[WEC] 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship

[deggis]

150 cars at Road Atlanta. Apparently still a non-issue.

[bella]

Originally Posted by Salamus

However, one of the concerns is if you run in the WEC, you don't want someone from another championship to ruin your race.

not all that different to the arguement against running different classes of car in the same race though, to be fair

i think in theory it would be interesting, but in practice i don't think there would be many people happy with such an arrangement. there'd be significant beef from both sides.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by bella

given how stroppy the elms guys got when they had to share a paddock, run from awnings and not be in charge of their own circus i suspect the idea of playing in amongst someone elses race would positively make their blood boil.

and to a point i'd agree that it's a bit naff, but probably for a different reason. it seems odd to go to the trouble of creating a brand with a lower cost and more grounded approach than the world variation, only to raise the bar to the world level for one (extra, i suppose, after le mans) race a year. it's sending a confused message.

Yet the 2011 LMS - which shared 3 of it's 5 events with ILMC - had bigger and stronger (non-GT3-filler) grid than any of the years that came after. In the two non-merged races as well. Teams sticked with it.

I wasn't entirely satisfied how the ACO treated LMS in Silverstone 2010, pretty much overshadowing the regional series with it's brand new shiny product, but I thought the following year with the three merged races was very satisfasctory. They learned their lessons. And all three ALMS-ILMC merged races treated each other with respect, absolutely no complains. It wasn't until the 2012 WEC-ALMS Sebring fiasco thay destroyed the last hope of mergers in the future, thanks to previously mentioned ill minded attitudes. The decision to split LMS was foolish as well, and we saw the result.

Integrated races give the regional series participants good exposure, no-one but diehard fans care about things like ELMS and -even more obviously- AsLMS. C'mon you know I'm right...

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Integrated races give the regional series participants good exposure...

Yes, and they can be viewed as part of the bigger world championship as well - and not only for Le Mans.

Combined WEC-LMS races would probably be easier than combined WEC because of car counts in GTD/GTC (AsLMS is not an issue, wonder if that series ever becomes worthy of anyting...). GTD in TUSC is huge and needs to be left out of the running for combined WEC-TUSC races. Problem with that is blocking full seasonal entrants entry to one (or more) of the championship races. [The same goes for PC but to a lesser extent because of the lower numbers].

However, with more split TUSC races likely in the future this could be solved by not turning the US enduro classics (Daytona-Sebring-Petit) into combined races but to stick with the race at COTA and add perhaps Road America, Watkins Glen or - what the heck - Indy. This would let seasonal GTD+PC entrants still be able to compete at their 3 big, sponsorship attracting enduros that will also appeal more to wealthy business/amateur/gentlemen drivers who seem to care (and have time) only to the more classic enduro races and probably won't be overly concerned with no being allowed to race at for example COTA. If anything, a separate GTD/GTC+PC race could be run at combined WEC-LMS/TUSC races to keep those competitors happy (maybe a 2 or 3 hours race as opposed to 6h for the combined WEC-LMS/TUSC races).

There's only a handful of privateers/businessmen/amateurs/gentlemen drivers that want to compete in an over-expensive world championship anyway - the big sausage is Le Mans 24H of course - if you give them access to that, they'll be more than happy to stay/return to the regional series, keeping entry numbers in those series at a high level at non combined races as well (as we have seen in the ALMS/LMS during the ILMC years).

[Bandicoot17]

Montreal is being looked at for 2015 apparently. Could see this being a good move, it's a good track and there's lots of potential fans in the area!

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/r...ound-for-2015/

[GT6]

That would be a good addition to the schedule

[Pandemonium]

OMG this is great news!! Montreal rocks!! Now if only we would get something like Spain or Germany after Le Mans that would be great!!

[deggis]

Had to check calendar. No, it's not April 1st.

"Circuit promoter François Dumontier declined comment on this matter", in this case sounds like a good sign.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by Bandicoot17

Montreal is being looked at for 2015 apparently. Could see this being a good move, it's a good track and there's lots of potential fans in the area!

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/r...ound-for-2015/

Now that's good news! At least Montréal has some history and tradition with sport cars would it be the Group C races in the past or Grand-AM races ( yeah I'm serious with Grand-AM) few years ago.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

Group C races in the past

One... half-race

[Simmi]

I'd love to see Montreal happen.

[isynge]

One does rather hope they manage to weld down the manhole covers properly if it does come off.

[carbon_titanium]

I never liked the street montreal track, anyway if montreal will be confirmed what track will be dropped? my bet is interlagos.

[Deleted]

It's not one of my favourite tracks and I fail to see how 6 hour race would be able to attract even half of the people that went to see the August NNS/NCATS/GA package (with Canadian guest stars)... but... Canadian round in general is welcome. Would work better as 3 hour event but obviously they wouldn't do that...

Anyway this Grade 1 obsession is really really depressing. As I said before there are only two tracks in WEC+ELMS+AsLMS that ain't Grade 1 now. It's just gotta be FIA that is making these demands, ACO was fine for years with the less high tech F1 facilities and tilkedromes.

