Super Sebring 2023

FLRacingFan

FLRacingFan

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WEC practice kicks off in just a bit. Weather looks good for the 1000 Miles on Friday. Unfortunately, can’t say the same for the 12 Hours on Saturday. Could be pretty stormy.

Carrera Cup and Pilot Challenge have races on Peacock Thursday, 12 Hour qualifying IMSA.TV Friday morning.

1000 Miles is live in full starting noon ET Friday on MotorTrend.

12 Hours starts on Peacock Saturday 10:10 AM ET, picked up by USA 4:30 PM and running through the finish.
 
That's endurance racing for you. As long as we don't get standing water or lightning it should be good.
 
Doc Austin said:
That's endurance racing for you. As long as we don't get standing water or lightning it should be good.
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Unfortunately it seems like lightning is a big part of it.

Tony_K said:
How many times has Sebring had lousy weather? A shame.
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2016 was delayed a lot, 2019 started wet but dried up fairly quickly iirc. The WEC race last year ended under a lightning delay.
 
FLRacingFan said:
The WEC race last year ended under a lightning delay.
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That and Sebring floods easier than most places. There's no crown on the concrete sections and you get a lot of standing water.

Lots of parallels to the 1997 Sebring Octoberfest. The FIA GT race started raining on lap 8 and it was a big deluge.

US sportscar racing was on the verge of rebounding from a near complete collapse, and we had PSR's open top prototypes, PSR's GT series, and the FIA GT championship all on the same weekend. There were historic races, FF2200 races, Panoz women's cup races and racing something just about every second for five straight days. Attendance was enthusiastic, but very small considering what a monumental event it truly was, and that is part of why it never happened again. That was also the last time any world sportscar championship would share a weekend with a US based series until the first Sebring Super Weekend.

It's great to see the WEC here, but I'de rather see all those cars in the 12 hours. I thought the whole point of the convergence was to get everyone on the same page again. Daytona should be on the world championship calendar, and the WEC Sebring should be part of the 12 hours.

I'm certainly not complaining that we are getting more great races. I suppose between the two series there's not enough room for all those cars on the track at the same time.
 
Wow, what an upset! Don’t think anyone was expecting a Ferrari pole on debut. These things are pretty quick, Toyota picked up four seconds from last year’s qualifying and Ferrari pole time is quicker than the DPi lap record set last year. Cadillac only got one flying lap so they may have more pace as well. Could be an interesting race.
 
DanicaFreak said:


UMM....holly CRAP!!!!! look at those hands!!!! didnt Kurt Busch drive Sebring?
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Turns 1 and 17 are pretty wicked.

He did, on the short course that the open wheelers use.

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Peugeot are officially starting to give off NISMO GT-R LM energy. Not as slow but a radically different concept with terrible reliability.
 
Turn 1 is biting badly today, Porsche lost both a GTD and a GTP in IMSA qualifying there this morning.
 
FLRacingFan said:
Peugeot are officially starting to give off NISMO GT-R LM energy. Not as slow but a radically different concept with terrible reliability.
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I wouldn't write them off yet. Sebring is an outlier due to them not running a rear wing and relying on the underbody to produce downforce. The bumpy nature of Sebring does not help the Peugeot at all, but I think they should run a rear wing at Sebring.
 
Kiante said:
I wouldn't write them off yet. Sebring is an outlier due to them not running a rear wing and relying on the underbody to produce downforce. The bumpy nature of Sebring does not help the Peugeot at all, but I think they should run a rear wing at Sebring.
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I definitely didn’t expect them to be competitive with the other LMHs with their concept here but the reliability is just crazy bad. That’s all four races they’ve run they’ve had mechanical issues in, didn’t even make it to the green with the 94 today.
 
I take it that this race is both IMSA and WEC. I don't know the differences between the two series, do they run the same race rules? Do they run all of the different classes?
 
Zerkfitting said:
I take it that this race is both IMSA and WEC. I don't know the differences between the two series, do they run the same race rules? Do they run all of the different classes?
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I'm unable to watch but my understanding is Friday's race is WEC only. Saturday is IMSA only.

Disclaimer: I've been wrong before.
 
I know this is probably going to be unpopular, but I'll sleep just fine if the Glickenhaus experiment comes to an end. They're nowhere near the pace, they're not investing money to try and find more pace, they are pretty much just some rich guy's hobby project, I dunno man.
 
Zerkfitting said:
I take it that this race is both IMSA and WEC. I don't know the differences between the two series, do they run the same race rules? Do they run all of the different classes?
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WEC don’t run LMP3 nor a pro GT class anymore. The pro-am GT class is running GTE rather than GT3 regs for one more season. The sporting regulations are quite a bit different and WEC races tend to be more traditional with very few full safety car periods.
 
virtualbalboa said:
I know this is probably going to be unpopular, but I'll sleep just fine if the Glickenhaus experiment comes to an end. They're nowhere near the pace, they're not investing money to try and find more pace, they are pretty much just some rich guy's hobby project, I dunno man.
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Yeah you can’t complain too much if the car is collecting dust for the last seven or eight months.

As far as their future hopes it sounds like they’re hoping to seal a deal with Maxi Götz and his BWT funding to keep the project going, otherwise it might be time to call it quits after Le Mans or Monza.
 
virtualbalboa said:
I know this is probably going to be unpopular, but I'll sleep just fine if the Glickenhaus experiment comes to an end. They're nowhere near the pace, they're not investing money to try and find more pace, they are pretty much just some rich guy's hobby project, I dunno man.
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Sadly the last time the Glick previously raced was Monza where they were running away with it until they blew up. They definitely had something they could build on.....and then didn't.

At this point you have to wonder if they have enough commitment to finish the season.
 
That battle between Estre and Molina was a great display of wheel-to-wheel racing. Really cool to see what prototypes with even less downforce and more power than DPi can do with regard to hand-to-hand combat.

Edit:

 
virtualbalboa said:
I know this is probably going to be unpopular, but I'll sleep just fine if the Glickenhaus experiment comes to an end. They're nowhere near the pace, they're not investing money to try and find more pace, they are pretty much just some rich guy's hobby project, I dunno man.
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I don't think WEC would have survived the last years if it wasn't for private LMP1/Hypercar teams. I hope Glickenhaus will continue their WEC program.
 
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