THE 12 Hours of Sebring Thread

The 2011 12 Hours of Sebring is next weekend and it marks not only the first round of the 2011 American Le Mans Series calendar, but it's also the first race of the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, which is essentially a World Championship for sports cars.

This years' race will be one of the biggest in history with an entry list of 56 cars and a new organization of the classes allows for a more diverse field than ever.

In an effort to slow down speeds LMP1 is now essentially what LMP2 was last year. Older LMP1 chassis have also been able to be grandfathered in as well. New chassis are now forced to wear shark fins, ala what we saw in F1 last year.

For 2011, LMP2 has been totally redesigned with a "cost-capped" philosophy aimed at lowering the cost of running an exotic LMP race car. LMP2 engines are also now production based with several great new engines available including a Judd V8 (based on the BMW M3 V8), Honda TT V6, a Nissan (NISMO) V-8, and even a twin-turbocharged Ford EcoBoost V6!

GT1 is now gone, and GT2 has been split into 2 new categories, GTE-Pro and GTE-Am. Gran Touring Evolution Pro is for brand new cars with professional drivers, and the Amateur class is for older chassis being driven by at least 2 amateur/gentleman drivers.

Finally there are the spec-challenge classes, LMPC and GTC for a combination of professional and amateur drivers. LMPC will employ Oreca FLM09 chassis with GM LS3 crate motors while GTC is a class exclusively for Porsche GT3 Cup cars.

Another thing worth noting is for the race, teams that are ALMS only will run with a 0 in front of their race number to differentiate them from the ILMC runners.

Entry List: http://www.planetlemans.com/alms-2011-sebring-entry-list/

Race Week Schedule: http://sebringraceway.com/pdfs/2011-EventSchedule.pdf

How to follow the race:
- TV - ABC, 12:30 p.m. ET, March 20 (Race Recap)
- Live Online Streaming - www.espn3.com - The full 12 hours will be streamed
- Radio - www.radiolemans.com
- Live Timing & Scoring - http://scoring.americanlemans.com/scoring.php
- Not sure about International viewing options, I'd imagine anyone could log on and watch the streaming coverage.

Qualifying will also be shown live on www.espn3.com. Check the website for more info

Spotters' Guide: Coming Soon

 

Nope. I actually really like the class system they have now, except for LMPC. LMP1 is for big time manufacturers and VERY well funded privateers and LMP2 is a lot cheaper and more for private teams and gentleman racers.

The problem is that currently LMPC and LMP2 are very similar and with this being the first year for a new P2 class, many LMPC teams that might move up to LP2 are going to wait it out and see how the class goes.

Ideally, I'd like to see them have LMP1 and LMP2 as they are now, and get rid of LMPC (and GTC for that matter).

 

Peugeot tops Monday testing at Sebring.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/alms-peugeot-tops-monday-testing-at-sebring/

I'm pretty surprised and quite pleased at the pace of the Highcroft HPD. I'd love for them to give the big guns a fun for their money.

 

LMPC and GTC were kind of supposed to be temporary fixes during the bad economy to stop the "bleeding". I don't like they they're spec, but they can offer some exciting racing.

 

They decided to stay and test in Europe instead.


“The test confirmed what we saw at the Sebring test, around a four second per lap improvement, but with a loss of test time we decided that it would be wiser to continue durability testing and get the car ready for the Le Mans Series race at Paul Ricard next month."

 

Spotter Guide is up!

 

I've got the live feed and live timing together, but sent from my laptop to my 58" TV.

Yes, the cords are annoying, I don't need to hear about it.

 

I thought that was one of the better 12 Hours of the past few years. A Peugeot won, but not the factory car, and Highcroft is now the first "privateer" not running one of the diesel juggernauts that's been able to run up front. They were only 30 seconds behind the winners!

LMP2 was very disappointing though and it seems like the class has reverted back to being very frail and whoever can last will win, albeit while being very far down the order.

GT was exciting as always with the lead being swapped more times than I can remember between BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, with Porsche being a bit behind.

All in all, a great start to the season and the online format wasn't as bad as I predicted it would be.

 

Everything - Challenge classes