WEC Round 6 - Japan

[sirtyro]

Watched the qualifying this morning and great to see the battle between Audi and Porsche! Glad Mark Webber managed to get pole. I think Porsche will win but it's going to be a good race.

In LMP2 I was surprised when the ORECA KCMG car smacked the barrier and just kept going. Those cars must be built strong!

Really enjoying WEC this year, seems like a growing series!

[MEVILAZY]

Yes another great series of races this year. Glad Porsche have come good with some cracking wins. On Motors TV live now!!!

[williamp]

fantastic Porsche Toyota duel so far! Think I'll read about the f1 result later. Cant be bothered to watch highlights

[Truckosaurus]

MEVILAZY said:

....On Motors TV live now!!!

MotorsTV is delayed, live footage is on Eurosport (15mins left of race)

[sirtyro]

Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant race. Was up at 2.30am and watched the entire race. Not a dull moment. Porsche and Audi battles were epic today, respect shown my everybody.

LMP2 is a different story. Can't believe what Gustovo Yacaman did to KCMG. So dangerous and expensive to KCMG!!! Crazy driving and I really hope they do something about him.

Also wish WEC did a proper program. The commentary is great, but why don't they have an after show bit with more interviews and stories. Think it could be a great show.

[bltamil1]

sirtyro said:

Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant race. Was up at 2.30am and watched the entire race. Not a dull moment. Porsche and Audi battles were epic today, respect shown my everybody.

LMP2 is a different story. Can't believe what Gustovo Yacaman did to KCMG. So dangerous and expensive to KCMG!!! Crazy driving and I really hope they do something about him.

Also wish WEC did a proper program. The commentary is great, but why don't they have an after show bit with more interviews and stories. Think it could be a great show.

A few questionable incidents from the G-Drive team in that race, both their cars seemed to keep tangling with the 47! Surely there has to be some consequences to that?

Great series this year, I'm planning on going to Silverstone and Spa next year!

[anonymous-user]

bltamil1 said:

A few questionable incidents from the G-Drive team in that race, both their cars seemed to keep tangling with the 47! Surely there has to be some consequences to that?

Great series this year, I'm planning on going to Silverstone and Spa next year!

Well there are 6 incidents between KCMG and the #26 & #28 G Drive cars being investigated at the moment.

[freedman]

Amazing the lack of interest this thread has generated, yet the F1 will have generated 10s of pages, why?

Anyway, another superb race, in all classes with the 18 car sacrificing a certain win to their team mates for the championship

Yacoman needs to be banned for his frankly road rage style behaviour towards the end, deliberately punting the KCMG car off the road. He seems not to understand the potential consequences of such stupidity (he has a reputation for causing accidents in IMSA too)

Bar Yacoman the standard of driving was incredibly high, especially given the conditions

[JagerT]

I thought the same regarding Yacaman, however the stewards reprimanded Bradley in the KCMG
after looking at the telemetry, seemed a bit strange to me.

[anonymous-user]

Well they did it via the GPS system the cars run for things like the slow zone etc but then the team presented them with the actual data from the car it was different from the GPS date the FIA had.

[freedman]

Just seen Yacaman said data proved the KCMG car braked 37 metres earlier than normal

[anonymous-user]

freedman said:

Just seen Yacaman said data proved the KCMG car braked 37 metres earlier than normal

Basically the stewards watched the replay and took the GPS date from the tracking system they use and said Bradley braked 37 metres earlier. KCMG gave the stewards the data from the car which show that Bradley was under 100% throttle when Yacaman hit him and as such the stewards suspended the penalty and will do further investigation. Frankly its all very messy now and seems that the final bit of contact has distracted the officials from the awful conduct of both G drive cars towards the KCMG car throughout the race.

[sirtyro]

dailsportscar.com reporting that KCMG presented data that proved the car was under full acceleration when it was hit from behind. FIA have decided to cancel the previous reprimand while they continue to investigate.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2015/10/11/bradley-r...

Makes you wonder why the FIA didn't wait for all the evidence before handing out a reprimand to the wrong person.

I love WEC and endurance racing. I too don't understand why more people don't watch it. The only point can be that the races are too long. There was so much action this morning, every hour had something going on. The cars a great to look at and have amazing technology. It deserves to be a bigger series.

[bltamil1]

As said above, the G-Drive team had a few encounters with the 47, with both cars and at least three drivers.

Very poor behaviour that surely cannot go unpunished.

[MitchT]

freedman said:

Amazing the lack of interest this thread has generated, yet the F1 will have generated 10s of pages, why?

Because this isn't on free-to-air TV.

[ajprice]

I've been watching this today on Motors TV, before and after the F1 race, and its been a good one. Yacaman's driving was ridiculous though, deliberately pushing and nudging the KCMG car around until it went off the track is really not on.

What's happened to Toyota this year? Its all Audi and Porsche.

[Rude-boy]

ajprice said:

What's happened to Toyota this year? Its all Audi and Porsche.

Simply put they built a new car that isn't even in the same league as the other two. IIRC design and cost limitations mean that they have had to race what they have this year and hopefully next year they will make the gains they need to be on par with the Audis, at the very least.

As for why WEC is not more popular it is partly down to time (not that many can find 2 hours for a GP, 4, 6 + for WEC isn't going to happen for most. Add to that the idolism of F1 meaning that Le Mans even only tends to get a 2 inch colum in the broadsheets on the Monday after the race and not that much promotion outside the specailist press and there you go.

Now if there were a 1 hour highlights package sent out 30-60 minutes post flag and put on a free to air platform that pushed it... Yet even then you would take a while to get more bums on seats.

TBH the longer it stays as the best motorsport outside GT3 and off the radar of the fanboys the better.

[WonkeyDonkey]

I wasn't going to, but I watched the entire race and thoroughly enjoyed it. The G-Drive cars were an absolute disgrace, KCMG must feel really hard done do not see anything happen to G-Drive at all.

Was quite an epic night of motorsport for me, was watching the Bathurst 1000 as well as the WEC, then caught the GP3 and GP2 race before finally falling asleep at 9.30am on Sunday morning!

My bodyclock is going to hate me for the rest of the week now!

[Vocal Minority]

MitchT said:

freedman said:

Amazing the lack of interest this thread has generated, yet the F1 will have generated 10s of pages, why?

Because this isn't on free-to-air TV.

And also it is 6 hours long rather than 90 minutes.

As much as we love WEC and it is seen by many (myself included) as the real pinnacle of the sport - its appeal is very much to the connesuier not the regular fan.

Which is another reason they don't have mighty pre and post shows. It would stretch it to 8 hours. Thats just too long for broadcasters

(Nb: Le Mans is special so can break the rules)

[phil1979]

I caught the 'highlights' on Motors TV last night.

As an ardent F1 fan, I now think the WEC series is epic! This latest round was just amazing. The mix of different classes of machinery makes it so good to watch.

My 2-pence worth on why it's not as popular:

- Even the highlights are too long. As a father to two young kids, I only really get to watch a full F1 race once the kids are in bed, so that I can properly enjoy it. WEC is simply too long to commit to and enjoy. If the highlights were more condensed, I would watch them all.
- There is a disconnect between the viewer and the driver, in my opinion. The standings ticker bar only seems to focus on the team position, and fails to note the current driver. I'm just as interested in the driver at a glance, as well as the team.