Endurance Racing Discussion Thread - WEC, ELMS etcSports Cars 

  • Thread starter Kowhai
  • 825 comments
  • 89,275 views
You would think Glickenhaus would have gotten some sort of assurance that they would be allowed to run a car. Otherwise why would they have sunk all of that money and effort into developing their car? I just hope the WEC isn't back tracking on them now.
They only have to build it and they can run it. That makes them OEM.
 
Unless that is the talks with IMSA are actually gaining some traction since IMSA has similar requirements for DPi.

Just about every manufacturer I've seen that's had interest on having a Hypercar or DPi program been in favor of the 2 classes sharing similar regulations.
 
Hmm...cool, good for publicity I suppose, and extra testing for Sebring.

It's probably not for publicity, in reality it will provide some testing before Sebring but IMSA will still change thr BoP after Daytona so whatever gains are made will probably be somewhat undone.

I think the most important factor is it gives a race for them to log data and performance. Then hand it to FIA/ACO before Le Mans and have it play into that BoP rather than the LM test alone. Though they do take info from gt lm too but it isn't the same as FIA controlled events.

Also another race doesn't hurt to get rid of potential gremlins that may occur if not found before the big race.
 
WEC Super Season

Calendar

1: 6 Hours of Spa, 5 May
2: 24 Hours of Le Mans, 16-17 June
3: 6 Hours of Silverstone, 19 August
4: 6 Hours of Fuji, 21 October
5: 6 Hours of Shanghai, 18 November
6: 1500 Miles of Sebring, 16 March 2019
7: 6 Hours of Spa, 4 May 2019
8: 24 Hours of Le Mans, 15-16 June 2019

Entries

LMP1

Rebellion Racing - Rebellion R13
ByKolles Racing Team - ENSO CLM P1/01
Manor - Ginetta G60-LT-P1
Toyota Gazoo Racing - Toyota TS050 Hybrid
DragonSpeed - BR Engineering BR1
SMP Racing - BR Engineering BR1

LMP2

TDS Racing - Oreca 07
Racing Team Nederland - Dallara P217
DragonSpeed - Oreca 07
Signatech Alpine Matmut - Alpine A470
Jackie Chan DC Racing - Oreca 07
Larbre Compétition - Ligier JS P217

LMGTE Pro

AF Corse - Ferrari 488 GTE EVO
Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK - Ford GT
BMW Team MTEK - BMW M8 GTE
Porsche GT Team - Porsche 911 RSR
Aston Martin Racing - Astin Martin Vantage AMR

LMGTE Am

Spirit Of Race - Ferrari 488 GTE
Team Project 1 - Porsche 911 RSR
Clearwater Racing - Ferrari 488 GTE
MR Racing - Ferrari 488 GTE
Dempsey-Proton Racing - Porsche 911 RSR
Gulf Racing UK - Porsche 911 RSR
TF Sport - Aston Martin Vantage GTE (2017)
Aston Martin Racing - Aston Martin Vantage GTE (2017)

ELMS

Calendar

1: 4 Hours of Le Castellet, 15 April
2: 4 Hours of Monza, 13 May
3: 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring, 22 July
4: 4 Hours of Silverstone, 18 August
5: 4 Hours of Spa, 23 September
6: 4 Hours of Algarve, 28 October

Entries

LMP2

DragonSpeed - Oreca 07
United Autosports - Ligier JS P217
Panis Barthez Competition - Ligier JS P217
Repsol Racing Engineering - Oreca 07
Algarve Pro Racing - Ligier JS P217
G-Drive Racing - Oreca 07
IDEC Sport - Ligier JS P217
Duqueine Engineering - Oreca 07
AVF by Adrián Vallés - Dallara P217
APR - Rebellion Racing - Oreca 07
SMP Racing - Dallara P217
Graff - Oreca 07
Cetilar Villorba Corse - Dallara P217
High Class Racing - Dallara P217

LMP3

United Autosports - Ligier JS P3
Cool Racing - Ligier JS P3
NEFIS By Speed Factory - Ligier JS P3
360 Racing - Ligier JS P3
Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen - Ligier JS P3
DKR Engineering - Norma M30
AT Racing - Ligier JS P3
Oregon Team - Norma M30
Eurointernational - Ligier JS P3
Inter Europol Competition - Ligier JS P3
RLR Msport - Ligier JS P3
BHK Motorsport - Ligier JS P3
Ultimate - Ligier JS P3
M.Racing - YMR - Ligier JS P3/Norma M30

LMGTE

Spirit Of Race - Ferrari 488 GTE
JMW Motorsport - Ferrari 488 GTE
Proton Competition - Porsche 911 RSR
Ebimotors - Porsche 911 RSR
Krohn Racing - Ferrari 488 GTE
love it!!!!!!!
 
