California 8H 2017

[kevin993]

I was going to go to COTA and had hotel reservations, but asked around a month ago and couldn't get anyone to confirm for me that it was actually going to happen. COTA had absolutely nothing on its website at all and the entry list on the 24h website appeared more aspirational than reliable. I had to make a logistics call, so ended up passing. To be fair, we've done races like the B12h and N24h, so we've seen cars like the AMG GT3 and SCG003, so the novelty factor isn't as strong for those as it might be for others.

I'm on the west coast and can do Laguna Seca by car which makes it less expensive and cuts down on travel time. I was also hoping that some teams would do both. Still, an 8 hour race with some fantastic GT cars and drivers at Laguna Seca? With a decent schedule of support races? Sounds like a good time to me and a better way to spend a few days than a lot of other options.

[Coach Ep]

Agreed. I would take 22 cars for 8 hours @ Laguna over 57 cars for 12 hours @ CotA any day.

However, I'm attending neither.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

Agreed. I would take 22 cars for 8 hours @ Laguna over 57 cars for 12 hours @ CotA any day.

However, I'm attending neither.

I find both races interesting. Are there tickets/admission fees for the Laguna Seca 8 hours? I thought I read somewhere that the COTA 24 is a walk in free event.

[cbbrit]

This is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected, news:

http://sportscar365.com/world-challe...ia-8h-entries/

[jjvincent]

Think of it this way, with 20 cars, you'll have 8 hours of no code 60. If they do happen to pull this COTA race off, it'll be a caution fest anyway.

[Akrapovic]

There are certain events where the low entry numbers don't really make sense. This is one of them. How is it that SRO, which has the ability to pull cars from Blancpain Europe and Asia, has combined with Pirelli World Challenge, which has a decent car list, has managed to pull together such a small grid?

Similar story for the Le Mans Cup in Europe. Blancpain has too many entries to cope with, so has Am series and classes all over the place. 24H Series pulls plenty of GT3 entries. Yet the Le Mans Cup has a tour of some great European circuits, including a very rare chance for a true amateur to race at Le Mans on race day morning...and yet gets about 5 cars.

There are clearly reasons for it, but this race should've pulled more. Of course any number of cars at Laguna Seca is preferable to any number of cars at CoTA, but I don't see why there can't be 30-40 cars at Laguna Seca given the cars involved.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

There are certain events where the low entry numbers don't really make sense. This is one of them. How is it that SRO, which has the ability to pull cars from Blancpain Europe and Asia, has combined with Pirelli World Challenge, which has a decent car list, has managed to pull together such a small grid?

Similar story for the Le Mans Cup in Europe. Blancpain has too many entries to cope with, so has Am series and classes all over the place. 24H Series pulls plenty of GT3 entries. Yet the Le Mans Cup has a tour of some great European circuits, including a very rare chance for a true amateur to race at Le Mans on race day morning...and yet gets about 5 cars.

There are clearly reasons for it, but this race should've pulled more. Of course any number of cars at Laguna Seca is preferable to any number of cars at CoTA, but I don't see why there can't be 30-40 cars at Laguna Seca given the cars involved.

I think the 8h format is at least part of the problem... doesn't really have much of a ring or history to it, and then it's also a bit on the short side, at least when you expect teams to ship their cars almost halfway around the world.

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[NaBUru38]

They should have allowed TCR cars.

[jjvincent]

The perception is that a sanctioning body can pull cars from their series and get them to run. That would be like owning a restaurant and pulling part of your customers to go to another across town and that ends up being a 2 hour drive. Sounds great in theory but in reality, you can't force your customers to do it. It's hard enough for a series here in the US that has east and west but decides to have a shootout of east vs west. Unless it pays lots of money, not worth going.

As from the post above, this is a new race and to ship a car over here for an unknown race that's pretty much for fun, is quite the challenge. This is like years ago when they had that Group C vs GTP race in Florida. Sounded great on paper but in the end, it was a dud.

Then you have a 10 hr and 2hr race at Road Atlanta the weekend before which pretty much draws all of the US teams that do endurance racing currently on a consistent basis. If you look at the ones you want for this 8hr race, it's literally the GS and GTD teams. Those teams are finishing up their season and are not going to high tail it clear across the country for rig parking on Wednesday to run a race for fun that means nothing to them whatsoever. Plus, these teams just ran at the track a few weeks ago. It end up costing too much and racers blow lots of money but there's a limit. Out of what's at road Atlanta, one car is going to do the trip.

