[WEC Sportscar & GT Championship 2019-2020]

[erwin greven]

Bottom post of the previous page:

BREAKING!!

The leading Rebellion just LAPPED the third placed Toyota with 4 minutes to go.

[erwin greven]

Rebellion wins the Shanghai 4 hours

[erwin greven]

[erwin greven]

Rebellion Breaks Through for Shanghai Win

Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes, Norman Nato deliver first overall on-the-road victory for Rebellion…


Rebellion Racing has claimed its first overall FIA World Endurance Championship victory on the road in Sunday’s 4 Hours of Shanghai.

Bruno Senna took the No. 1 Rebellion R13 Gibson to a 1 minute, six-second victory over the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima following a dominant run by the Swiss-flagged, ORECA-run privateer squad.

While having started from pole, a deemed jump start by three of the five LMP1 cars in the field saw Norman Nato drop to sixth at the time, before recovering to fifth during his opening stint.

Co-driver Gustavo Menezes took over the lead early in the second hour after utilizing the superior straight-line speed of the LMP1 non-hybrid to get around the No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi.

The American solidified his margin to more than 20 seconds before handing over to Senna for the final 1 hour and 45 minutes of the race.

It marked the second outright victory for Rebellion in WEC competition following Toyota’s double disqualification at Silverstone in 2018 and the Japanese manufacturer’s first loss on the road in more than two years.

Senna, meanwhile, becomes the first driver to win in all four classes.

Buemi, Nakajima and Brendon Hartley benefitted by a drive-through penalty for the sister No. 7 Toyota in the second hour after it was determined Kamui Kobayashi, along with the pair of Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1 AERs jumped the start.

Charlie Robertson and Ben Hanley stretched out into a commanding 1-2 run in the opening hour until fading in their second stints prior to taking the penalties.

Both of the Ginettas lost further ground during its pit stops, including Robertson over-shooting his pit box in the second hour, which helped propel the No. 5 entry of Hanley and co-drivers Jordan King and Egor Orudzhev to fourth.

All five LMP1 cars finished within two laps of each other, with each team leading at one point of the race.

JOTA Takes Commanding 1-2 Finish in LMP2

Anthony Davidson, Antonio Felix Da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez gave JOTA its first class win of the season in LMP2, leading home a 1-2 finish for the British-run squad.

Da Costa finished 17 seconds clear of the JOTA-run No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07 Gibson of Gabriel Aubry, Ho-Pin Tung and Will Stevens.

Stevens led the early stages of the race until getting overtaken by Davidson at the end of the opening hour.

It marked the first class win for Goodyear in WEC competition, in the American tire manufacturer’s third race in the series.

The No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque, Paul Di Resta and Phil Hanson completed the podium, bouncing back from an early pit stop due to a power loss from debris in the engine box.

The class pole-sitting Cool Racing Oreca, meanwhile, was the race’s only retirement, due to a FIA-supplied telemetry failure.

Source

[erwin greven]

Menezes: First Time WEC Had “Real Racing” in “Long Time”

Gustavo Menezes on Rebellion’s breakthrough win, competitive LMP1 field…

Gustavo Menezes believes Sunday’s 4 Hours of Shanghai was the first time the FIA World Endurance Championship has seen “real racing” for overall honors in a “very long time”

The American claimed his second career overall WEC victory and first on the road in a breakthrough race for Rebellion Racing, which dominated the third round of the 2019-20 season.

Menezes took over the lead of the race in the second hour following a frantic start that saw co-driver Norman Nato drop to sixth after struggling for grip.

“We saw the tires that were used in qualifying really did pay a toll immediately,” Menezes told Sportscar365.

“There was no rear grip on them and you could see that when Bruno changed to [fresh] rear tires in his second stint, he found a second-and-a-half.

“Poor Norman struggled a little bit with that situation, as well as the tires not being at prime temperature.

“Our car struggles massively when the tires aren’t in the window. We were fighting head-to-head with the P2s for the first two or three laps.

“Once things got going we were good. When I got the car, I just gave it everything I had and it was enough to build a margin and give Bruno the car in a good place.”

While Menezes, Nato and Bruno Senna claimed victory by more than 1 minute, the race featured ten lead changes among three of the five LMP1 cars, making it one of the most competitive in recent years.

