Spa LMS date changed?

Tim the Grey · 23 Feb 2011, 10:13 (Ref:2835518)

All moved forward a day, now 5/6/7/May, racing on Saturday.

Anyone know why? No explanation from LMS, just that these are the dates.

gwyllion · 23 Feb 2011, 10:33 (Ref:2835523)

The F1 race in Turkeye is on Sunday May 8.

Tim the Grey · 23 Feb 2011, 11:12 (Ref:2835541)

Sportscars at Spa, or F1 on a TilkeDrone...

Which would we rather see?

GT6 · 23 Feb 2011, 18:52 (Ref:2835802)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tim the Grey

Sportscars at Spa, or F1 on a TilkeDrone...

Which would we rather see?

well seeing as I had booked everything for the race on Sunday, there is my answer, but if they keep mucking about with dates like this I will think twice about booking early again.

Marcel ten Caat · 23 Feb 2011, 19:10 (Ref:2835815)

Money talks.

Noone will spend money on broadcasting an ILMC race while Formula 1 is on as well.

The people that want to see the ILMC race will be at Spa ;-)

Coach Ep · 23 Feb 2011, 19:15 (Ref:2835818)

No racing on Sunday May 8th.

Dead-Eye · 23 Feb 2011, 19:15 (Ref:2835819)

I like the change a lot. A friend wanted to come along, but it would have been a rush for her to make it home in time for work the next day. Now it's no problem at all.

NaBUru38 · 23 Feb 2011, 21:00 (Ref:2835868)

This changes is too late for an intercontinental race, don't you think? Malaysia 2001, China 2009 and 2010 all over again.

Graham Goodwin · 24 Feb 2011, 07:10 (Ref:2836000)

It is to avoid a clash with Live TV of F1 but frankly it's too late to make this sort of change, real (and entirely avoidable) inconvenience and expense for teams and other attendees is no way to look after your own product!

morwenna · 24 Feb 2011, 08:06 (Ref:2836020)

I agree, I've booked my travel and accommodation from the Thursday to the Monday with the plan of attending all 3 days of the meeting. I can't change my Eurostar booking so looks like I will miss the first day. The calendar said 'provisional subject to FIA approval', not subject to whatever dates we suddenly decide. There is always talk that the number of spectators at LMS events is low, but I'm now much less likely to book something for next year

On a different note, is the Thursday a holiday in Belgium? I would imagine it would be difficult to get marshals to give up 2 days of work for a race meeting.....

Marcel ten Caat · 24 Feb 2011, 09:41 (Ref:2836070)

No it's not a national holiday.

isynge · 24 Feb 2011, 10:38 (Ref:2836086)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

It is to avoid a clash with Live TV of F1 but frankly it's too late to make this sort of change, real (and entirely avoidable) inconvenience and expense for teams and other attendees is no way to look after your own product!

I wanted to be magnanimous about the date change, but think Graham hits the nail on the head. Avoiding a date clash with F1 is a lousy reason given the respective demographics, the congestion in the F1 calendar, and in any case, how predictable this was.

I'm in the fortunate situation of being able to shift my plans to accommodate this, and in any case think I probably prefer a Saturday date for such things, but to change at quite such a late date, without a clear communication approach to it, reinforces how much motorsport is still to a large extent a cottage industry.

carsten66 · 25 Feb 2011, 14:53 (Ref:2836766)

Yes indeed that's all a little late, just about ten weeks to the race. I also was able to switch my bookings. But up to now we have no offical announcement... and I'm not sure how many people actually realized the date change. Simply unprofessional...

GT6 · 25 Feb 2011, 19:06 (Ref:2836869)

We could book an extra day and change the crossing but the expense of an extra night etc is quite high an with the race finishing 2 hours later we have decided to try to get there earlier on friday and spend sunday visiting something in Belgium.

Will be the classic at Le mans next year and no Spa for me, if they treat race fans like this they will soon have no spectators at all

isynge · 26 Feb 2011, 00:34 (Ref:2837006)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GT6

We could book an extra day and change the crossing but the expense of an extra night etc is quite high an with the race finishing 2 hours later we have decided to try to get there earlier on friday and spend sunday visiting something in Belgium.

