Mazda at the 24

I'm not up to date on the rules for the 24, but it seems that the RX8 beat up on the Porsches again. What engine modifications are allowed in that race? Anybody have numbers on the Mazda HP? That CAN'T be stock. And they lasted the whole race. Impressive.

It's a 3-rotor making something north of 400hp.

More details here: http://www.speedsourceinc.com/index.cfm?template=mazdacars&section=mazda

Were the Fahrnbacher Loles cars there? I know that they've been having some, uh, legal issues.

RX-8's for the Grand Am series are also tube framed. Not much on them is stock.

The Grand-Am rules package for the GT class is based on "equalizing" the competition. Thus, we see tube-frame 3-rotor rotary Rx8's, tube-frame RWD Pontiacs (that were originally FWD platforms; now Camaros) compete against Porsches and the occasional Ferrari that have a more limited prep level. Weights and air restrictions are assigned and can change per the whims of the sanctioning body.

It's an interesting but totally contrived set of rules.

The good thing is that I love the sounds coming from those Mazdas!

The BMW's made an impressive sound too.

Sounds a lot like when we ran GTO class back in the day. Our Camaro had a roof from a Camaro, that was it. Tube frame, fiberglass body, 2400# plus a bit of ballast. Ran 331 to 426ci, depending on the competition. I guess that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Made the sounds and smells that still give me wood.

oldsaw wrote: The Grand-Am rules package for the GT class is based on "equalizing" the competition. Thus, we see tube-frame 3-rotor rotary Rx8's, tube-frame RWD Pontiacs (that were originally FWD platforms; now Camaros) compete against Porsches and the occasional Ferrari that have a more limited prep level. Weights and air restrictions are assigned and can change per the whims of the sanctioning body. It's an interesting but totally contrived set of rules. The good thing is that I love the sounds coming from those Mazdas!

But it's a like a Forza race come to life! Where else can you see BMW's duking it out with Ferrari's and Porsche's?

GI_Drewsifer wrote: Where else can you see BMW's duking it out with Ferrari's and Porsche's?

LMS/ALMS where they all compete, but with an extra dose of steroids. And they get to play with Aston Martins, Corvettes plus the occasional Lambo and Viper.

The racing in Grand-Am is fun (if a tad messy), but the LMS/ALMS cars are faster and more interesting.

Fortunately, I like both!

I have no bias to either series, but it seems like the racing in Grand-Am is way more fun to watch. The ALMS has kind of lost it's luster, the GT2 class should be exciting again this year, but ever since there was a schism American road racing has just been kind of blah...

Continental Tire Challenge race...now that was something else. 76 entries, door banging action, and all different kinds of cars! Now that was an awesome race.

Here is a cool shot I got of the winning car...not the best photo, but a cool shot.

I see what Grand Am's trying to do (and really, I saw it from the inception of the series) ..they think they can make money if they can make Road Racing in the US more like NASCAR. And I should admit my rant's more about the DP class than the GT cars, but IMO their philosophy extends to the GT ranks as well.

I don't mean the bad things about NASCAR, but the good things! More than three teams that can run up front, an understanding by the "casual fan" that it's a season-long championship, and focusing upon the drivers rather than the cars.

The thing is (to this old endurance sportscar racing fan, at least), the folks running the show are trying to do it by reducing the level of tech in the series. It has made the racing much closer, but the very fact that the cars are slower than the ALMS cars makes Grand Am a minor league series to me. It's the same reason I preferred CART to the IRL in the early days of the split.

I'm not trying to "flame" Grand Am when I say that. I really enjoy watching their races. And considering the drivers who decide to drive those cars (the DPs, I mean), I can only imagine that they must be an absolute ball to drive. To me (again, as a ALMS fan), the collection of such talent at Daytona every February keeps the Daytona 24 from becoming the pale copy of its past that the Indy 500 did after the open-wheeled Civil War began.

And as much as I love "traditional" professional sportscar racing, I have to admit that the Grand Am folks have a valid strategy when it comes to eventually selling more tix in the US. The GTP/Group C era is remembered for how wickedly fast those cars were, but most folks' memories of that era are about the few races where there was a close finish. And for all of the worship of the original 60s-70s Can Am, any study of the results will show that most of those races were simply parades as well. Only the pure outrageousness and speed of those cars made that series popular.

I guess what I'm wondering about is just exactly who to whom the Grand Am folks are trying to appeal. Borrowing a lil' corporate language here..are they trying to steal the core market from ALMS, or are they trying to build a new market among folks that have never seen road racing before? If the former, I don't see much success. If the latter, it's a brave new world.

I work in television, so I'm actually familiar with this kind of thing. For all the b--ching and whining about "..MTV doesn't show music, ESPN doesn't show sports, SPEED doesn't show racing, and the Weather Channel doesn't even show the weather anymore!..), the ratings have actuallly gone up as they abandon their core markets for more mass appeal.

Rant almost over...just didn't want to get out of here without reminding everybody that I'm a racer. Whatever nonsense the sanctioning bodies do, I'm not disrespecting the teams & drivers. We'd do it anyway, right? And if the marketing men make it possible for us to actually get paid to race, we'd do it, regardless of whatever they want to do to make money out of what we do.

And I can't finish without "giving it up" for Sylvain & the Speedsource crew! When I went to bed Sat night, I thought TRG had it wrapped up. I was delighted to see the #70 car in the lead when I woke up the next morning! A few years back, a buddy & I thought about building a VW Corrado VR6 for ITS (shortly after they became old enough for SCCA IT)...and then realized how expensive it would be to beat Tremblay (and his dozen customers!) in those fantastic FCs they built here in the Southeast!

EDIT: I actually met Carol once at Roebling after I quit racing and started working corners again. Great lady. RIP.

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

Very well stated, I agree completely. By reducing the tech they also reduced the budget to run a competitive team. I suspect that close racing and equal TV coverage will tilt potential teams & sponsors away from ALMS and toward Grand Am in these lean times. Unless the 2 formulas are running together on the same track "most people" would not notice the lap time differences between the 2. Acting as a support class for NASCAR road course races (Watkins Glen, Sears Point) has a better chance of pulling in the casual fan too. Seems like a pretty good formula to me.

That being said - I like both series, but have only attended ALMS races.

WRT ALMS, and ELMS- I suspect that they are seeing some silmilar issues with their programs, as the P1 class has been reduced over the years to the powerful diesel teams and a handful of privateers running gas, and the GT1 class was pretty much never more than Vette vs. Aston.

Now, the GT1 class really doesn't exist, and the GT2 class is full of interesting cars. Over some time, the P classes seem to be merging, but for sure, the rules bias for the diesels is going away in the P1 class. I had actually dreamed of an ecoboost P2 car, since they are going to more production based engines with smaller restrictors...

Anyway, the point is that LeMans seems to be reducing the classes to make it easier to follow for the casual fan.

What's really interesting for me is that the DP vs. ALMS hasn't killed either sport, and neither is on the verge of bankrupcy- they exist in their own little space. I think with the economy still in the tank, they will be more competition for sponsors, but the racing is so different- they will co-exist for some time.

Am I wrong to think that DP has a really strong set of sub series? I seem to think they have some good solid stepper programs....

I've been to neither, but do watch both. Good stuff.

Eric

To the OP- heck of a win for the Mazda team- I never thought they would come back.

i gotta jet to work but it seems like the low cost of running a DP car or a GA GT car is outweighing the overwhelming $3 million+ budget to run one vehicle in an ALMS season.