OT: Racing 2017 (Spoiler Alert)

[Dave]

Curious to get opinions on the big non-call at the end of the race. I lean towards agreeing with the stewards. Thought Albuquerque left the door wide open and even though Taylor wasn't completely along side, the #5 made a really aggressive (maybe early?) turn-in to the corner. But Taylor wasn't fully 'there' to make the move, so it was a borderline move with only minutes to go in a 24-hour race.

[pk500]

Curious to get opinions on the big non-call at the end of the race. I lean towards agreeing with the stewards. Thought Albuquerque left the door wide open and even though Taylor wasn't completely along side, the #5 made a really aggressive (maybe early?) turn-in to the corner. But Taylor wasn't fully 'there' to make the move, so it was a borderline move with only minutes to go in a 24-hour race.

No problem here.

Albuquerque left the door open, as you said. Ricky Taylor saw his only chance to win the race and took it. Taylor probably didn't have half of his car under Albuquerque to make the pass, but Albuquerque didn't help himself by chopping down on Taylor in response to going wide.

I think Beaux Barfield made the right call within the context of Albuquerque going wide, the fact the race was on the line with 10 minutes left and that Albuquerque chopped Taylor after he spent the final restart weaving more than Grandma Moses to keep Taylor behind him.

The call was consistent with Beaux's approach -- let racers race. Plus the WTR car was quicker than the Action Express car for the entire race. Even AX driver Christian Fittipaldi admitted that in the post-race press conference.

Hell of a race. Great show. I was stoked that Alegra won the GTD class. I've worked with its drivers Daniel Morad, Michael de Quesada, Carlos de Quesada and Jesse Lazare in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge series in Canada and the USA for the last two or three years. All very good guys.

Fifa, interested in your opinion of the decisive pass from a new fan's perspective.

[GB_Simo]

Curious to get opinions on the big non-call at the end of the race. I lean towards agreeing with the stewards. Thought Albuquerque left the door wide open and even though Taylor wasn't completely along side, the #5 made a really aggressive (maybe early?) turn-in to the corner. But Taylor wasn't fully 'there' to make the move, so it was a borderline move with only minutes to go in a 24-hour race.

I thought Ricky dive bombed the snot out of Albuquerque when I saw it live. The more I watch it, the more I think there was a gap, Ricky was half way to being in it and the contact was really triggered by Filipe being a day late and a dollar short covering the move off. With hindsight, he might feel that holding his line around the outside would have given him a shot at keeping Ricky back through the following esses - at the very least, it would have kept the AX car in with a chance of retaliating.

[pk500]

Honored and stoked to have worked with and consider as friends four of the five drivers -- Daniel Morad, Jesse Lazare, Carlos de Quesada and MIchael de Quesada -- in the winning GTD car last Sunday at Daytona and Kyle Masson in the winning PC car. All are products of the IMSA support series in which I work:

http://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2017/0 ... ance-tech/

[pk500]

Watch the world feed of the entire Rolex 24 At Daytona:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3XyADBUCTI

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFYgVlBCRs8

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chc87WAJWt4

IMSA posts the full broadcast of all races to its YouTube channel 24 hours after the TV broadcast. Enjoy!

[FifaInspected]

How to watch Bathurst:

http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/news/h ... the-b12hr/

[pk500]

How to watch Bathurst:

http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/news/h ... the-b12hr/

Thanks for the link, Fifa. Man, you are HOOKED - love it!

[Dave]

How to watch Bathurst:

http://www.bathurst12hour.com.au/news/h ... the-b12hr/

Thanks for posting that, saved me some search time this weekend. Bathurst is such an awesome track.

[FifaInspected]

is it wrong that I watched all 12 hours + some of the early events? Wow. That's damn near bucket list stuff. What a weekend that would be.

I thought the commentators on 7 (or whatever the network was) did a great job. Fantastic coverage. I think they nailed it. That Ferrari was incredible.

The kid in the Red Honda Civic in one of the smaller classes was insane. Putting that thing on 3 wheels multiple times. Crazy.

[pk500]

is it wrong that I watched all 12 hours + some of the early events? Wow.

That's MEGA! I watched a couple hours.

Agree with you on the coverage. Excellent. The lead announcer, John Hindhaugh, also is the lead voice for Radio Le Mans and IMSA Radio. The pre-eminent English-speaking sports car announcer on Earth. Nice guy, too. Total fever for sports cars.

[pk500]

Rally Sweden this weekend, with coverage on Red Bull TV. I'm stoked!

[GB_Simo]

is it wrong that I watched all 12 hours + some of the early events? Wow.

The lead announcer, John Hindhaugh, also is the lead voice for Radio Le Mans and IMSA Radio. The pre-eminent English-speaking sports car announcer on Earth. Nice guy, too. Total fever for sports cars.

Glorious, ongoing proof that accents from north-east England are ideally suited to motorsports broadcasting:

[FifaInspected]

Nismo TV's youtube channel should be avoided at all cost No shortage of previous races to watch.

Something I noticed about 24 hours at Daytona as well as Bathurst was how they displayed the standings. Those two showed the drivers names and occasionally showed the manufacturer. I'm watching last years endurance race at Silverstone and they show the manufacturers when showing the standings and not the drivers names. I much prefer this as I really don't know who most of these guys are.

