Outrage? Or Not? Your Comments on the ACO's Entry List

[Osella]

Taurus Lola reserve only, only one (Intersport) MG, no Freisinger Porsche, no Morgan??

There is a T2M 911, however, and two TreVoRs.

[cybersdorf]

Mr. Anderson must be on some ACO black list...

[kdr]

someones bound to drop out...i think you'll see the taurus lola in june.

[danhx]

i certainly hope Taurus gets in. They did an incredibly admirable job with the Lola at Sebring, especially when you consider the short time frame in which they assembled a team. They showed respectable pace for that chassis too.

[danhx]

I don't miss the Morgan, though...I disageed with its invitation last year since the 2001 pole sitter (the Callaway C-12R) did not get one.

[H16]

I think the ACO are being themselves. One reason that I as a sports car fan have never been took taken with the event is the silly entry list. Two WR cars got in last year while an MG was on the original reserve. The Callaway didn't get an entry despite winning the pole and leading the previous year, but didn't get an entry while the Morgan and the restricted Sypker did.

Taurus doesn't get one this year but French teams with old equipment do. Everyone wants to talk about Le Mans, but insane debacles like this take away from the event far too much for myself. Anyone with a brain can see the ACO is politically motivated to the extreme and that their Le Mans is littered with their buddies.

[Cynic]

I think you're being harsh on the Morgan there. True it might have beena "politically motivated entry", but lets not forget that it out-qualified a Porsche and two Ferrari's. Then again GT3 has always been a bit of a Porkers owners club class.....maybe they don't want anything else winning the class.

[H16]

Thats the impression I get. No BMW, or Callaway, proven Porsche contenders and in some cases, beaters.

How will they handle the Ferrari challenge? Maybe outlawing semi auto gearboxes or something. All I know is that there were rumors at the time that the Callaway was getting some tech support from PTG to run the car at Le Mans with the blessing and possible tech support from BMW USA (after being kicked out by ACO), and someone somewhere in a mag article suggested that the Porsche "fix" was in, thus the car, the only real challenge, gets no entry. It wasn't even on the reserve.

[Aysedasi]

OK. As there is bound to be comment about who has been accepted by the ACO and who hasn't, which people don't seem to want to put in the thread set up for the purpose, I'm going to take the liberty of re-naming this one, so that everyone can, if they wish, vent their spleen on the ACO's use of discretion (or alternatively praise them for their wise decision-making)

[cybersdorf]

Norma, Durango, maybe (hopefully!) taurus - even without the Morgan, the 2003 Le Mans grid will have a "retro" flavour

[Nordic]

I for one am quite happy with the balance of the entry, sure its a shame room could not have been found for the Morgan at the expense of a Porker.

2 RFH domes and the lone Kondo example are sure to keep the Audis & Bentleys honest for the first hour at least.
The corvette/Ferrari/Viper battle carries on and may turn out to be one of the features for this years race.
The TVRs will no doubt be pushing the porkers & 360's. so much so that the Bits may have a walkover in all three (or 4) classes!!
Bentley, Prodrive (British Ferrari!)& TVR

As we don't know who put there names forward to the ACO we may be a bit premature in critising them over missing MG's etc.

[Aysedasi]

H16, you have to live in the real world. It is the greatest sportscar race of them all (by miles - but that's just my opinion) and it happens to be held in France and run by a French organisation that can basically invite who it wishes. There has always been a preferential attitude shown towards French manufacturers (particularly WR, but also Didier Bonnet and others) and there always will be. WR have always supported Le Mans and whatever you or I may think about their cars, just because they're not exactly at the cutting edge doesn't mean they shouldn't have their day.

[Aysedasi]

BTW, as far as I'm concerned, the omission of the Morgan is a major disappointment. Last year's car did more than enough to justify an entry this year. What do you want - just a little bit more variety or more boring 911's?

[Tim Northcutt]

My Thoughts:

Although tradition says "invites & alternates," why not do what American racing does?

Let all 76 entrants come to Le Mans for a week in May instead of the few PQ days...

Set a given number, or an approximate number, of "accepted slots" for GT and GTS numbers that will be part of the 50 who will ultimately race...

Make EVERYBODY qualify for the "List of 50" to come back in June..based on set qualifying sessions the last 2-3 days of the week....

That way, not politics comes into it...the fastest cars and the teams that "deserve" to be running in June actually get there...

I can hardly wait for the responses to this one....

One more Question:

76 teams sent entries...

50 chosen and 6 others as alternates...

Who were the other 20?

Was Knighthawk one of them?

What about American Spirit???

Morgan had to have been one....

How about others???

R&M?

Send your ideas or your information on this, too...

[Mal]

The problem with that is that the locals would not allow the roads to be shut for a week. Unless of course the prequals were held on the Bugatti Circuit. However the theory is that they select teams of interest and those who have a chance of lasting the distance. By running qualifying you get teams who can run a fast lap or two, but half of them may be out after two hours.

[gttouring]

Do the governing member of the ACO smoke crack? The sebring entry list was great- how about that one plus any new ones, what is the Maximum at LeMans? surely 75 cars can be accomodated- the MOrgan please, knighthawk, MG's, and taurus...these were good teams at sebring and theALMS so why not

[Nordic]

Le mans is restricted to 50 cars for at least 2 reasons.
1. There are only 50 pit garages (48 till last year)while it would be possible to build a few more the pit straight is not long enough for 10 let alone 20 more.
2. The F.I.A goverern the capacity for the track and give the approval not the A.C.O.

