2010/11 Argentine Top Race

[NaBUru38]

The 2011/12 Top Race season starts this weekend. As in 2009, the season will comprise four stages (with three round) plus a two-round final stage. The calendar is incomplete, only the first six races (ie two stages) are known:

July 25 - Interlagos, Sao Paulo
August 29 - Termas de R�*o Hondo, Santiago del Estero
September 19 - Gálvez, Buenos Aires (la Carrera del Año)
October 17 - La Rioja
November 21 - General Roca, R�*o Negro
Dicember 12 - Paraná, Entre R�*os

Each round, two short races are held with the back half ("sprint") and front half ("super sprint"). The sprint race winner gets 2 points and the top 5 finishers of the super sprint race get 6-5-4-3-2. The feature race awards 20-18-17-16... (flatter than the F1 last year).

Entries:

0 Emiliano Spataro - Volkswagen, Midas
1 Guido Falaschi - Ford, Sportteam
2 Omar Mart�*nez - Ford, MDP
3 Rafael Morgenstern - Mercedes, Crespi
4 Esteban Tuero - Mercedes, RV Sport
5 Marcos di Palma - Volkswagen, MDP
7 Brian Smith - Ford, Schick
8 Patricio di Palma - Mercedes, Máximo
10 Nicolás Iglesias - Ford, Schick
11 Ariel Pacho - Mercedes, CR
13 Alejandro González - Mercedes, Tauro
16 Ivo Perabo - Mercedes, RV Sport
17 Nicolás Cotignola - Ford, Schick
25 Mariano Acebal - Chevrolet, Canapino
29 Gabriel Furlan - Mitsubishi - Mitsubishi
37 José Mar�*a López - Ford, Oil
42 Gastón Mazzacane - Ford, Halcón
43 Mart�*n Serrano - Mercedes, Sportteam
52 Gonzalo Perlo - Ford, Azar
58 Henry Martin - Ford, Guarnaccia
68 Norberto Fontana - Volkswagen, Guido Guidi
69 Sergio Alaux - Volkswagen, Guido Guidi
76 Germán Giles - Mercedes, Dole
77 Juan Cruz Álvarez - Mercedes, Midas
86 Agust�*n Canapino - Mercedes, Sportteam
87 Emiliano López - Ford, Oil
91 José Passadore - Ford, Abraham
93 Mat�*as Rodriguez - Volkswagen, Abraham
100 Fabio Fogaça - Ford, Canapino
110 Diego Avent�*n - Ford, AS

[NaBUru38]

The new 2011/12 Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Volkswage Passat have been unveiled. Designed by José Luis Denari (with DTM cues), they will have tubular chassis, six-speed gearboxes (current cars have five-speed boxes now) and 3.5L V6 435hp engines (50hp more than now).

[Rob29]

Err..should this be 2010-11 season?

[Belatti]

Yep, this is the 2010-2011 season (where current old craps will be raced) and the cars seen in the link are going to be raced in the 2011-2012 season.

Today in the TV broadcasting I heard that those 3.5 V6´s are going to have 120HP more, and I heard last year that current engines have 320HP, so the +50HP that the official TOP RACE webpage claims confuses me a bit. 435HP for a 3.5 V6 is nice though.

Plus the new cars are said to be 150Kg lighter (wich is OK cause current cars are HEEEEEAVY) and the X-trac 6-sp gearbox mounted in the diff looks nice.

If they allow decent brakes (Brembo or at least AP) and 4-way adj dampers and a compact cheap data acquisition package... well... now we will be talking about respectable motorsport.

[NaBUru38]

It's not bad that these cars are heavy. It makes them trickier to drive, just like Nascar Cup and Nationwide cars. And less gears make engines go from low to high revs. So I disagree with both changes. We already have TC2000 for that.

[Belatti]

I disagree on your statement. Light cars have high response speed to any input (steering, braking and throttle if there is enough power) and that makes them difficult to drive. You need to be more sensitive.

Any junior formula driver can manage a tin top and have time to smoke a cigar and have a Whisky while driving it. Then sit a man who has never driven a small formula in it and see what happens.

Anything is an absolute in this world, but the 90% the tin top driver will have a hard time to get to grips.

Appart from that, there are some donkeys in the back of the TRV6 grid that will have a hard time with a lighter and more powerful car



Ps: completely out of topic but, as I see it, the trickiness (does that word exist in English??) in NASCAR-type cars are the asymetrical setups and the nature of the tracks rather than the weight. Remember they barely brake and they cant (or shouldnt) countersteer.

[kobefly]

If someone is interested I can share the video for these races.
I captured Interlagos.

[FIRE]

Thanks Kobe!


IMO heavy cars are not a bad thing. In Europe we had V8 Stars series. Heavy tubeframe silhouettes powered by a Roush V8 but the racing was great.

[Belatti]

Heavy race cars may be ok for fun, but inside my engineers head theres a red noisy alarm banging when I hear the word "heavy" (unless we are talking about music ).

I like efficiency and have always liked the Colin Chapman´s philosophy.

