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Why do racers choose a particular sanctioning organization or race venue? This question popped to mind recently as I looked at the registered entries at two very different events. I was surprised and a little disappointed when I looked at the starting grid for The Twelve Hours of Sebring. The featured race had one of the smallest grids with thirty-five taking the green flag. The Panoz School series had twenty three, Formula Mazda thirty-seven, IMSA GT-3 Porsche Cup forty-four and the Speed GT and Touring races both had fields in the mid thirties. Considering the main event had four classes I’m sorry to say that this seems like a pretty weak field for a classic endurance race on a three point seven mile track. There was some great racing right to the end but the fans were watching a mere twenty-one cars when the checkered flag dropped. That’s not to say that there were not some top quality cars and teams offered. Reliability was more of an issue with the top teams this year. In P1 the new diesel A-10 Audi won but was alone on the podium their 2nd car failed. P2 saw the new Porsche Spyders being dominatingly fast but have serious problems. One RS did overcome one problem and a two lap deficit after a long pit stop for repairs to lead late in the race when a drive train failure ended their day. Luckily it was near enough to the end that they were classified 2nd in class. In GT-1 one of the normally bullet proof Corvettes had transmission problem. Through better reliably the remaining car did take the win joined on the podium by two Aston Martins. This shapes up to be a great battle all season. Finally in GT2 Panoz was 1st Porsche 2nd and Ferrari 3rd. It is interesting to note the difference in field size compared to this year’s 24 Hours at Daytona. It seems to me that most privateer teams have no interest in racing against all out factory efforts in a higher technology series. The prototype cars are so expensive to produce even the factories can only afford to build a very few. I’ll bet there are but three or four of the prior model Audi R-8’s in existence today. Thus there are no hand me downs and even if there were most privateers can’t afford to run them or if they can can’t see spending huge money without a real chance to win. Long gone are the days of 917’s and 962’s when prototype cars were built by the dozens and the factories quickly moved to a supporting role! Spec type or tightly controlled series with level playing fields seem to be what attract the racers. How to do this with several makes of car that interests a wide fan base is the challenge. I hate the cookie cutter prototype of the Grand Am series but that seems to be where most of our high end US racers are going. Most PCA club races are highly subscribed in the first ten days of registration. It is quite common for some of the race groups to be totally filled after two to three weeks. I was sad to see only about forty people signed up for the CVR race at Lime Rock in April at the end of the first week. CVR has added two one hour Enduros this year so I’m sure when word gets out they will fill up. In my opinion the 90db sound restriction will always be the one major obstacle to this event doing really well. With so many un-muffled events to choose from some racers don’t want to go through the hassles running at Lime Rock entails. If fact of all the tracks we run on the eastern seaboard and as far west as Mid-Ohio the only places with this problem are Mt. Tremblant and Lime Rock. You can’t blame the poor racers. Most have spent lots of time and money getting the best performance possible out of their open piped car. Choking off lower HP stock class cars reduces the fun and in the case of Cup Cars they can’t even meet Lime Rocks rules with a factory racing systems. Porsche Motorsports 8000 RPM motors do not come cheap; I sure can’t blame someone for not wanting to slap some homemade setup on one. Hopefully this year will see Lime Rock have some good weather for a change and the Enduros will help in drawing full fields. There is always a large contingent from our region at this “local” event. Why don’t you take a ride out on Friday or Saturday April 28, 29. Lime Rock always has some tight racing and offers some really great views of the action. Plus you won’t need to bring your ear plugs! |
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