OT: Racing 2009 (Spoiler Alert)

DChaps · Post by **DChaps** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:33 pm

Don't forget, the beginning of the 2009 racing season starts today with the running of the 47th Annual Rolex 24 at Daytona.

http://www.grand-am.com/rolex/

Coverage starts on Fox at 3:00pm EST and moves to Speed at 4:30PM EST.

http://www.speedtv.com/programs/rolex-s ... ar-series/

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:49 pm

Always a fun event, I'll be sure to catch some of the early action on Fox/Speed. I am disappointed the coverage stops at 10p ET tonight, having the night racing on until I fall asleep is always fun.

DChaps · Post by **DChaps** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:25 pm

If you are not watching, there are 10 minutes left to go, turn to Speed TV channel now!

fletcher21 · Post by **fletcher21** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:43 pm

I really love that black Porsche with the bright green rear end.. I'd love to have it in my garage

Awesome finish watching Montoya try to overtake the leader. Great race. In my opinion, it's well below the 24 at Le Mans, but it's great to see an epic endurance race here in the states.. Is it just me or is the Daytona road course kinda boring? I'd rather see it at a road course with some hills, not such a flat course.

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:08 am

The Daytona 24h has some differences over a race like LeMans witch make it worth watching and also more exciting to me (don't get me wrong I love LeMans too!).

First, a lot more of the race is run under night conditions, granted with a lot more lights around the track however. This really affects the drivers fatigue.

Second, as the track is much smaller than LeMans, there is more traffic to deal with.

I'll have to check out the torrent of it when it becomes available, as I don't have Speed anymore. Although I do know that both of my Michael Shank cars finished WAY down in the order.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:18 am

Gurantsu wrote:The Daytona 24h has some differences over a race like LeMans witch make it worth watching and also more exciting to me (don't get me wrong I love LeMans too!)

HERESY!

I like watching the Rolex 24, as it helps cure the winter racing blues. But I do not like "rovals" as much as a proper natural terrain road circuit, and there is absolutely no way in hell DIS is superior to La Sarthe in any fashion.

Plus my distaste for the Daytona Prototypes is well documented.

Still, the duel between Donohue and Montoya was compelling as hell at the finish, and it's quite a compliment to Grand Am and its teams that less than a second separated the top two cars after 24 hours of racing. Very entertaining, compelling racing, and that's ultimately what every series wants to achieve.

Take care,
PK

Smurfy · Post by **Smurfy** » Sat Jan 31, 2009 8:45 pm

Paul, WTF is up with Rahal Letterman not having enough sponsorship?

Please tell me it will be worth it if I go to see the Toronto Indy this summer?

DChaps · Post by **DChaps** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:18 am

Smurfy wrote:Paul, WTF is up with Rahal Letterman not having enough sponsorship?

Please tell me it will be worth it if I go to see the Toronto Indy this summer?

I am sure Paul will have more specifics in this regard, but I would guess in general this racing season is going to be impacted greatly by the current economic issues. I have an acquaintance who works with promotions for pro racing and corporate events at Road Atlanta, and racing sponsorships and advertising is dropping like flies.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 1:25 pm

DChaps wrote:
Smurfy wrote:Paul, WTF is up with Rahal Letterman not having enough sponsorship?

Please tell me it will be worth it if I go to see the Toronto Indy this summer?
I am sure Paul will have more specifics in this regard, but I would guess in general this racing season is going to be impacted greatly by the current economic issues. I have an acquaintance who works with promotions for pro racing and corporate events at Road Atlanta, and racing sponsorships and advertising is dropping like flies.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73088

KV Racing have become the latest IndyCar Series team to admit that they might have to scale back their programme in 2009 due to a lack of sponsorship, with co-owner Jimmy Vasser saying that they are currently set to run just one car this year. Vasser said, "I've never seen anything like this economy in my lifetime and it's tough but we're fighting and we're doing everything we can."

KV are among several IndyCar teams presently struggling to finance their 2009 programmes.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan could cut back to one car for Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Racing recently revealed that they cannot currently afford to run a full season, and Conquest and Dale Coyne Racing have yet to announce any drivers for 2009 - although the latter squad did recruit highly-rated ex-Ganassi engineer Bill Pappas this week.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 4:04 pm

I have specifics about Rahal that I'll send to Smurf in a PM, but in general, when seven teams from the most well-funded, high-profile racing series in North America -- NASCAR Sprint Cup -- either have folded or merged during this offseason, is it a 1,000-watt shock that lower-funded, lower-profile series are suffering?

