Pat W

Weekend Preview: 7-8 March 2009

Some more championships get going this weekend with the WTCC and IRC both starting their seasons in Brazil, and interestingly they will be at the same location. More on that later.

Note – My copy of Autosport hasn’t arrived today due to snow, so I’m relying on internet links and prior notes – this means no ‘minor races’ this week.

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NASCAR Sprint Cup
– Kobalt Tools 500 (4/36)
– Atlanta Motor Speedway
– Atlanta, Georgia, United States
– www.nascar.com

Yet another 500 miler, those guys get through a lot early in the season don’t they? This time we head to the fast Atlanta track. Midweek Motorsport said this week that you get 8 lap manic sprints followed by 15-20 laps of running on worn tyres. Can they not do what they did in Days of Thunder and back off for the first bit, then in the later bit pass them all as if you have another gear?

UK TV: 6.00pm, Sky Sports 3 & 3HD
US TV: 1.30pm, FOX

Also racing at Atlanta:
Camping World Truck Series
UK TV: No deal.
US TV: 1.30pm Saturday, SPEED.

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FIA World Touring Car Championship
– HSBC Race of Brazil (1&2/24)
– Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba
– Curitiba, Brazil
– www.fiawtcc.com

The WTCC gets started for 2009 with another visit to Curitiba, where for the 3rd year running there is a charity initiative to help the less well off of the locality, of which there are many. If a spectator brings 2kg of food they can watch the racing for free. I absolutely love this idea, last year the stands were packed and they collected 52 tonnes of food!! More here.

It’ll be interesting to see if one manufacturer dominates again. It took a few rounds last year for the balance to be restored. This year there is a new performance balancing formula to replace weights, which I’ve forgotten to read up on because I didn’t realise these guys were starting already…

UK TV:
Race 1 at 4.00pm, Eurosport 2
Race 2 at 7.00pm, Eurosport 1

US TV:
No deal.

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Intercontinental Rally Challenge
– Rally Internacional de Curitiba (2/12)
– Autodromo Internacional de Curitiba
– Curitiba, Brazil
– www.ircseries.com

The second round of IRC is under way already and comes to a close on Saturday afternoon. That’s not a typo in the location section – the service park is stationed behind the main grandstand of Curitiba race circuit. Both IRC and WTCC are backed and promoted by Eurosport Events so this marks an interesting cost-saving move whilst bringing a variety of motorsport to one location. It’s certainly the first time I’ve heard of a race and rally being held in the same place.

UK TV:
Updates throughout the weekend on Eurosport’s channels.

* * *

Other:

AMA Superbikes at Daytona. I imagine this is on SPEED in the US. It isn’t available here, not live anyway.

2009 Le Mans 24 Hours – Entry List

Last Thursday the ACO released the official entry list for the 2009 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and it confirmed some pre-announced deals, verified some rumours and offered some complete surprises – as it does every year!

I’m writing this quite late so I’m going to just do short notes.

LM P1

1 / Audi Sport Team Joest / Audi R15
3 / Audi Sport Team Joest / Audi R15
2 / Audi Sport North America / Audi R15

Audi are returning with a new car, which will be raced first at Sebring but will probably not contest the full 2009 season.

14 / TME Kolles / Audi R10
15 / TME Kolles / Audi R10

I’m not sure if this is backup plan from Audi, but they’ve sold or loaned to R10s to Colin Kolles. They’ll still need to be adapted to the narrower rear wing regulations.

7 / Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908
8 / Team Peugeot Total / Peugeot 908
9 / Peugeot Sport Total / Peugeot 908

Peugeot also return with three cars. An updated car and revised driver line-up should mean they are quietly confident ahead of this year’s race – but they said that last year.

17 / Pescarolo Sport / Peugeot 908
16 / Pescarolo Sport / Pescarolo Judd

Count this is as a surprise. A customer Peugeot for Pescarolo. Surely this is in response to Kolles? It seems to be a 2008 car modified to new rules from what I’ve read, and not the ’09 cars of the factory team.

007 / Aston Martin Racing / Lola Aston Martin
009 / Aston Martin Racing / Lola Aston Martin
008 / AMR Eastern Europe / Lola Aston Martin

Three entries also from Aston Martin, who are in a naming dispute with Lola at the moment. First year with these cars so a win surely isn’t on the cards, but they’ll be looking to show good speed. AMR Eastern Europe is Charouz, in fact they all might be, but this is the only one under the Czech flag.

13 / Speedy Racing Team Sebah / Lola Aston Martin

This entry seems to be being run more at ‘arms length’ from the factory/Prodrive.

10 / Team ORECA Matmut AIM / Courage-ORECA AIM
11 / Team ORECA Matmut AIM / Courage-ORECA AIM

Can’t say I know much about this so I’m assuming it’s a continuation from last year.

