2014 TUDOR United SportsCar Championship

[wesley123]

As there was a thread about the WEC, why not one about the USCC? The USCC is somewhat of a "hot item" for it's combination of two different classes. The Championship will try to even out the Daytona Prototypes and P2's.

At the moment, it is 50 days until the first championship race, neither the DP's nor the P2's have any clarity over how they are going to aid/limit one another. Not to mention the two DP's who took off after a tire failure in the recent tests.

Personally, I was one of the few to look forward to this, how it would play out. But now, I am doubtful about it.

Anyways, USCC discussion here

[Pierce89]

If you check autosport, the USCC has pretty much got their equivalency.

[Moxie]

No Mid-Ohio???? WHY OH WHY??? I loved the Grand Am series at Mid-Ohio.

[lizardfolk]

I am very curious to see how the DPs and the LMPs will be balanced. Apparently the series has a healthy grid size for now so fingers crossed the series works

[TzeiTzei]

I'm really looking forward to this. In testing the DPs seemed to have the upper hand but that's daytona. It's going to be intresting to see how they compare on different types of tracks. And it's a healthy sized field with the PCs, GTLMs and GTDs.

[Lycoming]

The 2014 season kicks off this weekend with the 24 hours of Daytona. Looks like a decent grid, with plenty of cars in every class. DP's seem to hold a significant advantage over LMP2s here, but a lot can happen in 24 hours. Anybody going to be watching live?

[DaveKillens]

Most definitely, I would not miss the Daytona Rolex 24 hours. As a dedicated motorsport fan the longer races are very appealing to me. And this weekend's race kicks off the new year in racing, and such classics as the Bathurst 12 Hour (hey, just two weeks away), LeMans and others suddenly appear much closer to enjoying.

I'm really looking forward to the race, considering the amalgamation of two series, with a lot of questions waiting to be resolved on the track.

[ChrisF1]

Crummy coverage in the UK, a few hours last night and then 12-8pm today so still 90 minutes before coverage begins again. Also it is on MotorsTV which has terrible picture quality...

Nasty accident last night that has resulted in leg and arm operations for one driver.

Anybody watching?

[zonk]

http://www.vipboxeu.co/motorsports/2038 ... nline.html

[Lycoming]

Well that was a pretty exciting finish in the GT classes. Tiny little grandstand crowd from what I saw though. It's also hilarious for me to see so many people in jackets/long sleeves knowing the temperature down there right now, but that's kinda off topic.

[TzeiTzei]

Well that was a pretty exciting finish in the GT classes. Tiny little grandstand crowd from what I saw though. It's also hilarious for me to see so many people in jackets/long sleeves knowing the temperature down there right now, but that's kinda off topic.

I think most of the spectators were at the infield.

DPs had quite a big advantage at Daytona. But the P2s did look quite handy on the twisty bits. We never really saw what could have happened as most of the P2s ran into trouble. The GTs were exciting, although the BMW was in the hunt only because of questionable wave by rules. The last caution unfortunately showed what this series really is: it's nascar with different cars.

Tv coverage was just plain bad. Fox commentators were sort of ok, but it was more like the Daytona 10hrs with all the commercials. The MRN commentators were simply embarassing. Get radio lemans there asap.

edit: i'm still looking forward to Sebring. It will be intresting to see how fast the P2s are there.

[E86]

Hopefully the LMP2 cars should be much closer. The Tudor Series has a new technical director who should be able to get the cars much more equal. We will see at the pre test.

[Lycoming]

interestingly though, the last round of performance balancing changes did nothing for the prototype class...

[TzeiTzei]

Well they did correct two of the biggest gripes I had after Daytona. BoP between DPs and P2s was good. Don't you go and tamper with it until we see how the next race goes. IMSA stream was excellent and commentary this time was very good. They got rid of the Nascar fanboys they had at Daytona. Me likes.

I still have one big big problem with this series: the FCYs. Sure this time the LMPC drivers forgot to switch their brains on and were just causing mayhem which then had to be dealt with FCYs, but there were a lot of incidents which imo didnt need an FCY to be cleared. It just takes a lot away from viewing experience, when instead of watching an endurace race, I feel like i'm watching a series of meaningless sprints until the last FCY. These races are not about long stint race pace or fuel/tyre strategy, and that for me is kind of a buzz kill. At Sebring you could have tuned in after 11hrs and not really miss anything, because they keep resetting the race with almost hourly FCYs. This time about 6 hrs of the 12 was spent under yellows. It's ridiculous. Every time there is an incident, it's a half an hour break to racing. IMSA makes FIA look good.

[Lycoming]

It takes them a long time to get back to racing after an FCY because of the wave-bys, the pit procedure, etc. but FCYs are for the safety of the course workers, don't forget. They don't have the little cranes that you see at F1 races, they can't just dash out and then crane the car behind the walls, they have to wait for a flatbed to come by, then drop the [s]smouldering wreckage[/s] car on a flatbed, which takes it back to the pits. It's not safe for the course workers to do that without FCY or red flags.

I blame the PC drivers.