Tudor United SportsCar Championship

There were 9 GTLM cars and the Vipers are fast!   Goosens in the #91 on pole and Bomber Bomarito in the #93 was just pushed off the front row by Tandy in the #911 Porsche.   Oli Gavin was the fastest Vette in 4th.

The Vipers picked it up from the 1st Practice session, woohoo!

I'll be covering the FS2 portion of the event for Allpar, so I'll be watching from 3pm CST to 8pm CST.

I'd like to have my XBox running in the background and be chatting to make sure I don't miss something. IMSA will be broadcasting the entire event live, and as Squid told me, the IMSA stream looks great on XB1, so...

Viewing party, anyone???

I'll bring some Shiner!

Im in... I havent heard if IMSA is streaming the whole event or just the Night Shift but if its streamed alongside the FS2 airing then Im in.  That Viper Exchange GT3-R GTD looks so good!  Bleeks is a damn good driver too so I have high hopes for the SRT Vipers in both classes this year.

Looks like only 7 of the 9 PC cars are attempting to qual as well.   The #7 Starworks PC and the #25 8Star Motorsport PC are MIA on the IMSA live timing.  Cant believe it but a Oreca FLM09 actually nabbed pole in PC (sarcasm internet, sarcasm)!!!   Looks like #54 Colin Braun nabbed pole from #8 Renger Van Der Zande with just a minute or two left.

Wow the Corvette DPs have clearly more speed it looks like.  Vette DPs are 4 of the top 5 and DPs in general are the top 7 and 9 of the top 10 with the Delta Wing in 8th.   Lucas Luhr is the first P2 car in 11th in a Nissan Oreca LMP2.   Luhr is a bit over 1.5 seconds off the Vette DP of Alex Gurney in the #99 Gainsco pole sitting car.  The next closest LMP2 is 3.5 seconds off pace.

RACER mag has a Vette and SRT edition for download PDF.   

SRT - RACER mag SRT Digital Edition

Chevy - RACER mag Chevy Digital Edition

The #33 Viper Exchange Riley Motorsports GT3-R moves to 5th on the starting grid after the pole sitting Paul Miller Racing Audi R8 and the 3rd place Fall-Line Motorsports Audi R8 had their qualifying times disqualified because of post qual inspection failures.
Pole and 3rd place Audi's fail inspection post qualifying


In long night practice Action Express led P, Starworks led PC, SRT Viper were 1st and 2nd in GTLM, and Level 5's 458 led GTD.
Vipers lead the GTLM field in final night practice

IMSA reverses the penalties that dropped Audi from the GTD Pole

Sounds like they don't have there sh!t together (they being tudor).

Bad wreck - Gainsco DP had nowhere to go when destroyed the Risi 458

Seeing as the Rolex 24 is simply awesome, I wanted to show you guys a quick glimpse of iRacing's Riley DP on Daytona at night.  I love this track and this car.  Here's a hotlap from the TV angles and the roof cam.

Nice lap, Tux.

Sorta05 wrote:Sounds like they don't have there sh!t together (they being tudor).

Sorta, you are correct and Level 5 agrees with you-

David Stone wrote:“It was my opinion we should not have been [in the TUDOR Championship] in 2014 to begin with because of it being a development year for the series … as was apparent, the time fame it was taking for them to provide rules, driver rankings, etc led me to believe they’ve got their hands full and I do not envy the position they were and are still in … The series needs time to sort itself out and I don’t want to be one of the participants that has to suffer through that the first year. I feel that the series has focused more on quantity than quality. The reality is you can only properly support so many teams at any given track at one time.

Above quote from here.

David Stone brings up some great points and some discussion material. Level 5 is now avoiding Tudor like some people avoid the first year of a generational change in cars. Is the result of the merger between Grand-Am & the American Le Mans Series one series that is too big? I say yes because we lost the P1 class and a bunch of tracks.

I discovered that the TUDOR series is owned and ran by NASCAR (they bought grand am a while back).  So expect NASCRAP to ruin American Le Mans as they have ruined NASCAR. 

That being said I think they have to many classes of cars.  I think they need to get it down to the GTS cars and maybe some type of prototype car.  Stop over regulated the cars and let them race.  The trans am series of the 60's was awesome and I think they really need to study what made that a success as I think that recipe will work today (or one similar to it).

Glad to know you are so subjective there Sorta.   The reason there are rules is to balance the competition so you dont have 2-3 competitive cars and the rest just running laps as eye candy only.   Shoot now days Nascar as the most competitive series out there.  43 cars in the 500 and 30 of them if not more had a car that could run up front.    Grand Am was run just fine under the ownership of Nascar.    

It seems most people think back to the older days of racing and forget that it was horribly unbalanced from top to bottom and cheating was rampant.   Tudor had one race and a good one at that overall.  There was last lap battles in 3 of 4 classes.   All classes were filled with cars that had a good shot at winning.   I can understand not preferring this rule or that rule but you cant call it a bad series when the product shown was pretty good.    Just wait, you all will like it if you like good racing.   If not, then you can always check out F1 I suppose because they never have boring racing at all haha.   

