Pirelli World Challenge Rounds 16 & 17: Utah Motorsports Campus

[Rodger Davies]

Good race though, enjoyed that a lot. Never used to like the track, but it's grown on me immensely.

[jjvincent]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Just realised that the time on the homepage is for the track and the time on the schedule is in ET.

Explains why I missed yesterday's......

Whenever it's race weekend, just click on the logo on the left side of the home page (it'll be the current event). That'll be the one with the link to what is going on for the weekend and it gives the session in local time and there's a clock in local time (plus links to T&S, results as soon as they come out and live stream next to each race). That way, no matter where they or you are at, you can watch every event as it happens because you'll know how to add or subtract the hours for that specific event.

This is for Miller:
http://world-challenge.com/race/2016-08-12-utah/

[jjvincent]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Good race though, enjoyed that a lot. Never used to like the track, but it's grown on me immensely.

The race is much better to watch on TV. When you are at the track, it's terrible. Miller has got to be the worst spectator track out there. Funny thing is, Barber was never designed to be a spectator track, yet it's one of the best.

[Rcz]

Should have raced at Kansas huh.

[TRspitfirefan]

Yet another weekend of racing in the books.
Fantastic drives by Brian Heitkotter! It was great to see Him grab His first victory. I think now He has earned the right to be "Brian Heitkotter, winning race car driver" instead of "that guy that started out playing video games"
Really impressive run from Adderly Fong in the Bentley also.
Gutted for the K-pax guys. Hopefully they will have better luck at Sonoma.

Obviously the lack of entries in the Sprint X was disappointing, but much like sailboat racing it only takes two to make a race! Micheal Lewis overcoming a 24 second deficit to factory BMW driver Kuno Wittmer, capped off by that last lap pass was EPIC! Race 2 was equally exciting. I thought the race was over for the #98 Porsche when most of Lewis's 16 second lead was lost in the driver change. But Preston Calvert proved me wrong, He really drove one heck of a race in the second half! Super happy for the entire Calvert Dynamics team.

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by jjvincent

The race is much better to watch on TV. When you are at the track, it's terrible. Miller has got to be the worst spectator track out there. Funny thing is, Barber was never designed to be a spectator track, yet it's one of the best.

Exactly. Miller is a great track for racing, but horrible for spectating. Maybe those dollars from China will help

[TF110]

The track layout looks ok, the scenery in the background is great with the mountains, but at the track it looks lifeless.

[jjvincent]

I've been going to that track since it opened. I thought that it was going to have more stands and places to watch, yet all they did was put some more at both ends of the front straight. It's good that the 90% of the front straight is only for the teams because you literally can't see anything. We used to make little flags for the radio antenna because that's all you can see on the front straight. With the outer course, the one moment you could see the cars with the full course is gone. Then with the big piles of dirt for the Ford truck experience (I think that's what it is) even blocks more viewing.

Combine that with the non stop wind and dust storms that cancel sessions or cut them short, it's just not a good experience. Finding a room in Tooele is not easy because of the Army Depot (the US Govt blocks off huge sections of rooms). So, you have a 40 minute drive to and from the track. In the end, I see why the place gets about 1000 spectators for an event.

Miller really tried hard to get people there and the most people I ever seen at the facility were when GA ran those 9 hour races. They even gave away 3000 free tickets at Miller last year for the PWC event and I doubt half even bothered to show up. It doesn't help that high end homes are getting closer to the facility. I don't see how the Chinese are going to change this either

Kansas or Iowa Speedway is a much better choice to grow this series as opposed to going to Miller. At least you'll get a minimum of 15K to show up and they are race fans in general, thus they love any kind of racing and like seeing cars that are actually stock based. On the other hand, maybe gaining a fan base is not the way to go as that's the model for growth of a series. Keep it a secret.

BTW: There was a 12.5% increase in the Sprint X field from Saturday to Sunday. So if that double digit growth keeps happening, it's going to be pretty big by Laguna.

[Coach Ep]

Your points about MSP/UMC sound very valid and begs the question why Miller put in the track at spot in the first place.

But please, suggesting Kansas or Iowa SW would be a great place for PWC to race is nonsense, GTs thrive on traditional road courses, not on rivals. I've been to KSW twice and the road course is awful, just plain awful. The only roval that might cause some sparks for GT's is Texas World Speedway as their road course runs outside the oval. But no (semi) pro racing series is ever gonna return there and soon it'll all be gone.

[Matt]

I'd go to Iowa.

That's a fun-ass roval.

[Coach Ep]

You and JJ won't make it 15.000 or more....

[DeezPutz]

Things will really pick up next year when teams are forced to run Sprint X.

Ratel is boning PWC.

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by DeezPutz

Things will really pick up next year when teams are forced to run Sprint X.

Ratel is boning PWC.

you do know that sprint x wasn't a ratel idea, right?

[Matt]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

You and JJ won't make it 15.000 or more....

All the locals will though.