6 / Team LNT / Ginetta Zytek
23 / Strakka Racing / Ginetta Zytek

Zytek and Ginetta merged toward the end of last year and LNT have stepped up from running a GT2 Panoz (and they entered Petit with this car). Quick chassis, promising for the privateer sub-class.

12 / Signature Plus / Courage Judd

The Formula 3 team makes the switch to endurance racing. ‘Tis all I know.

20 / Epsilon Euskadi / Epsilon Euskadi Judd

I’m surprised this only got one entry.

4 Creation Autosportif Creation Judd

Yay, Creation are back. I like them.

LM P2

5 / Navi Team Goh / Porsche RS Spyder
31 / Team Essex / Porsche RS Spyder
49 / Vitaphone Racing Team / Porsche RS Spyder

Team Goh won overall with the Audi R8 a few years back, they’ve been absent for a while. Team Essex weren’t going to enter and changed their minds. Vitaphone are a surprise announcement, they run Saleens in FIA GT and did enter Le Mans last year with an Aston GT1 but a prototype wasn’t expected at all.

25 / RML / Lola Mazda Coupe
44 / KSM / Lola Mazda Coupe

RML are always strong. No idea who KSM are. This Lola is fast, I think it’s basically the P2 version of what Aston Martin are running.

30 / Racing Box / Lola Judd Coupe
33 / Speedy Racing Team Sebah / Lola Judd Coupe

More Lola coupes for these guys but a choice of Judd engines instead. It’ll be an interesting battle between the four Lolas!

24 / Oak Racing / Pescarolo Mazda
35 / Oak Racing / Pescarolo Mazda

Pescarolo with a Mazda engine? Fair enough.. I’m sure I read who Oak Racing are, it’s a name change of a team I know about but I can’t remember who at the moment.

40 / Quifel-ASM Team / Ginetta Zytek 09S

The P2 version of the P1 car above. ASM had a Lola last year.

41 / Gac Racing Team / Zytek 07S

No idea. Seems like they have the previous version of the car ASM will run.

26 / Bruichladdich Bruneau / Radical AER

I like this team too and the Radical is pretty quick.

LM GT1

63 / Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R
64 / Corvette Racing / Corvette C6.R

With no works Astons, guess who’ll win this class? This is the last appearance of works GT1 Corvettes though, so enjoy it.

72 / Luc Alphand Aventures / Corvette C6.R
73 / Luc Alphand Aventures / Corvette C6.R

Back-up for a fight that never came. They weren’t going to enter after a fight with the ACO over the promotion of the LMS, but changed their minds last minute. Not to mention wanting to prove how pacesetters in European GT racing fair at LM.

60 / Gigawave Motorsport Ltd / Aston Martin DBR9
66 / Jetalliance Racing / Aston Martin DBR9

Two quick Astons may just push Corvette hard enough.

55 / IPB Spartak Racing / Lamborghini Murcielago
68 / JLOC Isao Noritake / Lamborghini Murcielago

Is it unkind to say these are field-fillers?

This is probably the last year of GT1 in this spec. I know Ratel’s FIA World GT coming next year will run to different rules.

LM GT2

76 / IMSA Performance Matmut / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
77 / Team Felbermayer-Proton / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
80 / Flying Lizard Motorsport / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)

Just three Porsches this year in GT2. I’m amazed, they used to dominate! Shame the Lizards didn’t get a second entry.

78 / AF Corse Srl / Ferrari F430 GT
82 / Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT
83 / Risi Competizione / Ferrari F430 GT
84 / Team Modena / Ferrari F430 GT
89 / Hankook – Team Farnbacher / Ferrari F430 GT
92 / JMW Motorsport / Ferrari F430 GT
96 / Virgo Motorsport / Ferrari F430 GT
97 / BMS Scuderia Italia / Ferrari F430 GT
99 / JMB Racing / Ferrari F430 GT

Nine Ferraris!! I think that shows this is the faster car, as everyone gravitates toward it.

87 / Drayson Racing / Aston Martin V8
85 / Snoras Spyker Squadron / Spyker C8 Laviolette

Good to see that Drayson got an entry. You have to say they are aiming to score a finish, but that’s what Le Mans is about. Nice to see Spyker still plugging away but only one car this time.

You’ll note I’m not tipping winners in any class (except GT1!). Frankly with this field it’s much too difficult to go picking winners this early, and with no Test Day it’s even harder.

Reserves
There are ten reserves this year as opposed to 8 in previous years. As always they’ll enter the race in this order should any of the above withdraw, regardless of class. So if a P1 drops out the first reserve, a GT2 this year, will take that spot.