ALMS has lost Porsche and Audi. The NASCAR Truck Series has lost teams. Many NHRA Top Fuel teams have lost sponsors. Suzuki and Subaru have left the WRC. Kawasaki has left MotoGP. Honda left F1.

It's a tough world in motorsports right now, boys. Frankly, I consider myself INCREDIBLY fortunate to still have a job in the industry, and I have ZERO shortage of motivation every day at work, trying to work my nuts off to keep my job.

Take care,
PK

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 5:43 pm

pk500 wrote:I have specifics about Rahal that I'll send to Smurf in a PM, but in general, when seven teams from the most well-funded, high-profile racing series in North America -- NASCAR Sprint Cup -- either have folded or merged during this offseason, is it a 1,000-watt shock that lower-funded, lower-profile series are suffering?

ALMS has lost Porsche and Audi. The NASCAR Truck Series has lost teams. Many NHRA Top Fuel teams have lost sponsors. Suzuki and Subaru have left the WRC. Kawasaki has left MotoGP. Honda left F1.

It's a tough world in motorsports right now, boys. Frankly, I consider myself INCREDIBLY fortunate to still have a job in the industry, and I have ZERO shortage of motivation every day at work, trying to work my nuts off to keep my job.

Take care,
PK

Good for you PK and I wish you many more years. I hope no one thought I was picking on the IRL because that was not intended. As PK mentioned all forms of Motorsport is under huge financial pressure including the 900 lbs Gorilla known as Nascar.

fletcher21 · Post by **fletcher21** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:27 pm

How much will these forms of motorsport suffer from the losses? Which one will suffer the most? To me, Wrc without Subi is like pornstarts without fake boobs.. Those things go hand in hand. You say the word World Rally, and the first thing I personally think of is Mcrae in the infamous World Rally Blue Sti...

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 7:29 pm

Its going to be a tough time for motorsports all around in the next few years. The teams (and series!) that can adapt to the new financial climate are the ones that will still be here when it finally passes.

And now that I've finally watched the Daytona 24hrs, all I have to say is what the hell is up with the Ford engines? They were dropping like flies, all due to a faulty sensor in the transmission. both of my MSR cars were out within 12 hours. Not a good thing with a full season of racing ahead of you. At least they have 2 months to get their stuff together before the next race. I'll have to see if my buddy has any more information on it.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:50 pm

fletcher21 wrote:How much will these forms of motorsport suffer from the losses? Which one will suffer the most? To me, Wrc without Subi is like pornstarts without fake boobs.. Those things go hand in hand. You say the word World Rally, and the first thing I personally think of is Mcrae in the infamous World Rally Blue Sti...

Word.

Take care,
PK

GB_Simo · Post by **GB_Simo** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:36 pm

Must...resist...fake boobs hand-in-hand joke...

There we are. You know times are tight in motor sport, and that budgets are somewhat out of control, when a team like Williams come out and say that F1 budget cuts were absolutely necessary for the team to stay in business. They've been running at a loss for the last two or three years even with blue-chip backing (firms like Royal Bank of Scotland, let's remember, weren't always in a position as weak as the one they're in now). It's not as if we're talking about half-hearted field fillers - Williams, Newman Haas Lanigan, Rahal Letterman (PK, are these specifics travel-sensitive or are they safe for sharing across the pond?) and the like are well enough established with plenty of success in the fairly recent past.

This is nice, though I've only skim read it so if I've missed the sinister ulterior motive do please tell me: Formula One teams helping out an effort to create a memorial for Tom Pryce, one of Britain's lost generation whose light went out in earlier and more tragic circumstances than he deserved:

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/73101

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Feb 02, 2009 1:56 pm

I remember getting laughed at over at F1gamers.com forums in 2003 when I recommended F1 consider budget caps to ensure the stability of the sport. And now we have both Bernie and Max recommending the same thing.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 7:47 pm

Niki Lauda had the best quote regarding the new look F1 cars. He said they look like combine harvesters.

