Pirelli World Challenge Rounds 3 & 4: St. Petersburg

[Lanky Turtle]

Originally Posted by ttdriver2009

The two races for GT were a disaster. There was so little green flag racing. SCCA needs to do something. They go to Long Beach and I can see that race being another 30 minutes of caution.

I thought IMSA cautions were long but SCCA needs figure something out because it seems like they just take their dear old time out there cleaning up the carnage. It looks like they are just experimenting. For Example: The second race had the Spec Porsche class take off later and thus plowed into some GT cars. What were they thinking? Is SCCA like those over at IMSA where they won't make a change to provide top notch racing?

Maybe SCCA needs to put the GTA and Porsche guys in their own race so they can provide the parade under a full course yellow. Let the pro guys do it right and give us what we all want. The best racing in North America with the most exciting cars. Just do it under green, not yellow.

I'm glad I didn't spend my money going to St. Pete. I'd like to hear from the rest of you who were there at the track, what were your thoughts?

I was there for the Saturday race and agree about the Porsche Cup cars. I'm really not sure why they even added them this year, as the GT field is plenty large and impressive as is. They seem out of place behind all those GT3 beasts. And they're too fast to run with the GTS cars, but there's not enough of them to run their own race, so I'm not really sure what PWC is trying to do with this one other than pull some away some IMSA Porsche Cup teams.

It was still worth attending for me because the cars are awesome and the racing is good once they get to it. For me, it was worth going just to stand in the paddock and see all the cars up close as they pulled on track to start the race. Plus there's racing all day long and I've never been one to just focus exclusively on one series, so I enjoyed the day and the 20 minutes of PWC racing.

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

The problem is the day is shared with IndyCar. When you're a support race you're given X amount of minutes to run your session, period. They don't adjust the schedule for you.

-mike

Yes, I remember last year when you guys got rained out on Saturday. Once the rains stopped, every other series got to run except PWC, which was the main race I had come to watch.

[Mike Hedlund]

Originally Posted by Lanky Turtle

Yes, I remember last year when you guys got rained out on Saturday. Once the rains stopped, every other series got to run except PWC, which was the main race I had come to watch.

With the exception of the 2012 Daytona 24 where I almost drove into the back of a stopped row of cars coming off the banking at 150+ MPH under caution (we were told to catch the field as fast as possible, and my spotter was asleep) that's the most terrified I've ever been at a race track. When there's a "tornado warning" and you're from California and suddenly everyone disappears.. you wonder wtf is going on and what you're supposed to do...

In PWC's own defense I thought skipping last years Saturdays race was one of the most courageous decisions I'd ever seen from a racing series. The pressure was huge, we all wanted to put on a good show, but it was decided that instead of risking half the field (when we were racing at Long Beach 2 weeks later), we sit it out.

IMO, COTA this year on Sunday was more dangerous than St. Pete last year. Go watch Henrique's in-car from the race... it's beyond dangerous due to lack of visibility. Of course, we all dodged a bullet and got out of Austin in one piece so I guess it's ok.

-mike

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by TRspitfirefan

I think what happened there, was there were more cars needing towed, than there were tow trucks. The Audi had to wait until a truck was free.

I think that's exactly what happened. They didn't have the resources to clear the cars. That seems like a larger issue to me, because it means when the drivers do make mistakes (since they are human), there isn't always the resources to deal with it.

[nasportscar]

Arm Chair Race Director http://nasportscar.com/arm-chair-rac...r-pwc-st-pete/

[Lanky Turtle]

Originally Posted by Mike Hedlund

With the exception of the 2012 Daytona 24 where I almost drove into the back of a stopped row of cars coming off the banking at 150+ MPH under caution (we were told to catch the field as fast as possible, and my spotter was asleep) that's the most terrified I've ever been at a race track. When there's a "tornado warning" and you're from California and suddenly everyone disappears.. you wonder wtf is going on and what you're supposed to do...

In PWC's own defense I thought skipping last years Saturdays race was one of the most courageous decisions I'd ever seen from a racing series. The pressure was huge, we all wanted to put on a good show, but it was decided that instead of risking half the field (when we were racing at Long Beach 2 weeks later), we sit it out.

IMO, COTA this year on Sunday was more dangerous than St. Pete last year. Go watch Henrique's in-car from the race... it's beyond dangerous due to lack of visibility. Of course, we all dodged a bullet and got out of Austin in one piece so I guess it's ok.

-mike

It was funny how the stands emptied out completely in about 30 seconds. Actually I was hanging out by the back of your guys transporter during the rain, talking to Ryan Dalziel about Florida's lovely weather. I was wondering why you didn't come back outside!

Did PWC only have the option to run during their time slot? Because later in the day it dried out pretty well and all the road to Indy races were run, so I assumed that was an Indycar decision.

[nasportscar]

Total Driver Performance for GTS is up http://nasportscar.com/total-driver-...class-st-pete/

[Coach Ep]

DSC's - rather confronting - St. Pete event summary: http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/0...to-forget.html

Looks like PWC almost had to look for a new (temporary) CEO!

[nasportscar]

Mike Skeen files his latest blog about St Pete and Sebring http://nasportscar.com/behind-the-wh...bit-of-racing/

[Maelochs]

I liked Mr. Skeen's article---sad race weekends for cars and drivers which offered a lot of potential. LS1-powered BMW? Did I read that right? That's near the top of the So Wrong/So Right list for today.

[Matt]

LS1-powered anything are great fun.