[jjvincent]

The dilemma is that using a pure road course like Miller (which was pretty much considered garbage when GA ran there yet not too bad now or when ALMS tried it) that results in nothing to grow the sport when it comes to spectators. Yet Kansas and Iowa brings in new fans that never understood this kind of racing yet really liked it. For example the same group of new fans came out for a second year in a row at both places because they really liked it. Then we dropped those places and the locals (as we all know you have to pull in the local population because many cannot afford to go to more than one race per year) didne see it again, they just lose interest and go back to what they know.

I don't know about you guys but people I meet really like to come by and look at the cars, talk to the drivers and learn about it. They look at it as being part of the sport. I thought that's what sportscar fans wanted. Maybe they would rather just watch it streaming and then call it a day. That's why I think that just having races as a private track day and a camera crew showing up might be the better route to go. Then it would be easier to pick out better road courses to let the GT cars roam in their natural environment. Instead of Kansas Speedway Topeka would be the best choice. Nobody would show up yet it would be on a natural road course. Mission accomplished.

[jjvincent]

Originally Posted by nasportscar

you do know that sprint x wasn't a ratel idea, right?

Sprint X was a Bove idea that pretty much Ratel took and ran with it. Since Bove does not work for WC Vision, we can blame him for all of the failures today. Because just canceling the Sprint X idea back in October of 2015 would have not really affected the eight or so cars that run it now. The GTS cars would still be running in the regular GTS races and the GT3 cars probably would have done a one off Daytona 24 and Sebring then go do a bunch of club enduros.

WC Vision had the perfect opportunity to kill it (especially when nobody entered it for CoTA) yet they didn't. So we can blame Bove for the idea but we can blame the current management because they try to keep running with it. Since they provisionally will force the regular PWC to do Sprint X, then in the end, that can be considered a PR success. You can tell everyone that you went from 4 GT cars to 20 in a season for Sprint X.

[nasportscar]

They almost did kill it off in September 2015 until a couple of their larger teams came and told them they wanted to run it. After talking w/ manufacturer partners they decided to keep it - obviously. SRO had very little to do w/ the Sprint X concept - it's mostly been a PWC Director of Competition thing. Yes, SRO and PWC have talked about how to build it and looked at the successful Blancpain GT Series model, but it's still primarily a PWC thing.

We'll see about the format next month, but right now it's pointless to get all riled up about the possible format ideas.

[jjvincent]

I just wonder what large teams and manufacturers that WC Vision talked to. At this point, I don't really see any manufacturer that cares about it because if they did, you'd see them actively involved by promoting it. I could see TRG wanting to do it badly but other than that, it's just teams doing it just to get a easy podium or win. Honestly, how much fun was it to watch guys that run 4-5 seconds off the pace as to what the car should be doing and running around by themselves on a 3 mile track? That's literally a private test day at Miller where one team gets 4 others to test also just to share the bill (I've been there and done that at Miller).

I still don't understand why not just keep twin 50 minute races. I don't understand having Sprint X (especially with the Pro, Pro-Am, Am-Am for GT and then Pro-Am and Am-Am for GTS). Then if they keep that GT3 Cup, Lambo Cup and Ferrari Challenge eligibility for GT, that just makes no sense at all. It's like adding sub categories and classes just to beef up the entries, give everyone a trophy and produce hundreds of likes on facebook along with endless press releases. It's, really bad drivers getting a chance to win a race (just like when GA only allowed you to take the green flag and you'd get points even if you just did one lap then let the others do 99.9% of the work). We've been through that before and nobody want's to pay to see that again. They would rather see it free on streaming (most likely will not see it anyway). Doing that, does absolutely nothing to grow the series at all.

[Mechanic Z]

Michael Cooper's weekend review. http://www.dailysportscar.com/2016/0...us-rewind.html
Pretty classy write up.

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by jjvincent

Kansas or Iowa Speedway is a much better choice to grow this series as opposed to going to Miller. At least you'll get a minimum of 15K to show up and they are race fans in general, thus they love any kind of racing and like seeing cars that are actually stock based. On the other hand, maybe gaining a fan base is not the way to go as that's the model for growth of a series. Keep it a secret.

Maybe 1000 people showed up for the IMSA race at Kansas. Rovals are never the answer. People don't want to go to rovals.

[BullMan]

Originally Posted by Matt

All the locals will though.

Those locals didn't show up at the LMPC race at Kansas in 2014.

[Matt]

Iowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[jjvincent]

With Miller becoming a vacation destination since the Chinese bought it, then that track is where we need to go. Since Larry Miller didn't dump enough in the whole place, the Chinese will fix it. I bet the new Volvo LMP-1 car will be designed and tested there.

[Rcz]

Some roval are certainly better then others, Kansas look kinda cool but also really silly, because you could pretty much ran the whole oval part of the track and it didn't even have a chicane on the backstretch. So you might as well skip the infield and just run the entire oval.

[Matt]

Chicanes on Roval backstraights make no sense outside of Daytona.