Laguna Seca: TUSC Cars Lack of Track Time | FerrariChat

Laguna Seca: TUSC Cars Lack of Track Time

Discussion in 'Other Racing' started by BartonWorkman, May 3, 2014.

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  1. BartonWorkman

    BartonWorkman F1 Veteran
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    According to Daily Sports Car, there has been a complete lack of track time by the
    TUSC cars at Laguna Seca so far this weekend.

    If fact, it sounds as though some teams which were scheduled to show up on Wednesday
    were only arriving on Friday. More behind the scenes nonsense going on perhaps but
    by putting so many support races ahead of the main event's cars isn't what the paying
    fans come to see.

    TUSCC: Laguna Seca, Friday Notes

    BHW
     
  2. ARTNNYC

    ARTNNYC F1 Rookie
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    Qualifying is going to be streaming live at 7:55 EST on IMSA.COM
     
  3. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    it's a weird race weekend format for sure. Conti Tire race is longer than either TUSC race, Lambo Trofeo (a gentleman racer series) gets 2 races and lots of primo track time, TUSC teams had inspection/tech Thursday (so teams had to be there all day Thurs and Friday with hotels, food, etc) and didn't get on track until today.

    then the IMSA series get split P/GTLM and PC/GTD into two 2 hour races instead of the traditional 4 hour under the excuse of not enough pit stalls, but Conti (which requires driver change pit stops too) had 60 cars on track. I'd think TUSC teams could have figured out how to share pit stalls, especially with the yellow flag "pit by class" rules.

    oh well.

    also, MRLS really needs to figure out a way of getting rid of all the gravel traps. that makes simple offs multi-lap FCYs.
     
  4. BartonWorkman

    BartonWorkman F1 Veteran
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    After the Spa WEC race, I haven't got the heart to watch any of the TUSC event.

    BHW
     
  5. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    lol, like switching from Yankees/Red Sox to little league.
     
  6. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    race 1 (PC/GTD) turned into a nice little race.

    bummed for Flying Lizard, running out of gas within sight of the checker. too bad start/finish is uphill :eek:

    I'll say it again, MRLS needs to pave all those gravel traps.
     
  7. Desperado

    Desperado Formula Junior

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    I'm not sure about that pass at the end of race 2 for second place. In my biased opinion the BMW punted the RSR.
     
  8. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    the Porsche went in really deep and locked up before contact; hard racing IMO.
     
  9. ARTNNYC

    ARTNNYC F1 Rookie
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    The Porsche was PUNTED by Auberlen
     
  10. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    there was contact for sure but the Porsche wouldn't have made the corner anyway
     
  11. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    60 second penalty for the Porsche for previous contact anyway...

    BMW holds second, Ferrari moved up to third
     
  12. RWatters

    RWatters Formula 3

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    What got me was the extremely unsafe pit release of the number 3 Corvette. That the Porsche avoided them is great but it completely screwed up their pit stop. How was there no penalty for that?

    The Porsche was playing rough with the BMW. Pushed him off the track more than once. He deserved being "helped" in the last corner.

    Super bummed about the Oak Racing car. The Corkscrew accident hurt what could have been an absolutely epic race.

    I'm not sure what makes drivers think pushing the car beside them into the dirt is okay but there was a lot of it. I'm glad the officials were calling it.
     
  13. BartonWorkman

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    #13 BartonWorkman, May 5, 2014
    Last edited: May 5, 2014
    While having not watched the race at Laguna Seca, I've done a fair bit of reading about
    the event and things seemed to be better.

    After the Sebring debacle, it seems almost impossible that an entire race went without a
    single full course caution. Perhaps someone up in the tower has gotten the message that a
    20 minute full course caution is not in order in case a car slides off the course.

    And, if they just keep their hands off the button and let things play out naturally, they
    may still have close finishes without the additional element of bunching up the field
    every 20 minutes.

    As the DSC article states, there are still a lot of issues for TUSC to sort out but it's starting
    to appear they're working out the BoP between DP and P2 a bit.

    BHW
     
  14. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    #14 GuyIncognito, May 5, 2014
    Last edited: May 5, 2014
    you are aware that Long Beach went caution free too, yes? :)

    I thought the split format worked well from a racing standpoint, only 2 cautions in PC/GTD race and that could have been 1 if it weren't for gravel traps; and it was nice to see some PC and GTD teams and drivers get some attention other than Patrick Dempsey :p
     
  15. BartonWorkman

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    I didn't see the Long Beach race either, ha!

    BHW
     
  16. Bill Sawyer

    Bill Sawyer Formula 3

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    I liked the split format. TUSC is serious about increasing viewership, especially among Millenials. It's hard enough to keep track of four classes in one race. Add in the fact that a newbie has difficulty distinguishing the Orecas from the LMP2 cars, and you can see why this format is attractive.

    Those of us who have been fans for decades may not like it, but racing needs young fans to survive.
     
  17. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    that's a good point, I hadn't considered new fans.

    I thought I'd hate it but it worked well. easier to follow battles. traffic wasn't a total cluster (as it was at Daytona and Sebring). you got to pay attention to things you usually don't.

    to be honest I think split races would work well for everything but the 6+ hour races (NAEC), there the bigger fields make things interesting (and attrition usually whittles that down anyway)
     
  18. BartonWorkman

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  19. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    It's starting to sound like the merger resulted in a great "group think" cluster where otherwise smart people and working organizations started making insane decisions that would have been prevented had they all stopped and taken a look from 20 feet away. this happens sometimes with merging cultures in organizations.

    also not mentioned in the article but a possible factor is the limited number of "open sound" days at Laguna. that track has a 92 db limit most of the time and iirc only 12 or 15 days a year they can go over that, so the track limits events to 3 days. that constraint makes the daily scheduling difficult.
     
  20. BartonWorkman

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    The other theory that I've seen is they've got so many support events anticipating that
    perhaps their blue ribband events would see lack of entry and (so) they're making up the
    bulk of the entry fees that IMSA is receiving and therefore giving them more running
    time.

    I don't know, things just seem as though they've spitballed ideas to see what would
    stick. If they've got limited days running at Laguna Seca, why then have the teams
    show up on the Wednesday if they're not scheduled to run until Saturday?

    Notice in the comments that Flying Lizards didn't show up until the Friday.

    BHW
     
  21. BartonWorkman

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  22. ARTNNYC

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    get Mark Raffauf back as the competition director
     
  23. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    I think he was even less popular than the people in charge now.
     
  24. Entropy

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