Pirelli World Challenge

[Miguel]

Do we know yet which races will be endurance events?

PWC is something I'll be following with more interest next year, looks like this might be the place to be for North American GT3 racing at least until IMSA allows GT3's in. Good to see GT3 racing now also reach North America.

[Rodger Davies]

No endurance races, all 50 minutes as I understand.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Mechanic Z

I'd like to see longer races, but the twin one-hour race format is actually okay, IMO.

With GT and the new GT cup class running separate from GTS, should be a bit less speed difference; hopefully that will lead to less cautions.

How about two 40-minute heat races with split grids (GT-GTS combined), and a 80-minute feature race (standalone GT and GTS)? That way, there would be just one winner per weekend.

[nasportscar]

Here's our updated entry list tracker. Good job to GT3World with his as well! http://nasportscar.com/entry-list-so...-gtgt-a-class/

[Miguel]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

No endurance races, all 50 minutes as I understand.

Ooooh, unfortunately. But can hardly blame them for not changing a concept that seems to work. Thanks for the information!

[Maelochs]

For PWC, finishing the race on one tank of fuel is pretty much essential to keeping the costs down--the costs associated with care and transport of fueling rigs and pit/safety crews would probably make the series unattractive for many drivers.

Standing starts, however ... way too many races started with twelve seconds of tire smoke and twelve minutes of caution. I think that is an area deserving further consideration.

[Rodger Davies]

Agree with that, hopefully slightly smaller grids will help.

[jasonjessica09]

Originally Posted by Rodger Davies

Agree with that, hopefully slightly smaller grids will help.

Yeah "GTS" cars caused most of the FCY's last year. Perhaps as many as 75% of them?. And I wish I was a part of the roundtable discussion on the PWC that nasportscar.com sponsored the other night. I would have asked if the series organizers are considering ditching standing starts. I just don't think standing starts are suited for GT cars. They should left to the single seaters. I bet standing starts are more stressful on the cars too which could rise costs.

Mr. Kistler, can you ask the PWC brass this question about the standing starts t some point if you have not already?

[cbbrit]

You can add 8Star Motorsports as an additional entry with a Ferrari F458. No driver(s) named yet but this should be confirmed soon.

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

Yeah "GTS" cars caused most of the FCY's last year. Perhaps as many as 75% of them?. And I wish I was a part of the roundtable discussion on the PWC that nasportscar.com sponsored the other night. I would have asked if the series organizers are considering ditching standing starts. I just don't think standing starts are suited for GT cars. They should left to the single seaters. I bet standing starts are more stressful on the cars too which could rise costs.

Mr. Kistler, can you ask the PWC brass this question about the standing starts t some point if you have not already?

I can check and see what they say..

As for standing starts, I love it..however, for GT3 cars it's hard b/c most (any?) don't have any sort of launch control from the factory, so it's been an issue this season.

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

Don't get me wrong and I'm Not saying I don't like all these cars,but I don't think PWC is going to be all that stellar.i don't trust scca to handle this many cars and quality teams all at once,scca and PWC is has been more geared towards am and club racing.the grid is exploding with all these new cars and teams,but how about scca and the staff are they hiring race directors,tech inspectors,new rules or is it going to be a free for all.seriously they are going to be forced to split gt and gts,will indycar weekends even allow that?and seriously the standing starts need to go or it's going to be a distruction derby when the lights go out.

I really hope PWC and scca can pull off 2015, might have to be the first race series to implement code 60 in the US,that would be cool but I HIGHLY doubt that will ever happen.

The SCCA has very little to do with pwc, they are just the sanctioning body. WC Vision controls pretty much everything from race control to the scheduling, etc...

[rich07]

Originally Posted by cbbrit

You can add 8Star Motorsports as an additional entry with a Ferrari F458. No driver(s) named yet but this should be confirmed soon.

Great to see another Ferrari in the mix

[nasportscar]

GT-Cup entry list tracker http://nasportscar.com/entry-list-so...-gt-cup-class/

[TRspitfirefan]

http://nasportscar.com/pirelli-world...torsport-blog/
Some more great PWC news. Another Audi R8 in GT-A.
The GT field just keeps growing!

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by TRspitfirefan

http://nasportscar.com/pirelli-world...torsport-blog/
Some more great PWC news. Another Audi R8 in GT-A.
The GT field just keeps growing!

I'm enjoying this. Entry count will be through the roof for the first round in Austin next year, I expect, just in time for me!

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Beetle

I'm enjoying this. Entry count will be through the roof for the first round in Austin next year, I expect, just in time for me!

Yeah, obviously not every entry will work out, but I'm guessing they'll have around 30 GT3 cars consistently

[joeb]

Another good one from Marshall Pruett:
http://www.racer.com/more/viewpoints...orld-challenge

One of the tidbits in there says that Flying Lizard may run the Kpax McLarens for Kpax next season.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Racer.com

"Pirelli World Challenge seems to have a great amount of momentum, and there are some great parts to the series, but for now it doesn't interest me," said Potter. "The majority of races run as a support series to IndyCar, where you're an afterthought, or as a standalone race with no heritage that few fans attend. A lot of the vitriol you see on the internet towards TUDOR seems to benefit PWC, but I've yet to see any merit when it comes to argument based on pure spectacle and quality of 'the show.' Yellows seem to be proportionally just as long if not longer; there's proportionally far fewer pro drivers, and despite all of the criticisms of TUDOR drivers... none of them hit a pace car this year, which PWC can't say. The poor television package that World Challenge holds works to their benefit, because very few people actually get to watch the reality of this. --

I didn't really pay attention to the series this year either, anyone have video link for that particular incident? It's not this or this bad is it?