Unless we know for certain that a team entered and was turned down, as with Morgan, I feel it is unfair to have a go at the A.C.O.

[Splatz the Cow]

I actually can't understand peoples affection and enthusiasm for the Morgan, because it looks so ugly (IMO), and doesn't look like it has the aerodynamics to get above 100mph. Although I agree it did impress last year. i guess if it is still quick it should be admitted. I'd rather see a little Panoz, Maserati, TVR or Lotus in their though. - Or Honda NSX, Toyota Supra or Nissan Skyline. And surely a Mosler MT900R is acceptable.

[kdr]

agreed nordic. in the lmps i'm not sure that many more applied for a berth....most people thought around 17...16 were accepted.

in the case of gt...the racers group probably had a better case to get their second porsche in(didn't they win the class last year)than two tvrs...so at least the aco is looking for variety.

the mgs? don't they always expire at midnight? at least you can always see that yellow wr peddling around at 1pm sunday!

[Mal]

Both TVR's are in probably as a result of their astounding show at Sebring

[Tim Northcutt]

I'm not taking shots at the ACO...I just think that the teams who are given the opportunity to compete in such a big event should "earn" it...not be "chosen" for whatever reason...

Let's say that a week may be too much time to shut down the streets...how about doubling the days that they shut it down for PQ and condensing the practice and Qualifying schedule???

That can't be much more of a burden than PQ is already...

Why not pick another long European Circuit where you could set up such a "qualifying" opportunity as another option????


My general thoughts are that the best teams should be racing in the biggest endurance race on the planet....

Politics, nationalistic preferences (if that is really an issue...I don't know if it is..)or any number of "alleged" subjective criteria should be removed from the equation.....

People will claim that politics or whatever are a part of the equation until an objective way is determined to set the field...a format like I have suggested is, if nothing else, objective...

The competitors are decided "On The Track"

[Nordic]

If the entry was decided on race results at Sebring, Would the Lister deserve an entry or the Nasmax or Zonda. None shone there but have the pace in the car.
If the PQ was extended as a way to determine the final list, a small accident could result in some of the best cars being ruled out.

No method is going to be perfect, at least this way teams dont go to massive expense only be be ruled out at the last moment.

[Karl Kling]

Some ramblings from the north...

Let's start with the essentials... The GT-class: I'm glad the Morgan didn't make it! I'm sorry but I think the car's just plain ugly. I know it's the inside that counts and all but...
I have to admit though that I admire it's abilities, it did beat the Spyker and Ferraris and based on that it should have got an invitation from the ACO.

Yes, it's a shame there is no BMW M3 GTR because that car was the only one that really had a chance to beat the Porsches. But BMW never managed to start the production of a road version - which Porsche quickly pointed out. The penalties in combination with the F1-programme killed a great sportscar of the future. Do I sense a little GM/Cadillac-ish feeling here?

Two TVRs is fantastic and four Ferrari 360s, with two Risi-cars, must give Porsche some competition providing the Italians have done their homework and crammed some reliability in their cars (2nd on Daytona looks promising!).
One Spyker is realistic and fair but it would have been more fun with two.

LMP675: Only one MG-Lola? Now there is the true scandal of the list! This year is the last chance for them to get on the overall podium before next years weight penalty. What are ACOs intentions with only one MG? To prevent MG that chance? And what happened to the factory team?
WR is well worth its double invitation. They came second in class with a chance to win had it not been that puncture and that's more than you can say about the MGs. But when it comes to speed and performance...
It will be interresting to see how the C65 and DBA-Zytek will perform in june but the Reynard-Lehmann will probably outlast them all and win the class as usual...

LMGTS: Great with three ferraris but other than that nothing unexpected.

LMP900/GTP: Nothing that really raises eyebrows but the Norma-Ford and the Durango. The Taurus-Lola on the reserve list is strange but as said before, there has to be some withdrawals.
Hooray, Lister's on the list! Let's hope they last the full 24 hours and hopefully with a good result. Especially since this is the first year of a five year programme.

Well, did I forget something? Probably, but in that case I'll be back...

Oh, BTW, a GT-car that has come 6th overall at Le Mans and 1st overall at Daytona can't be boring. But that's just my opinion i guess.

Sorry for the length of this message but I couldn't stop...

/k

[Aysedasi]

It wasn't so long ago that the ACO's "Test Day" was actually called "Pre-Qualifying" (in fact some people still refer to it as "PQ"), whereby additional cars would be invited to fight for the places - remember Andy Wallace's heroic efforts to get the Panoz through PQ in 1997?

I still feel that in general, the ACO tend to get it about right and I certainly wouldn't agree that the Le Mans entry should be decided purely on Sebring performance, although, as an indicator, it no doubts helps the ACO to decide in those cases where they have 3-4 cars competing for 1-2 places.

[Tim Northcutt]

In other forms of racing, if "one of the fastest cars" stacks his car in qualifying...too badd...that's racing....try to qualify your back-up car....

Subjective selection ( if it is in fact subjective...I don't know that, nor can I prove it) of a field for the most prestigious endurance race in the world is a total crock....