Then you have the 24hr race in a month. Any GS, GTD, TC, GT, GTS team that is even thinking about it, at least has 3 weeks to prepare. Plus many people have run in the Creventic Series and they like it because the amount they pay vs the amount of race time beats IMSA and PWC hands down. In addition to that, you don't need a massive crew and tons of equipment. You literally race 14 hours on Saturday, park the car for 9 hours and finish up the remaining 10 on Sunday. You don't need any refueling equipment (except for two suited up guys), none of those elaborate crew uniforms either plus the crew gets a break.

Then you have that Creventic race at Spa this weekend. So you have 48 cars there and 12 of them are GT4. It's obvious they will not be doing the 8hr at Laguna.

In the end, a race with no identity and too many other events that do which are running within a month of it. Top it off, I suspect that this 8hr race will not be streaming when it's on CBS sports and who knows what convoluted system IMSA has. So, if you don't have that network, good luck. At least with the Creventic, really good streaming for the whole event.

[schmidder]

Originally Posted by jjvincent

The perception is that a sanctioning body can pull cars from their series and get them to run. That would be like owning a restaurant and pulling part of your customers to go to another across town and that ends up being a 2 hour drive. Sounds great in theory but in reality, you can't force your customers to do it. It's hard enough for a series here in the US that has east and west but decides to have a shootout of east vs west. Unless it pays lots of money, not worth going.

As from the post above, this is a new race and to ship a car over here for an unknown race that's pretty much for fun, is quite the challenge. This is like years ago when they had that Group C vs GTP race in Florida. Sounded great on paper but in the end, it was a dud.

Then you have a 10 hr and 2hr race at Road Atlanta the weekend before which pretty much draws all of the US teams that do endurance racing currently on a consistent basis. If you look at the ones you want for this 8hr race, it's literally the GS and GTD teams. Those teams are finishing up their season and are not going to high tail it clear across the country for rig parking on Wednesday to run a race for fun that means nothing to them whatsoever. Plus, these teams just ran at the track a few weeks ago. It end up costing too much and racers blow lots of money but there's a limit. Out of what's at road Atlanta, one car is going to do the trip.

Then you have the 24hr race in a month. Any GS, GTD, TC, GT, GTS team that is even thinking about it, at least has 3 weeks to prepare. Plus many people have run in the Creventic Series and they like it because the amount they pay vs the amount of race time beats IMSA and PWC hands down. In addition to that, you don't need a massive crew and tons of equipment. You literally race 14 hours on Saturday, park the car for 9 hours and finish up the remaining 10 on Sunday. You don't need any refueling equipment (except for two suited up guys), none of those elaborate crew uniforms either plus the crew gets a break.

Then you have that Creventic race at Spa this weekend. So you have 48 cars there and 12 of them are GT4. It's obvious they will not be doing the 8hr at Laguna.

In the end, a race with no identity and too many other events that do which are running within a month of it. Top it off, I suspect that this 8hr race will not be streaming when it's on CBS sports and who knows what convoluted system IMSA has. So, if you don't have that network, good luck. At least with the Creventic, really good streaming for the whole event.

I agree with most of this. Not sure what imsa streaming has to do with it tho?

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[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by schmidder

I agree with most of this. Not sure what imsa streaming has to do with it tho?

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Yeh, this is SRO/PWC organised


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[jjvincent]

Because both do a bad job of it. I hope you realize that most of the field are renters and they like it when a race is run where everyone can see it. You have to realize, that things like that sell seats and brings cars to the grid. Only thing that IMSA and PWC does right is that GT4 and TCR will have all of their races streamed during the season and there's no convoluted way you have to watch it. As for GT3, it seems that you need to be part of the club to know how and where to watch. Sometimes it's easy and other times, not so easy or it's some week delay because it needs to be on TV.

I know that the hard core fans could care less about the casual fan, so what I'm talking about doesn't mean much. When you have races where there are 5 classes with 20 cars, there's at least one reason why the interest is not there to have it up to at least 35. Honestly, the Spa 12hr race had the best streaming coverage this weekend. Go to the site, click on one thing and watch away. Pit reporting included. Not, CBS for this period of time, streaming then more CBS. Or like IMSA, in the US, you are out of luck unless you know the secret handshake.

Think about it, if you wrote a $60K check to drive a car, what would you rather have, a short race with less driving time and shifted live coverage or longer race, more driving time and where it's easy for your "sponsors" family and friends can watch whenever they want?

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by jjvincent

Because both do a bad job of it. I hope you realize that most of the field are renters and they like it when a race is run where everyone can see it. You have to realize, that things like that sell seats and brings cars to the grid. Only thing that IMSA and PWC does right is that GT4 and TCR will have all of their races streamed during the season and there's no convoluted way you have to watch it. As for GT3, it seems that you need to be part of the club to know how and where to watch. Sometimes it's easy and other times, not so easy or it's some week delay because it needs to be on TV.