And with that I present this article.

gt1-renderings.jpg


gt1-renderings-05.jpg
so so majestic but one problem, is the emergency OFF Upside down?
 
Just wanna say I’m living a dream here at The Bend Motorsport Park for the second round of the Asian Le Mans series and my first international sportscar race. It’s so amazing to see and hear these cars in person.

Here’s hoping these leads to an eventual WEC race here, there have been talks with the ACO after all. ;)
 
Last night, I was on YouTube and curiously came across a stream of the Asian Le Mans Series. There was a four-hour race around "The Bend" in Australia. This is a most fascinating track in the Australian state of South Australia. This track comes in about 10 different layouts, and its full course is at about 4.75 miles or 7.7 kilometers. So its full track is longer than Spa-Francorchamps! There were 25 entries for this race with about 21 actually racing. At first, I thought this track was that Chang circuit in Thailand or maybe Sydney Motorsports Park (which I still call Eastern Creek). It was an interesting race.
 
Last night, I was on YouTube and curiously came across a stream of the Asian Le Mans Series. There was a four-hour race around "The Bend" in Australia. This is a most fascinating track in the Australian state of South Australia. This track comes in about 10 different layouts, and its full course is at about 4.75 miles or 7.7 kilometers. So its full track is longer than Spa-Francorchamps! There were 25 entries for this race with about 21 actually racing. At first, I thought this track was that Chang circuit in Thailand or maybe Sydney Motorsports Park (which I still call Eastern Creek). It was an interesting race.
Look at the post above. Nah I'm kidding. I was very excited when I heard that international sports car racing was returning to Australia after 19 years. In fact I was thinking of going to the event, but Adelaide is too hot during the summer! Thankfully, I'm going to the 500 KM Supercar race there this year. The Bend is a very recent track, with only 2 Supercar rounds being hosted soo far. It's gotten a lot as praise as you could probably tell. I watched the whole race and it was actually quite eventful for an endurance, not to mention a good antidote for the lack of motorsport recently!
 
its full course is at about 4.75 miles or 7.7 kilometers. So its full track is longer than Spa-Francorchamps!
The full circuit is the second longest permanent circuit in the world.


In fact I was thinking of going to the event, but Adelaide is too hot during the summer!
You’re not wrong about Adelaide summers, I left on Sunday with a nasty sunburn after lining up for 20 minutes for a sausage roll. But it would’ve been worth going to this event solely due to the fact that they had the visitors centre and rooftop opened up to general admission. There was an impressive display of cars including a Carrera GT and a few Brock cars, a (pricey) restaurant up stairs and bar with incredible views. Here’s a photo I got while sitting opposite the bar:

157EE6CE-6120-4403-802F-05D208CE99E1.jpeg
 
...and that last bit of top-level sportscar racing in Australia? If I recall correctly, it was the famous "Race of a Thousand Years" by the (then) American Le Mans Series on the streets of Adelaide on New Year's Eve. Most remember that race for one Audi R8 LMP having that popular crocodile livery. I say this is great for Australia to have such a race like at The Bend.

I said in the YouTube chat that you can kind of compare The Bend to the track once known as Miller Motorsport Park (nowadays Utah Motorsports Campus). The Bend is as twisty, as technical, and with as considerate elevation changes to keep you honest like Utah Motorsports Campus. I really see The Bend as being quite a quality venue for years to come. That's especially if you can throw some extra money at it so it could be further developed to perhaps be a top-level FIA racing facility. And who knows? Maybe Formula 1, World Superbike, MotoGP, FIA WEC, or FIA WTCC may hold races there in the future.

It is still cool that Australia has itself some quality sportscar racing in the country for the first time in a long while after seeing this past weekend's race at The Bend.
 
