Quote:
Originally Posted by Mixer
Is this just purely competitors ruling it out on a cost basis?
I tend to agree.
You wonder why they don't take the opportunity to even do a 3-hour enduro on the Saturday of one of the other events or something. New Showroom Showdown.
Other than running costs, is there resistance to make changes to the cars for endurance running?
Surely even their own class at the 12 hour or something would be worthwhile.
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Most teams struggle to afford to keep cars running for 3 hours of tracktime over a whole weekend.
There's a fair bit of difference between a sprint racing TCR car, and an endurance-spec TCR car. Not many constructors offer them. Not outside of the big three (VAG, Honda and Hyundai). However, it really depends on how the endurance race is laid out.
There are endurance-spec engines and gearboxes, electrics packages, and refuelling setups. All seemingly expensive items.
Honestly, outside of teams subsidised by a benefactor or the promotor, no one else is going to bother.
TCR Benelux. before the promotor went bust, had kind of the right idea. A mixture of privateers and hired guns, 4 sprint races, 2 drivers per car, both drivers did two races, and somehow an overall podium was detirmined. 2-driver deal, mixed up fields, and no additional expenses around re-configuring cars for one race a year. They did two full seasons of that, so perhaps over-gimmicky? But for one weekend a year, worthy of consideration.