Will be the classic at Le mans next year and no Spa for me, if they treat race fans like this they will soon have no spectators at all

Probably worth trying to make the best of it - if you've got all Sunday tacking down through the Ardennes to Bouillon, then over the border to Sedan, down to Reims, and then onto the autoroute up to the channel will be a lot more interesting than getting into Flanders and relying solely on idiosyncratic Belgian driving to keep you entertained.

It's probably worth remembering that Belgium hasn't had a government for quite a while, and as such chaos is more or less a way of life, so a shift of a day in a race date is, in the greater Belgian scale of things, probably not the most seismic thing they've come across all day.

Marcel ten Caat · 26 Feb 2011, 02:23 (Ref:2837025)

turbomagazine.be reports that promotor Pierre Delettre said that F1 and its TV deals were part of the reason the race was moved to Saturday.

Apparently there was a lot of pressure from the constructors racing in ILMC who didn't want to compete with LIVE F1 coverage.

From a promotors point of view he's happy as he expects more spectators due to the race not clashing with other events, but he also says that they have less time to prepare the circuit after the World Series by Renault (the weekend before the ILMC/LMS)

chernaudi · 26 Feb 2011, 03:23 (Ref:2837042)

Pretty much the same reason why the ALMS moved to ESPN for coverage in NA--more viewers and to reduce clashes with a saturated fanbase for another motorsport.

JAG · 26 Feb 2011, 19:23 (Ref:2837259)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stranger

turbomagazine.be reports that promotor Pierre Delettre said that F1 and its TV deals were part of the reason the race was moved to Saturday.

Apparently there was a lot of pressure from the constructors racing in ILMC who didn't want to compete with LIVE F1 coverage.

From a promotors point of view he's happy as he expects more spectators due to the race not clashing with other events, but he also says that they have less time to prepare the circuit after the World Series by Renault (the weekend before the ILMC/LMS)

In that case you can guarantee any other races which clash with F1 will move to Saturday and future ILMC races could be scheduled for Saturday as a matter of course.

GT6 · 26 Feb 2011, 22:08 (Ref:2837307)

Well it's a good job the Canadian F1 is later on Sunday, if they tried to muck about with Le mans there would be a riot.

Simmi · 26 Feb 2011, 22:41 (Ref:2837317)

So the fact they are prepared to move a race means that there will be SOME coverage of it on telly I assume?

To be honest it will still probably get lost in amongst F1 qualifying stories in the press.

isynge · 26 Feb 2011, 23:24 (Ref:2837326)

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAG

In that case you can guarantee any other races which clash with F1 will move to Saturday and future ILMC races could be scheduled for Saturday as a matter of course.

From a personal perspective I'd be wholly in favour of endurance racing becoming a Saturday activity. I can see considerably more likelihood of being able to do proper justice of watching it then compared to a Sunday.

GT6 · 27 Feb 2011, 10:19 (Ref:2837419)

I prefer Sunday

With the 6 hour race on Sunday, qualy and support races on Saturday it gives a reason to travel hundreds of miles for a full weekend, with racing on saturday only not so sure I would travel that far agian, but we shall see, can't change p[lans for this year much so got to make the most of it.

vyselegend · 27 Feb 2011, 12:46 (Ref:2837462)

I understand your frustration. The thing is, if they're so afraid of F1 clash, let's try and find a week-end which doesn't clash, that's all. ACO only have 5 european races to fit in a race season where more than half of the week ends are GP free. It just comes down to their awsome clash seeking skill, same thing every year...

Although, looking at the F1 calandar, May have only one week end without a Grand Prix. (14th,15th)

JAG · 27 Feb 2011, 16:35 (Ref:2837506)

It's not just F1, DTM also needs to be taken into account.

For endurance races over 4hrs I would certainly prefare Saturday races, there's not only the opportunity to run into the evening, you have the Sunday to travel back rather than taking a day off work.

isynge · 27 Feb 2011, 21:04 (Ref:2837626)

Quote:

Originally Posted by JAG

It's not just F1, DTM also needs to be taken into account.

For endurance races over 4hrs I would certainly prefare Saturday races, there's not only the opportunity to run into the evening, you have the Sunday to travel back rather than taking a day off work.

That's my big driver - getting to parts of Europe on a Friday evening, or even early on a Saturday morning is pretty do-able - getting back on a Sunday night is less so - for example Imola on a Saturday would be perfectly feasible without any time off work, a 1000 km on the Sunday would necessitate a day off work, which makes it a lot less likely that I'll make the trip.

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