[LM24] Race To 24 (Sard-Morand)

[Hawkwood]

This has been briefly mentioned in the Le Mans 24 entry list thread, but some extra details have been announced and I thought instead of talking about a TV show in the entry list thread, I'd just start a new one.
(Feel free to merge it though)

Anyway, Morand are having a reality TV show to decide the final driver to join Ragues and Webb (?).
The 24 (get it? ) drivers have been announced.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/117638

Some decent pedallers on that list, as well as some I've not heard of.

What does everyone think? About the idea and the drivers.

[Pilgrimage]

More exposure for the 24 (race and contestants) cannot be a bad thing.

[GT6]

i agree this will add extra publicity and could end up attracting extra fans

[bella]

dunno about that, but it's pretty excellent to be doing it with some serious drivers rather than a group of strangers. verrrry interested to see who ends up winning it!

[GT6]

I wonder where it will be shown hope it is on freeview in the uk

[Simmi]

It makes you wonder what exactly they are looking for in this competition.

I'm guessing it's not just pure pace as I think we could probably save them some time and expense when it comes to that list.

The amount of credible and impressive drivers on that list does make it very intriguing though.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by GT6

i agree this will add extra publicity and could end up attracting extra fans

I take this more as a clever way of adding extra publicity to SARD-Morand, and attracting more funding.

I'd guess this programme will be a low-budget Motors TV or early-morning C4/Channel 5 sort of thing. That's no bad thing - the show will probably be aimed at us enthusiasts. The fact it's proper drivers competing for it suggests that. No sensationalist "I'm doing it for me nan" story here, which is refreshing.

I was a cynic about this, but I'm already won over. Reading about it, "reality TV show" does it a disservice - this isn't about Dave from Croydon doing laps in a Clio around Rockingham in front of judges to get a Le Mans drive. This is probably more of an insight into the kind of things prototype teams take into account when comiling their driver line up.

[Mike E]

I thought I heard that the early stages would be on the web and the semis/finals would be on telly.

In slightly related news, Tristan Vautier will be joining the team at Silverstone and Spa in the#43 with Webb/Ragues, then will step aside for the competition winner.

http://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/v...lverstone-spa/

[isynge]

I guess the acid test will be if any of the contestants talk about using 'pre-baked tyres'.

Note the guys on MWM were pretty dismissive of whether Le Mans and the WEC needed a promotion like this, from a personal perspective while it might be feel a little contrived, and I'm not reality TV's biggest fan, it can't hurt to have some additional eyeballs seeing sportscar racing and getting more of an understanding of what it's all about. With what Nissan's doing in terms of mainstream media coverage having another team plugging the sport only serves to increase the halo effect of it and hopefully keeps interest high.

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by isynge

I guess the acid test will be if any of the contestants talk about using 'pre-baked tyres'.

Note the guys on MWM were pretty dismissive of whether Le Mans and the WEC needed a promotion like this, from a personal perspective while it might be feel a little contrived, and I'm not reality TV's biggest fan, it can't hurt to have some additional eyeballs seeing sportscar racing and getting more of an understanding of what it's all about. With what Nissan's doing in terms of mainstream media coverage having another team plugging the sport only serves to increase the halo effect of it and hopefully keeps interest high.

I thought MWM didn't take the right view on it at all. It's not going to be anything big and it's not a case of whether Le Mans needs the exposure, but more about Morand/SARD getting exposure. It's a noisy world out there and you have to be clever to get attention. There are so many LMP2 teams running various combinations of engines and chassis that it's not even easy for us enthusiasts to really tell the intrinsic differences between one team and another.

[J Jay]

Stop talking sense G4J, it makes me look even worse!

To be honest, listening to MWM dismiss Race to 24 almost brought to mind the dreaded "e" word, and the points they made ran counter to the (rightful) praise they had given to Nissan for shouting from the rooftops. It was an easy and lazy point of view to take and ignored the reality of gathering interest and therefore funding in a very tight pro-am class.

[bella]

i could understand criticism if there was a bunch of no-name drivers competing for this. that'd be doing everybody a disservice. but there's a core of serious drivers who have a solid reputation and who you could see testing a lmp2 car anyway. if it works and they decided to do it again, you could bet your arse it'd be a very seriously good shortlist.