Endurance racing 2016

Audi is the new Nissan

 
And because of that crash, he won
If you ask me, there is sth wrong with the regulations

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Even though it's 2017, of course there is a 24h at the N?rburgring with livestream (about 20 seconds behind, audio in german, here is the Radio LeMans which really is live)
 
Is that a phone holder with a Nokia 6130 in that race car? :lol:

 
The Opel Manta had an off at Schwedenkreuz and crumpled the rear a bit so Jeremy Clarkson's favourite tool came to action: the crew hammered the parts back in shape so the bootlid fitted at least vaguely... :lol:

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The Radio LeMans commentators just discussed if there will be some kind of rain tomorrow - one says it would be at 12, another one says it would be at 2 pm, the third says "it doesn't matter since it was so hot in the last days that the track just turns rain which comes down into mist and everyone coming into the pits to get wet weather tires is a wuss"... :lol:
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"Why is the Bentley going so slowly according to the GPS?" :hmm:

<Camera shows a Bentley in tow behind a tow vehicle>

"Ah, now I see why the Bentley is going so slowly..."

:lol:
 
Whoa, the last hour will be interesting - #9 Audi currently leads by just 13.6 seconds, but the Audi needs to stop before the minimum pit stop time gets reduced while the BMW should be able to stop inside the last half hour window where the minimum pit stop time gets reduced...

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Whoa, the circuit is wet and the first and second are on slicks while the third took on wet weather tires in the last second... :blink:
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Whoa, that was close once again - 25 minutes before the end it suddenly began to rain. #29 Audi, which had to take a lap of the GP circuit 45 minutes before the end and dropped to 3rd because of that had to take a splash'n'dash anyway so they took wet weather tires as well so they gained 2-3 minutes in the last two laps to take the win with 29 seconds to #98 BMW and 50 seconds to #9 Audi... :-o
 
The last 25 minutes of the 24h N?rburgring race in it's full glory:

 
BMW and Audi (Audi again, no surprise there) played the BoP game to the fullest again. There was no chance of another car winning...

Epic finale though.
 
The next big 24 hour race comes up in 1 1/2 weeks: Le Mans 24 hours is on June 17th to 18th.

The LMP1 class isn't that big this year after Audi pulled out, there are only two Porsche 919, three Toyota TS050 and an ENSO CLM P1/01 from the bulgarian Bykolles racing team. In LMP2 there is much more competition, I count 25 entries for the scrutineering on June 11th and 12th, including two from Jackie Chan DC Racing - yes, the Jackie Chan as in Hong Kong martial artist Jackie Chan. :) LM GTE Pro has 13 entries including four Ford GTs, LM GTE Am has 16 entries, half of them are Ferrari 488 GTEs.
 
Bykolles, as always, isn't really worth mentioning :lol: what's really astounding though are the P2's. They're up to 20 kp/h quicker (!) on the straights than the hybrid P1's. And there are hardly any favorites, really anyone could win P2.

Now if Toyota and Porsche screw up massively (and at least one car per manufacturer will definitely be lost, I guarantee that), and we'll have a good, strong running P2 breaking away from the rest of the field towards the front, the podium could be interesting ...
 
Nicki Thiim does some iRacing and tells you what he thinks about the Ferrari and the Ford:

 
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Turns out those old obsolete Corvettes were too fast again this year and need to be held back. :lol:

Corvette pegged back after topping Le Mans test

The performance of the Chevrolet Corvette has been pegged back ahead of the start of practice and qualifying for next weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours.

The GTE-Pro Corvette C7.R has been hit with a 0.2mm reduction in the diameter of its engine air-restrictors in the latest Balance of Performance chart published for the French endurance classic.

The move comes after Oliver Gavin topped the times in the official pre-race test at Le Mans earlier this month, when the two Corvettes were also fastest in a straight line.

Corvette Racing's pair of factory entries will go into Le Mans week with 29.5mm restrictors, which compares with the 29.0mm they ran in the race at Le Mans last year.

There have been no other changes to the GTE Pro BoP apart from minor adjustments to the fuel capacities of the cars in order to equalise refuelling time and stint length.

The rule makers, FIA and Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club de l'Ouest, has reserved the right to make further changes after final qualifying on Thursday.

I sure hope when the sandbaggers lock out the first 7 spots again, the ACO finally demonstrates some competence and uses the BoP to actually level the playing field. I'm admittedly a Corvette fan, but it feels like it's been a long time since the Vette's had the sheer pace to compete and didn't have to rely on attrition for their success at Le Mans.
 
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I don't wanna see a planned Ford vs. Ferrari show again, please ...
 