Even Stone says that the series isnt bad, just young and needs time to get sorted but if you expect it things to be flawless right out the gate then you will never find a series that interests you.

Some rules are crap. Other rules (and some Squid highlighted) are in place to keep manufacturer teams from spending boo-coo bucks and running circles around privateer teams, and to keep every team within some guidelines.

Grand-Am (always a sublet of NASCAR) bought ALMS, this was put out there the moment the wheels started turning. Don Panoz offered his series up for sale and people called him a sellout for abandoning his series. They were pissed it was "Grand-Scam" buying the American Le Mans Series from the get-go. On 4 September 2012 I tweeted this,

I hate to say it though I believe #almsnotes just got the no-lube big bore shaft by #NASCAR #GrandAm #SadTimesAhead

I was reassured by someone from Grand-Am they did not envision the transition going down like that. I wasn't alone in these feelings; the ALMS was definitely better than Grand-Am and ALMS fans were nonplussed at the news.

I am happy to see high ranking ALMS names in positions of power on the USC Racing board of officials. In typical business purchases the purchased business gets assimilated and we don't hear from them ever again. What bitters me: the diminished track list and no more P1 stateside. Yes, only Grand-Am would race at Barber Motorsports Park and only ALMS would race at Road Atlanta though they were still races and they were televised … broadcast for people to see. Now the series are combined and we're only going to see 14 (+/-2) races total.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nascars-greed-sagging-attendance-164200797--nascar.html

That's one of many articles about nascraps slipping attendance.  Some chock it up to the bad economy, which is partly to blame but I think it's bigger then that.  I read one that shows attendance has halved in the last 8 years or so.  For me they started killing it in the 90's but I'm sure it started well before then. 

Here's the one that really gets me:  N.A.S.C.A.R. = National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing.  Name one F'ing thing on those cars that's stock, ONE!!!  It's f'ing BS.  They are so far from there roots it's not even funny.  And don't give me this "they can't run stock cars cause it's to dangerous" crap.  What do you think the GTS cars are in TUDOR?  They are based on the stock chassis.  Hell even the new C7R uses the same exact chassis as the actual production C7 Z06.  It can be done and it can be done safely (even if they have to slow them down that's find by me). 

Now, I'm not saying you should make the racing boring... I mentioned the old Trans Am series because it was anything but.  And the fact is even with all the BS regulations in nascrap the races are still boring as all hell half the time.  No matter what you do that's a risk and part of racing.  Now I'm not saying let them cheat and do whatever the hell they want.  You still need regulations but you need to spur competitions among the drivers and the manufacturers and not choke them with retarded handicaps to artificially "make" the racing better (i.e. the 200 lbs the C6R had to lug around with it).  The pinnacle of racing and what makes it so great in my mind is the unique combination of man and machine.  And the pinnacle of racing is when both are at there best.  Think about it this way, how dumb would it be if all the cars were exactly the same (yeah I know that's impossible) and if one driver were consistently faster then the others they would drug him before each race so he would be more "competitive" with everyone else.  That's crazy right?  So why do we do it with the cars?  That's like telling the great athletes of the world that didn't cheat (steroids) that they can't go to the gym as much to work out because they have an unfair advantage. 

Rant/off.

Sorta05 wrote:http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nascars-greed-sagging-attendance-164200797--nascar.html

That's one of many articles about nascraps slipping attendance.  Some chock it up to the bad economy, which is partly to blame but I think it's bigger then that.  I read one that shows attendance has halved in the last 8 years or so.  For me they started killing it in the 90's but I'm sure it started well before then. 

Here's the one that really gets me:  N.A.S.C.A.R. = National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing.  Name one F'ing thing on those cars that's stock, ONE!!!  It's f'ing BS.  They are so far from there roots it's not even funny.  And don't give me this "they can't run stock cars cause it's to dangerous" crap.  What do you think the GTS cars are in TUDOR?  They are based on the stock chassis.  Hell even the new C7R uses the same exact chassis as the actual production C7 Z06.  It can be done and it can be done safely (even if they have to slow them down that's find by me). 

Now, I'm not saying you should make the racing boring... I mentioned the old Trans Am series because it was anything but.  And the fact is even with all the BS regulations in nascrap the races are still boring as all hell half the time.  No matter what you do that's a risk and part of racing.  Now I'm not saying let them cheat and do whatever the hell they want.  You still need regulations but you need to spur competitions among the drivers and the manufacturers and not choke them with retarded handicaps to artificially "make" the racing better (i.e. the 200 lbs the C6R had to lug around with it).  The pinnacle of racing and what makes it so great in my mind is the unique combination of man and machine.  And the pinnacle of racing is when both are at there best.  Think about it this way, how dumb would it be if all the cars were exactly the same (yeah I know that's impossible) and if one driver were consistently faster then the others they would drug him before each race so he would be more "competitive" with everyone else.  That's crazy right?  So why do we do it with the cars?  That's like telling the great athletes of the world that didn't cheat (steroids) that they can't go to the gym as much to work out because they have an unfair advantage. 

Rant/off.

