WEC Race 6 Hours of Spa

veeten · 24 Apr 2023, 16:06 (Ref:4152797)

Well, it's the week. Teams should be getting in by Thursday and getting down to business on Friday.

Schedule

Spotter Guide

**joeb** · 24 Apr 2023, 18:04 (Ref:4152828)

Extra Caddy and Porsche are on the grid for this one. Cool to see the Jota car in the flesh in a few days!

broadrun96 · 24 Apr 2023, 18:28 (Ref:4152832)

Entry list change, Dallas Lana retired from racing this morning

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-racing-career

Heart of Racing taking over, Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli in the car for rest of the season. Will still compete as NorthWest AMR.

LC2guy · 25 Apr 2023, 07:10 (Ref:4152880)

Quote:

Originally Posted by broadrun96

Entry list change, Dallas Lana retired from racing this morning

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-racing-career

Heart of Racing taking over, Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli in the car for rest of the season. Will still compete as NorthWest AMR.

Very strange to retire just before the 100th anniversary Le Mans 24 hours i thought. Would have been quite a way to bow out if victory could have been achieved. A shame, he's been around a long time. Hope all is ok there.

Michel Vaillant · 25 Apr 2023, 08:31 (Ref:4152894)

Is someone going to Spa this weekend ?

dwh43scale · 26 Apr 2023, 19:02 (Ref:4153109)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michel Vaillant

Is someone going to Spa this weekend ?

Yes - not seen WEC there before and looking forward to it.

The weekend will be completed by the second day of the Rallye Wallonie based just down the road at Namur.

Photos will follow of both days.

**Adam43** · 27 Apr 2023, 00:21 (Ref:4153125)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwh43scale

Yes - not seen WEC there before and looking forward to it.

The weekend will be completed by the second day of the Rallye Wallonie based just down the road at Namur.

Photos will follow of both days.

Ace. Have a great time.

seanyb505 · 25 Apr 2023, 13:32 (Ref:4152932)

There's a thread about grandstand stuff somewhere below.

Last race before biggest Le mans in years. Could be one of the last times we get to see if anyone has gotten close to Toyota or if Le mans will be another year of watching the pit crew watch their cars swap places back and forth laps ahead of the pack.

veeten · 25 Apr 2023, 14:55 (Ref:4152955)

The real numbers from the latest BOP should come back by FP2, that should give us a good view as to the mid race action will shake out.

Mike E · 25 Apr 2023, 18:18 (Ref:4152983)

Presumably nobody at Jota will be sleeping until Sunday

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-porsche-963s/

**Adam43** · 26 Apr 2023, 00:40 (Ref:4153018)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike E

Presumably nobody at Jota will be sleeping until Sunday

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/...-porsche-963s/

Amazing. That’s really cool.

I once picked up a car and then took it to a test day on the following day. Spent the morning trying to work out which spacers stopped the wheels rubbing! Seller didn’t have their own track to test it on before

**Adam43** · 26 Apr 2023, 00:22 (Ref:4153017)

Quote:

Originally Posted by veeten

The real numbers from the latest BOP should come back by FP2, that should give us a good view as to the mid race action will shake out.

I believe FP2 is the session they base all the BoP adjustments on

I’ve not seen any BoP technical bulletins for Hypercar? Do we have any? The latest is the 8th March one for Sebring and then the three races after.

There is a pre Spa one for GTE. Aston gets a bit more power all through the rev range and a 1l of fuel.

For Hypercar, Michelin are going to “kindly” bringing extra compound. The weather at Spa can be unpredictable so they have requested more flexibility.

**joeb** · 26 Apr 2023, 16:23 (Ref:4153085)

Success ballast for this round:

https://www.endurance-info.com/auto/...last-du-gte-am

Corvette is up a whopping 45kg!

Mike E · 26 Apr 2023, 21:17 (Ref:4153118)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

Success ballast for this round:

https://www.endurance-info.com/auto/...last-du-gte-am

Corvette is up a whopping 45kg!

