12 Hours of Sebring 2006 Race Thread

[enemy-ace]

That was a terrific race. Great battles in the GT categories. The onboard from Papis' Vette in the final lap as he was harrying the Aston and the fireworks were going off in the distance was pretty cool.
Terrific battle in GT2 as well. Superbly happy to see the Panoz's win. I know Bourdais is no fan-fave but you have to hand it to him, he is quick. Especially happy to see Scott Maxwell in the winning car as well. I have been a fan of his for a while now and he deserves this opportunity to drive a potential championship winning car.
And as much as I like the Penske Porsches I was happy to see the underdogs come through with the win. That Father-Son duo are pretty handy "wheelmen" and it was a real class move to let Liz take the checkered flag.
Finally what can you say about Audi. The R10 may not be perfect now, but if I were a betting man that's where my money would go for lemans.

[Adam43]

An enjoyable win, with a fun end with Enge and Papis.
P2s remain fragile, but a stronger class than last year.

The GT2 battle was good. Lots of nice cars.

The R10. Diesel. Next stop Le Mans. Have we learnt much about it? Well that is for the other thread...

[Cerbera Speed12]

Originally Posted by enemy-ace

I know Bourdais is no fan-fave but you have to hand it to him, he is quick.

Understatement of the year.
Sadly he makes my blood boil, but yes, he is a natural.

[Dani Filth]

I am a fan of Sebastian . but i was hoping Risi to win it ..

[isynge]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

I doubt the R10 would have won if they were up against reliable + fast competition: Audi R8 would have won because it can be driven extremely hard during 12 hours. The hybrid Creation, Pescarolo, Dome and Courage (on decent tyres) could have potentially beaten the R10 as well.

The new Dyson Lola was just too new and the Porsche too unreliable.

Audi really needs to improve before they can go to Le Mans. The reliability of the engine (cooling) needs to improve and I am not convinced the Michelin tyres were consistent when double stinted (I suspect tripple stints during the night will prove challenging for the Michelin engineers).

Watching the Motors coverage that really struck me. Sure the R10s a fast car right out of the box and has enormous potential, but against a well sorted hybrid I wouldn't be too up on Ingolstadt's prospects, all things remaining equal (and yes, I know that's a dangerous assumption...). Looking at how it shaped up against last year in the LMES the LMP1s tended to beat the lead LMP2 by somewhere between 7-10 laps - for the Intersport Lola (which, while very fast is it that much quicker than an RML or Chamberlain example from last year?) to keep that close to the R10 through Sebring gives me a bit of hope. What would have happened had Henri Pescarolo chosen to bring his hybrid to Florida, or indeed had someone in the ALMS bought one of the Zyteks that were going abegging? Complete counterfactual I know, but fun nonetheless...

[GT-Eins]

These Hybrid Zyteks & Pescarolos are now further restricted - so the competition has yet to be proved.
Le mans will show - we will have to wait until then

[JAG]

Hybrids run the same power/weight/aero as a full reg car such as the Audi R10.

ALMS non hybrid cars, such as the Audi R8 and ex Dyson Lola's, have been further restricted.

[The Badger]

Can you imagine what would have happened if Field had t-boned Biela when he came around the corner ..... Corvette would have one !!!

Im delightrd for Intersport , if anybody deserves a rusult like that , they do . Hope they can run like that Le Mans in June .

What happened in the Spyker camp ?

But plainly , something has to be done to even up petrol V's diesel cars .

That 430 was brutal straight from the box , excellant machine . Who built this car for Ferrari or is it an inhouse project ?

I wanted to see Aston win , but at the end of the day Corvette did really deserve it .

Gt2 was a great fight all the way , nice to see Porsche not having it all their own way for a change , but i do feel gutted for Petersen .

Those Spyder RS are way to quick for LMP2 ..... guess porsche has "out thought" the rest of'em again !!!

[Dani Filth]

430GT i belive it's a Michelotti build for Ferrari .

[paul-collins]

Spyker will look better in Europe; the bumpiness of Sebring is an extreme example of what North American race cars deal with everywhere, especially compared to the Tilke-stuff you folks in Europe have.

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Those Spyder RS are way to quick for LMP2 ..... guess porsche has "out thought" the rest of'em again !!!

I just can't agree with this statement. There is no proof at this time, that the RS is any quicker than the Lola.

There is proof that the Penske Team is quicker than Intersport, et al, but I have to wonder how much of that is due to higher level Team engineering, Michelin's vs. Goodyear's, driver's talent in both speed and setup.

To make conclusions based upon the performance at one track would also be a mistake, even assuming all else being equal.

It is a pretty darned impressive car, that much is for certain.

Amazingly, more LMP2 cars made it to the finish than LMP1's.

[canam]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Amazingly, more LMP2 cars made it to the finish than LMP1's.

LMP2 has been in transition over the past few years. Teams (and manufacturers) have greater understanding of them now. LMP1 is doing it now. Give it a year and the heavier cars will resume their better historical finishing record.

This outcome is a great result and shows the impact of the LMS/LMES on re-vitalising the prototye ranks.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Can you imagine what would have happened if Field had t-boned Biela when he came around the corner ..... Corvette would have one !!!

But plainly , something has to be done to even up petrol V's diesel cars .

Those Spyder RS are way to quick for LMP2 ..... guess porsche has "out thought" the rest of'em again !!!

To the first: no, the #2 of Kristensen, Capello and McNish still would've won!

To the 2nd: I say this is utter rubbish. Show me another LMP1 car that's actually been developed to the point where its reliability and pace are at their ultimate level, broadly speaking. Yes, all cars are always gaining pace throughout their development but it is clear that the Dyson Lolas were not at their best at Sebring pace or reliability-wise. You have no other benchmarks from which to make this claim.

