Survival of GT1

Recently the ACO released their plans for 2011 and the years following. The four classes that they currently have will be changed into what will probably be three classes. LMP1 will join GT1 and become one class called something like LMPC. The cars in this class will be prototype coupes, with styling similar to the road cars that the manufacture makes. This is the reason that GT1 will get killed off in the ACO sanctioned races. LMP2 will continue as it is, just without any manufactures. GT2 will be called GT and it will be a combination of what now know as GT2 and GT3. Because the FIA is still separate from the ACO there will be some problems as some of the manufactures in FIA GT1 will stop making GT1 cars and just make prototypes. Fortunately there are now several smaller supercar makers that are interested in making a GT1 car. These supercar makers are too small to start a large prototype team, so the FIA will probably rely on these makers to manufacture the cars for the FIA GT championship. So as long as there are small companies making GT1 cars, the GT1 class will probably be able to survive.

Junior's New Ride at Hendrick

In the past few weeks Jr. has signed a new contract with Hendrick motorsports, so he will race for them in 08, and probably longer. One of the reasons that he was able to get a ride with the best team in NASCAR is simply because he is the son of Dale Earnhardt, who is still regarded as on of the best NASCAR drivers in history. Although, I don't think that he is anywhere as good as his father was, and he really isn't that great of a driver. His teammate Martin Truex Jr. is further ahead of him in the rankings, which shows that he does have a competitive car. The real reason that Rick Hendrick brought him to the team, is because he sells more merchandise and gets more sponsorship money than any other driver in NASCAR. This way Hendrick can make some money of this deal, even though he really just gets an average driver.

2008 Ferrari LMP2 Bio-Diesel

There has been a lot of talk about Ferrari returning to Le Mans racing with a Bio-Diesel powered LMP2 race car. Apparently because it is a Bio-Diesel its fuel type is classified as Bio fuel and not diesel. Diesels are baned in LMP2, so because of the fuel classification that it has, it will be able to compete legally without any rule alterations. The chassis is going to be made by Pilbeam, a company that has been building LMP chassis for a few years. Unfortunately for Ferrari Pilbeam has so far been uncompetitive, and they have only raced in Europe, which means they have not come to the gladiator fight that is happening in ALMS LMP2. The reason that ALMS LMP2 is critical to Ferrari's plans is because that is where the Porsches are right now, and they have stated that the reason that they want to come back to prototype racing is so they can challenge the Porsches. There is supposed to be a privateer team running Porsches in Europe next year, so if they decide to go there they will still have to face the Porsches. The engine for the race car is supposed to come from an Alfa Romero production based diesel. This engine is supposed to make about 400 horsepower, but without the smaller restricters that they are going to have at Lime Rock the Porsches are making 480 horsepower, with the smaller restricters I estimate that they will have about 450 horsepower. 50 horsepower is a huge difference in modern racing, and the only way that it can be made up for is with the better fuel economy that the Bio-diesel will have. Unfortunately Bio-diesel is not as efficient as normal diesel, and if we look at the results of the 2007 24 hours of Le Mans we can see that having more economy and power don't win you the race. In the photo of the car that was provided it seemed that Schumacher himself was driving the car, but many people say that it was altered. Even with Schumacher was one of the drivers, the difference is too great to make up. If this car does get the support and the backing it needs for running in LMP2 for next year, I think that it will probably just embarrass the Ferrari name that is so well respected in motorsports.

First Post

Hello, this is my first post on my new blog. My main interest is in motorsports so this is probably what I will write about in this blog. Hopefully I can put some stuff about the author Waddle so you can get to know him.