When you see amateur sport cars with standard engines (half the power and half the weight) lapping faster than TC I wonder why does people still prefer touring car races.

[NaBUru38]

The second round of the 2010/11 Top Race season is this weekend at Termas de R�*o Hondo. As in 2009, the Top Race V6 and Top Race Junior will race together. More than 70 cars will be starting the 25 laps / 50min feature race on Sunday 16h UTC.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The second round of the 2010/11 Top Race season is this weekend at Termas de R�*o Hondo. As in 2009, the Top Race V6 and Top Race Junior will race together. More than 70 cars will be starting the 25 laps / 50min feature race on Sunday 16h UTC.

Wow, that's pretty insane. How long is that track anyway?

[NaBUru38]

4.4 km! At least it has long straights and no twisty zones (map).

[FIRE]

Wow!

[Belatti]

Here you can see some videos of the chaos in Termas, a completely unacceptable venue (even if they say its a new circuit and one of the bests of the country) its full of dirt at the sides of the tarmac.

That made that every car off-track send a dense dirt cloud to make the chaos even greater.

Toto´s flip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqDvstW5W1Q

Race resume:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v92JfvBLS6I

BTW, Canapino won the TRV6 race and Adrian Hang (a driver who lost both legs in an Italian F2000 race at Monza in 1995) won his first TR Junior Race.

[Speed-King]

So far I've only seen pictures of these cars, but they look a lot better when you actuall see them in a video.

[NaBUru38]

This weeked, the Top Race will have La Carrera del Año ("The Race of the Year") at the Autódromo Gálvez in Buenos Aires. The Brazilian Formula Truck will be racing too.

The Top Race Junior as too many not-so-young drivers, so they will change the name. There's a poll, where the pathetic and meaningless Top Race Series is winning with 42%, followed by Top Race V4 (cares have inline 4 engines) with 30% and Top Race Pista (comapre TC Pista) with 9%. I couldn't vote and anyway won't matter.

[Belatti]

Its true that TR Junior grids went from 15 to 40 cars and that is not a "Junior" series anymore.

However those names are trully idiotic, as you say.

V4?

The names containing the number "2" are also stupid, as TRV6 is not "1"

[NaBUru38]

It's the second division. I wouldn't mind a 2.

[d.rocky]

Originally Posted by Belatti

Here you can see some videos of the chaos in Termas, a completely unacceptable venue (even if they say its a new circuit and one of the bests of the country) its full of dirt at the sides of the tarmac.

That made that every car off-track send a dense dirt cloud to make the chaos even greater.

Toto´s flip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqDvstW5W1Q

Race resume:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v92JfvBLS6I

BTW, Canapino won the TRV6 race and Adrian Hang (a driver who lost both legs in an Italian F2000 race at Monza in 1995) won his first TR Junior Race.

the amount of dust is apocalypticly dangerous!
just love the way the car is dragged away through the gravel trap. can you imagine the team bosses reactions in the BTCC if there nice shiny(but bent) BMW was carelessly pulled away.... oh wait.

i only became aware of this series recently and i think it looks great.

[ptclaus98]

So whats the ballpark budget to run a full season competitively?

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by Belatti

BTW, Canapino won the TRV6 race and Adrian Hang (a driver who lost both legs in an Italian F2000 race at Monza in 1995) won his first TR Junior Race.

Adrián Hang didn't lose his legs on Italian F2000 in 1995, but in Superformula race in 1996. The Superformula was a series created by Coloni that were F3 on steroids during 1995-97 - the cradle of something that later Spanish people bought and now is WSR.

[Belatti]

Oh you are right Mekola. I recalled him racing in Italian F2000 in 95 but didnt check if his accident was there... my bad!

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

So whats the ballpark budget to run a full season competitively?

I wouls say arround 15 and 20K USD per race (maybe a bit more for the Interlagos race due to transport) for a 12 race season that would be 240K USD max.

BTW, in todays "Race of the year" Canapino won again and grabbed the "winter cup". TR Junios will noe be called Top Race Series. And a good move that of TR Organization to give away free tickets for the grandstands. A crowd of 70,000 souls populated the Oscar y Juan Galvez...

http://www.trv6.com.ar/

[NaBUru38]

The fourth date of the 2010/11 season at La Rioja is over.

1. Emiliano Spataro (Volkswagen)
2. Juan Cruz Alvarez (Mercedes)
3. Brian Smith (Ford)
4. Ivo Perabo (Mercedes)
5. Jose Maria López (Ford)

Spataro is obviously leading the spring stage, since this was its first date. The official website doesn't show the full standings of the season. Gerardo "Tato" Salaverr�*a, a 21-year-old Uruguayan, is co-leading the Top Race Series alongside Marcos Vázquez.

[NaBUru38]

Mat�*as Rossi, Ernesto "Tito" Bessone, Sebastián Porto, Christian Ledesma, Guillermo Ortelli and Gabriel Ponce de León are all said to join the Turismo Nacional in 2011. That meas that they wouldn't be joining the Top Race for 2010/11's summer and autumn stages.

[Speed-King]

What is Turismo National?