It sounds like you don't like "spec" racing from that last paragraph.  Many series are "spec" series.  It's fine if you don't like it.  Don't watch it.  Personally, I find it more exciting when 3 seconds separates 1st from 2nd after 400 miles than 12 seconds after 250 miles like many racing series.  It's also cool to see a large majority of the field finish on the lead lap.  Yeah, yeah I know, "it's because of manufactured cautions."  Blah, blah, blah. Again, if you don't like it, don't watch it.  I've heard so many anti-Nascar people complaining as if they're personally offended.  If you ask me, it's not the product, it's the people.  People are looking for impossible action that occurs every second of the race.  That simply isn't racing.  Never was.  Then you get the so-called "old school" Nascar fans that bitch because it isn't like it used to be.  Yeah genius, it must have been great watching the same four drivers win every race by a lap.  What you have now is parity.  With a fan base that would rather watch Real Housewives.

Rant/off



Edit: Yes, we know they're not "Stock" cars.  We don't give a shit.  They're much better than "Stock" cars.  And no, the C7R isn't stock.  I know, it has some "stock" parts.  I couldn't care less.  It kicks ass, no matter what they name it.

Tux I agree with you that spec cars creates some great racing.  I also think it's a great thing because it allows poor bastards like me to have the hope that one day I can do some wheel to wheel racing.  And I don't watch NASCAR.  It's fun to watch a race in person every now and then but I stopped regularly watching NASCAR about 8 or more years ago.  I don't expect there to be non stop action.  I'm one of the few people that hate seeing wrecks.  I want to see the race go green the whole way, even if it means the field gets spread out.  The reason I get upset is that NASCAR was an amazing sport and it's just not any more, and I really think it's because they are trying to make it spec racing when it's not (or at least shouldn't be). 

And I also love the C7R!  That being said I'd really love to see a GTS C7R.  And I do care that the C7R has stock parts in it.  It's called pedigree, and it's awesome when I can go buy a car at the dealership that has that pedigree in racing (which you can no longer do with "stock" cars).

Sorta you are caught in the "change vs familiarity" spot.   Fact is nothing can stay the same as time changes most everything at some point.   All series just like everything around us must evolve.   Sports car racing is no more like a street car at the highest level then "Stock Cars" are these days.   Technology has advanced everything around us and in turn we have to adapt and change with it.   The difference between Sports Car racing and Nascar in the evolution from production cars to the race version is that Sports Cars have become more race car like from the factory so you "see" them more closely resembling the race car.   But your 100k dollar Vette ZR1 has alot more cost involved then the 20-30k Ford, Chevy, and Toyota sedans that Nascar bases the Gen 6 cars off of.   

True they arent stock anymore.   But if they were, in order for the racing to be interesting to watch and not kill every participant that wrecks, the cars would cost 10+ times as much and not be much of a street car at all.   I do find it rather interesting that you dont watch Nascar anymore and yet you have very strong opinions on the current state of the sport.   Just like most every sport in the country right now, attendance is down because of several factors.  The 2 biggest ones are economy and the overwhelmingly solid TV coverage that allows you to, in some ways, better enjoy the races from 1st to last in detail better than attending and sitting in the stands.   

Short tracks actually have better numbers because it is easier to see all track in detail allowing the fans to keep up with all the drivers.   Production value is now becoming an important factor in the Major Sports leagues.  So I totally get that you prefer the grass roots stuff.   I like that as well but I think the competition is better in the top series where the drivers are the biggest deciding factor in most outcomes.  I will always love that!  Watching the last lap finishes of 2-4 drivers come withing half a second of each other after 400-500 miles is the best IMO.   

I will side with you though that seeing the cars in classes like American Iron AI/X or PWC GTS and the many similar series is glorious because, like you mentioned, they look like street cars and make you feel like you could be in the field given just a bit of cash and opportunity.    I guess my feelings are that there is something for everyone but just because the other stuff isnt your style doesnt mean you need to assume the approach is BS and wrong.     If anything its much better.   Look at all the different series types just here in the states.   There is so much variety that is prospering in some way or fashion that it will only cause things to improve.

Muscle Milk bailing from Tudor.
http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/102817-imsa-muscle-milk-pickett-racing-exits-tudor-championship

Courtesy of a friend of mine,
"We are almost out of teams: Dyson, Pickett, Turner, Tucker all gone. Once Oak realizes BOP is hopeless, Ed Brown realizes he sucks, all P2 will be gone. Millennium already punted on the 2nd AX cars, Ganassi can't get sponsors for the 2nd DP … Privateers everyone hates in PC and GTD propping up the cash flow … GTD will slowly migrate to PWC, the same cars with tweaks are eligible."

I really hope this merger lasts but it's going down hill, fast! GTLM is about the only series in USC Racing / Tudor Championship that has a prayer of sticking together and we've heard SRT isn't attending Le Mans, so not even they are immune to hiccups.

SRT didn't have the money to race the extra 36 hours Stateside and do LeMans this year.

Plus, I think they feel the BoP is against them. LeMans is expensive and for bragging rights only. If they don't feel they can win it, it's not worth spending money they don't really have...