...and that last bit of top-level sportscar racing in Australia? If I recall correctly, it was the famous "Race of a Thousand Years" by the (then) American Le Mans Series on the streets of Adelaide on New Year's Eve. Most remember that race for one Audi R8 LMP having that popular crocodile livery. I say this is great for Australia to have such a race like at The Bend.

I said in the YouTube chat that you can kind of compare The Bend to the track once known as Miller Motorsport Park (nowadays Utah Motorsports Campus). The Bend is as twisty, as technical, and with as considerate elevation changes to keep you honest like Utah Motorsports Campus. I really see The Bend as being quite a quality venue for years to come. That's especially if you can throw some extra money at it so it could be further developed to perhaps be a top-level FIA racing facility. And who knows? Maybe Formula 1, World Superbike, MotoGP, FIA WEC, or FIA WTCC may hold races there in the future.

It is still cool that Australia has itself some quality sportscar racing in the country for the first time in a long while after seeing this past weekend's race at The Bend.
Sadly the track is FIA Grade 2, so F1 cannot race there.
 
The full circuit is the second longest permanent circuit in the world.



You’re not wrong about Adelaide summers, I left on Sunday with a nasty sunburn after lining up for 20 minutes for a sausage roll. But it would’ve been worth going to this event solely due to the fact that they had the visitors centre and rooftop opened up to general admission. There was an impressive display of cars including a Carrera GT and a few Brock cars, a (pricey) restaurant up stairs and bar with incredible views. Here’s a photo I got while sitting opposite the bar:

View attachment 881351
The rooftop and visitors centre has been open to the general public the last couple of times I've been there. Couple that with my disabled parking and it allows me to go nearly everywhere around the whole circuit (and I can park right at the front door of the visitors centre most of the time). Great stuff! 👍

Except for the heat you mentioned... and those damn friendly flies :indiff:

20191117_143012.jpg
 
As much as I think it’d be cool for the Bugatti Chiron/Divo/etc. to be one of the hypercars, I really don’t think Bugatti has the money. I thought the last time they did motorsports was with the EB110, before they even started making the Veyron. They also just started to generate a profit with the Chiron, IIRC.

For similar reasons, idk if Koenigsegg would have the funding, either. They closest that they got was that CCGT meant for GT1.

I’m also not sure if Ferrari would wanna do much, since they spend a ton of money on F1. Not sure if they’d have enough funding left for a hypercar, even though I think the SF90 would be a nice base. Their last prototype was the 333SP in the 1990s, right?

Finally, as much as I think the Valkyrie (and similar projects like the Valhalla) is really neat - LM hypercar version included - I can’t help but to wonder if Aston Martin could’ve avoided notable financial trouble if they hadn’t developed these cars. Even with Red Bull’s help, I really don’t know how much the Valkyrie’s R&D ate into Aston Martin’s budget. I think the DBX will be helpful for them, but I think it’d also be good if they offered a model similar to the Porsche Boxster - something more “entry-level.” Pride in one’s traditions doesn’t cut paychecks, unfortunately.
 
Last edited:
As much as I think it’d be cool for the Bugatti Chiron/Divo/etc. to be one of the hypercars, I really don’t think Bugatti has the money. I thought the last time they did motorsports was with the EB110, before they even started making the Veyron. They also just started to generate a profit with the Chiron, IIRC.

For similar reasons, idk if Koenigsegg would have the funding, either. They closest that they got was that CCGT meant for GT1.

I’m also not sure if Ferrari would wanna do much, since they spend a ton of money on F1. Not sure if they’d have enough funding left for a hypercar, even though I think the SF90 would be a nice base. Their last prototype was the 333SP in the 1990s, right?

Finally, as much as I think the Valkyrie (and similar projects like the Valhalla) is really neat - LM hypercar version included - I can’t help but to wonder if Aston Martin could’ve avoided notable financial trouble if they hadn’t developed these cars. Even with Red Bull’s help, I really don’t know how much the Valkyrie’s R&D ate into Aston Martin’s budget. I think the DBX will be helpful for them, but I think it’d also be good if they offered a model similar to the Porsche Boxster - something more “entry-level.” Pride in one’s traditions doesn’t cut paychecks, unfortunately.
Bugatti are owned by VAG. You are right about Aston Martin though. It would be better to build a car and sell it to privateers than anything else.
 
Back