Here's another decent article on the BoP issue:

INSIGHT: BoP could hurt 2016 GTE-Pro winners

Tuesday, 13 June 2017
By Marshall Pruett / Images by Risi Competizione, JEP/LAT


Will the price of success at Le Mans in 2016 end up costing Ferrari and Ford a chance of winning this year's 24-hour race? Using lap times from the June 4 official Le Mans Test Day as our guide, new Balance of Performance tables gave the factory cars from Aston Martin, Corvette Racing and Porsche a fighting chance. Mired at the bottom of the GTE-Pro class, Ferrari and Ford appeared helpless on the stopwatch.

Podium finishers 12 months ago, the best Ferrari's 488 GTE could manage was 1.1 seconds behind the test-leading Corvette C7.R. Among the Fords, which owned the 2016 event from start to finish with the GT model, the gap to Corvette was 2.8 seconds. Should the chasm separating the Ferraris and Ford be attributed to BoP alone, or are there other factors ? artful lap time manipulation to exaggerate the effects of the BoP penalties, possibly, that should be considered?

"I think if you ask anybody in the paddock or anybody intelligent, they'd say that a Ford and Ferrari and maybe even the Porsche probably have a little bit more in them," Corvette's Tommy Milner told RACER.

"When you look at all the sector data and things like that, and you look at top speeds, we certainly had an advantage on top speed, but that seemed to be the case on the Test Day last year, and we thought that advantage would be there come race time. But it wasn't the case."

Milner, who went fastest at the recent test day in the No. 64 Corvette with teammates Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler, says his team's pace came from honest effort, and any concerns about sandbagging were silenced by their leading the test.

"Things would indicate again this year that we don't play the same games that those guys do, so it's tough for us a little bit, because we're only here for the one race," he said.

"There are, obviously, lots of smart people that analyze all these situations to try to figure out what's the right way of going about it is."

Defending GTE-Pro class winner Joey Hand and teammate Dirk Muller were 12th fastest among the 13 cars at the test. The addition of ballast to the Ford GT and a reduction in boost for its twin-turbo V6 engine to slow the car through BoP clearly had an impact.

"It's no secret the BoP is different from what we raced last year to this year is definitely different for us," Hand said. "So, our main goal from was to try and build that [driving] comfort level and that can allow you to do it for the long run without any mistakes. Because if you're not the quickest car, the one thing that you can do is be mistake-free, and do it better than everybody else in the long run."

Risi Competizione race engineer Rick Mayer (pictured), whose Ferrari 488 team fought with Ford for the win last year before ultimately settling for second, is confident that the Ford GTs and Porsche 911 RSRs lengthened their lap times during the test by intentionally avoiding the faster route through some corners.

"The Fords and the Porsches were not using the curbs in the chicane, and they are doing funny lines around the track to pad their times, to try to show that they're slower," he alleged. "So, they definitely did a good job with that. It's difficult to pick that up in the data. You have to look at the GPS, you have to actually compare physical lines you do on the track. That's a hard-sandbagging ploy to take up, but we'll see. I mean, ACO tends to be pretty stubborn a lot of times on this stuff."


Although it isn't a BoP item, Mayer says another influencer on the Test Day times came from the American teams getting their first taste of Michelin's European tires. While Corvette obviously got ahead of the learning curve, the Risi Ferrari and Ford Chip Ganassi Racing teams could also have some valuable tire takeaways to implement once practice begins.

"The tires are all different than the tires we use in the States," Mayer said. "I think all the [IMSA] drivers will tell you that the stability is a bit it's a lot less than the Stateside tires. They move around on the contact patch a lot more. Our drivers struggled, so there's some getting used to the tires and the tires are a bit of an unknown for us. I don't know if can triple, but you can try."

Will the Ferraris and Fords have a better showing in the race than they did on the test day? Can Corvette hold onto its front-running pace? Will Aston Martin be a factor with its V8 Vantages? And has Porsche played the BoP game best of all by running second to the C7.R?

The answers won't necessarily come in practice and qualifying. Not after last year's post-qualifying BoP adjustment that landed within 24 hours of the race. For those holding a little bit of GTE-Pro speed in reserve, it will need to be kept private until the great race gets underway.

"The Corvettes really were just missing power last year, and they got that and more back, so they should be competitive," Mayer said. "The Astons, who knows; it's a weird deal since they're on Dunlops [tires]. I can't tell, but I think they're going to do alright. The current prediction about Ferrari is, it will have competitive cars. Who can say what Ford or Porsche will show? But we'll see. Everybody knows the ACO; they can change the BoP rules right up to the race, just like they did last year."
 
BoP, business as usual. :(
 
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