a black MINI from Maryland that we would see at Mid-Ohio....oh yeah, that was you!

minirab · Oct 8, 2014

CHKMINI said: ↑

I remember a guy that drove a black MINI from Maryland that we would see at Mid-Ohio....oh yeah, that was you!
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If you sell Dark Helmet what the hell I'm I supposed to do?!!!

CHKMINI · Oct 8, 2014

Sell yours and buy a GP1

Steve · Oct 8, 2014

IMSA: Risi team still fuming after Petit Le Mans crash, series responds (racer.com)

Marshall Pruett | Tuesday, 07 October 2014

Temperatures within the Risi Competizione camp have only just begun to cool since the team was crashed out of the lead while leading Saturday's season finale at Road Atlanta.

The team's frustrating exit just three hours into the 10-hour event was one of many low points in a caution-filled and crash-marred 17th anniversary for Petit Le Mans, and in the wake of a non-call by IMSA on the competitor who authored the No. 62 GTLM Ferrari's demise, the team's anger has yet to subside.

Prior to closing the year at Petit Le Mans, Risi opened its 2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship account with a destroyed Ferrari F458 chassis at Round 1 in Daytona, suffered another heavy crash with its replacement at Round 2 in Sebring, and with the chance of a positive end to a trying year in sight, the Risi outfit was forced to retire last weekend when driver Pierre Kaffer was pummeled from behind by Porsche factory driver Patrick Pilet.

Pilet, who had just strapped in and was shown on camera looking down at his seat belts while driving down pit lane, eventually looked up and was clearly surprised to find Kaffer parked and obeying the red light that held cars at pit exit. With no time or space to avoid a crash, the Frenchman struck Kaffer's car in the right rear, and Pilet was then hit from behind by Corvette's Jan Magnussen. The net effect left Risi's Prancing Horse sitting with its hind quarters damaged beyond immediate repair.

The Porsche and Corvette would continue after their respective crews made repairs. Unfortunately, the innocent party in the melee was dealt the most severe blow, and if the race-ending damage wasn't enough to cause team owner Giuseppe Risi's blood to boil, the inaction by IMSA in regard to Pilet's negligence pushed the respected team owner over the edge.

A strongly-worded release was issued by Risi during the event, making his disappointment over the incident and officiating abundantly clear.

"We've had no response to our request to Race Control for review or action although, in the past, any misdeeds by our team or drivers have been punished severely and immediately," said Risi (LEFT). "This leads me to question whether the series even cares if there is a full-season GTLM Ferrari in the race or not, and it must also color my opinion going forward as to whether I want to continue in this championship or not."

With a few days to bring to situation from a boil to a simmer, team manager Dave Sims says the ALMS championship-winning team is still fuming and struggles to understand how the crash resulted in a non-call.

"We just had a horrendous race getting taken out in the pits getting hit from behind," Sims told RACER. "It wasn't reviewed, and when I couldn't get a response, I walked all the way over to the tower and was refused access to Race Control because I didn't have a media pass! I went and asked the red light man, who said it was on and our car stopped properly. No apology from [IMSA]. We came in, beat everyone else on our pit stop, and came out No. 1. It drives you mad to see what happen take place, and then for the driver who caused the whole thing to get off without as much as a slap on the wrist is a whole other level of injustice piled on top of it."
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Full story here.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYfDEfw_FRg"]No. 911 Porsche, No. 62 Ferrari, No. 3 Corvette Wreck on Pit Road - Petit Le Mans 2014 - YouTube[/ame]

minimark · Oct 12, 2014

IMSA: Petit Le Mans posts big rating on FOX [emoji41]

Steve · Oct 29, 2014

Why are GTD teams choosing Pirelli World Challenge? (racer.com)

Marshall Pruett | Wednesday, 29 October 2014

If you read the headlines last week, there's every reason to believe the TUDOR Championship is in the early stages of a mass exodus with its GT Daytona class.