[TRspitfirefan]

Interesting article from RACER.
http://www.racer.com/more/viewpoints...l=&limitstart=
Some great comments from Ben Keating, Mike Hedlund and Alex Job.
Not terribly impressed by Patrick Lindsey or Mr. Potters statements though.

From Lindsey.

"The real issues I experienced over in World Challenge – and I'm a huge fan of the format and the people over there – is it's not officiated in the manner you'd want as an owner in what you'd consider a true championship. Even with the struggles IMSA had with BoP and homologation of some cars like the [GTD] Viper, I still feel it's a more professionally-run organization," he said. "World Challenge doesn't have the same budget to attract the same officiating talent as IMSA has, and WC Vision, which is the group of [PWC team] owners who are also competitors, subcontract SCCA Pro Racing to run the series. Indirectly, owners pull the strings over the sanctioning body, so there's a conflict of interest to consider."

Does anyone Know why Lindsey seems so bitter towards PWC?
Regarding the "conflict of interest" statement. This seems like a real non issue. It's not like the series owners personal team (cough-cough.....Action Express...) won the championship or anything.

There's also this slam from Lindsey, on the level of driver talent in PWC

"With Turner [Motorsport] headed over there, and maybe Flying Lizard, you'll probably see some really good drivers added into the field. Right now, they've got Mike Skeen, who's been the best guy over there, and a few other guys who are really good, but you also have a lot of pro-am type drivers by themselves in those cars," he added.
"The talent's sharp at the top, but widens out pretty quick after that. I think the talent is deeper in GTD because you have more pro drivers there, and if that changes, I'd have an interest in looking at World Challenge again; but I know that when I ran there, I was able to finish in the top-5 when I had a pretty good run, and I wasn't a pro. I want to be wherever the deepest pool of talent is racing, and right now, that's GTD."

Guy Smith, Johnny O'Connell, Anthony Lazzaro, Alex Figge, Butch Leitzinger, Andy Pilgrim, Ryan Dalziel, Tomas Enge, Mike Skeen, Nick Tandy,
Kuno Wittmer Plus up and coming young drivers such as Andrew Palmer, Robert Thorne, Mike Hedlund and Nick Mancuso.
Enough said!

And then there's John Potters view.

A lot of the vitriol you see on the internet towards TUDOR seems to benefit PWC, but I've yet to see any merit when it comes to argument based on pure spectacle and quality of 'the show.' Yellows seem to be proportionally just as long if not longer; there's proportionally far fewer pro drivers, and despite all of the criticisms of TUDOR drivers... none of them hit a pace car this year, which PWC can't say. "The poor television package that World Challenge holds works to their benefit, because very few people actually get to watch the reality of this

There is some truth to the statement, that many fans have given PWC a second glance due to our unhappiness with the new IMSA. However it is the quality of the cars, teams and drivers in World Challenge that has driven the growth of the series.
I attended both the IMSA and the PWC events at Road America this year. The PWC races were fantastic, while the IMSA "spectacle" was not very enjoyable for me.

I really like the closing statement from Alex Job.

"In the second season, I think they'll do a better job, and it's important for them to do a better job or else they'll lose more cars again. If they do a better job, I think the numbers will increase. As a competitor, if someone's doing a better job than you, it's your job to work harder to beat them. IMSA shouldn't be worried about trying to crush the competition; they should be worried about doing a better job than they have been doing, and if they can do that, the problem will fix itself."​

Well said!

[TRspitfirefan]

Originally Posted by Chiana

I didn't really pay attention to the series this year either, anyone have video link for that particular incident? It's not this or this bad is it?

If I remember correctly, a GT-A driver (Lamborghini, I think...) got into some oil on the track surface and slid into a parked vehicle.
It was not that big of an incident, so I'm not really sure why Potter chose to bring it up.

[nasportscar]

I think Mr. Lindsey may be surprised by the Turner driver lineup when it's announced...

[Maelochs]

Thurn und Taxis, wasn't it? yeah, hit fluid on the track and hit the pace car ... but why not use it to attack the series where the driving talent is so weak ... your team didn't win? Hmmmm .....

I admit watching PWC wasn't top of my list, but I taped whatever I didn't get to see when it aired live, and saw the season opener(s) at St. Pete. I didn't see anything wrong except the standing starts and ensuing pile-ups.

For sure the series could use a better TV slot ... but really last year was its first year even being taken seriously.

Couldn't care less about the in-fighting among drivers from different series. The best stint of any TUSC race last was about on par with every PWC race. PWC won't be driving fans away ... some other series might continue to ...

[TF110]

Team owners pulling the strings? Tudor has no room to talk in that regard. A bunch of bs imo. Nothing's perfect, but WC is a great alternative and it stings some to admit that.

[hondafan37]

I like this part:

K-PAX Racing PWC team owner Jim Haughey shared another aspect GTD owners might want to consider: Flexibility.
"When I was looking for a place to bring an all-wheel-drive Volvo with an inline turbo 5-cylinder engine, World Challenge was the only series that welcomed me," he said. "It's a lot easier if you have a GT3 car because it fits right into the [PWC GT] regulations, but if you want to try something different, they'll work with you. Some people want to do their own thing, and you have options [in PWC] that you probably won't find elsewhere."
It might not be enough to make a GTD owner want to leave IMSA for PWC, but if they have a client that wants to build something different or show up with a something they bought that doesn't have a logical home elsewhere, PWC has a long history of welcoming almost anything onto its grid.

I like the openness to accept different types of car.

[Rcz]

The FIA And the ACO could learn from a thing or two from this.