2009 Sebring 12 Hours

[RacingManiac]

How's your ALMS experience? and can you make this pic a wallpaper?

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/image...2009/15822.jpg

[cmcpokey]

Our gallery: Welcome to Sebring - Ultimatecarpage.com - Images, Specifications and Information

Report to follow.

that was a bunch of pics. nice work.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Wouter, all the sunset-pics are awesome, great work!
I would say pretty much all of them would be eligible for being a wallpaper.

[Turbo.Jenkens]

You also need to understand that not all teams go for an all-out qualifying setup. Note the 1.3 seconds between the two P1 Acuras. Dyson have been stretching to get the two cars ready, so I assume that they did not bother with getting a super time in qualifying.

I had the opportunity to sit in on Rob Dyson's tech talk and that is pretty much what he said.
Paraphrasing- Starting position doesn't matter much in a 12 hr race, so we treated qualifying like another practice session.

The extra weight seemed to really be a burden on the LMP2s.

I was glad to see Audi win, they deserved it. But, best of all Peugeot provided enough competition to make it interesting. I imagine Acura will fair better against the diesels at Petit Lemans, provided everyone can make it.

Wonderful photos, Wouter. I hope Sebring can become a yearly event for you.

[Kitdy]

I imagine Acura will fair better against the diesels at Petit Lemans, provided everyone can make it.

What makes you think this? I thought that their advantage was grip and cornering and Le Mans is even more of a high speed circuit so wouldn't this be a disadvantage?

[RacingManiac]

"Petit" Le Mans....

Road Atlanta, not La Sarthe...

I'd imagine the car will be more developed by then, though the same could be said for the R15....

On that note about qualifying setup, I think the race pretty much demostrated that....Audi and Peugeot can pull 1:45s pretty much whenever they want, and 1:43s when they really pushed. The Acura really only was doing 1:45s with Dixon in the car(who also qualified the car), 1:46-1:47s most of the other time.....I think for Audi and Peugeot most of the quali session is just a short session of put the gas in and go....

[Kitdy]

Road Atlanta, not La Sarthe...

Ah yes - I remember Road Atlanta from Forza and it's much tighter than Sebring I'd guess.

Let's hope Audi and Peugeot show up there.

EDIT: Why did VICI pull out of Sebring?

[Wouter Melissen]

On that note about qualifying setup, I think the race pretty much demostrated that....Audi and Peugeot can pull 1:45s pretty much whenever they want, and 1:43s when they really pushed. The Acura really only was doing 1:45s with Dixon in the car(who also qualified the car), 1:46-1:47s most of the other time.....I think for Audi and Peugeot most of the quali session is just a short session of put the gas in and go....

I sincerely doubt that. The track conditions changed considerably over the weekend as more rubber was put on the track. When Bourdais set the fastest lap time, it was deep into the race and also not nearly as hot as during qualifying.

[Ferrer]

Ah yes - I remember Road Atlanta from Forza and it's much tighter than Sebring I'd guess.

Let's hope Audi and Peugeot show up there.

Isn't Road Atlanta the one with the massive back straight?

[Dino Scuderia]

Isn't Road Atlanta the one with the massive back straight?

It isn't that long. A good lap in a LMP1 is about 1'05.

[Turbo.Jenkens]

Yes, Road Atlanta is a much tighter track than Sebring, also the surface is new 3(?) years by Petit. I really think Acura's approach will be most advantageous with a smooth surface. Most of all they will have had an entire season to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the new car.

On the other hand I think the R15 has much more than we've been shown, and they won't push it 100% unless they have to (to win.)

[RacingManiac]

I sincerely doubt that. The track conditions changed considerably over the weekend as more rubber was put on the track. When Bourdais set the fastest lap time, it was deep into the race and also not nearly as hot as during qualifying.

The afternoon stint though the cars were never really out of the 1:45-1:46 bracket, and compare laptime between the cars at any given time the Acura is at least a sec off the Diesel's pace. Considering Audi did 1:43s on the first day of the open test when the track was less rubber down, and Acura were never in that bracket under the same condition, the qualifying "pace" of the Audi(and diesels in general) were really just running their race pace, as not unusual for them to do.....

Do they usually publish lap charts for something like this? I am curious to see Acura's pace over an entire stint. I am pretty sure McNish did 1:46-ish on his first flying lap of the race, on full fuel and cold-ish tire....Acura seems to be good on tire but on the flip side they are much slower to build-up to proper race pace...

[Dino Scuderia]

McNish onboard Road Atlanta in R10.

YouTube - Allan McNish in Audi R10 around Road Atlanta

[RacingManiac]

btw, I like the report, but I still think the R15 shot from the back in the dark looks better than the Peugeot...

[Reason]

The afternoon stint though the cars were never really out of the 1:45-1:46 bracket, and compare laptime between the cars at any given time the Acura is at least a sec off the Diesel's pace. Considering Audi did 1:43s on the first day of the open test when the track was less rubber down, and Acura were never in that bracket under the same condition, the qualifying "pace" of the Audi(and diesels in general) were really just running their race pace, as not unusual for them to do.....

Do they usually publish lap charts for something like this? I am curious to see Acura's pace over an entire stint. I am pretty sure McNish did 1:46-ish on his first flying lap of the race, on full fuel and cold-ish tire....Acura seems to be good on tire but on the flip side they are much slower to build-up to proper race pace...

Unfortunately, I don't think they have lap charts for the whole race. Just this: http://www.americanlemans.com/index_live2.php