WEC Silverstone 6 hours

Great day for watching racing today. Some good racing so far from Silverstone.

 

this is ridiculously good racing, particularly the P1 lead battle.

 

Good for FOX Sports 1 to use the Radio Le Mans audio feed instead of the usual bumbling line up of announcers.

Say what you will about the Radio Le Mans guys (and I have), at least they're knowledgeable
and up to the moment with their information.

The coverage is outstanding. And, they've used the term "Real racing" numerous times
already.

BHW

 

I love the RLM guys....not very polished, but deeply passionate about the sport and more knowledgeable and connected than most.

 

The concerning part is the advertising.

As much as I like looking at Kate Upton, they're running the
Game of War ads into the ground.

The manufacturers and related sponsors should be advertising
during the race.

BHW

 

Okay, so I missed something.

What happened to the lead Porsches?

 

What's the ear splitting high pitch noise everytime they show the in-car Audi feed?

 

their hybrid system is in the cockpit, so probably something related to the flywheel.

 

I thought it was just gear whine? Either way I can't seem to grasp why a 6 hour race is more fun that F1 and Indy lately

 

that was superb!

can't wait for the Nissan to arrive...LM24 will be epic...

 

Yep. Outstanding. How did the class winning AF Corsa car manage to pull out, what, seven or eight laps over its teammate?

 

It bodes well for the rest of the WEC season.

The coverage was excellent and action from start to finish.

The way they're handling full course cautions also deserves mention as the drivers
more or less police themselves, no use for the safety car and when the situation is
cleared up, they count down to green and off they go again.

NASCAR should be taking notes from this.

BHW

 

That porsche Audi battle was spectacular. An hour of straight fighting back and forth

 

With so much wrong in racing these days as we seem to constantly harp on about in
the F-Chat forums, the WEC emerges as everything that is right about motorsport.

Marshall Pruett's article on Racer.com is an excellent synopsis of the events at Silverstone
last weekend.

Viewpoints - PRUETT: Silverstone WEC Rewind

BHW

 

I'm actually more excited for Spa than I am for Bahrain this weekend. I found myself laughing when the Porsche's speed kicked in. It was literally like someone grabbed a rope and just pulled it forward. It was some of the best racing I've seen in a very long time.

 

Although I know they will struggle, it will be even cooler once Nissan joins the fray.

I watched part of the race, it was awesome...the strategies required from the different setups make it very enticing to watch (are you listening F1 and IndyCar???).

 

great article, thanks for sharing!

 

I was flabbergasted at the speed the Porsche picked up on the straights, and then how much the Audi gained back in the twisty bits. Very very impressive racing. Looking forward to Le Mans this year!!

 

The Audis are incredible under braking which is normally Porsche's long suit.

When Audi tested at Sebring in early March, the word around the camp fire was
that they unofficially lowered the track record into the 1:39 range so they were
bound to be faster.

But, the way all of the P1 cars look to be on rails through the twisty bits is just so
much fun to watch!

BHW

 

Webbers pole lap was in the 39's at Silverstone also. Your right watching them through those turns is highly impressive.

 

It all comes down to relevance.

Remembering when GrandAm emerged in the late 90s, then series boss Roger Edmundson
had the famous quote "We want to make the cars irrelevant".

That wasn't real smart.

A few years ago at the end of the Radio Le Mans broadcast (perhaps 2011 or 2012) Charles
Dressing had a marvelous quote about racing and relevance (which I C&P from one of my
F-Chat posts of last year), "To anyone who says that spec cars with spec engines and spec
tires is the only way to go racing these days, I would bring them here (Le Mans), press their
faces to the glass and tell them 'Look at this and tell me this isn't the best, most relevant
racing on the planet!'"

That is wisdom.

BHW