I know that the hard core fans could care less about the casual fan, so what I'm talking about doesn't mean much. When you have races where there are 5 classes with 20 cars, there's at least one reason why the interest is not there to have it up to at least 35. Honestly, the Spa 12hr race had the best streaming coverage this weekend. Go to the site, click on one thing and watch away. Pit reporting included. Not, CBS for this period of time, streaming then more CBS. Or like IMSA, in the US, you are out of luck unless you know the secret handshake.

Think about it, if you wrote a $60K check to drive a car, what would you rather have, a short race with less driving time and shifted live coverage or longer race, more driving time and where it's easy for your "sponsors" family and friends can watch whenever they want?

Couldn't agree more with you on the streaming

Live, free, with on demand IN ADDITION, free

The simple solution is for the SRO just to bring the PWC streaming over to their GT WORLD channel.

Already got a great audience, and I for one enjoy that I can already access British Gt, Blancpain, Blancpain Asia, GT4 series, all on one page



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[Akrapovic]

I have a feeling that SRO streaming may be going behind a pay wall in the future. I hope not, but I believe that's the plan.

[jross427]

i live not to far from laguna (3 hours) i can tell you there has been 0 promoting out here. i am in the motorsports loop in terms of employment, and about 30% of the people dont even know this is going on. the other problem i see is the teams in pwc arent really setup for a endurance event like this tbh.

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I have a feeling that SRO streaming may be going behind a pay wall in the future. I hope not, but I believe that's the plan.

How to lose you're fan base in 1 move..


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[Mechanic Z]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

Couldn't agree more with you on the streaming

Live, free, with on demand IN ADDITION, free

The simple solution is for the SRO just to bring the PWC streaming over to their GT WORLD channel.

Already got a great audience, and I for one enjoy that I can already access British Gt, Blancpain, Blancpain Asia, GT4 series, all on one page

Problem is, the GT World channel is geoblocked so US fans can't watch live...

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

Problem is, the GT World channel is geoblocked so US fans can't watch live...

You can geo-block individual videos on YouTube, so there is potential for that to be opened up.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by Bcarr6

How to lose you're fan base in 1 move..


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NISMO TV saved us a lot this year. We could catch the main Blancpain endurance feed because of that. Have to get creative with searches to find Blancpain sprint.

One organization that is very good about posting good streams is international GT Open. Creventic too.

Still, I hope some way we can find a means to catch this Laguna 8 hours. But thankfully the CoTA 24 is Creventic run!

[Bcarr6]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

NISMO TV saved us a lot this year. We could catch the main Blancpain endurance feed because of that. Have to get creative with searches to find Blancpain sprint.

One organization that is very good about posting good streams is international GT Open. Creventic too.

Still, I hope some way we can find a means to catch this Laguna 8 hours. But thankfully the CoTA 24 is Creventic run!

I'm all for free to access coverage to motor racing. Show me adverts fine, but don't put up a pay wall, it just encourages people to look for way round it. Advertising before, during and after a race as long as it isn't too excessive never puts anyone off


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[schmidder]

Originally Posted by jross427

i live not to far from laguna (3 hours) i can tell you there has been 0 promoting out here. i am in the motorsports loop in terms of employment, and about 30% of the people dont even know this is going on. the other problem i see is the teams in pwc arent really setup for a endurance event like this tbh.

And if you read the laguna website, they are advertising the WC Gt race as a part of the weekend, and those cars are done for the season, last gt race of the year was sonoma. I did hear an ad on the radio here in sacramento this week.

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[NaBUru38]

Millions would pay for F1, Nascar or MotoGP.

But very few would pay for Blancpain GT.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Millions would pay for F1, Nascar or MotoGP.

But very few would pay for Blancpain GT.

Too bad. I would rather watch GT racing than any of the three entities mentioned above. I must be in the minority I guess. Do not see the appeal of Formula 1 and NASCAR anymore. Nothing beyond looking on the internet to see the race results. That's it. GT cars on the other hand are great looking machinery. They look sporty. I can even watch a Blancpain GT practice session or a GT Open qualifying session so I can see these dream cars run around a track.

[Mechanic Z]

Looks like Magnus will be running an Audi factory livery:

Audi Sport‏ @audisport 10h10 hours ago




#Cal8h entries: Audi R8 LMS #44 from Audi Sport Team Magnus with @Pierre_Kaffer, @KelvinvdLinde and @m_winkelhock #GT3 #LeagueofPerformance

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

Looks like Magnus will be running an Audi factory livery:

I like it!