It came in the second race of the WEC’s new-for-2019 success handicap system, which penalized the Toyota TS050 Hybrids by nearly three seconds per lap and gave the LMP1 non-hybrids a significant straight-line speed advantage.

“It was very fun being able to actually fight,” Menezes said. “It’s been a long time since the LMP1 class has seen any kind of real racing.

“Even though the success handicap was there, and I’d say it was a little bit towards an advantage for us, that was obvious, it still was the healthiest of any kind of racing we’ve seen in the series in a very long time.

“We need a lot more of that if we want to see WEC in a healthy place in the future.

“It was amazing. I’ve never seen so many replays of overtaking between the LMP1 class. For me it was a very special feeling. It was the first real win where it was earned and deserved.”

https://sportscar365.com/lemans/wec/men ... long-time/

[erwin greven]

Starts to look like NASCAR.

AF Corse loses Shanghai win

AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado has been disqualified from today’s 4 Hours of Shanghai result, costing the duo a GTE Pro class win. The victory was originally the first for Ferrari in GTE Pro class of an FIA WEC race at Shanghai.

The car was found to have a ride height infringement in post-race scrutineering, resulting in the car’s disqualification from the results.

The No. 51’s penalty is subject to appeal, which means the result remains provisional. For now, though, Porsche has been awarded the race win and a 1-2 finish. The No. 92 911 RSR 19 of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, the points leader in the class, was named the winner ahead of the sister No. 91 911, which won at Silverstone. The new-for-2019 911 RSR 19 now has two wins in its first three races.

Aston Martin Racing’s No. 97 Vantage AMR of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn, has been promoted to the final podium spot.

In Am, the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche was also handed a post-race penalty, for using too many dry tires during the race. The result is a three-minute stop-and-hold converted into the cancellation of one lap time and an additional 53.707-second penalty.

The team used 24 tires, two more than the maximum allocation of 22. The No. 77 finished 10th on the road and has been pushed to 11th, last in class. This penalty cannot be appealed.

https://racer.com/2019/11/10/af-corse-l ... nghai-win/

[theracer120]

Tim George who was racing in the IMSA event at Sebring yesterday has passed away as a consequence of a medical issue he suffered during the race.

[erwin greven]

[jimclark]

Reconsider, you fucks

'Pretty new here, 'don't know "you" members, and don't seriously care why, but, am curious how they offended you?

[Cheeveer]

Reconsider, you fucks

'Pretty new here, 'don't know "you" members, and don't seriously care why, but, am curious how they offended you?

It sucks that SMP withdrew after just one season, of course. LMP1 need more cars.

[jimclark]

Oh. So that requires the "F" word....?????

[Cheeveer]

Fuck yes.

[erwin greven]

[erwin greven]

WEC cancels Sebring visit due to travel restrictions [UPDATED]

The FIA World Endurance Championship will not travel to Sebring next week for its portion of the SuperSebring event it shares with IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

The WEC’s cancellation comes in response to a 30-day travel ban announced as a coronavirus containment measure by President Donald Trump on Wednesday night, which prohibits residents of more than 20 European countries from entry to the United States.

“This decision was not made lightly,” said WEC CEO Gerard Neveu. “Our teams and officials place great value on racing at Sebring in front of its enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans. While this cancellation has been forced upon us because of the travel restrictions from Europe to USA, WEC remains committed at all times to the health and welfare of its teams, officials and race fans. Further, the quality of every aspect of a WEC race event is at the heart of everything that we do and will never be compromised.”

It’s unclear how the WEC’s absence at Sebring will affect IMSA’s plans to hold the 68th running of the Mobile 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Additionally, with the WEC’s leadership no longer planning to attend Sebring, the joint press conference with IMSA, where technical regulations for next-generation IMSA LMDh and WEC Hypercar prototypes were set to be revealed, has also been tabled at the famed Floridian road course.

IMSA’s intent to cancel or reschedule its Sebring race, along with revised distribution plans for the technical rules behind prototype convergence, are the next steps awaiting confirmation by sports car fans and participants.

https://racer.com/2020/03/11/wec-cancel ... ravel-ban/

[erwin greven]

Total 6 hours of Spa Francorchamps postponed, as i expected.

[PTRACER]

Watching the GT World Challenge at Nurburgring, enjoyable racing for sure