[pk500]

Nismo TV's youtube channel should be avoided at all cost No shortage of previous races to watch.

Something I noticed about 24 hours at Daytona as well as Bathurst was how they displayed the standings. Those two showed the drivers names and occasionally showed the manufacturer. I'm watching last years endurance race at Silverstone and they show the manufacturers when showing the standings and not the drivers names. I much prefer this as I really don't know who most of these guys are.

Two things may be at work here.

One, most championships outside of the United States conduct both drivers and constructors/manufacturers championships. Points are kept for the drivers and the teams or manufacturers.

Two, sports car racing always has featured a "cars are the stars" mentality. It probably is the most tribal form of motorsport, where fans of a certain marque sometimes don't care who is driving their car as long as it wins. For example, I don't think every sports car fan cared that Tom Kristensen won Le Mans eight times in an Audi and once in a Bentley. The Audi and Bentley fans were happier their marque won those years, not that the legendary Kristensen was behind the wheel as a member of the team.

Huge crowds form around the Corvette Racing compound in every IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship paddock. I bet half of the fans couldn't name either of the team's GTLM driver lineups. They just want to gawk at the incredible 'Vettes with their throaty V8s.

It's the exact opposite of NASCAR, where the drivers are the stars. Hard to blame sports car fans for that manufacturer-first ethos. NASCAR stock cars are low-tech sh*tboxes compared to the curvaceous beauty and wonderful technology of sports cars.

[pk500]

Sweet mother of internal combustion: Listen to this BMW rally car scream, grown, whine and wail!

[Gangrel]

Ummmm 3 segment races in NASCAR!?!?!?

[Rodster]

Ummmm 3 segment races in NASCAR!?!?!?

Lost interest in NASCRAP a long, long time ago. Chase for the Cup, Car of Tomorrow, abandoning it's Southern Roots? If Dale Sr were alive today he'd hit someone over the head with an exhaust pipe.

NASCRAP is in a state of decline, so this won't be the last gimmick.

[fletcher21]

Thoughts on RedbullTv and their coverage of WRC? I like it, but the show is a bit too much talking and a bit too short for my liking. I seem to remember there used to be a 1 hour show back in the Speed days that was way more in depth and showed more actual racing. Seeing Mark Webber drive around in a street car is cool and all, but I want to see the racing action more than be entertained by the hosts. It's nice to be able to watch it on my phone, but I am itching for a bit more.

[fletcher21]

Ummmm 3 segment races in NASCAR!?!?!?

Lost interest in NASCRAP a long, long time ago. Chase for the Cup, Car of Tomorrow, abandoning it's Southern Roots? If Dale Sr were alive today he'd hit someone over the head with an exhaust pipe.

NASCRAP is in a state of decline, so this won't be the last gimmick.

I haven't cared about Nascar since Jeff Gordon had the old school Dupont rainbow warriors paint scheme. Obviously, a lot of people have also jumped ship. The amount of empty seats you see during a race is pretty crazy. I always get a bit excited around Daytona. Then I tune in and am bored to tears within 10 laps. Either my tastes have changed or Nascar has as much excitement as bingo at the senior citizen home. I'm sure in person is still awesome, but the closest tracks to me (Iowa and Chicago) both suck, so I've never been to a race and probably never will.

[pk500]

Thoughts on RedbullTv and their coverage of WRC? I like it, but the show is a bit too much talking and a bit too short for my liking. I seem to remember there used to be a 1 hour show back in the Speed days that was way more in depth and showed more actual racing. Seeing Mark Webber drive around in a street car is cool and all, but I want to see the racing action more than be entertained by the hosts. It's nice to be able to watch it on my phone, but I am itching for a bit more.

I think it's great.

Red Bull wants to be more than a fizzy drinks slinger -- it wants to become a premium lifestyle brand like Ferrari. So it will provide more of the human and extreme side of the sport than straight coverage from the stages.

That's OK with me. Mike Chen is a solid presenter who knows the sport, and I like the rotating expert color commentators like Webber and Andreas Mikkelsen. Matt Wilson offers little but pleasantries and cliches to the broadcast, but he doesn't bother me.

Red Bull's more generic coverage hopefully will expand the fan base for the WRC, especially in America. SPEED showed 30-minute highlight shows of nothing but stage action from all three days of each rally in 2003 or 2004, as I recall, and my buddy who was the head of PR at SPEED at the time told me the ratings were a floating turd in American racing's toilet bowl.

So the hardcore approach won't grow the sport. But I still think there's enough raw meat in the Red Bull TV coverage for hardcore rally anoraks like me. If you want more, pony up for a WRC+ subscription from WRC.com.

[Gangrel]

If you want more coverage you can sign up for WRC+ in the WRC app, but the app looks like crap, at least on Android, so i never bothered looking into the plus service

[Rodster]

I don't know but the new cars don't look all that much different from last year. The rear wing is lower but overall from the front they have the same look in width. The new tires are much wider. Here's the new Williams FW40 car;

[pk500]

Give me Gurney's Eagle Weslake again, please:

[Rodster]

Yay the anvil is back !

The cars are actually beginning to look crappier this year. How is that possible?

[GB_Simo]

Well, that's awful.