Understanding Sportscar Racing

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JohnBM01

JohnBM01

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JMarine25
I'm offering this thread as a service. I want to be able to help those not too experienced with sportscar racing to get to understand it. When I started out as a sportscar racing fan in about 1998, I learned of the American Le Mans Series. I found sportscar racing fun, but hard to follow. Even I'm not usually very keen on sportscar racing. Every day is a learning experience with sportscar racing. I've learned and understood sportscar racing over time. Today, I'm still a big fan of sportscar racing. Loved sportscar racing my whole life as a racing fan. Nothing like the diversity of cars and engines as well as racing at night. Nothing like it.

So I'm offering this thread to help those not real educated on sportscar racing to be more educated about sportscar racing. Anyone who's a fan of this style of racing and knows this kind of racing should be able to help out those who find it hard to understand the motorsport.
 
im big fan of LMP, but, im not exactly sure how to help because my opinion seems to opposite of the majority. for instance, i love a nice big field of mix open/closed top cars, but, i read a lot about how people want P cars togo all closed top.

to me, LMP's are what f1 should like as i dont like the look of open wheel cars. then theres manufactors leaving to go to F1, but, thats not for this thread.
 
Well, it could help us understand why Prototypes are the way they are now.

I agree with you, John, in that not a lot of people are truly informed as to what sportscar racing really is, including myself. Is it possible that the categories are being monopolized? From what I heard, the Porsches dominated P2, while the R8s passed in favour of the R10, continuing the reign. On top of that, the Porsches were literally competing with the Audis for wins.
 
A main problem for me with sportscar racing is the depth of it:

I watched my first F1 race last year, and it took me 10 minutes to figure out which car is what team, and how the races work.

I watched my first NASCAR race two months ago, and until now I'm still unfamiliar with most teams and drivers, and am only starting to understand the strategies and intricacies of a race. At the same time, watching the Le Mans 24Hrs, it took me about 3-4 hours until I finally got a grip on which team is what - with so many teams, it takes quite a bit of dedication to "get into" a series of sportscar racing, especially ones as unique as Le Mans or NASCAR.
 
ALMS itself is not all that entertaining to watch. Mostly because you usually know who's going to win which class. In terms of sports car racing, I would say the following are usually very enjoyable to watch:

- FIA GT
- Australian V8 Supercars
- DTM (sometimes)
- BTCC (most times)

The most entertaining (that I have seen anyway) has been Aussie V8 Supercars. However, the teams and drivers are very hard to follow if you're not familiar with the series. A lot of cars are hard to distinguish from one another and there's a LOT of cars and a LOT of teams, so it's not as easy to follow as say Formula 1.

OT: the most entertaining of them all though I still find (in terms of "racing") is World Superbike and MotoGP. They strike that perfect of enough racing action that it's not too much to get old and not too little to get boring.
 
MustangSVT
ALMS itself is not all that entertaining to watch. Mostly because you usually know who's going to win which class.
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well, this year for class wins, maybe? Acuras won class a few times. then Porsche has been gone for/won over all against the Audis.

Then the R8s always had a challenger. The Panoz LMPs always had a win or two each season and won the championship in 99 against BMW LMRs. then the unlucky dyson team, with their unlucky lola/mg/aer, scored a few wins such as portland and infineon iirc. or, if they were in a position to be a thread, their bad luck would kick in.

shame both teams were underfunded compared to the audis, but, they didnt dominate like ferrari did/does in f1. saying that undersells their competition.
 
If I recall, the BMWs were sent back to Europe, so the Panoz racers took the win when the German cars couldn't contend for it. Still exciting stuff, however.

I don't know about each class for ALMS, unless the Aston Martin team has given up the ship (or has not entered). FIA GT is the other way around, with a few Corvettes taking on the European cars, which should make for some interesting international competition, and does, as MustangSVT has stated.

NASCAR has to be the easiest to follow, but discerning teams is difficult as the cars share little resemblance to each other among teams, brand aside.
 
NASCAR's main issue is the unique type of strategy and racing. Two-tyre stops, and the huge amount of relative time it takes to complete a stop under green make strategies very, very important. On a terrible strategy, F1 drivers lose 4-5 places. On a single bad call in NASCAR, a driver can drop out of the top-20.
 
superberkut
If I recall, the BMWs were sent back to Europe, so the Panoz racers took the win when the German cars couldn't contend for it. Still exciting stuff, however.

I don't know about each class for ALMS, unless the Aston Martin team has given up the ship (or has not entered). FIA GT is the other way around, with a few Corvettes taking on the European cars, which should make for some interesting international competition, and does, as MustangSVT has stated.

NASCAR has to be the easiest to follow, but discerning teams is difficult as the cars share little resemblance to each other among teams, brand aside.
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In ALMS, I'm pretty sure Corvette are the only ones that race in GT1. Since the beginning of 2007 season, I don't recall any other contender other than an odd DBR9 or Maserati that isn't competitive anyway. In LMP1, Audi always wins. In LMP2 and GT2 there are some good battles and some decent battles for the lead between LMP2 and LMP1 sometimes, but the level of excitement lacks compared to DTM and V8 Supercars. DTM though is not exactly sports car racing. All of the cars are like prototypes, so..
 