The 30kg they carried at Portimao didn't seem to bother them.

**joeb** · 26 Apr 2023, 21:39 (Ref:4153121)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike E

The 30kg they carried at Portimao didn't seem to bother them.

I wonder if anybody has deployed a driver ballast that can be removed as success ballast is added? I'm thinking like some extra weights strapped around your midsection that could be removed as the car weight increases!

DistortedSmile · 27 Apr 2023, 08:05 (Ref:4153141)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

I wonder if anybody has deployed a driver ballast that can be removed as success ballast is added? I'm thinking like some extra weights strapped around your midsection that could be removed as the car weight increases!

Don't give them ideas

Mike E · 30 Apr 2023, 05:58 (Ref:4153724)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

Success ballast for this round:

https://www.endurance-info.com/auto/...last-du-gte-am

Corvette is up a whopping 45kg!

#33 Corvette crew now on 82 points. Second place is the #83 Richard Mille Ferrari on 43... They're going to need to strap an anchor to that Vette.

broadrun96 · 26 Apr 2023, 18:48 (Ref:4153107)

Ouch, that's not great

RL17 · 27 Apr 2023, 07:46 (Ref:4153134)

Are the Hypercar Michelins still not colour coded - cost saving or are they still experimenting with compounds to get to grips with the lack of warmers this year?

**Adam43** · 27 Apr 2023, 11:55 (Ref:4153166)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RL17

Are the Hypercar Michelins still not colour coded - cost saving or are they still experimenting with compounds to get to grips with the lack of warmers this year?

I didn’t know if there was a plan to do that.

For Spa they have brought three compounds. Because the weather in Spa can be a little variable and to make sure they are good with the no tyre warmers if it is cold.

**joeb** · 27 Apr 2023, 13:35 (Ref:4153181)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam43

I didn’t know if there was a plan to do that.

For Spa they have brought three compounds. Because the weather in Spa can be a little variable and to make sure they are good with the no tyre warmers if it is cold.

Three dry compounds? I may be getting the IMSA and WEC tyres confused but I thought they only had 2 compounds for Hypercar to choose from, while in IMSA, the series chooses which tire to use on a race by race basis?

broadrun96 · 27 Apr 2023, 15:49 (Ref:4153209)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

Three dry compounds? I may be getting the IMSA and WEC tyres confused but I thought they only had 2 compounds for Hypercar to choose from, while in IMSA, the series chooses which tire to use on a race by race basis?

They offer 2 everywhere but LM but from 3 built, or at least that's what it sounded like.

Sounds like in this case they were not sure about safety, and we know Michelin and safety tire concerns, so they asked to bring all 3 and FIA agreed

v8supes · 27 Apr 2023, 16:17 (Ref:4153214)

Cadillac suffered a fire apparently. Hope its not too bad.

**Adam43** · 27 Apr 2023, 18:41 (Ref:4153232)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeb

Three dry compounds? I may be getting the IMSA and WEC tyres confused but I thought they only had 2 compounds for Hypercar to choose from, while in IMSA, the series chooses which tire to use on a race by race basis?

You’re right, it’s a special for Spa. It was requested by Michelin and announced last weekend.

From the technical bulletin before the race:

Quote:

Due to:
- the unpredictable weather in Spa-Francorchamps,
- the lack of experience of the HYPERCAR tyre usage without tyre heating devices,
- the unique tyre specification for wet weather conditions and the variety of cars in the category,
Michelin is kindly requesting the possibility to declare the three 2023 tyre specs available for the WEC SPA
event for driver’s safety purpose.
The availability of the three specifications for all Competitors of the HYPERCAR category allows Michelin to provide the right tyres for each weather conditions.
No extra quantities to be used are requested.
This exception is requested for the WEC Spa event only.

Steve McQ · 27 Apr 2023, 09:31 (Ref:4153152)

No hypercar platform BOP change for this race at least. That is good news IMO.

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