[WEC] Best Race duration for most viewers?

[Starfish Primer]

For me Sebring and Road Atlanta should be in the WEC. If cannot be possible, then Austin race must be a long endurance race (1000 miles or 12 hours). I like the 1000Km and 500 Km format, less isn´t endurance for me.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

4 Hours most races, it always seems to produce the best racing in the ALMS. 6 hours there was boring as are the final 2 hours of most WEC races these days. 3/4 of the fans leave after the 3 hour mark though, just look at Brazil last year, a good crowd at the start but then empty, and Interlagos has no GA, the 3 fans that stayed for the finish all appeared to be sleeping.

[deggis]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

My problem with the WEC race duration is not the time itself, but the tracks. These F1-neutered tracks, a car field plus two wide roads, runoffs bigger than Walmart parking lots, etc., are boring my eye over 6h. I have the impression the LMP1 are just "too slow" for them. One of the reasons I like the US road courses. They are in horrible shape from a european perspective (and, obviously, from a FIA perspective as well), but they are fun to watch. They are tight, dangerous, challenging. Thus they are more interesting to watch racing on (and thus, naturally, for a longer time) than say any circuit the F1 currently runs on.

I agree, but while they are tailored for F1 speeds, in addition I also think even F1 looks boring on those "Tilkedromes". Fast, but so flat, wide and far away from the track borders. Actual speeds might be higher, but you just don't get the impression, so it is like counterintuitive.

[Breitling24]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

...a good crowd at the start but then empty, and Interlagos has no GA, the 3 fans that stayed for the finish all appeared to be sleeping.

Siesta.

[FordCosworthPanoz]

Even Spa looks like a countryside Walmart parking lot now.

[Maelochs]

If some folks cannot set aside six hours in a weekend eight to ten times a year … simply DVR the race, and watch the beginning and end live, plus whatever else you can. I understand, there are chores, family obligations …. to me it is a matter of scheduling and prioritizing, but everyone's situation is different.


On the other hand, if I worked every weekend, should all the races be switched to Monday afternoon? Would that help the series?

To me the only reasonable considerations are commercial—what attracts the greatest number of viewers, what works for the sponsors, what works for the teams?

I don’t see sports-car racing becoming the new F1. I am not being negative, but I don’t see it reaching that height … F1 has built itself into much more than a racing series … it has become the place for celebrities to show their faces, it is an Haute Couture/Jet Set event, only slightly related to racing.

There cannot be two racing series which attract all the actors/actresses/ models/wanabees simply because those folks are there more for the public display than the racing—they aren’t going to go to too many events each year, their schedules are tight. Also, it is so hard to keep one’s make-up looking fresh for six hours.

B4$7ardizing endurance racing to capture a potentially slightly larger fanbase seems like a worthless risk. If it succeeds but at most marginally, then what is really gained? A few pennies more in some folks’ paychecks, at the cost of a sport?

On the other hand, with so many online/TV broadcast options, people who really like Endurance racing can follow a race across platforms. For years Speed-TV in the U.S. has shown the beginning and end of the Watkins Glen Six Hours on TV and put the rest on the web. Ninety minutes for the pre-race and the first hour, then two hours to finish up—few folks cannot find a couple hours if they really like an event.

The point (to me) is that Endurance Racing is a sport in itself. Sports car racing (as practiced mostly in ALMS/ELMS) is a fine sport, but not really the same. Endurance racing involves more chances for things to go wrong—and maybe get fixed—and more strategy regarding driver order, pit stops, tire choices … the fact that a track will change over six hours as the sun climbs and sinks, all these things are part of the sport.

Four hours should be the Absolute minimum, and that should only be for a couple added sprint rounds, if at all. Endurance races have to be at least six hours. The very length makes them stand out from the mass of sprint series out there. Six hours trouble-free is a lot more difficult, and meaningful, than 2:45. Eight, ten, or twelve, more so.