For the record he thinks as many do that the McLaren is the best looking car on the grid.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 3:43 pm

Here's something interesting. I do like the logo !

American team planning F1 entry

An American group is looking at putting together a team to enter Formula One in 2010, sources have confirmed to autosport.com. The team, which is set to be called USF1, will be fronted by American design engineer Ken Anderson and former Williams team manager Peter Windsor.

Although there has been no official announcement about the plans yet, nor an official entry lodged, sources suggest that their bid has been approved by rival Formula One bosses and that they are currently attempting to raise sponsorship funding for the project in America.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73121

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:12 pm

Good luck.

Teams in the most popular form of motorsports in the U.S. can't raise funding for a much less expensive series than F1, so I find it hard to imagine that this consortium will find the money in this economy to support a team that costs 10 times as much and gets 1/10th of the American TV ratings as NASCAR.

I will be shocked with a power substation jolt if this thing ever gets past the talking stage.

Wonder if Windsor had to give up his Speed gig because of this? Hope not -- he's excellent.

Take care,
PK

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:19 pm

The bigger question is why start a team from scratch when you can buy Honda F1 for the cheap and get them to supply engines at a discount price for a couple of years.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:24 pm

Rodster wrote:The bigger question is why start a team from scratch when you can buy Honda F1 for the cheap and get them to supply engines at a discount price for a couple of years.

Good point. But how far along was Honda on KERS with its new car, and the 2008 Honda was a puke-spewing dog. I would have been shocked if the 2009 car was in the front third of the grid.

Do you really want to purchase sh*t, even sh*t with Ross Brawn pedigree?

Plus, is this consortium so mad as to try and base this team in the U.S.? That would be insane.

Take care,
PK

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 5:44 pm

But on the flip side they could buy their physical assets and entry into F1. The only person I would keep is Ross Brawn and I never liked Nick Fry. As others have stated Honda F1 management was a bloated mess. F1 operates too fast to wait for Japan to get off their ass to finalize things when things needed to get done yesterday not 2 months from now so as to keep up with everyone else.

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:07 pm

There's simply no way this consortium will raise enough operating capital from American companies right now to make this happen.

It will take more than Windsor's British accent to charm the bucks off American corporate boards.

The problem with guys like Windsor is that they're F1 romantics and not businessmen. God love them for their passion, but they've operated entirely within the F1 bubble for decades and have little clue about the economic realities of the real world.

Anderson was involved in the stillborn Falcon IRL chassis program. Great-looking car, and Anderson and ex-Ford Racing boss Michael Kranefuss invested a lot of money into a facility and the first chassis without checking if there was any demand for their product. They learned there wasn't -- well after the investment was made. Belly up.

'Nuff said.

Take care,
PK

johnvon314 · Post by **johnvon314** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:15 pm

Rodster wrote:Here's something interesting. I do like the logo !

American team planning F1 entry

An American group is looking at putting together a team to enter Formula One in 2010, sources have confirmed to autosport.com. The team, which is set to be called USF1, will be fronted by American design engineer Ken Anderson and former Williams team manager Peter Windsor.

Although there has been no official announcement about the plans yet, nor an official entry lodged, sources suggest that their bid has been approved by rival Formula One bosses and that they are currently attempting to raise sponsorship funding for the project in America.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73121

It might also help if there were an F1 race in North America.

John

GB_Simo · Post by **GB_Simo** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:20 pm

pk500 wrote:Good point. But how far along was Honda on KERS with its new car, and the 2008 Honda was a puke-spewing dog. I would have been shocked if the 2009 car was in the front third of the grid.

Do you really want to purchase sh*t, even sh*t with Ross Brawn pedigree?

Honda's first major KERS test was in September, having already given the system two earlier shakedown tests, and it seemed they were in pretty good shape. Not sure how much of a difference KERS is going to make once everyone gets on top of it, but in the short term Honda looked like one of the horses to back in that particular race. If I wanted to come into Formula One quietly and sensibly, I'd view a team that was capable of occasional points last year and had scope for improvement as a decent way to get involved.

John Von's touched on this - what does Formula One have that would interest an American company more than, say, NASCAR? The closest you'll get to a home race is Brazil, and the viewing audience in home territory isn't going to be massive.