Thread: ELMS ELMS Discussion
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Old 26 Jul 2020, 23:03 (Ref:3990935)   #408
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It is true than even in it's heyday with big P1s and GT1s no-one outside of 50 people really cared of ELMS. And all of those 50 people were probably here, listening to Radio Le Mans and hoping Eurosport or Motors TV would show more than 30 minutes of 1000km race. There was a lots to talk about in terms of cars and technology and so on, but there weren't many of us then either. The series was always just 'something to do' around Le Mans. So looking it that way, the championship essentially having been transformed into something resembling glorified Porsche Cup doesn't really change anything in terms of how it was seen from outside, and how it is run. And it hasn't, it's chumming along year after year regardless of what they've turned it into. However, the problem is that the same competitors from ELMS and other series, running pro-am spec Orecas and GTE-AM Ferraris and Porsches are also making most of the grid at Le Mans now too. Cars that used to be more akin to the support race bill competitors are now the stars. Now, the current 'big public' watching the 24 hours may still be moderately entertained as long as they get those Indycar and ex F1 and NASCAR drivers in some of the cars, and there's something resembling OEM presence even if it's made via sticker engineering and balance of performance. But as is the case with the rest of racing world, the people who follow these things are ageing. F1 will survive as it is F1, also helped by the fact that Bernie Ecclestone is no longer in charge saying "young people don't buy Rolex watches so we don't care about em", but the rest of racing will sunk even lower to the abyss if they don't do something. And that something cannot be Oreca 07 Alpine-Aurus-Ladas with spec engines and spec tires and pro-am crews making 95% of the grid at Le Mans. NASCAR business model also belongs to the 1960's.

RE: hillclimbing. I was about to say that it's a shame Pikes Peak is "just" racing against a clock instead of other competitors, but then I remembered my favorite sports having been winter sliding for number of years now, and that too is going against the clock, only down the hill instead of upwards. You have the best gal and sled being the winner without artificial BS, it's just great fun. So I could get into it. The only actual problem with it is bad TV/streaming coverage, which I think while not as bad as 5 years ago, is still quite bad. Their youtube looks very messy too.

Last edited by Deleted; 26 Jul 2020 at 23:16.
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