2016 Pirelli World Challenge Rounds 3 & 4: St. Petersburg

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Interesting that the PWC race is AFTER the Indycar race. I hope most people at the track stayed. They should. Would be dumb if they left. You can make a case that the PWC is a bigger deal than the Indycar race in many ways. If I was in florida I would certainly buy a ticket for this event for the PWC cars. Indycar would be a secondary thing for me.

Grandstands emptied out pretty quickly, from what I saw on the stream.

Also, that race didn't have too much worth staying for. But then, the alternative to staying put would probably be being stuck in traffic, so personally I probably would have stayed.

[Madkart]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Interesting that the PWC race is AFTER the Indycar race. I hope most people at the track stayed. They should. Would be dumb if they left. You can make a case that the PWC is a bigger deal than the Indycar race in many ways. If I was in florida I would certainly buy a ticket for this event for the PWC cars. Indycar would be a secondary thing for me.

+1 although this second race wasn't really the best.

[wdave0]

In 50 years of watching, working, driving races I have never seen such a pathetic show by a track crew! Wrong tow trucks (both times), slow ambulance, fork lift drives past accident site (maybe he got paid by the lap?), forever clean up. Wow, how to spoil a race. It already had two strikes against it being a street race, the odds are against green though they did well Saturday but WOW!
IMSA is NOT the org to emulate.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by wdave0

In 50 years of watching, working, driving races I have never seen such a pathetic show by a track crew! Wrong tow trucks (both times), slow ambulance, fork lift drives past accident site (maybe he got paid by the lap?), forever clean up. Wow, how to spoil a race. It already had two strikes against it being a street race, the odds are against green though they did well Saturday but WOW!
IMSA is NOT the org to emulate.

This is SCCA sir. But yeah if stands emptied out quick after indycar. that is too bad. The race may not be great but we are talking about McLarens, Ferraris, Audis, etc.

[wdave0]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

This is SCCA sir. But yeah if stands emptied out quick after indycar. that is too bad. The race may not be great but we are talking about McLarens, Ferraris, Audis, etc.

I know its SCCA - why are they emulating IMSAs endless yellows - a 50 minute race doesn't have time for that. Great cars on parade laps(yellow) don't really get it. The rest of the week-end was pretty good. It also seems to me the drivers were pretty well behaved although the field filler Porsche GTs did have a large negative impact for only 4 cars.

[Akrapovic]

Same problem as last year. Accident took forever to clean up and the driving standards were crap. The backmarker which got in the way of the McLaren was so bad you'd be excused for thinking you were watching an online rFactor race.

[gert]

So, the best and the worst in one weekend?

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Same problem as last year. Accident took forever to clean up and the driving standards were crap. The backmarker which got in the way of the McLaren was so bad you'd be excused for thinking you were watching an online rFactor race.

The only questionable driving standards were from the GT Cup car you mentioned (from the final turn to T1) but for the most part, they do a decent job of staying in their line and letting the faster cars by.

That being said, and I've said it multiple times, I'm not a fan of GT Cup racing with the GTs and would not be all that sad to see GT Cup go away competely. I'm also starting to get that line of thought for street courses as well. I'm planning on going through the street races from 2014 on and pulling some stats.

[10TENTHS]

Originally Posted by wdave0

I know its SCCA - why are they emulating IMSAs endless yellows - a 50 minute race doesn't have time for that. Great cars on parade laps(yellow) don't really get it. The rest of the week-end was pretty good. It also seems to me the drivers were pretty well behaved although the field filler Porsche GTs did have a large negative impact for only 4 cars.

SCCA only stamps their name on it, PWC has its own separate management. It seems like they've had ongoing problems since the beginning of 2015, with poor moves from even the front-running drivers (Beretta for example).

[nasportscar]

A few thoughts on the weekend as a whole http://nasportscar.com/arm-chair-rac...pwc-st-pete-2/

[Fogelhund]

2) street races may not be the best for these types of cars (more on that later).

Really, they are typically poor races for all types of cars. The only redeeming value they have, is that they bring out fans who wouldn't care otherwise, and only care when the circus is in town.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

You can make a case that the PWC is a bigger deal than the Indycar race in many ways..

How?

[nasportscar]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Really, they are typically poor races for all types of cars. The only redeeming value they have, is that they bring out fans who wouldn't care otherwise, and only care when the circus is in town.

bingo

[Maelochs]

I missed the last GT race, but caught the first and the two GTS races, and I don't see where the street course hurt the racing. GTS proved that smart drivers can race well around any circuit.

The GTS races in particular were really exciting, though the fields were a little small (which is maybe why there were no pile-ups.)

I think PWC ran GT last hoping that the appeal of the cars would keep fans in their seats, but with bad weather potentially blowing in, after a long day in the sun ...

I don't see how anyone can really think PWC is a bigger draw or a bigger deal than IndyCar. As soon as PWC is live on TV anywhere (even free cable) a case could start to be made. Outside of serious fans, know one knows about PWC.

One big takeaway from the weekend, in both PWC and IndyCar, stupid driving was at a minimum, and this let quality racing be the most noticeably feature of each event.