To the 3rd: How would you defend this given the relative proximity of Intersport on pace when not using the same quality of tire or budget (as pointed out already)? Michelin is almost certainly superior to Goodyear, Penske can almost certainly screw a car together better (with no offence to Intersport, very few people can) and while Jon Field is rapid, find me a better crew of 6 drivers than Luhr, Maassen, Collard, Long, Bernhard and Dumas. Put, say, Rahal-Letterman behind a Lola B05/40-AER and then compare apples to apples.

[JAG]

[QUOTE=The Badger]
But plainly , something has to be done to even up petrol V's diesel cars .

[QUOTE]

A little early to make such predictions seeing as the Audi R10 was the only new reg LMP1 that was sorted.

Come back mid season, maybe even the next ALMS round, to see what a few weeks development can do for Dyson.

[dj4monie]

Actually its REALLY too early to say alot, but for the Audi being a soild techical achivement. America has to be SHOWN that Diesel power is the wave of the future and I'm glad Audi, had the balls to do this. It could have been CAT, Detroit Diesel or Cummings, but they rather install there stuff in trucks and not see further fortunes by messing with racing cars.

Stupid if you ask me.

As for the competition on the track -

Intersport has shown they are not scared of the Porsche factory, nor should they be. Surely, Penske, et all has raised the bar, but not so high that Intersport can't compete and I'm sure they'll draft a 4th driver into the car and get more track time for Liz in perperation for Le Mans. They both qualifed within range of the Audi R10, people have short memories in sportscar racing.

Speaking of the Audi, it will only get faster with more testing and now that they have the data they need, the car will finish Le Mans at a pace they can live with. Your forgetting with all that torque, comes less shifting, saves the transmission. The cooling issues will be solved by the time the green drops on Le Mans.

Too bad Dyson isn't again planning to bring his cars over to Le Mans. But that extra time will be spent sorting out the new cars more and they'll be ready for Audi when they return.

GT1 will be good ONLY if Aston returns for a full season, which David Richards said at the end of last season would happen. Konrad will step up his game, Im sure they were a bit conservative considering all their spare parts where caught up in customs in Brasil. They'll be loaded for bear in the shorter races... Corvette will be ready as well, so it should turn out to be a better season that first thought.

GT2 is just starting to get serious and I'm glad the Ferrari for ONCE is fast and reliable out of the box. Wheel Nut problems not withstanding, it was the only car that could keep pace with the Multimatic ran Panoz, which proved the only area the car was lacking was setup. We can't have Seabass all season and I'm glad Maxwell was lapping the inline with everybody else in the #50. The #51 will show flashes like it did last season. Porsche will fight back and as usual GT2 will have the best race all season at every venue.

Overall, ALMS is shaping up well...

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

I just can't agree with this statement. There is no proof at this time, that the RS is any quicker than the Lola.

There is proof that the Penske Team is quicker than Intersport, et al, but I have to wonder how much of that is due to higher level Team engineering, Michelin's vs. Goodyear's, driver's talent in both speed and setup.

To make conclusions based upon the performance at one track would also be a mistake, even assuming all else being equal.

That crossed my mind too . Having 3 hot shots in a car goes a long way indeed as does a special tyre deal . Lets wait and see , maybe next year there might be a couple of privateer Spyder RS around , hope so ! But i still have that feeling that Porsche have done it better that anybody else , in LMP2 .

[LongJohnSilver]

I was at Sebring from Wednesday morning until Sunday morning. As always, a fantastic experience at a great track. Spectators are very close to the action.

I was wondering if anyone can identify something I spotted in my photos of the Astons. It was on both cars. Im pretty sure it was on them in practice and qualifying but not in the race. It looks to be a thin but stiff wire extending 3 feet or so vertically from the hood vents, then bending straight forward for a few inches.

Heres a section of one of my photos that shows it:
http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/220/astonpole1hl.jpg

Thanks

[Truckosaurus]

Isn't it a pitot tube or something? The (also run by Prodrive) Ferrari 550/575 cars also had them.

[Audi R8R]

It's for collecting real time telemetry back to the pits

[JAG]

Originally Posted by The Badger

That crossed my mind too . Having 3 hot shots in a car goes a long way indeed as does a special tyre deal . Lets wait and see , maybe next year there might be a couple of privateer Spyder RS around , hope so ! But i still have that feeling that Porsche have done it better that anybody else , in LMP2 .

Will be amusing if Radical, after viewing the competition and having a Le Mans winning designer on board, come out with a pacesetter!

And with Rollcentre running some P1 spec components for reliabilty issues, they should be strong in that department.

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally Posted by JAG

Will be amusing if Radical, after viewing the competition and having a Le Mans winning designer on board, come out with a pacesetter!

Would be amusing if it were to happen yes, thats a very big if though isnt it.

[JAG]

Don't know, I'd put Rollcentre down as favourites for P2 in the LMS.

Just get good vibes from this effort.

[RotorFan]

I've been watching Motors TV coverage of the race and just want to say how much I enjoyed Martin's commentary. Very entertaining. I didn't realise what a good commentator and funny bloke he was - I had only heard him in WRC and FIA GT coverage before and this was "very very good indeed" as his pal might say. I don't know what was different - maybe its just a matter of getting used to his style, or maybe that this time it was a bit more informal.

I'd previously said the opposite in another post last year but I admit I was wrong.

Thanks Martin!

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by FIRE

What's the title of the book about Norbert Singer?

24:16

You can order the book at http://www.24hours16wins.com/.

[FIRE]

Originally Posted by gwyllion

24:16

You can order the book at http://www.24hours16wins.com/.

Thanks.
I put it on my to-buy book list.