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Originally Posted by NelisB
When you create something to market you have to make sure it's recognisable. Having races with then 3 hours then 6 then 9 then 13,5 just doesn't make any sense unless it has historic value. (I would love to see sebring on the calendar with it's 12 hour race). Races with a certain distance are not easy to fit into a tv schedule. If the Spa race was 1000 km's it would have ended in 4,5 hours. If it had rained it might have lasted for 8.
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No it wouldn't because the format was 1000km or 6 Hours, whichever came first. Usually took little over 5 hours.
Old WSC had plenty of variety in format, ranging from short sprints to proper endurances. They certainly had no problem with it. The standardized 6 hour length is also pointless in a sense that these cars are all so reliable nowadays that the distance feels just unnecessary. It's not real real endurance like 10 or 12 or 24 pr whatever, just something in between. 500km/3h would be perfectly fine for regular rounds. Easier for the much stressed "TV package" as well.
I think that the 2010 Paul Ricard 8 Hours has been the only ACO sanctioned race for a veeeeeeery long time that had different distance than all the rest of the races that season (if you don't count Le Mans and IMSA-relied ILMC/WEC Sebring and PLM). Otherwise they just always put the same boring distance for all the races
ALMS was awesome in this respect. 100 minutes, 2h, 2h45min, 4h, 6h, 10h/1000miles, 12h. They showed you don't need to scretch these races for no reason, except when it really mattered in the longer events. Made them stand out more. Also easier to have joint weekends with other series like IndyCar etc.
Having shorter races would be one further reason to can the stupid WEC title in favour of WSC. Yes I did thought that WEC was misleading back in the day too, pretty much anything is better than that. Also Endurance says absolutely nothing to common folk (trust me nobody gets it when I've attempted to explain it) but World Sportscar Championship does.
Also
FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP
FIM WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP
It does have a similar ring to it, dont ya think.
I believe it was deggis who said that they originally probably decided to go with WEC because Ratel's GTWC was still around back then - you know to avoid confusion - but that is gone now so they could easily revert to WSC.