I have nothing against a sports-car series which runs shorter races, but I like Endurance racing. If in time the form becomes financially unfeasible, well, I lose, but I don’t see any reason to kill the format when so far it seems quite successful.

[jasonjessica09]

It depends on your life status I guess. I'm married and have a baby. So watching the 24 hours of le mans or 12 hours of sebring live without interupption is just not possible anymore for me. Plus the wife gets mad at me when I watch too much racing.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

It depends on your life status I guess. I'm married and have a baby. So watching the 24 hours of le mans or 12 hours of sebring live without interupption is just not possible anymore for me. Plus the wife gets mad at me when I watch too much racing.

Ah the joys of being a family man and an endurance racing fan!

[Mechanic Z]

I really don't think race duration makes much difference. Golf tournaments run for hours per day for three or four days on network TV. I doubt racing is much different, but I don't really know much about TV packages.

[trickyd]

What have we had, 1 and a half seasons of WEC and already people are trying to turn it into F1 with roofs. 6 Hours is not a long time. Test matches, in cricket, are 5 DAYS long, every single split second of it, plus the pre and after play chat, is live on TV. And people watch it. The Tour de France is 3 weeks long, and each stage takes about 5 hours, nobody seems to struggle with that either. Why are we always trying to ruin our sport, or trying to fit it around the needs of people who don't like it? Screw 'em! In the age of recordable TV 6 hours should be no problem at all. Watch it when the kids are in bed and the wife is out shopping.

For what its worth, I'd like to see at least one 12 hour race to bridge the gap between the 6 hour races and Le Mans. The loss of Sebring means we might have to make a new one, or will have to. I also agree that WEC should try and avoid the duller F1 tracks. Sportscars are at their best when at high speed. There is no need for there to be a race in Bahrain for example. No history, no fans, no car market, no car makers, and a crap track. I'd start the season with a 12hr race in Dubai. Its not a great track but it at least is more politically stable, would provide somewhere nice to have a pre-season test like they used to at Sebring, and during the 24 hour race there the skyscrapers in the background all lit up at night look cool, and would give it some atmosphere and a discernible feature. If they had it at the beginning of March then the teams would have a month to recover before the European season kicks off.

PS, despite most Tilkderomes being rubbish, I liked Austin and I am looking forward to the race there.

[Breitling24]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

It depends on your life status I guess. I'm married and have a baby. So watching the 24 hours of le mans or 12 hours of sebring live without interupption is just not possible anymore for me. Plus the wife gets mad at me when I watch too much racing.

Someone has to be up all night with the baby, volunteer during the 24h races, your wife will love it! Baby in the TV room, c'mon, think outside the box. Stay home with baby watching racing, send the wife out with her friends. I don't even have kids and have solved your problems.

[Breitling24]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

I really don't think race duration makes much difference. Golf tournaments run for hours per day for three or four days on network TV. I doubt racing is much different, but I don't really know much about TV packages.

Golf is more "main stream" viewing, because there are more Joe's at home that golf than guys that care about endurance racing. So, golf gets more commercial revenue to make it an attractive four hour block of Saturday and Sunday TV time, just like baseball and football (and NASCRAP).

[Spyderman]

Originally Posted by trickyd

What have we had, 1 and a half seasons of WEC and already people are trying to turn it into F1 with roofs. 6 Hours is not a long time. Test matches, in cricket, are 5 DAYS long, every single split second of it, plus the pre and after play chat, is live on TV. And people watch it. The Tour de France is 3 weeks long, and each stage takes about 5 hours, nobody seems to struggle with that either. Why are we always trying to ruin our sport, or trying to fit it around the needs of people who don't like it? Screw 'em! In the age of recordable TV 6 hours should be no problem at all. Watch it when the kids are in bed and the wife is out shopping.

