Ferrari plan a return to Le Mans, Kimi In red and other fun summer rumors.

The summer break does not mean magazines and web sites shut down and, with little real news to report, there is much space for rumor and speculation.  Here is a quick roundup of the most entertain bits floating around.

Ferrari back at Le Mans?

Ferrari planning a return to Le Mans LMP1

This would of course be awesome for endurance racing and, with the return of Porsche to the top category would mean a return to the glory days of the series when Ferrari fought with other top manufacturers for top class honors at the French classic.

Ferrari would be able to utilize the same hybrid turbo engines as in F1 and would be able to take advantage of its wind tunnel, now underutilized because of F1 resource limitation rules.    Ferrari would also compete directly with top manufactures, Audi, Porsche, Toyota, perhaps Honda and Nissan as opposed to "Soft drink manufacturers" as Luca di Montezemolo likes to refer to Red Bull.

Of course, if you are a regular reader you are well familiar with Ferrari's periodic threats to leave F1 used as a bargaining tool for better deals and the cost of a full competitive LMP1 program would surely be a stretch.

Kimi in Red

Kimi Raikkonen back in red.

According to the German Bild, Ferrari have topped Red Bull's offer to the Finn of $15M plus bonuses plus sponsorship for his motocross and hockey teams.

Why would Ferrari make an offer to the driver it dumped with one year left on his contract in order to grab Fernando Alonso?    Well,  fans would love to see it but this is more likely Ferrari shooting back after the Red Bull rumors which now seem to have been, clumsily, orchestrated by team Alonso.   Nobody is untouchable is the message from Maranello.
Reality though is that unless Lotus can come up with cash to pay Raikkonen, he will be Vettel's teammate in 2014.

Bibendum and the amazing Karin Wilzig

Michelin wants back in F1

Pirelli have yet to finalize their agreement with Formula One beyond the current season and the French tire giant, who left the series after the 2006 season, had expressed an interest in bidding for the contract.

A tire war, with Michelin competing with Pirelli on track, is unlikely as it would distract from the new 2014 spec "eco" engines, very much the pet project of FIA president Jean Todt.     While it would not be impossible for Michelin to prepare tires for 2014 F1 season even at this relatively late date (Pirelli made all new tires for the German GP in 3 days),  Bibendum's team has said in the past said it it would like to get rid of F1 high sidewall balloon tires in favor of something that looks more like a consumer product. and that would require major design changes to the cars.
While not out of the question, figure this rumor to be more of a pressure tool on Pirelli in the short term.

Battle of the Sabastiens!

Apparently, if your name is Sebastien, you have a 60% chance of being faster every time but, how does it work if you pit two Sebastiens against each other?

2013 Montecarlo Rally,  the last one ever for  Sebastien Loeb, the first for the "other" Sebastien, Ogier, in the new Volkswagen Polo WRC.

Stage 1 and it's a narrow victory for Ogier,  3.7 seconds over Loeb.   Predictably, this just serves to make Loeb mad and he proceeds to give Ogier 10 seconds on Stage 2 and 19 seconds on stage 3.

Overall the four stage first leg ends with Loeb ahead of Ogier by a fairly massive 1:20 and  1:46 in front of third place Hirvonnen.

Long rally,  brutal weather, lots of snow,and as it turns out,  embarrassing timing and scoring issues for the FIA and the ACM

 

How I stopped worrying and learned to love driving in the rain.

Well, OK maybe "love" is too strong a word, but certainly "enjoy" and not sit in the garage waiting for the rain to pass. Fully wet track days are statistically pretty rare here, but what if you ever move to the UK? If you are disturbed by rain you would never get on track!

Last week at Watkins Glen we had what could best be described as a deluge. The track sits on a plateau and that meant that not only did we get rain but the whole facility was essentially in the clouds.
Visibility varied from none to barely enough to see the next corner. There were substantial delays but eventually they made the decision to open up the track and I was out for the Time Trials.

First few laps were a bit cautious but by the end I managed the second best time in class, less than a 1/2 second behind my friend Luke who had cleverly rented a set of Hoosier Wet race tires. I was driving on Michelin Super Sport excellent tires though they may be, with over 7000 miles on them they don't quite have the same level of grip.

I noticed looking at old videos I was about 15 seconds a lap faster, in worse conditions, than the last time I was at the Glen in the rain. Back then, Stee and I would marvel at how CG would blow by us in the Carrera S he had at the time. So what did I change?

I would have to say it was 95% mental, I just stopped being afraid. Sure, I kept my guard up but I was not anxious. The other 5% was probably better tires. I did not do anything to the car other than set the shocks to full soft but there are a number of things I learned. They seem obvious now but I'll skip the ones you will typical hear a driver's briefings and in the classrooms. Maybe some can help my fellow tracktards.

