Sebring GTE-Pro Coverage

[arakis]

I watched the race from start to finish, and I must say I was disapointed at the amount of time that was alocated to the GT battle.

I mean everyone in the media is saing how the GT battle is awsome, how countless manufacturers are fighting nose to tail........

But during the race I saw maybe 5 passing manuvers, while the coverage was better then in past years it was far from good, I mean the top gt teams were exchanging , on track not in the box, positions like mad well into the 10th hour, and I saw none of it. I know peugut and Audi are important to the sport, but I thing there were way to many unecesery moments were we watched apsolutly nothing in lmp1 while the cars in GT were fighting like MAD, they should at least do a split-screen or do replayseof excelent manuvers in GT.

[fiend540]

This has always been my gripe with the ALMS coverage

[Deleted]

I thought it was slightly better than in previous years (especially during hour 1). Not amazing, but tolerable. GTE-AM on the other hand got absolutely ZERO coverage.

The worst GT/overall coverage always comes from the very first hours of certain race @ France in June, with first 45 minutes showing nothing but leading P1 "battle" (= Peugeots disappearing to the distance).

[arakis]

it was and will probably still be worse for LMS coverage where they compleatly ignore the GT class, and the comentators have no clue witch car is witch.
I guess the ALMS coverage will improve at long Beach since there are few protos but, in the ILMC races I guess the ACO will continue to be stupid in the fact that the GT racing if proprely managed, and marketed could bring lots and lots of cash. they should at the very least have separate tv highlights shows of eual lenght for thegt and LMP...

I mean GT racing is now at its "golden age" and if they miss the oprotunity they screw the whole thing up. whoo knows if BMW will be here in next year?

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by arakis

they should at the very least have separate tv highlights shows of eual lenght for thegt and LMP...

Sunday morning's Eurosport highlight show actually covered P1 and GT2 fairly alright and equal (in ES terms ), however they completely ignored the rest of the classes. I suppose I can understand the absence of regional challenge categories, but LMP2 and GTE-AM are official part of the ILMC... which they are supposedly covering.

[TWK]

The three LMP2 entries were so abysmal they did them a favor by ignoring them.

GT-E-AM was pretty much the same thing. Forty percent of the field (2 of 5) were gone early (after not starting, the Vantage actually got 5 illegal laps later....rules say you can't start after an hour has elapsed, I'm pretty sure they were still sidelined at the 1 hour mark), another (the corvette), expired 37 laps (12% of the GT race) in...that was covered.

Tracy Krohn's Ferrari won (19th overall)...50 laps and 75 laps ahead of its two surviving opponents. The conclusion, to me, is that there was no race to cover. Following that "Krohn green" Ferrari around would have made me crazy, and how much coverage can you give to a "race" in which the three entries are so far apart?

As far as GT-E is concerned, that was covered by covering GT, as the ILMC entries went 1, 2, 5, 9 in that class.

[dxk1]

Originally Posted by TWK

The three LMP2 entries were so abysmal they did them a favor by ignoring them.

LMP2 was so abysmal that you even missed one.

DK

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by TWK

The three LMP2 entries were so abysmal they did them a favor by ignoring them.

I thought Signatech Nissan had a pretty good weekend. The car has pretty good speed although it lacked reliability. Sounds good and spits lots of flame too... it made some fans.

As far as the GT coverage goes, the highlights package (speaking of abysmal) seemed to split P1 and GT 50/50. For whatever that's worth.

[TWK]

Originally Posted by dxk1

LMP2 was so abysmal that you even missed one.

DK

True. Scott Tucker's back-up car.

[old man]

Originally Posted by arakis

I watched the race from start to finish, and I must say I was disapointed at the amount of time that was alocated to the GT battle.

I mean everyone in the media is saing how the GT battle is awsome, how countless manufacturers are fighting nose to tail........

But during the race I saw maybe 5 passing manuvers, while the coverage was better then in past years it was far from good, I mean the top gt teams were exchanging , on track not in the box, positions like mad well into the 10th hour, and I saw none of it. I know peugut and Audi are important to the sport, but I thing there were way to many unecesery moments were we watched apsolutly nothing in lmp1 while the cars in GT were fighting like MAD, they should at least do a split-screen or do replayseof excelent manuvers in GT.

Welcome to the club!

This is true of all series, the cameras and journalists concentrate on the class at the front and the rest are just grid fillers to them, second rate entries that deserve little attention. Just take a look at the Autosport for the best example, they rarely give GT more than a quarter of a page but I have stopped complaining because it gets no better.

The amazing fact is that without the revenue from the GT class/es the races are not viable even at Le Mans but by the time GT2 get onto the podium even the pit crowd has moved away which shows what they think of them as well.

DSC are the best at even handed coverage and Radio Le Mans is not too bad but the rest

PS, this even applies to many posters on this forum IMO

[Morgoth]

I was keeping half an eye on the GTE-AM battle on timing, and it seemed actually a really good race between the 2 leaders with the lead swapping several times both in the pits and on track, for I believe well into the second half of the race. It did end up pretty split up but it wasn't like that for most of the race. Not sure that they needed a lot of coverage, but at least a mention or two would have been nice. It's not like they had 12 hours to come up with things to talk about.

[rich07]

Originally Posted by Morgoth

Not sure that they needed a lot of coverage, but at least a mention or two would have been nice.

Indeed. You dont have to follow the car around for a couple of laps but show the class leader every now and then and give them a mention, thats all thats needed especially if the battle isnt a close one.

[AGD]

Originally Posted by Chiana

GTE-AM on the other hand got absolutely ZERO coverage.

I don't think the people who produced the ABC highlight show even knew there was an GTE-Am class for this race. The Ams were combined with the GTE-Pros on the scoring ticker and they did not even mention the GTE-Am class results when they showed the results for all the other classes including the challenge classes. Obviously, none of the Am cars got any airtime. Krohn can't be too happy about his win not getting any coverage in his own country even!

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by rich07

You dont have to follow the car around for a couple of laps but show the class leader every now and then and give them a mention, thats all thats needed especially if the battle isnt a close one.

That's all I'm asking.

At least on the Eurosport highlights Marc Cole did quickly mention the small performance gap between LMPC and P2, and the restrictor tweakings IMSA had made to quick-fix the issue.