Excluding Le Mans, what's your favorite sports car endurance race?

[August]

While it might be interesting to see how many actually prefers some other endurance race over Le Mans, excluding Le Mans from this poll surely gives a better impression of how well-liked each of these smaller events is.

My favorite outside Le Mans is Nürburgring 24h. It's awesome to see GT3 machinery on the most fearsome race course on the planet. That's one aspect of N24h that I even prefer over Le Mans, even though LM24 is my favorite race. It's also great to see the huge variety of machinery at N24h.

Spa 24h is the Belgian counterpart for the N24h and there are similarities between those races but also differences. Spa 24h has a smaller field limited to GT machinery but more GT3 manufacturers are represented there. In that sense I'd prefer Spa, and also because of it's late July date. But Spa, no matter how great a track it is, is not Nürburgring. And it's been tamed by paving runoffs during past decade.

Between the two American classics, Daytona and Sebring, I prefer Daytona these days. As a track I prefer Sebring over the Daytona roval but as an event I prefer Daytona. I like how so many series' top drivers are racing at Daytona. I'd prefer Sebring if it still had the LMP1 class but without it it just lacks something.

Still, I don't like those American classics as much as I like Nring and Spa. That's just because those two European races are the biggest GT3 races in the world. Those two American races are only the second and third biggest GTE races and the biggest races for a class that hardly has 10 cars. I also included Petit in the poll if anybody wants to vote for it, yet it feels overshadowed by Daytona and Sebring.

Bathurst 12h is also a cool race. An awesome track and it's nice to have a 12h race that starts in the dark. But as a GT3 race, it's not on the level of Nring and Spa.

And if anybody's favorite outside Le Mans in included in the WEC, I left a WEC race option. But really, the WEC rounds lack character ever since Sebring was dropped from the schedule. I like Spa as a Le Mans preparation race, yet in the end it's just a WEC round like Shanghai or Bahrain is.

[Rodger Davies]

Nurburgring 24 is top of my list by a mile as a visitor. The only downside to me is that I can't see a non-German marque being able to compete, but as an event to go to it wins out for me.

I did PLM in 2009 and it would be close if we still had the ILMC, but alas we don't, so Spa would be second on mine with probably Le Mans a close third.

[joeb]

Petit would be my pick, mostly because I go every year! I also love Sebring, but the track at Road Atlanta is just so much more...

[Akrapovic]

Ring 24, by absolutely miles. Sebring after that then everything else is about equal.

[Beryl]

I prefer the 24H of Nurburgring over the 24H du Mans; There's more contenders in the top class and the race track is much better.

Then it's the 24H of Spa and the Suzuka 1000km. The current Monza BES round would complete my top 5.

[YZFrider]

Nurburgring 24 for the shear variety of vehicles and a legendary track. Honorable mention for the 25 hrs at Thunderhill. I know it's not televised ( YouTube videos for now) but it's got a unique personality of amateurism that lends a feeling of what an endurance race use to be: a race of survival; a race within a race. Strategies galore

[fieldodreams79]

PLM, because I go every year and it's 2 counties over. Road Atlanta is also one the better tracks ever. Second is Sebring and I am starting to really dig the 12 hours of Bathurst.

24 @ the ring is great but it's just too confusing at times. If I only was Bavarian!

[Deleted]

PLM is shadow of what it used to be for reasons told billion times before, and having those dumb spec redneck mobiles at the front there too is blasphemy... but Road Atlanta is still amazingly fabulous and untouched by sanitation, the timing of the event is great when nothing else is going on endurance wise (seriously fall is the best time for this), and I still have the "need" to watch it every year for some bizarre habit, unlike with the rest. It would be a dream come true to have the event restored back to it's former self of course, but at least meanwhile it's "something" to hold on to.

If they got LMP1s back to Sebring I'd of course switch to that 'as my non-LM fav"

[Purist]

That's tough, because I tend to split out GT races from full Sportscar races (Protos and GTs).

Among GT-only races, it's between Nurburgring 24 and Bathurst 12, with Spa 24 and BES Monza next up. And though not in that "endurance" category, I have to mention the GTs at VIR.

As for the full-on Sportscar events, it probably has to be Spa. If IMSA still had LMP1s, the landscape could look MUCH different.

