2012 DAYTONA 24 THREAD

Man thanks for the pics though that was very generous of you, God I wish I was there!!!

 

True about the last part - I was watching the on-board from SPEED (sans commentary) early on and Rui Águas was flying and up to something like 5th. After the change over (Rob Kauffman, I think) the car was seconds off his pace and just dropped down the order. Watching the on-board he just looked slow - I thought he had a technical problem!!

 

Ouch. 1 min 50 sec penalty for the leading GT car #57 Stevenson Camaro. Passing the pace car without approval. Porsche parade returns p1-2-3

 

Nice battle at the 12 hour mark between DP leaders #8 and #60. The wheels came off the Ganassi train slightly but #01 running third.

 

Frankly I do not see how mistakes like that are still made as my safety car mindset is like someone passing a police car over the posted speed limit knowing they have warrants, ya just don't do it!!!! I know the team has a spotter or multiple spotters??

 

Really disgusted with the Speed coverage. How long will it take the idiots doing these races to realize the ticker that runs across the top is only useful for the most hard core of fans because there is no car associated with the driver names. I am here to watch the Ferrari's or Porsches or whatever and cannot keep track of the more then 200 drivers. Frankly I care very little who is driving. All European coverage of the FIA series there always has a logo or color or something so you automatically know what car they are in. They should just stop wasting the screen space with the ticker.

 

The tickers always piss me off because they block the view!!! SPEED TV needs to follow IndyCar in the sense that they will have 'side by side' coverage aswell.

 

It is not nearly this simple as there are serious time considerations when trying to get past the pace car. Grand-Am is not always fast enough to issue the wave by and they rely on the teams to get it right as much as themselves. The problem is that if they make the mistake it is not their problem which is what happened to us at 2:45am resulting in a 1 min 50 sec penalty despite the fact that everyone acted perfectly on our end.

 

I feel your frustration and I think you hit the nail on the head with the timing or lack there of thus excusing any and all blame, you and I are on the same page we just expressed it differently.

Crazy stuff I tell ya what!!!

 

A Porsche Parade.

I can't imagine anyone wanting to race a Ferrari in Grand Am unless they do a much better job of equalizing.

Porsche's are great cars but not 4 laps faster great.

 

I agree Jim. I would love to see the cars impounded and a dyno done before and after the race. May not show anything, but would be interesting. Its also a factor of the many Porsche factory guns that they have on contract.

 

Porsche had pretty good odds going in with almost 25 GT3's running. A sea of 911's! 2 Ferrari's still running in the top 10 with quite a ways to go.

 

I don't think the Porsches are cheating I think that as "Equalized" the Ferrari's never had a chance.

Nurburgring is the home track for Porsche, MB, Audi and VW but I've always felt the organizers have given us an equal chance.

Think of the cost as well. These Grand Am Ferrari's were built by Ferrari and cost a LOT more than a Daytona Porsche/Camero/Mazda/Mustang/etc.

Pay a lot more to have a much slower car?

Not for me.

In 2011 at the 24 of Nurburgring and at Le Mans the 458 GTC was very completive against the Porsches. At Daytona the 458 Grand Am Ferrari is miles behind. Miles.

 

Note the distance between them. IMO it was over before it began.

If they are not equalized closer it will be interesting to see how many continue to race Ferrari's in Grand Am.

 

That's always been my dilemma since I'm only interested in certain cars and their technology. This year it's the 458 and the Corvette prototype (which is the the hottest looking closed-coupe prototype ever!).

 

The DP Corvettes look great but I'm not sure that the other DP's look like Fords/Porsches/BMW's/etc.

The Ferrari's are 2 seconds slower down the straight than the Porsches.

 

It sure looked that way.

I was watching the live feed from SPEED (sans commentary) early on and on-board Rui Águas's AF-Waltrip 458.

He was making a great comeback after a pit stop and was flying but then came up to a 911 and even though he was stronger on the brakes, through the chicane and was right in his draft, the Porsche still pulled away on the straight!!

 

It nice, but not THAT nice. A certain Mr. G might have a word to say about that. Nicest DP though.

Too bad that we can't distinguish if there's a Dallara (SunTrust) or a Riley under the body work.

Must admit that the new Riley looks pretty nice. No signs of re-bodied Dallara?

 

Beats the hell out of the generic drones of the past years imho.

Yet this mysterious entity is not racing, looking for relevance!

 

Only one Dallara in this race (#77 doran ford,). The rest are chevys, riley S2, riley S3 and one lola (Tracy Krohn car).

 

The relevance is that the Corvette DP looks like a Corvette P but the BMW/Ford/Porsche DP's don't look like BMW/Ford/Porsche P's.

Personally I Prefer Prototypes that you can tell what they're powered by, by the way they look on the outside and that look different from each other.

 

My preference as well. I don't like cookie cutter DPs.

The cars look better this year.

 

The very long yellow's are strange and allow a lot of catching up.

At the Ring there are no full course yellows only section yellows and they are usually short.

The #8 Ford DP is running strong even with damaged bodywork.

 

The post I was replying to stated "is the the hottest looking closed-coupe prototype EVER!"

I also said it's the nicest DP (Daytona Prototype).

 

The SunTrust car is also a Dallara with Corvette body. Chevy has stated that they worked with, and made the body available to, all chassis builders.