LMS 2011 Discussion

[NaBUru38]

Mmm... Le Mans protos are designed for high-speed circuits. Zolder and Brands Hatch don't seem the best places. Snetterton, Salzburgring and Slovakiaring wouldn't be bad.

[The Badger]

If Brands hatch could hold Group C races ..... it could well cope with todays cars . Salzburg would be cool for me , just 2 hours down the road .

[NaBUru38]

I know it can handle them. Monaco can handle F1. I'm just talking about the best venues for a type of cars. La Sarthe, Sebring, Spa, Silverstone, they are all high-speed circuits. So I say that ACO endurance races should be held mainly in high-speed circuits.

[Purist]

In average lap speed, Brands Hatch is faster than Silverstone.

We've seen LMP1s in the last few years outperform even fully-evolved Group C and GTP cars in terms of how fast they can lap quite a number of circuits. That full evolution came about in 1992.

The LMP1 record speed on the Bridge GP circuit at Silverstone is 127.252mph in 2008. Last year's LMP1 record on the new circuit is 127.579mph. This year's fast lap at Silverstone is 127.027mph.

The Group C record at Brands is 128.348mph, set in 1989 (three years prior to the ultimate peak in speed for the category). The layout of Brands Hatch is little-changed since then, so I think it's safe to say Brands is the faster when comparing it to the current Silverstone.

As for the general idea of "smaller" venues, I think it could work, but you have to have the right venues. Zolder, I think, has too many traffic bottlenecks for this sort of multi-class racing. Zandvoort probably works better than Assen, because of more, distinct braking zones, and because even the slower, bottleneck areas have reasonable scope for multiple, competitive racing lines. The almost continuous sequences of high-speed turns at Assen will make the interplay between LMPs and GTs particularly problematic. I think Dijon could work well for LMS, and it should be up to code. Sachsenring could also be an interesting circuit for these guys to run at.

Other than those, in northern Europe, I'm not too keen on many others, and I'm not sure if Anderstorp or Mondello Park could be pressed into service.

[TF110]

Pescarolo won the race, and championship- according to autosport. Too bad I couldn't see the race.