[ELMS] ELMS 2016

[Artur]

Originally Posted by TzeiTzei

Whose master plan was it to have this start at the same time as F1?

I had thought sportscar fans didn't care about F1?

Originally Posted by Chiana

Guess I should be glad I watched the Grand Prix instead.

omg, you, of all people

Well, I hope you enjoy your appetizer(LM), prior to your main meal(Uncle Bernard's circus)

Congrats Mike

[Deleted]

Lol yeah right

[rich07]

Congrats Mike!!!! Well done

Was watching Blancpain so will have to catch a replay

[canamman]

Hip hip hooray for Mike and the rest of the #77 Proton team!
What a turn around from last outing. Way to GO!

[Mike Hedlund]

Thanks guys! Robert Renauer did an amazing job starting the race. When he handed over the car to Wolf, I believe he had caught up to the 3rd place P3 car? Then Wolf overtook the other 2 at some point. I think we finished in front of all of them?

Either way, they both drove flawlessly. And the car was perfect.

As for the rain/fcy/sc at the end -- I guess whenever you're leading you say it's always too dangerous so the race should be stopped! Before they sent the safety car out it was very bad... I haven't seen the broadcast but it must not have done the amount of water on the track justice in certain parts. I couldn't do the 80kph FCY speed without hydroplaning off.... it was maximum attack just to get around.

With about 15 minutes left it seemed like it was good enough to go back to green, but it was not going to end under green and a lot of cars were going to get wrecked. Either way, I kept the tires/brakes as hot as I could because I expected us to go green up until the last 5 minutes when they said we were ending under safety car. I still didn't believe them so I kept heat in everything.... just in case.


-mike

[rich07]

Geez Mike that would've been nerve wracking to say the least in that last fifteen minutes.

Anyone know when ELMS usually put up their replays?

[MaskedRacer]

Lots of AM's running in SRO GT cars too but they seem to do a better job keeping cars on the track than pro-am prototypes. Maybe GT's are easier to drive for an AM than a prototype?

Also did the GTE-AM winner finish ahead of the LMP3 winner overall I think at this race?

[gert]

I enjoyed the race when there was racing.
Lots of action, in contrast to the cars doing laps around a track near Barcelona (although everybody is exciting now, but that's more because of the winner than because of the great spectacle on track)

Great opening stints by Renauer (amazing!), Thiriet (keeping up with the pro's), and Alex Brundle.

A pity the race ended like it did.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Also did the GTE-AM winner finish ahead of the LMP3 winner overall I think at this race?

Yes I believe they did

[GT-Eins]

Our Race-report has just been completed:
http://www.gt-eins.de/Berichte2016/elms/elms_imola.html

[Juntos]

How many change of tires did the winner car? People are gonna see that the emperor's got no clothes.

[cg7aa]

What's Mr. Klein up to these days then?

[Coach Ep]

Dragonspeed expanding to a two car effort next year (with new machinery!): http://sportscar365.com/lemans/elms/...ogram-in-2017/

[Deleted]

It's basically guaranteed one (non reserve) entry for LM this way, ACO doesn't turn down request from multi car teams. The other chassis will probably end up on bottom reserves again, if even there, but as long as they get one in it's sufficient enough to warrant owning two cars

[Coach Ep]

Surprise high quality addition for Spa!

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/elms/...thers-stevens/

Nothing planned after Spa yet but that might change.

[TzeiTzei]

Quite a pro-am lineup

[J Jay]

Semi-factory team, one factory driver, probably another one in the making, and a pay driver that was good/rich enough to get into F1. Oh, and it's WRT's home track. That's quite an entrance into the ELMS.

So Laurens Vanthoor officially enters the Audi LMP2 Factory Driver Holding Pattern with Rast & Albuquerque, with little chance of an R18 seat becoming available anytime soon ... Actually I'm more interested to see how well Dries handles the upgrade. I'm sure he will be quick, but IIRC he's not had any previous experience racing prototypes. I assume Will's footing most of the bill, even though WRT could probably field the car on their own if they wanted to.

Oh, it's got little to do with this announcement (yet...), but I only found out last week - there's a third Vanthoor brother, the youngest of the lot. Any takers on a Vanthoor/Vanthoor/Vanthoor R18 at Le Mans in the next few years?

[bentley speed 8]

How would the commentators handle that?

[J Jay]

That's what I want to find out - maybe they could ask John Watson to find three separate (and equally unintelligible) ways to pronounce Vanthoor

As for some possible background to this entry, these quotes caught my eye.

Autosport:

Originally Posted by Vincent Vosse

We are happy with TCR and our relationships with Audi and the SRO are very good - GT3 is still a very attractive category. But there is always the question mark over the Balance of Performance, and that is less of a problem in LMP2.

Dailysportscar:

Originally Posted by Vincent Vosse

I have to say that the Blancpain Endurance package is a concern. The rules around pit stops do not make me so happy any more. I understand why they have introduced the timed stops but I am totally against it. It means that a very good team can make no difference, and that is not why we race as we do. We have no intention of leaving but for us to be happy this needs to change.

Let's be honest - WRT won't be leaving Blancpain anytime soon, but a potential shift of focus towards the other headline regional series would probably make Ratel take notice, especially if it takes a large chunk of WRT's factory-backed resources with it.

[Akrapovic]

They're not wrong either. I understand why we have BoP and I understand why Am series have pit stop times. But the Pro series stuff at Spa was a complete mess and impossible to understand. It needs looking at and hopefully this prompts it.

[Juntos]

How much is WRT paying OAK for the car rent? That’s the thing about a good gaslight. With enough smoke, who cares if there’s really a fire.

[Félix]

Originally Posted by Juntos

How much is WRT paying OAK for the car rent? That’s the thing about a good gaslight. With enough smoke, who cares if there’s really a fire.

It's the SO24 car, I think they bought it. Can't wait to see how well they'll do. Maybe they'll be able to make up for the slightly inferior Judd engine and OAK chassis at very fast Spa with that driver line-up.

[Ephaeton]

Argh! Imola is gone!! For Monza, of all places! I'm sad.

Remains 6 round, Silverstone, Monza, Zeltweg, Paul Ricard, Spa, Portimao (replacing Estoril)

• March 28-29 — Prologue (Monza)
• April 14-15 — Silverstone
• May 12-14 — Monza
• July 21-23 — Red Bull Ring
• Aug. 25-27 — Paul Ricard
• Sept. 22-24 — Spa-Francorchamps
• October 20-22 — Portimao

Seems I'll be at Nuerburgring before Zeltweg next year for my ACO spec endurance drug... just a week apart. Sigh.

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by Félix

It's the SO24 car, I think they bought it. Can't wait to see how well they'll do. Maybe they'll be able to make up for the slightly inferior Judd engine and OAK chassis at very fast Spa with that driver line-up.

No it's rented for the weekend.

[Akrapovic]

I love the new schedule. I'd drop Paul Ricard and put in the Nurburgring personally, but otherwise it's actually perfect.