ALMS Lime Rock - I hate tape delay

Adrift - I am curios too, which is why I asked about funding for the ALMs teams... the specifics could be interesting. My undrstanding is that Porsche provides technical assistance in design and fabrication, if not outright supplying of cars and parts. Ferrari leaves just about everything up to privateers.

Another GT1 candidate would be Aston Martin, now that Prodrive is in control.

Kirk

 

Where did I say they were wimps????

FYI-There were quite a few other exotics there-Aston Martins, older pristine Jaguars-they didn't seem to mind parking amongst the commoners.....

 

Prodrive did run the Astons in ALMS last year . . .talk about competition adjustments . . .I don't blame Dave Richards one bit for not returning this year (besides he has other major things going in the UK). We did witness some great racing with the Aston 007 and 009 vs #3 and #4 Corvette. Tomas Enge was driving for Aston last year.

No 550's or 575's running here - in Europe - yes - Converse Menx.

Carol

 

This year is the 10th anniversary of Petit - lots of neat things on the sked for it. Yes, it's just another ALMS race, however, this race also gives the P1, P2, GT1, GT2 winners an automatic invite to Le Mans in 2008. It's also a 10 hour race, second longest to Sebring. If you are thinking of attending, may I suggest that you get your plans made asap as the motel rooms around Braselton are most likely all gone by now. At this race you can get the closest to the pits of any we've attended - all that's separating you is a chain link fence - getting over the pit wall to the grid for the grid walk is a different story. The Road Atlanta website states that last year there was a record crowd of 90,000 with more expected this year. There's anticipation of several European teams coming for the event. Apparently there's been an monetary incentive for the LMS teams to run Petit and Laguna prior to their final race at Sao Paulo. That should prove interesting.

Carol

 

Question about this. What's the point of the GT1 class? There were only two Corvettes, on the same team. I know in the 24hours there were Astons competing, but is it usually only a couple vettes in GT1?

 

There was talk prior to the beginning of this season's ALMS racing that Doug Fehan was thinking of taking the works Corvettes to Europe to run - would have been fantastic racing against Luc Alphand's Vettes, the Saleens, Astons that are regulars in the LMS races. But they remained here in the US. There has also been talk of one GT class next year but anyone's guess with that. In order to "level" the playing field last year, there were restrictions placed on the Astons as well as some on the Vettes and apparently Dave Richards said enough is enough.

Carol

Regarding Acura and Le Mans 2008 - they took the class win at Sebring so auto invite should they choose to go. Porsche Spyders weren't running under ACO regs so weren't able to go to LM.

 

Are you really worried about someone doing something to your car? You would stand a better chance of getting stone chips and bird crap on it than someone vandalizing it at the race. No offense, but I don't think most people give a rats ass about a 20+ year old 308.

 

Hi Bob - it's too bad we didn't know you and Paul were going to be at Lime Rock - hopefully we can meet next year at Lime Rock or somewhere. We really liked the atmosphere at Lime Rock - much like Mosport - I'll take the tight, bit bumpy course any day over St. Pete and definitely Long Beach. Your comments are so true about Ferrari and some of the really great cars of long ago. It's great that you can always be counted on for input on the sports car racing threads! Sorry you couldn't drive your 308 there, but do understand your reasoning - "been there, done that". We commented that Sophia would have had a terrible time with the "speed bumps" at the track - she's got very little clearance. Current plans are to miss a couple of the ALMS races and go to the Total 24 Hours at Spa (FIA GT) - my friend Kaye with Audi Sport NA was saying Marino will be driving a Maserati there. . . a bit different from the AGR P2 Acura.

Did you ever hear an attendance figure for Saturday?

Carol

 

Here's the recent IMSA bulletin for P2 cars: (has to do with change in air restrictors effective the Lime Rock race)

http://www.imsaracing.net/2007/alms/bulletins/bulletin%2007-15.pdf

Several of the races are "Le Mans Invite Races" - you don't have to win your class in all of them. Petit Le Mans (Road Atlanta) is also one of them. The championship winning cars also receive an invite. Risi will be taking both F430's next June - they took a second place at LM last month.

We are going to Road Atlanta - taking our son and his wife with us. . .they're Flying Lizard fans first, Ferrari fans second. Perhaps meet you there.

www.imsaracing.net has lots of valuable information - www.lemans-series.org has live timing for the LMS races - www.fia-gt.com also has valuable info for the FIA-GT races.

Carol

So far this season for Risi #62 - Sebring 1st; St. Pete 1st; Long Beach 1st; Houston 1st; Utah - mechanical - PWL 1st with their 430; Lime Rock - mechanical.

 

Adrift - I haven't heard of Porsche subsidizing teams or giving them cars either. But they do provide technical support, and they do fabricate and sell parts and complete cars that are very well developed.

Ferrari does not build and sell race cars for ALMS. Teams must develop and build the race cars. From what I have read, ferrari only provided CAD files generated for the production cars design to the teams. The teams had to do the rest.

There is a big difference between a factory designed race car and one that a fabricator has to design and build.

jknight - Yes, Aston was in it for the past 3-4 years, thats why I firure that it would be easy for them to return, particularly since Ford no longer calls the shots.
The 599 would be a great candidate since the 550/575 is now out of production.

 

I don't think this is very accurate:

Ferrari does not build and sell race cars for ALMS. Teams must develop and build the race cars. From what I have read, ferrari only provided CAD files generated for the production cars design to the teams. The teams had to do the rest.
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I happen to care a great deal about a 20+ year old 308 and frankley don't give a rat's A** what you care about. I notice you don't even fill out your profile, so you can pretend to be anyone you want. Are you just a jerk or feel a need to be offensive to others that have worked very hard for what they have and want to maintain it.

 

Same here Bob - I certainly do understand where you are coming from - Sophia is an '89 Mondial t Coupe (only 42 ever came to the US) - we too take great pride with her and she means alot to us. I personally much prefer the older Ferraris to the newer ones. It seems of late there's quite a bit of trolling on racing & tracking.

Carol

 

I looked for the article that I had about the GT2 Ferraris but can't find it. It was either in Forza or Autoweek. So, I've gone to the source... The Risi website.
I posed a question about what the Porsche "factory" GT2 teams get from Porsche that they (Risi) don't get from Ferrari. When I get a reponse I'll post it here.

In the meantime, can anyone shed light on the question of Porsche factory GT2 teams vs privateer Risi and what advantages they have? I have ideas of course, but its all based on what I have read in the press and no longer have "in the library" - and my memory isn't so great.

Kirk

 

Yes.

 

My understanding is that the Ferrari teams work with Michelotto who does the initial modifications to the cars. The cars are lightened and strengthened by them , but the regs do not allow for many modifications. One of the bothersom things to me is that due to the regs in ALMS the f430 must be dropped in capacity to under 4 litre. I really would like to see the full potential. In Europe the 430's are even more dominate.

I've posted this before, but anyone new should regularly check this site and download their videos and photos.

http://www.rsv-motorsport.com/en/videos.asp
Bob

BTW thanks Carol, I don't understand some of the attitudes on here when people are just trying to share their passion.