WEC NAIAS 2015 press conference

[TF110]

Part 2 of the racer.com interview with the wec's Andrew Craig.

[TRuss]

I had seen those which prompted my previous post. My inner redneck loves the test mule.

[deggis]

Bump, the Ford announcement should be in 4 hours from this post and WEC announcement tomorrow.

[Deleted]

Surely it's just gonna be PR blah blah. The fiawec.com pre-article just says presenting WEC concept + CotA round advertising. And Fillion going on how they have more manufacturers than anyone else in the world but that can always be questioned

[TF110]

Doubt it. Theres more to it than touting they have 7 manufacturers. We'll see tomorrow.

[Deleted]

Well they did hire Craig for ACO NA promotion, this could just be him organizing one of those "improving the visibility" kind of things without any deeper meaning.

[TF110]

I think more tv exposure in the U.S. is what may be talked about. Like the racer.com story points out. Hope its more than 60-minute highlight shows... *snooze

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Surely it's just gonna be PR blah blah. The fiawec.com pre-article just says presenting WEC concept + CotA round advertising. And Fillion going on how they have more manufacturers than anyone else in the world but that can always be questioned

But does that or just Cota extension really fit the event? WEC kind of sticks out from the presentations: http://naias.com/media/76620/15-pressconference_1-7.pdf

The article you mention (http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/fia-we...show_2851.html), even if they had real news, I doubt it would be revealed in this beforehand. But I think this article just lowered my expectations

Should start in 15 mins.

[pederb]

1:25-1:50 pm according the schedule

[deggis]

https://twitter.com/FIAWEC/status/55...132225/photo/1

[deggis]

Bleh: http://www.fiawec.com/en/news/fia-we...roit_2853.html

[Deleted]

Shocking.

[TF110]

Dagys has an interesting photo



WEC's Gerard Neveu, ACO President Pierre Fillon and IMSA President Scott Atherton

[MagVanisher]

I could see them discussing in regards to turbo-charged engines behind the scenes, although I doubt that it'll happen for GTE class.

Oh, and let's not forget the rumored "body kits" for LMP2 cars since GM wanted it!

[ATLFalconsFAN]

Originally Posted by TF110

Dagys has an interesting photo



WEC's Gerard Neveu, ACO President Pierre Fillon and IMSA President Scott Atherton

I think the black guy behind Neveu sums it up perfectly with his response to the press conference.

[seanyb505]

Originally Posted by seanyb505

Why would Fehan be involved in a Ford-themed press conference? I still think it's just a PSA - "Hey we have a race in Texas. Go"

Of course France, not wanting to waste the opportunity to build the public image of the Le Mans link and make it so we can't think NA sports cars with out thinking NASCAR, would want to be there.

Also Brown, Sharp and Dempsey - Main Sponsors and entertainment personality.

WEC: We have a race in Texas. Lone State Le Mans. Go to it.
TUSC & friends: We replicate (lol) that race with several North American races. See, Corvette, the main series sponsor, and this guy that you all know even if you don't know cars will all be there. Go to the races.

Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest: “We never stop working on the development worldwide of Le Mans-type endurance racing thanks to the FIA World Endurance Championship and continental series like the Tudor United SportsCar Championship in North America. It was with great pleasure that I had the opportunity to meet to discuss these future developments with Jim France..."

WEC: “...We will be back in the USA this September for the Lone Star Le Mans event in Austin. We hope you will be able to join us.”

Sounds like they used a few more words to say what I called.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

I could see them discussing in regards to turbo-charged engines behind the scenes, although I doubt that it'll happen for GTE class.

What's there to discus? Stop reading Jalopnik.

[pederb]

,

[morningview66]

Well that announcement has similar expectation to delivery levels as the 'pre-Le Mans' ACO/FIA conference.

Us expecting something, them announcing nothing!

Maybe we should keep our imaginations in check next time.......unlikely!

[Deleted]

You know holding some 25 minute corporate powerpoint presentation with talking heads at fairly famous automotive industry meeting is all fine and dandy. Even if you have zero news to offer or anything else than just plain product-advertising. But no-one is going to care or take note if they're not able to follow you anyway. One meeting far away in Texas heat + only able to see it in TV via some useless cable channel hour long highlights show shown 1AM weeks later or by paying money to web pay-service is no way to attract any audience. It's not helping that Americans want American drivers and American manufacturers in their sporting series and you have none, apart from Dempsey and "some others I guess".

Of course LM is small exception to all of that, but people that care already know of Le Mans.

[MagVanisher]

Originally Posted by deggis

What's there to discus? Stop reading Jalopnik.

But I'm not reading Jalopnik by the way... In any case, this conference has nothing big to discuss!

[rich07]

Wow this was a let down

[deggis]

Originally Posted by MagVanisher

But I'm not reading Jalopnik by the way... In any case, this conference has nothing big to discuss!

Jalopnik reference meant how they've kept saying turbocharged engines are not allowed in GTE which is false. Since they are allowed, there's nothing to lobby/discus.

[Bandicoot17]

They didn't say there was anything big to announce so don't see why people are disappointed tbh.