R1 / GT2 / Team Seattle Advanced Eng / Ferrari F430 GT
R2 / GT2 / Endurance China Team / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
R3 / GT2 / IMSA Performance Matmut / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
R4 / LMP2 / Barazi Epsilon / Zytek 07S
R5 / LMP2 / Gerard Welter / Zytek
R6 / LMP1 / Epsilon Euskadi / Epsilon Euskadi Judd
R7 / GT2 / Team Felbermayer-Proton / Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (997)
R8 / GT2 / Snoras Spyker Squadron / Spyker C8 Laviolette
R9 / GT1 / Team Larbre Competition / Saleen S7R
R10 / LMP2 / Racing Box SRL /Lola Judd Coupe

That answers where Epsilon Euskadi and Spyker’s second cars are, as well as several Porsches. How did Barazi and Larbre not get entries??? That’s nuts.
I don’t think we’ve seen Welter on the list for a while..

More Info

Okay I think I’m done. Unfortunately I don’t have time to scout for more information, sorry, but I hope this was enough to work as a little primer.

No doubt the boys at RadioLeMans.com will discuss this in great detail (along with more USF1 news and lots else) in tomorrow’s Midweek Motorsport which you can hear live at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST. I think it’s repeated at 8pm EST. If that’s not helpful, the podcast will follow on a day or so later. You need to count MWM as a ‘Must Listen’ even if sportscars isn’t your thing, ‘cos they cover all sorts of stuff.
(I also recommend FastMachines.com for a quick weekly hit and Sidepodcast.com for specialist F1 talk)

And of course there’s always the official website of the race.

Launch: Force India VJM02

Force India Mercedes VJM02

The new Force India had a soft-launch over the weekend, with pictures first appearing a day ahead of Sunday’s official release. Today these studios shots were joined by a whole host of Q&As from the FIF1 press office which you can find on the usual news sites, as well as pics from Jerez.

The big news is the switch from a Ferrari customer deal to an agreement with McLaren-Mercedes for the full powertrain – that is the engine, gearbox and KERS systems, as well as technical co-operation in other areas. Simon Roberts of McLaren is now the Chief Operating Officer at Force India as part of a personnel shake-up. Mike Gascoyne and others have left the company.

The basic theme running through all of the Q&As is that the new McLaren/Mercedes deal frees up FIF1 engineers to work on other aspects of the car, such as aero and internal packaging. It means that as other teams cut back, Force India don’t need to worry about that and can concentrate on the task at hand: working their way from the back of the field to regular points-scoring positions.

The first chassis was shaken down at Silverstone last week and Fisichella took it for a test at Jerez today. Liuzzi will shake down the second car during this week before the final big pre-season group test in Barcelona.

It’s a good looking car, quite aggressive with another high nose. The late launch means the car has spent longer in CFD and in the wind tunnel than their competitors, many of whom will need to do an (expensive) upgrade for the first race of the season.

I hope they are able to close up the remainder of the gap to make the midfield a close fight. They made some big gains in lap time last year even if that wasn’t represented in positions, in qualifying they used to be 3sec off the back and last year they were about 1 – 1.5 sec back. A long time in F1!

The downside here could be the decision not to run KERS until very much later than everyone else. Some reports suggest they won’t run it until May – that could prove to be a mistake. Still, at least they’ll be ahead of whatever Honda becomes..

Photo credits: http://www.forceindiaf1.com/

* * * *

Tomorrow Williams will launch their Formula 2 car powered by Audi, I’m not sure if I’ll be around but I’ll put a short post up about that some time this week as well as something on the Le Mans entry list.

MotoGP back to Eurosport

Gotta love the about-face. First Dorna takes the rights from Eurosport to sell them to FTAs, then they do a deal with Eurosport France causing uproar among fans in the UK and beyond.

Autosport.com and others are reporting that Dorna have changed their minds due to pressure from fans (and Toby Moody) and will indeed once again show 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP races during 2009. The support events will be live and the main event will be delayed on British Eurosport. I don’t know the status of the other local Eurosport services so I’m afraid you’ll have to check that yourselves.

2009 MotoGP Coverage (UK)

BBC:
All MotoGP races are live on BBC2. These are followed on the Red Button by MotoGP Extra, an analysis programme. Also on the Red Button are the 125 and 250 races as well as qualifying for all classes. Commentary will be as before: Charlie Cox and Steve Parrish.

British Eurosport:
All MotoGP races are delayed on British Eurosport*. 125 and 250 will be live as will all Friday and Saturday practices. The big news: The Toby & Julian Show will return!

* I expect this to mean the main channel, not Eurosport 2.

Both broadcasters will make the races available online after the event, via BBC iPlayer and Eurosport Player respectively.