[GT6]

With only 7 races plus le mans there is scope for other races

[BudLightJaguar]

This is from 2012 time before CotA was finished, but only Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Indy Road Course are grade 1 in North America.

http://www.fpak.pt/homologacoes/2012...FIA%202012.pdf

[carbon_titanium]

I hate FIA but can't blame them for that this time... ALMS/GA/TUSC tracks have poor safety standards! sometimes is clearly dangerous to run there!
do you remember last year at VIR? when a 991 cup crushed going airborne close to a group of marshalls? or at road america with a camaro gt.r flying outside the track?

[Bandicoot17]

Hopefully Road America can get Grade 1 and they can go there too!

[Deleted]

WEC can already go there now, it's just stubbornes that prevents them. Saying that LMP1 cannot race there is rubbish, that class has competed there since 2002

RA won't get Grade 1 unless they completely demolish the current pits and build huge new facilities, improve catch fencing, remove the bumps and replace most of the runoff areas with tarmac. Which thankfully isn't happening.

IMO North America (along with Australia) has the purest non-club race tracks left on Earth. It's a blessing that the FIA hasn't touched them yet too badly.

Too bad Mosport has been lost to the dark side too...

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Anyway this Grade 1 obsession is really really depressing. As I said before there are only two tracks in WEC+ELMS+AsLMS that ain't Grade 1 now. It's just gotta be FIA that is making these demands, ACO was fine for years with the less high tech F1 facilities and tilkedromes.

Let's replace Shangai, Fuji and Bahrain with Monza, Suzuka and Nurburgring. Better? But does not increase the amount of non-Grade 1 tracks. So, pretty useless point.

I don't think there is Grade 1 obsession per se, unlike in F1 where it is actually a requirement, it's just a result of picking the latest and biggest track which coincidentally usually happens to be the one that holds F1 GP. La Sarthe will obviously never be Grade 1...

...or maybe in the same way that Monaco somehow is Grade 1.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Bandicoot17

Hopefully Road America can get Grade 1 and they can go there too!

Good god please no.

Keep the FIA as far away from good race tracks as possible.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Originally Posted by Chiana

WEC can already go there now, it's just stubbornes that prevents them. Saying that LMP1 cannot race there is rubbish, that class has competed there since 2002

RA won't get Grade 1 unless they completely demolish the current pits and build huge new facilities, improve catch fencing, remove the bumps and replace most of the runoff areas with tarmac. Which thankfully isn't happening.

IMO North America (along with Australia) has the purest non-club race tracks left on Earth. It's a blessing that the FIA hasn't touched them yet too badly.

Too bad Mosport has been lost to the dark side too...

I also think Britain has the some of the best circuits in the world excluding the Northampton TESCO parking lot known as Silverstone.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by deggis

Let's replace Shangai, Fuji and Bahrain with Monza, Suzuka and Nurburgring. Better? But does not increase the amount of non-Grade 1 tracks. So, pretty useless point.

I don't think there is Grade 1 obsession per se, unlike in F1 where it is actually a requirement, it's just a result of picking the latest and biggest track which coincidentally usually happens to be the one that holds F1 GP. La Sarthe will obviously never be Grade 1...

...unless it is somehow faked, just like Monaco.

It's useless only because you chose to pick those specific circuits. Replace Fuji/Suzuka with Okayama for example (AsLMS raced there in 2009), Shanghai with Zhuhai etc

There are dozens of acceptable tracks in North America for WEC but because of this stupid garage-requirement - and probably other reasons - they are limiting themselves for three FIA Grade 1 tracks (or two, I don't know if the newly modified Indy road course has lost Grade 1) and Miller Motorsport Park.

We all know why Monaco is on that list, no need to go further into that.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

It's useless only because you chose to pick those specific circuits. Replace Fuji/Suzuka with Okayama for example (AsLMS raced there in 2009), Shanghai with Zhuhai etc

So now you want some rusty Chinese circuit instead of European classics? I picked on purpose to show that the grade itself has little to do with this, and definitely does not mean the track is always some new Tilkedrome in the middle of nowhere.

There are dozens of acceptable tracks in North America for WEC but because of this stupid garage-requirement - and probably other reasons - they are limiting themselves for three FIA Grade 1 tracks (or two, I don't know if the newly modified Indy road course has lost Grade 1) and Miller Motorsport Park.

Why does this matter, because they'd probably still pick COTA and Montreal or in an emergency case use Road America? Unless you're suggestiong it's a good idea to rotate and use a different track every year. And having more than 2-3 US races, probably not going to happen.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by Bandicoot17

Montreal is being looked at for 2015 apparently. Could see this being a good move, it's a good track and there's lots of potential fans in the area!

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/r...ound-for-2015/

It looks like Montreal is replacing F1 with WEC. 2014 is the last year in Montreal's current F1 contract and F1 already has 22 GPs contracted for next year.

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

I never liked the street montreal track, anyway if montreal will be confirmed what track will be dropped? my bet is interlagos.

Who said anything about dropping a current race? Although they may drop Austin if it continues to struggle.