Le Mans Series - Into the night races...

[anniesdad]

So with the inaugural LMS race at the Algarve being supposedly a resounding success, are we likely to see the LMS cars racing into the night at Silverstone in the future? Seeing the glow from the carbon discs is something I've told my kids about but they've not been able to experience it first hand yet. There's time for us to do Le Mans itself (they're a bit too young yet), but even so in the meantime, maybe the ACO can see it that we can get some night action at Silverstone in the years to come as it brings a totally different dynamic and is an experience never to be forgotten....

[zac510]

Didn't they do it at Donington a few years back?

[anniesdad]

Did they? When I was there in 2006, it certainly wasn't...maybe before then?

[anniesdad]

lemans-series.com said:

The Portimao race track has all the character of an old British or American track. There are twists, turns and elevation changes everywhere, making this track like a tarmac rollercoaster. All of the drivers heaped praise on the new circuit, and it brought us some brilliant racing.

The inaugural 1000Km of Algarve, the first Le Mans Series night race, was a huge success and produced one of the most fascinating races of the season.

Pescarolo Sport took up the challenge of this brand-new track and claimed first place overall, Quifel ASM Team took their first victory of the season in the LMP2 class. Luc Alphand Aventures won again in the GT1 class and JMW Motorsport overshadowed the GT2 class.

Looks like not...

[zac510]

anniesdad said:

Did they? When I was there in 2006, it certainly wasn't...maybe before then?

Maybe not, i must be mistaken.

[lewis1]

American lemans series came to silverstone and have had a race go into the night, but not the lmes. this was around 10 years ago now though

[anonymous-user]

There was a le mans series race at silverstone that went into the night. Maybe 2005? All i can remember was it was very very wet!

[AlexS]

tux said:

There was a le mans series race at silverstone that went into the night. Maybe 2005? All i can remember was it was very very wet!

Heavy rain caused the race to be extended after a large chunk of laps were run behind the pace car. This had the affect of the finish running into the dusk.

[MikeDH]

It was an into the night race anyway, they will only go 6 hours, regardless of how many laps have or haven't been done.

[Piglet]

Nope 2005 LMES was definitely planned as a dark race, I was in the pit lane and we had lighting and genies etc. set up. It was very wet though! It was the year that they allowed fans to camp infield.

I can't remember what year ALMS were there? It was an FIA GT weekend with the ALMS (and Group C?) race on the Saturday night. IIRC ALMS stole the show and the FIA GT field looked pretty mediocre the next day up against ALMS.

I love night races, Anniesdad if you want to take your kids somewhere got to the Spa 24 hour, you can camp at Eau Rouge camping which is on the Stavelot road, it's a normal "family" campsite with space for the kids to play and proper facilities, you can go in and out to the circuit (you'd need to drive unless you took bikes) with no problems as the traffic isn't an issue. It's a really nice family campsite and circuit and you can see night racing at its best!

[squirrel2007]

The ALMS/FIA GT was in 2000. It was also my first taste of Sportscar racing and what a fantastic weekend it was!! The ALMS race finished at dusk so it wasn't fully dark but the atmosphere was great.

I remember there being a British GT night race which was pretty cool. That was around 2001/2002 I think. I'd love it if we could have another Le Mans series race into the dark, It would be a sure fire way to attract a new generation of fans to Le Mans

[chevronb37]

tux said:

There was a le mans series race at silverstone that went into the night. Maybe 2005? All i can remember was it was very very wet!

McNish's drive that day was astounding. I think I was the coldest person in the world though...