1. Look at the track:

Get to know where water is puddling, where rivers are forming, this will change throughout the day, so know what to expect

2. Don't brake in puddles and rivers!

Seems obvious but if you run a particular track often, your braking points will be engrained in your memory and you will tend to want to follow the same pattern regardless. A good example of this was the run into turn 7 (the Toe) at Watkins Glen where a river forms diagonally from left to right, just about where you might think of braking. The right play there is to go against your instinct and actually brake later, past the river where there is no standing water.

3. Cold brakes grab.

If you are running race compound pads remember that on your first few laps your cold brake pads will be very grabby, not much of an issue in the dry but in the wet you might find yourself skating on ABS right when you fist start to pick up speed. Both Stee and I had this same experience in the bumpy braking area for turn 8, but only on the first lap or two.

4. Both axles count.

If you are driving a RWD car, remember your rear wheels have to get passed the river as well. Sounds stupid but there is an interval of time there and if you are only thinking of your front wheels, you might feed power in just that split second too early...

5. Your corner speed is largely irrelevant.

Speed in the rain is not made on the turns, it's made in a straight line, coming out of the turn. Traction is why 911's are so awesome in the rain. (if you do it right).

6. invert your braking, apex and track out.

As there is little speed to be made up in the turns, you want to minimize the time you spend there.
The "Dry line"(blue) will almost always be more slippery  so you have two different strategies for turns: the classic rimshot (green) or the elbow (red) where you would come in braking on the inside, park it, turn and shoot out. Which one will work best will depend on the turn, the conditions and your car.

7. There is no rain line.

Regardless of what they tell you, every corner is different, every car is different and conditions will vary. Turn 9 was a good example, the best line through was the dry line. Why? because it's off camber and if you just did the prescribed wide arc you would end up in deeper water and gain nothing. Taking the dry line at the appropriate speed worked for both me and the Freep.

8. Learn to let go of the brake.

Sounds counter intuitive especially if you have ABS and new fangled traction control but that's what saved me at the end of the clip above. In the braking zone into turn 1 the car started coming around. rather than trying to fight it I released the brake which allowed the car to settle.

9. Straight line hydroplaning is scary.

Can't help you there, when you hit a puddle at over 100 and it moves you over 5 feet, it's just unnatural and it sucks and proof that in the end you always have to dance with physics!

To show you good rain driving in a scary place, I included a clip of CG in a PCA race at Daytona. Never seen Daytona wet before and CG does a very artistic 720º on the infield. No worries though, he will make his way back through the field to a top five finish.

170 mph in the rain? That's just plain sick!



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Axis of Oversteer on front row for GT3 Cup Canada at Mosport

friedrichphoto.com / IMSA


Axis CG improved his lap times by almost 3 seconds overnight to qualify on the front row for the Porsche GT3 Challenge Canada race tomorrow at Mosport. The Axis car will see action in both the Canada cup, which is run on Michelin tires and the IMSA GT3 Challenge, run with Yokohama rubber.

Here is the official IMSA press release ... GO AXIS!

BOWMANVILLE, Ont (22 July, 2011) – It was supposed to be a battle of local knowledge at Mosport International Raceway, as Torontonians Randy Oswald and Marco Cirone duked it out for the pole position for Round 5 of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada. But when an early spin put Cirone on the sidelines with only one hot lap, it was Oswald’s TRG teammate Carlos Gomez who gave the Pickering resident a scare.

More after the jump
Oswald put the #14 TRG/Verax Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car on top in Platinum Cup class and overall on his third lap with a time of 1:23.724. But two laps later, Gomez clocked a lap of 1:23.821 in his #75 TRG/Axis of Oversteer entry to start alongside Oswald, with Melanie Snow (#56 Snow Racing) and Cirone (#88 6th Gear Racing) rounding out the top four.

Oswald was obviously thrilled to set the fast time and first qualifying record for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada on his home racetrack – but he certainly had to sweat out his teammates lap times.

“My teammate came quite close!” said Oswald. “It was the first time for him driving a Cup car at Mosport and he really worried me! Marco had a problem and I had to pass him on my fast lap, so I think we had a little more. But I know Marco is going to be tough in the race – he and I have raced a lot out here and since he went off on the second lap of qualifying, his tires are fresh. But my teammate will be bringing it as well, so this is going to be a tough race!”

Gomez’s qualifying time is even more amazing considering it was only his second day on one of the most demanding tracks in North America.

“Randy has been a lot of help during the week, helping me make up the time,” said Gomez. “I missed the first practice yesterday and then we had a problem in the afternoon, so I spent a lot of time watching data and video and started to catch up. I’m really close and I’m so glad that it’s Randy in front. But this is by far and away the most technical, scariest track in North America, by a huge margin. I’ve raced most of the tracks, but this track in the Cup car, it took me a while to figure it out.”