I think what makes the FIA GT so successful, imo, is the fact that you're not allowed to have a manufacturer backing you. Sure, the successful teams still have more money, but it's not to the point where the factory back in Italy, Germany, or the US is the one developing your latest brake & suspension parts.

Without the inclusion of the manufacturers, the FIA GT has become really competitive. You still have the gut feeling that Vitaphone might win, but Carsport & JMB don't give up too easily. Interestingly enough, the series seems to have gotten even more competitive this year now that JMB is only racing 1 MC12.
 
The only class in the ALMS that has shown a big jump in new teams is GT2. And what class gets the least amount of tv time, GT2. To bad.:grumpy:
 
I'm really not sure what races some of you have been watching this year, but the ALMS has been superb. Audi, Acura and Porsche have all been competing for overall wins, as P1 and P2 are considered equal in that series, at least for the last few years.

Next year Acura is moving upto P1 with Audi, and it's speculated GM (Corvette) will do the sme, but possibly in 2010. A few new prototype teams are also entering such as Forsythe Racing.

FIA GT on the other hand is dull and mediocre, with old cars.
 
Not saying that I don't enjoy all of the classes, great racing in all of the classes, but I would like more coverage in the GT2 class as it has the biggest influx of new teams.:)
 
JAGUAR1977
I'm really not sure what races some of you have been watching this year, but the ALMS has been superb. Audi, Acura and Porsche have all been competing for overall wins, as P1 and P2 are considered equal in that series, at least for the last few years.

Next year Acura is moving upto P1 with Audi, and it's speculated GM (Corvette) will do the sme, but possibly in 2010. A few new prototype teams are also entering such as Forsythe Racing.

FIA GT on the other hand is dull and mediocre, with old cars.
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Audi will not have a factory effort with the R10 next season. Rumour has it that they are looking in to a GT1 effort.
Corvette will most likley go for P1, especially now since they can actually use the engine currently running the C6.R.

The reason for P1 and P2 are so closely matched in the ALMS is that the P2 cars are allowed to run lighter in weight and with less enginerestictions according to IMSA rules. This was simply done because of the very low number of P1 cars entered in the ALMS. In the LMS, run by the ACO, the P2 cars are no match at all for the P1 cars.

I agree that FIA GT cars are old, (well, two of the P&M Vettes from last year are running), but the racing is far from dull IMO!
 
Audi will not have a factory effort with the R10 next season. Rumour has it that they are looking in to a GT1 effort.
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They'll be back in P1 with a new car, codenamed R15.

The GT rumours are for GT2 with the R8, and /or a P1 coupe with R8 styling cues.
 
JAGUAR1977
They'll be back in P1 with a new car, codenamed R15.

The GT rumours are for GT2 with the R8, and /or a P1 coupe with R8 styling cues.
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The R15 is just a rumour aswell. Nothing official about it. The only thing we can count on is that Audi will race, but that isn´t certain either. Maybe they´ll wait for the rules to settle for 2010, and start from there.
 
The current P1 factory program has been budgeted for 5 years, after that they could continue, pass the car onto privateers, or pull out altogether.

The 2010 regs will be published in September, but the manufactuers will have a good idea about them already, as they were consulted.
 
I hope audi stays in the top class as the fact that theyve been in lmp900/lmp1 since 1999 is one of the reason im an audi-fan boi. specially after mercedes, toyota, and bmw all pulled out to concentrait on f1 after 99 or 2000 for bmw)
 
JohnBM01
I'm offering this thread as a service. I want to be able to help those not too experienced with sportscar racing to get to understand it. When I started out as a sportscar racing fan in about 1998, I learned of the American Le Mans Series. I found sportscar racing fun, but hard to follow. Even I'm not usually very keen on sportscar racing. Every day is a learning experience with sportscar racing. I've learned and understood sportscar racing over time. Today, I'm still a big fan of sportscar racing. Loved sportscar racing my whole life as a racing fan. Nothing like the diversity of cars and engines as well as racing at night. Nothing like it.

So I'm offering this thread to help those not real educated on sportscar racing to be more educated about sportscar racing. Anyone who's a fan of this style of racing and knows this kind of racing should be able to help out those who find it hard to understand the motorsport.
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Just so we're clear: What sport are you talking about? :dopey:
 
i watch car racing for about my whole life now. My father watched races like dtm/formule 1 etc i was born in 1985 so when i was 5 i alraedy watched dtm ^^ i really loved the time when larini and nanini drove theyre alfa 155 around the courses and in formule1 with senna and prost/mansall. it hooked me totally.

in the last years 8 years i didn't watch f1 as i did when i was little, but dtm/btcc etc i still liked.
now days i'm looking f1 more and more, also i enyoy the posche supercup very much. the wtcc is a verry exciting class either.(you can guess what driver is my favorite ;) )

so, when a new class is there you need time too get the hang of it (drivers/teams/rules) but when you finally do it is a great sport. (better then soccer:yuck: )
 
Depends - I can understand most types of racing, but I cannot enjoy a Formula Masters race (that crummy BTCC support series) even if my life depended on it.

Drag racing would be slightly more interesting if it didn't have ages between each run..
 

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