Daytona Prototype race series

Hey,

I was watching the first hour of the Lime Rock race. It appeared that a total of 23 cars, (10 DP and 13 GT) were running.

Is this series dying? Did they limit the car count at Lime Rock?

Rog

Couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is that my feelings wouldn't be hurt if they did kill it off.

Nowhere nearly as interesting as the the Lemans prototypes. There's diversity with the LeMans cars. (and they're purtier)

Who knows what's running in the Daytona prototypes. The cars have no relationship to a manufacturer & there's no room for manufacturing or engineering ingenuity, and therefore little interest level to me. One manufacturer doesn't reap the same rewards or identity due to engineering with the Daytona cars as with the LeMans cars.

With the LeMans cars (and to a lessor degree F1) there's room for ingenuity and therefore a way for the car company to strut their stuff show they are superior to the competition.

I know the series predates the Nascar buyout, but they are too COT alike for me and it would not surprise me to see more conformity as the series goes on.

In reply to emodspitfire:

Today's event is only a week before the more presigious Watkins Glen 6hr. Maybe the grid will be larger when the stakes are higher, but not by much.

Hey, carguy1234, the proposed rules for future DP cars reportedly includes plans to accommadate some chassis changes and bodywork that will approximate silhouette-style renditions of production cars.

Considering the cosmetic beauty of Nascar's current Cup and Nationwide cars, the DP car's supermodel days may soon be long gone.

It wasn't an illusion. I was there and it was a really thin field. I suspected that it would be a disappointing day when I couldn't even find a daily schedule of events on the Lime Rock website. It was like they were hiding the lack of interesting races.

Memorial Day at Lime Rock used to be huge. The past few years have been very disappointing. I paid $45 for today after the $5 AAA discount.

Ditto, I was also there. I enjoyed the races - any day is a good day at Lime Rock! There were a ton of guys in Roush shirts who appeared to be wandering through the various paddocks. It didn't seem that they had allegiance to any particular team. Perhaps they provide the engines to many of the DP cars and learn from the data?

Follow the money. Europeans spend more, drink more and turnout to see and appreciate innovation and talent more than Americans do. We also have to travel farther and suffer more for racing than our European counterparts. I would be at anything that burned fuel if it was a 6 hour trainride in a sleeper car.Wherethehellis Daytona ?

They are making the DP cars larger and taller next year to accomodate the "silhouettes" I'm betting it will be on the order of those trucks you see with a vinyl picture of a car on the side.

Yeah, Long Beach was REAL Diverse...

And have you seen the new Audi?

I agree, the Rolex series seems to be getting a bit thinner, but dear god the Continental Tire series is strong, they had something like a 61 car field at VIR, and despite the number of cars that ended up wadded up in the tire wall or otherwise ran out of talent in spectacular fashion, it was a really good race. And there are four Minis and two Miatas running mostly full-time in that series, so major plus if there was a pit lane in the world big enough to accomidate a field that big, it might be interesting to run a race at the end of the season where both Grand Am series were on track at once. DP, GT, GS and ST cars all fighting for position, maybe run it at Road America, or maybe Miller Motorsports Park? for a field that big (using turnout numbers for GS/ST from VIR and DP/GT from Lime Rock, 84+ car field) you would almost need a track the size of Road America or Miller Motorsports Park, maybe even travel over to LeMans or the Nurburgring (oh wouldn't that be a treat!) just to get enough real estate to handle that many cars, and even then it might not be sufficient. but it would be interesting

At this point, I much prefer the Continental Tire series...

I really like that they've got such a variety of cars in that one. (Including a Z!)

It isn't just Rolex, it's everyone. The prototype field is more expensive, so it is the first to go. However, the ones that are there are fighting HARD, and it is really interesting to see.

Look at an ALMS race prototype field. At Long Beach there were TWO that ran....

Teacher from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory said: Two? How can you have had just TWO?

In both series they are picking and choosing races. Sometimes it doesn't make sense to go to a non-critical race and risk breaking things.

scardeal wrote: At this point, I much prefer the Continental Tire series... I really like that they've got such a variety of cars in that one. (Including a Z!)

I'm betting you like the fact that you can identify and identify with the cars in the Conti challenge. I too much prefer it to the prototypes.

F1 and ALMS don't have visual identity, but they have innovation that spices things up, for me.

Someone told me that the KERS system in the new Porsches were a direct take out from the F1 Kers system of 2 years ago.

So the last ALMS race had two prototypes not including the LMPC cars right? I must be doing my math wrong but how is that more diverse than the 10 cars that ran in DP at Lime Rock? I think it was a bad scheduling choice for Grand-Am to do this race memorial day weekend and then 6 days later do a 6 hour enduro right up the road. I'm sure a few teams sat this one out so they could race at Watkins Glen. The ILMC is pretty diverse, cool technology, etc. I enjoy both series, but Grand-Am always seems to be more exciting to watch.

Technically I prefer the ALMS cars, but for racing, the Daytona Prototypes put on a better show. Take your pic. Personally, I watch both and count myself lucky to be able to do that.

We used to race in what is now the Cont. Tire series, so I have a big fondness for it. It has always been a great place to race, no matter what name it went by. I remember at Road Atlanta one year there were something like 91 cars in the field (we were on pole of course! ), so it has a history of large fields too.

The biggest problem I have with Grand Am now is the lean towards tube frame cars in the GT field. I know they are cheaper to fix, but a tube frame door slammer doesn't do it for me. They really put the honest to goodness buy it from the factory Porsches in a bad spot with the rules. I would make it a lot easier to cross over with the ALMS fields to attract larger numbers of participants.

none of it is cheap however, even Cont. Tire. It takes about as much as World Challenge used to to put together a really strong run for the overall win.

the DP cars are so fugly and so anonymous looking , I really can't work up much give a E36 M3 for them... the GT cars on the other hand are fun to watch.... even though I know they have little in common with the cars I can buy, at least they look like something I can recognize

Here's your new Audi LMP car. Talk about ugly.

racerfink wrote: Here's your new Audi LMP car. Talk about ugly.

That's not ugly at all, it's mean looking!