Michael Levitas, driving the #36 TPC Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car in the Gold Cup class, backed up his quick time in the morning practice by putting the car on the pole for tomorrow’s race.

“This was great stuff,” enthused Levitas. “I’m glad to be a part of the Canadian series and I enjoyed the Michelin tires, they had great grip. We got a little slowed up on our flyer, so I think there’s a half second left in the car. I haven’t been here in a few years, so I got some coaching Thursday and the TPC guys gave me a great car!”

For most of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada season, Toronto’s Bob Seitz has been the only entrant in the Silver Cup class for 2002-2005½ Porsches, in the #58 SpeedMerchants –Fiorano Racing Porsche. But this weekend, he has company in the form of teammate Gabor Foti in the #00 car, who nipped Seitz for the class pole.

“It will just be Bob and I,” said Foti, from Thornhill, Ontario “so we will start side by side. It will be fun!”

The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada is divided into three classes; Platinum Cup, featuring the more powerful 2011 and 2010 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars; Gold Cup, which includes 2005½ - 2009 Porsches, and the Silver Cup class for 2002 – 2005½ 996 Porsches. All three classes run on Michelin Cup N1 tires.

The final two rounds of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada will take the green flag Saturday at 4:50pm and Sunday at 8:55am. Live timing is at http://www.gt3timing.ca.

Three events comprise the inaugural season of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada: May 14-15 at Calabogie Motorsports Park(Calabogie, Ontario), June 3-5 at Circuit ICAR(Mirabel, Quebec) and ending the season on the same racing card as their American counterparts July 23-24 at the Mobil 1 Presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. The season’s overall champion will be presented with a Tudor Heritage Chronograph, provided by Rolex Canada. For news updates throughout the race weekend, competitor regulations and live timing, visit http://www.imsaracing.net

N24: The Duel

Two cool clips from LeMansLive.com, The one above concentrating on the fight for the lead between Porsche . BMW and Mercedes. Audi was in there too, but this being a Michelin sponsored clip, I'm guessing they were running a different tire...
In any case,,it was the Manthey Porsche RSR who won from the the BMW and a bunch of R8 after the usual 24 hour long sprint race. 24 Hours at full bore around the 'Ring with all 200 other cars, respect!
(via Motorsportblog.it)


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Axis 1 Lap: 2011 One Lap Of America Day 1

It was long getting here, it was not easy, there was a bit of heartbreak with the V8 M Coupe not working out but we did it.

The replacement is my 2001 S54 M Coupe i (not a z4 coupe..), pressed into service at the last minute.

We had no choice but to run the original "tiny" wheels but I also had no choice but to buy a new set of tires. I went with the new Michelin Super Sports. Good choice, the little M Coupe was second overall in the wet skid pad, by just .001 G. with a .825 I had assumed the 4wd cars would destroy in the wet but no...

Later in the afternoon, fortified by a couple of Full Strength meal shakes we drove to Grissom Air Force for the autocross and, once again the Super Sports performed incredibly well for such "small" oem sized rubber. We placed 12th overall, enough to have us tied for the overall lead of the race. Nice.

Tomorrow we move on to track events and fully expect for the big horsepower cars to steamroll....

It's late, time to get some sleep!

Results HERE





end of post

Toyo RA-1, still the track day king.

Our readers have spoken: the venerable Toyo RA-1 is still the track day king. Not surprising given its excellent price/performance/wear ratings. However, the king is now officially dead and it will be interesting to see how its replacement the Toyo R888 will do. The 888 has been available outside the US market for some time now so I expect no surprises, except maybe that Toyo would make a size that actually fits my car, that would be sweet.

The Michelin Pilot Sport Cup had a strong second place showing. I was surprised to see so few votes for the Hoosier and Kumho.

thanks for voting!

What tires do you use for track days?

Whatever the car came with	8 (9%)
Michelin Sport Cup	14 (17%)
Pirelli Corsa	1 (1%)
Hoosier R6	8 (9%)
Kumho V710	5 (6%)
Kumho Victoracers	1 (1%)
Kumho V700 Ecsta	1 (1%)
Toyo RA1	25 (30%)
Toyo R888	7 (8%)
Hankook	4 (4%)
Yokohama 048	5 (6%)
Avon Tech R	0 (0%)
BFGoodrich R1	2 (2%)
Full Slicks	6 (7%)
Other	18 (22%)

Votes so far: 81

24 hr of Le Mans live feeds

Surprise surprise, Audi won but Aston Martin and Prodrive finally beat the Corvettes in GT1 and that's cool.

results here

Radio LeMans