Tuesday 23rd October 2012

Time For Coffee? Petit Le Mans

Lovely video captures the atmosphere from the weekend's race at Road Atlanta

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Americans. They're only interested in racing on banked ovals in outdated cars, right? So the snooty European stereotype goes. And like many stereotypes, it's utter rubbish.

Chrome-wrapped Ferrari 458 won GT class

Having had this video from the weekend's Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta brought to our attention by AxisOfOversteer we were going to share it as a Time For Tea? but, frankly, it's too good to wait until the afternoon and here it is to accompany your mid-morning brew-up.

After well-publicised testing dramas the Deltawing's sixth place overall has to be considered a success, the chrome plated Extreme Speeds Motorsports Ferrari 458 winning the GT class ahead of a hungry pack of Corvettes and Vipers. The Green Hornet Racing Porsche that came togetherwith the Deltawing in practise got mixed up in further trouble too, hitting the then leading Muscle Milk (ew!) Pickett Racing Honda early on and leaving the door open for the Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota to take a three-lap victory. Full race report and results here.

So much for the actual racing though; what this film from ZfH Productions really celebrates is the atmosphere of America's Petit Le Mans, a race that looks to have as much to enjoy as its big brother over in France. OK, not quite as easy to drive to. But worth a visit one day perhaps.

Petit Le Mans - Road Atlanta - October 20, 2012 from ZfH Productions on Vimeo. 

[BeirutTaxi]

I love sports car racing! More enjoyable than F1 IMO.

Sound of the Corvettes is epic as always. They're incredibly reliable too!

One of the most memorable events for me was the battle between Bergmeister (Porsche) and Magnussen (Corvette) in the final 10 minutes of the American Le Mans Series 2009 final at Laguna Seca. Epic stuff.

[garypotter]

What a great looking circuit, and a great race series with some serious looking machinery.

great vid but I found it better in MUTE

[Galileo]

Agreed. Should turn off the 'Joy Division' wannabes and let the cars do the singing.

[CocoUK]

Great film, I found it better with the sound ON!

Remember the film was produced to celebrate the atmosphere of Petit Le Mans at Road America, the sound track was spot on, it's not a film of 'the race'.

Edited by CocoUK on Tuesday 23 October 11:36

[Burnham]

Great Vid, makes me want to go.

[Bloitus]

Great Video and one of my favorite circuits.

[MarkAbarth500]

Damn sight more appealing than the Britcar!! Track seems to have some great vantage points, and you aren't limited to just one or two straights in your line of sight. Can't wait for N24 2013!

[Luca Brasi]

Trackside vids on Drive channel are a lot better imo.

[dapearson]

If you fancy taking a peek at a rather shorter (and easier to drive to!) endurance race, pop along to Silverstone this Saturday for the Birkett Six Hour Relay Race:

Details here

I've done this twice now in a team of Caterhams, and helped out as a "pit bh" a few times. It's a great event!

[hyper jay]

very good .love the chrome 458 !

[GrahamG]

Road Atlanta is a fantastic track to spectate at - so many places to get a really great view

[mr_bizarre]

Does anyone know what that song is? It's awesome!

[BeirutTaxi]

GrahamG said:

Road Atlanta is a fantastic track to spectate at - so many places to get a really great view

It strikes me as a really quick track with lots of fast bends, is that the case do you think?

[ukaskew]

dapearson said:

If you fancy taking a peek at a rather shorter (and easier to drive to!) endurance race, pop along to Silverstone this Saturday for the Birkett Six Hour Relay Race:

Details here

I've done this twice now in a team of Caterhams, and helped out as a "pit bh" a few times. It's a great event!

Any details for spectators? Nothing on the Silverstone site. Some very interesting cars in the mix, is a Megane Trophy car really competing?!

[dmussoracing]

Get on the drive network on youtube and watch the 23 minute version of this. Much better if you ask me. No music, just beautiful engine noise. Could be a great time for tea. Quiet relaxing actually

[Craiglamuffin]

Enjoyed that!

[Yeloperil]

dmussoracing said:

Get on the drive network on youtube and watch the 23 minute version of this. Much better if you ask me. No music, just beautiful engine noise. Could be a great time for tea. Quiet relaxing actually

Great coverage of a great race but what a pity yet another driver exhibited a lack of spacial awareness and took out the brilliant Nissan Deltawing again.

[dmussoracing]

I know. Such a fantastic little car. I still remember I was a doubter when it came out. Now I'm just in awe at how it's so quick

Yeloperil said:

Great coverage of a great race but what a pity yet another driver exhibited a lack of spacial awareness and took out the brilliant Nissan Deltawing again.

[Matt Harper]

BeirutTaxi said:

It strikes me as a really quick track with lots of fast bends, is that the case do you think?

I've been going to the Petit Le Mans for the last 10 years and Road Atlanta is a particularly nice circuit both to drive and view. It's not hugely fast (though they do 'haul the mail' down the back straight). What is key (as with all tracks that have big elevation changes) is weight transfer and blind-spots. The blind crest between turn 1 and 2 is intimidating and the run-in to Turn 6 and follow-through 7 determines good vs awful lap-time. Turn 12 (righthander onto the pit straight) is scary because you HAVE to stay in the throttle, which I found difficult, being something of a track-day lightweight - very easy to run out of road here.

As a spectator, the infield view over the esses and Turn 5 is one of the best in motorsport - and spectators have an unrestricted (no debris fence) view of race traffic coming straight at them on the approach to Turn 6

The ONLY negative about Road Atlanta is the county by-law excuse they use to prohibit you bringing your own booze into the facility. The reality is that they want to sell you their extortionately priced, watered-down track beer - and the fun-police do random searches on the gate - which a couple of my buddies fell foul of this year. Other than that, it's awesome.

[bsdnazz]

Yeloperil said:

dmussoracing said:

Get on the drive network on youtube and watch the 23 minute version of this. Much better if you ask me. No music, just beautiful engine noise. Could be a great time for tea. Quiet relaxing actually

Great coverage of a great race but what a pity yet another driver exhibited a lack of spacial awareness and took out the brilliant Nissan Deltawing again.

On the upside the crash was in practice. In the race the DeltaWing finished P6 on the road and was promoted to P5 when once of the cars in front was disqualified.