[skycafe]

I voted Sebring. Only 90 miles south, but beyond that it is a place of storied history, not only in American motorsport, but also World motorsport. Is it like the 'Ring, or even Road Atlanta? No. But. Sure, the only hills at Sebring are those made by fire ants, but damn it, that place drips with history. I have a special place for Daytona too, which is about 60 miles to the north-east. Another place with loads of history. The banking does dominate it, and no longer do the cars charged the East banking after an un-interrupted run down the back straight, which was an amazing thing at 3am, but you get a great view of the cars over a great amount of the infield. I just wish both still had the storied entries they had in the past.

[August]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

PLM, because I go every year and it's 2 counties over. Road Atlanta is also one the better tracks ever. Second is Sebring and I am starting to really dig the 12 hours of Bathurst.

24 @ the ring is great but it's just too confusing at times. If I only was Bavarian!

Hey, Nring ain't in Bavaria but Rheinland-Palatinate.

[Miguel]

N24 because there's no place I'd rather be than at the Ring.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by August

Hey, Nring ain't in Bavaria but Rheinland-Palatinate.

Details. Road Atlanta isn't in Atlanta.

[Deleted]

But Baku is in Europe apparently.

And Australia too per Eurovision logic. But I guess Commonwealth nations are all European. Or British

[JHamilton]

I'll only speak to where I've been on this list - Sebring is a ton of fun but for viewing, proximity to the track and just pure speed, nothing beats Road Atlanta. I had fun in my one trip to Daytona but if you're going to see a race in Florida, it should be Sebring.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

I'll only speak to where I've been on this list - Sebring is a ton of fun but for viewing, proximity to the track and just pure speed, nothing beats Road Atlanta. I had fun in my one trip to Daytona but if you're going to see a race in Florida, it should be Sebring.

Ever since the ALMS/GA merger it is Daytona no doubt. Especially now with the Daytona rising. Specator views are great from the grandstands now plus great facilities.

[Hingo]

Bathurst 12 Hour would have to be my favourite racing event of the year followed by Le Mans. I also enjoy the Spa 24H.

[ederss7]

IMO: Le Mans > all endurance races together, by far. So it's hard to choose one. In my point of view LM is so big in comparison to the others that is simply impossible to choose one from the poll.

[MGDavid]

Bathurst for me, for the great laid-back friendly ambience.
No doubt once I get myself to the N24 it will take over at the top of my list.

[TF110]

1000k at Suzuka or N24. I liked Sebring but there's no real prototypes there anymore. Love the Suzuka track and those gt500's (even the new one's aren't too bad).

[TRspitfirefan]

This question would have been so easy to answer a few years ago.
Petit Lemans and Sebring used to be absolutely awesome prior to 2014. I really miss those days.

This year I greatly enjoyed the Bathurst 12. It's a fantastic race to kick off the sports car season.

[Victor_RO]

Bathurst - simply because I've experienced it this year. And loved it to bits, in terms of access, location, atmosphere, everything basically.

[porsche91722]

Got to put the Bathurst 12H at the top of my list, after LM24 of course, but gotta say I absolutely look forward to all the WEC races and Spa and the Nurburgring24 and all the Blancpain sprint and endurance races. I've found myself not being too interested in any of the U.S. sports car racing this year, for the same reasons others have been turned off by it. Having said that, I'd love to get to Daytona, Sebring and Petit Le Mans, perhaps when the prototype class sorts itself out, in the U.S.
So......to answer the question.......pretty much all of it will do me.
There doesn't seem to be much love for the Dubai24H. I quite enjoy the race. That may have something to do with it being the first major race of the year and the great coverage we now get.
I guess I'm just a sports car racing junkie, and enjoy the whole lot.
Just going briefly back to the Bathurst 12H. It truly is a fantastic event and as an Aussie, I count myself lucky that we now have one of the worlds best endurance races on home soil, and it's only a 12 hour drive to get there.

[Spyderman]

Spa...because it begins the count down to Le Mans.

[J Jay]

Ask me this question even a year ago and the answer would have been nothing but NAEC races, simply for being endurance races that prominently featured some form of prototype(s). 12 months is a long time in motorsport it seems...

As for now, the four (other) races I clear my schedule for are the 'Ring 24H, Bathurst 12H, Spa 24H & Suzuka 1000km. Nothing wrong with any of the first three, but I do like to see something other than GT3 at the front so I'd pick the Suzuka 1000km.