To quickly recap, the first big shot came from GTD champions Turner Motorsport who were crowned on Oct. 3, and by Oct. 20, announced they were packing their bags and ditching IMSA in favor of the Pirelli World Challenge series. NGT Motorsport followed Turner's news, confirming their switch from GTD to PWC later the same day, and Flying Lizard Motorsport is close to joining them.

If all three are confirmed, four cars will be lost from the GTD grid, and provided their expanded PWC plans come to pass, those three teams could turn around and add between seven and eight cars to PWC's GT class alone. NGT also has designs on entering PWC's new Porsche Cup class with a few cars, bringing the potential PWC gain to 10 cars.

And they aren't alone. There are other GTD owners who weren't ready to speak publically, but have told me they are strongly considering some level of PWC participation in 2015. In fact, it took quite a few calls to find a few GTD owners who aren't interested in PWC.

Based on a series of conversations I've had with GTD team owners over the last 10 days, everything from leaving IMSA altogether to race in PWC, to running a full-season of PWC interspersed with IMSA's crown jewel events at Daytona, Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Petit Le Mans have been mentioned as possibilities.

With the GTD class accounting for almost 40 percent of IMSA's TUDOR Championship entries, there's a genuine reason for the series to be concerned about losing more cars and teams to PWC. And is the grass truly greener over in PWC? I started by asking members of the GTD paddock to list the main reasons PWC has become the go-to series for disenfranchised owners and drivers, and a few themes quickly emerged.

"I'm pretty sure the unanimous factor in teams looking at the Pirelli World Challenge is budget, pure and simple," said Magnus Racing owner John Potter. "Sprint racing is cheaper. If you add up the combined run-time of all races on the 2015 PWC schedule, you won't even match TUDOR's season-opening Rolex 24... let alone the other nine races. Between that and lack of pit stops, you're not spending anywhere close to the same on tires, consumables, car wear, and without pit stops you can get away with less crew and pit equipment.

"The budgets for GTD in 2014 went beyond everyone's expectations, so it should be no surprise that the customer-driven teams would gravitate towards a series that can run similar cars for significantly less. One key thing to note on this, however, is the teams who have either announced or are seriously evaluating PWC participation, are primarily customer-driven teams."

NGT Motorsport owner Ramez Wahab added a few budget numbers to the GTD-vs.-PWC equation.

"To do the full GTD season, to do it right, you're talking $2 million," he said, referring to a single-car program. "That's a lot of money, and some guys out there spent more. We work with a lot of [Porsche] GT3 Cup drivers, and when they're spending $350,000 for a season, it's a big jump to $2 million. You have a hard time finding those guys who want to spend that kind of money overnight. How many clients can you convince to do that?

"These guys made themselves successful in business, and they are smart; they aren't going to throw money away. Even if I quote them $1.7 million, or $1.5 million, it's very hard to sell [GTD] to my customers now."

Eric Ingraham runs the Flying Lizard team, and with a move to PWC looking like a probability, he's spent a lot of time running the numbers to quantify the costs differences their customers would face.

"With World Challenge, I think you're looking at a worst-case [budget reduction] of 30 to 50 percent for one car compared to GTD," he said. "The good news with World Challenge is you get to go racing 19 times (with double-headers) for a fraction of the money. The good thing with TUDOR is with that budget, you'll do more racing by the end of January than you will all year in World Challenge. Depending on which budget model fits your needs, you know what you'll be getting in return."

Combining the big ALMS and Grand-Am endurance races gave TUDOR Championship competitors an amazing schedule of events, but it also caused a significant budget increase. As the GTD-to-PWC migrations continue, IMSA's dream calendar could end up being the root cause behind many of those moves.
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That's a snip, full article here.

Crashton · Nov 16, 2014

Very glad that Memo is nearing his goal. Still a long way too go, but with his attitude & hard work I wouldn't be surprised to see him on next years grid at Daytona. I knew he was hurt badly, but didn't realize how badly that was.

Keep on truckin Memo!

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