[FIA + ACO] Welcome to the World Endurance Championship !!!!

[wedge]

Don't understand what the excitement is about.

It's ILMC, ACO rules and promotion and Jean Todt endorsing endorsing endurance racing by plastering with FIA all over it with both teams and driver championship. Kinda odd considering ACO doesn't allow a drivers' championship at present.

Now we just need a set of rules that allow the cars to go back to being as awesome as the Group C monsters! But we all know the FIA won't allow that as it will start detracting from F1. They'll hinder it much like Group C was back in the early 90s and WRC in the mid 00s.

Do you think ACO will take orders from the FIA? They own Le Mans 24hr! In the late 90s the ACO lumped the FIA GT1 cars into their own GTP category.

WEC will need factory cars. I wonder if Toyota will step up their engine program, even full factory team?

[ioan]

Are you Dr Ulrich in disguise..???

Huh?!

Anyway if he said that I can only agree with him.

[AndyRAC]

Huh?!

Anyway if he said that I can only agree with him.

Ha ha, yeah I agree - Audi keep denying that they are interested in F1. It's not their scene - LMP Sportscars suits their image far better, and is much more road car relevant. I wish the F1 media would stop going on about it. There's more to Motorsport than F1!!

[ioan]

Ha ha, yeah I agree - Audi keep denying that they are interested in F1. It's not their scene - LMP Sportscars suits their image far better, and is much more road car relevant. I wish the F1 media would stop going on about it.

They are right, F1 technology is not really road relevant and it is also very restricted.

There's more to Motorsport than F1!!

Luckily, there is a lot more!

[Tom206wrc]

A lot more...but that you can't see on TV, because they prefer F1 instead

So I really hope the FIA ACO deal will improve Endurance on TV

[AndyRAC]

A lot more...but that you can't see on TV, because they prefer F1 instead

So I really hope the FIA ACO deal will improve Endurance on TV

The weekend is a perfect example of the problem all non F1 Motorsports have. Look what we had:

IoM TT Races,
British MotoGP,
Le Mans 24 Hours,
WSBK,

Oh and F1 from Montreal.

Yet the papers and TV/Radio were dominated by F1. The rest got a little snippet if lucky, and maybe a few lines if mentioned at all. The MotoGP had commentary on 5Live because the tennis was rained off…..
The TT and Le Mans maybe made the papers because of crashes. In fact, the Guardian had an article on the TT, but it was a light hearted one.

These are massive events, Le Mans gets 250,000+ spectators, with 60-70,000 Brits making the pilgrimage.

The WEC needs more than 2 Manufacturers challenging at the front – the more there are, the more chance of better coverage. The ACO also need to put their races on the series website, like the GT1 series do.

[BDunnell]

And it needs the involvement of some drivers that more people than just racing aficionados have heard of.

[wedge]

And it needs the involvement of some drivers that more people than just racing aficionados have heard of.

Really?

[BDunnell]

Really?

Yes, I think so. If the public is to be interested in sportscar racing, they need to have heard of some of the drivers. You and I may be very well aware of Kristensen's outstanding achievements, but they mean little to the average man in the street. And, let's face it, the great periods of sportscar racing in the past have always involved the participation of what we would now (in slightly vulgar fashion) refer to as 'big names'.

[wedge]

Yes, I think so. If the public is to be interested in sportscar racing, they need to have heard of some of the drivers. You and I may be very well aware of Kristensen's outstanding achievements, but they mean little to the average man in the street. And, let's face it, the great periods of sportscar racing in the past have always involved the participation of what we would now (in slightly vulgar fashion) refer to as 'big names'.

Must have been decades since 'big names' drove at Le Mans.

The likes of Derek Warwick and Martin Brundle were journeyman/midfield F1 drivers but established success in Group C

Cars & manufacturers are more of the stars.