For what its worth, I'd like to see at least one 12 hour race to bridge the gap between the 6 hour races and Le Mans. The loss of Sebring means we might have to make a new one, or will have to. I also agree that WEC should try and avoid the duller F1 tracks. Sportscars are at their best when at high speed. There is no need for there to be a race in Bahrain for example. No history, no fans, no car market, no car makers, and a crap track. I'd start the season with a 12hr race in Dubai. Its not a great track but it at least is more politically stable, would provide somewhere nice to have a pre-season test like they used to at Sebring, and during the 24 hour race there the skyscrapers in the background all lit up at night look cool, and would give it some atmosphere and a discernible feature. If they had it at the beginning of March then the teams would have a month to recover before the European season kicks off.

PS, despite most Tilkderomes being rubbish, I liked Austin and I am looking forward to the race there.

+1

[Aysedasi]

Just gimme long.

[Lorenzo S]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Just gimme long.

[pigs fly]

IF you don't like the Tilkedome's and like long racing either come to AUSTRALIA and watch the 12hr in FEB Sportcar's or 6hr in OCTOBER for V8sc. THE track is a public road for 355days of the year and race track for 10days it's just like LE MANS with people living inside the track.

[Maelochs]

That course (Mt. Panorama) looks gorgeous on TV, and I love the 12-hr race. However, just getting to Australia is an endurance event in itself. Can't you guys paddle closer to the rest of the world?

[pigs fly]

NO you will just have to swim a little further.

[Miguel]

'Diversity' and 'endurance', those are the only two words I care to post in this thread.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by Miguel

'Diversity' and 'endurance', those are the only two words I care to post in this thread.

How about this.

7 Hours of Imola
11 Hours of Silverstone
8 Hours of Spa
24 Hours of Le Mans
10 Hours of Interlagos
6 Hours of COTA
5 Hours of Fuji
9 Hours of Shanghai
4 Hours of Bahrain

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Salamus

How about this.

7 Hours of Imola
11 Hours of Silverstone
8 Hours of Spa
24 Hours of Le Mans
10 Hours of Interlagos
6 Hours of COTA
5 Hours of Fuji
9 Hours of Shanghai
4 Hours of Bahrain

Creative... perhaps 12 Hours of Le Mans?!

Don't shoot the messenger!!!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Beetle

Creative... perhaps 12 Hours of Le Mans?!

Don't shoot the messenger!!!

WHAT!!!!!?????

I'd rather go for the 48 Hours of Le Mans -

or the 24 Hours of Le Mans - in each even month......

[Maelochs]

Somehow I doubt more people will turn out if some of the races are nine hours and some, seven. I don't think the "6.125 Hours of Spa" would be a breakthrough product.

Four, six, eight, ten, twelve, twenty-four. Gimmicks are gimmicks.

[isynge]

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Somehow I doubt more people will turn out if some of the races are nine hours and some, seven. I don't think the "6.125 Hours of Spa" would be a breakthrough product.

Four, six, eight, ten, twelve, twenty-four. Gimmicks are gimmicks.

Gimmicks are indeed gimmicks, but Sao Paolo has had a tradition of a 1,000 mile race, so why not make it that (or call it 10 hours), as a WEC round, similarly like the old Kyalami had a 9 hour race, why not allow another one to establish itself?

Will more people turn out on the back of that? No, I don't think they would - people will either go or they won't - but diversity is one of the core appeals of sportscar racing, and different race distances is something I suspect would add to that.

[formerf1champ]

Geez. People now complaining that a standard 6h/1000k endurance race is too long? 3 hours for an endurance race? 3-4 hours would be an endurance race for amateur level competitions. It's barely a heat/repechage for manufacturers/professional teams building/using high level quality cars.

I'm not sure if varying lengths of races adds to the wc. Prototype/gt racing has historically been about winning Le Mans. The industry is built around Le Mans. The race itself is, in effect, the world championship of prototype/gt racing. Everything else is occupying time in between Le Mans.

If a 12 hour had to be added, Bathurst would be good. We all know the track is worthy. It even considers for those that think races are too long. Watch 2-3 of the start at night. Go to sleep, and wake up to watch the last 2-3 hours in the morning.