24H Series

[Anyopenroad]

Slightly concerned that I’m just chatting to myself here, but just in case there are interested forum lurkers, here are two albums of photos from Dubai:

Start to dusk: https://bit.ly/2MlXDp2
Night to finish: https://bit.ly/2ATAuG0

Usual caveats:
I am a fan with a camera, not a skilled photographer
These are cropped and resized but otherwise unedited
I take a lot of photos: these are big albums

[NaBUru38]

Thank you, Anyopenroad!

Woulf you upload some of your photos to Wikimedia Commons with a free licence?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Welcome

[NaBUru38]

Thread bump!

The 24H COTA USA will be held on November 16-17.

The provisional entry list has 8 GT3, 2 SP-X, 7 991, 14 GT4, 8 TCR, and 2 M240i.

[MaskedRacer]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

Thread bump!

The 24H COTA USA will be held on November 16-17.

The provisional entry list has 8 GT3, 2 SP-X, 7 991, 14 GT4, 8 TCR, and 2 M240i.

Wonder if the Park Place entry was due to them missing Petit. Good move if that was the case. Will cheer for them along with Keating/McNeil. Seems like a cool race to go to in person. With the overnight break you probably get to see more.

[MaskedRacer]

Another interesting cross-team alliance for the COTA 24 now. Just like Cooper MacNeil and Ben Keating teaming up. Now it appears that Trend Hindman (associated with Shank Acura) is joining the Park Place Porsche.

Still just 8 GT3 cars for the race. It appears there is a strong entry of American GT4 entries though between both Pilot Challenge and GT Challenge. https://www.24hseries.com/2019/24h-c...019/entry-list

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by MaskedRacer

Another interesting cross-team alliance for the COTA 24 now. Just like Cooper MacNeil and Ben Keating teaming up. Now it appears that Trend Hindman (associated with Shank Acura) is joining the Park Place Porsche.

Still just 8 GT3 cars for the race. It appears there is a strong entry of American GT4 entries though between both Pilot Challenge and GT Challenge. https://www.24hseries.com/2019/24h-c...019/entry-list

Having less cars in the outright class is not always a bad thing as it makes for some interesting story lines with cars from smaller classes creeping into the Top 10 or even Top 5. And then: 8 cars for the top class isn't even all that bad, I don't think they had a lot more GT3s (and most of those were Mercedes SLSes) when I was covering the series for GT-Eins in 2015 and they had some excellent races back then.

[NaBUru38]

GT3 teams have plenty of IMSA endurance races to enter, so it's not surprising.

[NaBUru38]

24H COTA results:


http://resultscdn.getraceresults.com...20Part%202.pdf

[MaskedRacer]

A possible interesting format the series should consider for a single race in the future is one with no GT3 cars. Essentially where the overall winners will come from either SPX or 991.

[Anyopenroad]

Dubai 24 only made it to 8 hours before red flag, a night of biblical rain, a flooded track and an abandoned race.

So in the last year I’ve now been to a race in the desert lost to rain, a completely dry Le Mans and Nürburgring 24, a Daytona 24 that didn’t make it to 24 and a Spa 24 that rained for 18 hours and had a 5 hour red flag. 😂

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

Dubai 24 only made it to 8 hours before red flag, a night of biblical rain, a flooded track and an abandoned race.



So in the last year I’ve now been to a race in the desert lost to rain, a completely dry Le Mans and Nürburgring 24, a Daytona 24 that didn’t make it to 24 and a Spa 24 that rained for 18 hours and had a 5 hour red flag.

That is a pretty epic set of races and circumstances! top that 2020!

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

Dubai 24 only made it to 8 hours before red flag, a night of biblical rain, a flooded track and an abandoned race.



So in the last year I’ve now been to a race in the desert lost to rain, a completely dry Le Mans and Nürburgring 24, a Daytona 24 that didn’t make it to 24 and a Spa 24 that rained for 18 hours and had a 5 hour red flag.

So people are circulating a petition to ban you from races except to require you to attend Le Mans and Nurburgring?

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

So people are circulating a petition to ban you from races except to require you to attend Le Mans and Nurburgring?

My first Sebring last year was also the first wet one for years. My first WEC at Silverstone featured a hailstorm. There was also that snow at Spa WEC last May.

[chernaudi]

Who would've thought that a race in an area of the world that's mostly desert would have to be aborted due to heavy rain?

However, I can tell you in the SW US that even fairly small rainstorms can cause some pretty good flash flooding in the middle of a desert. Even bone dry soil can hold and absorb so much water at one time.

[Anyopenroad]

The rain overnight in Dubai was epic, monsoon level, for hour after hour. There was also a lot of road flooding, abandoned cars, entire roads closed. The modest drainage at the track had no chance. The whole pitlane was ankle deep. Parts of the track (which has a surprising amount of elevation change) became a small lake.

It’s a shame because it’s a nice event. Good track, relaxed atmosphere, pretty good access, great pizza. Slightly lacklustre entry list this year though. Mostly the three German marques in GT3, no Ferraris, no Brit cars (other than, oddly, a Lotus Exige), no random RS.01s or Corvettes. The most exotic specimen was a great-sounding, ugly-as-sin Vortex V8 which sadly broke after 33 laps.

[broadrun96]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Who would've thought that a race in an area of the world that's mostly desert would have to be aborted due to heavy rain?

However, I can tell you in the SW US that even fairly small rainstorms can cause some pretty good flash flooding in the middle of a desert. Even bone dry soil can hold and absorb so much water at one time.

Because around the water is like Miami at times, except they don't get the zero 100 degree days. And when it rains it RAINS.

[Racing Harz]

Your opinion to that?
https://twitter.com/GTPlaceFB/status...71643806236675

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

Your opinion to that?
https://twitter.com/GTPlaceFB/status...71643806236675

Horrendous stupidity but I don't believe he did it deliberately. He was just 'in the zone' and did something very stupid. I do think he should be banned from the pit lane for a year. Not life time, but certainly there should be a ban.

The victim was ok I believe.

[Purist]

And on the topic of epic rain at Sportscar races:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVN-OkKUocM

[Nick Woodbury]

Originally Posted by Racing Harz

Your opinion to that?
https://twitter.com/GTPlaceFB/status...71643806236675

The push goes without saying. The offending crew member should have known better, but I am sure there was no intent of malice.

Changing gears a little bit but still sticking with Creventic, how is it remotely acceptable for a Motorsport governing body as big as Creventic to not enforce proper pit lane protection for all participating teams. Really, no clear sign of any knee pads, elbow pads, helmets or even balaclavas...and SHORTS on a hot pit lane to boot?! It seems to be a hot mess of haphazard nonsense and differing preferences on how "safety" is interpreted. A high visibility zipper-vest won't prevent you from getting a concussion, or having the flesh on your legs and face burned off. Running on a tight budget like a lot of competitors in Creventic do does not afford you the excuse to not furnish your pit-lane crew with proper protective equipment in such a dangerous environment as an active pit lane.

[Akrapovic]

I agree on impact protection such as knee pads, but fire protection isn’t really required. Refuelling does not happen in the pit lane at Creventic events. They have separate shared pumps for those. It keeps costs much lower.

[Anyopenroad]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

I agree on impact protection such as knee pads, but fire protection isn’t really required. Refuelling does not happen in the pit lane at Creventic events. They have separate shared pumps for those. It keeps costs much lower.

The refuelling setup is wonderful: there is literally a petrol station at the end of the pit lane. Pumps exactly like those at a roadside station. Cars pull up both sides, mechanics fill up, off they go. The amount is recorded and I assume the teams get a bill at the end of the event! The flow rate is also what you get at a roadside station so it can be very slow. Seeing growling, chuntering, low-slung GT3s idling at the pump is delightfully incongruous.

[Anyopenroad]

Pictures from a mad race: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmKVZ8dT

Aside from a damp warm-up, these pictures are largely of a dry race, taken between the start at 3pm and around 9pm when I went to sleep in the car (I was pretty tired after an overnight flight Thu/Fri).

That meant I missed the biblical downpour, or at least I missed the cars splashing around the track in it. My car was still rocked by the wind and the din of the rain was quite something.

When I went back to the grandstand at about 6am it was immediately obvious there was not going to be any racing. The pitlane was ankle deep. There were great brown puddles on the last turn and I could see that the lower part of the track away on the other side from the grandstand was totally under water. The last few pictures in the album are of that rather forlorn site.

Quite the adventure!

[Anyopenroad]

The Estoril 12H race on 28th March, announced only a week or so ago as the replacement for the Monza 12H, has been cancelled. Monza moved to July to replace Paul Ricard.

COTA have bumped Creventic off the mid-Nov date that was set aside for the 24H, in favour of the re-arranged MotoGP. To judge from the tone of Creventic's announcement on Twitter, they weren't informed and are understandably irritated about that.

[Willmaz223]

Originally Posted by Anyopenroad

The Estoril 12H race on 28th March, announced only a week or so ago as the replacement for the Monza 12H, has been cancelled. Monza moved to July to replace Paul Ricard.

COTA have bumped Creventic off the mid-Nov date that was set aside for the 24H, in favour of the re-arranged MotoGP. To judge from the tone of Creventic's announcement on Twitter, they weren't informed and are understandably irritated about that.

They are having a hard year.