Everett Ogilvie

... the best cars/series in all of racing currently.

John Shiels

is getting good close competition many brands. Attracting many good drivers also. Hope to go watch them 8-31 in NJ. GF mom is getting by pass surgery 2-3 weeks so who knows

Great series wish the cars looked better. They look better in person. Hope to take some good close up pictures if I get to NJ.

heavychevy

Thet are almost close to out running ugly.

















almost.........

mgarfias

I dunno man, that ugly has a really high coefficient of friction. I think if you strapped a rocket to the thing it still couldnt outrun the ugly.

0Louis @ LG Motorsports

Ugly yes, very well built machines.... yes.

Top 17 cars with in 1.1 seconds. Hard to beat that here in America.

0RAAMaudio

The have gotten a bit better looking recently, more character, some with better paint themes, etc, except the terrible nose job on a few of them. I understand there are rules and there are benefits to a design but compromise is due to prevent such a hideous appearance.

The actual racing can be quite entertaining at times, sometimes much of the race, sometimes a bit boring but I always record and FF those section and the commercials

At least it is something besides watching grown men(and on occasion women) chasing their tails around and around all the damn time and when not watch them talking about them none stop for hours on end

It may be the NASCAR of road racing but it sure beats the hell out of the regular NASCAR crap.

Just my .02

Rick

blkz

I agree, but I do like NASCAR on the road courses.

Gannet

They're butt-ugly. So ugly they're painful to look at. Was that some sort of design requirement?

Give me ALM GT1/2, please. It may not have so many different competitive teams but they look good and sound good.

BrianCunningham

I saw them at WG, they're even fuglyer up close

Watching the Nationwide cars yesterday @ WG rocked!

Not so much the CoT today

joemoia

and SLOOOOW, the Proto-"turtles" are only marginally faster than ALMS GT2 class cars.

mikahb

I like 'em. Not the sexiest things in the world, but fast and VERY good racing. Part of the funkiness of the appearance is because of the wide roll cage/driver compartment. That was a requirement for two reasons, as I understand it:

1) Driver safety - give lots of room for the driver to be very well protected
2) Drag, keeping the "bubble" on top wide creates a lot of drag and slows the cars down keeping speeds reasonably safe

I'd love to run one of those cars!

John Shiels

they are in the mid 1:40 at VIR so I would not call them slow.

joemoia

Here is a comparison of ALMS, Rolex and SWC GT qualifying times at Mid-Ohio, Miller MP and Laguna Seca last year

Mid-Ohio

ALMS LMP2 - 1:08:51 Porsche RS Spyder

ALMS LMP1 - 1:09:97 Audi R10

ALMS GT1 - 1:16:56 Corvette Racing C6R

Rolex DP - 1:18:37 Gainsco Pontiac-Riley

ALMS GT2 - 1:19:95 Risi Ferrari F430GT

Rolex GT - 1:25:32 Banner Pontiac GXP.R

SWC GT - 1:25:62 Eric Curran, C6 Corvette





Miller Motorsports Park

ALMS LMP2 - 2:18:12 Porsche RS Spyder

ALMS LMP1 - 2:21:04 Audi R10

ALMS GT1 - 2:35:69 Corvette Racing C6R

Rolex DP - 2:40:58 Ganassi Lexus-Riley

ALMS GT2 - 2:43:22 Peterson Ferrari F430GT

Rolex GT - 2:54:16 Banner Pontiac GXP.R

SWC GT - 2:54:98 Tommy Archer, Viper Comp Coupe



Laguna Seca

ALMS LMP2 - 1:10:52 Porsche RS Spyder

ALMS LMP1 - 1:11:17 Audi R10

ALMS GT1 - 1:19:34 Corvette Racing C6R

Rolex DP - 1:20:78 Gainsco Pontiac-Riley

ALMS GT2 - 1:22:88 Risi Ferrari F430GT

Rolex GT - 1:29:05 SpeedSource Maxda RX8

SWC GT - 1:29:70 Randy Pobst, Porsche 997 GT3

Everett Ogilvie

Thanks for the numbers. Anything that runs close to ALMS GT1 is pretty fast in my opinion.

On a similar note, I pulled numbers recently from Mid-Ohio, and the Indy cars were about 1 sec faster than the ALMS P1s.

TLGunman

All I can say regarding the appearance of the DP's, is form follows function within the rule set given.

Now, I can tell you the 91 would have looked a lot better without the Brach's candy stuck on its nose...

Everett Ogilvie

Yep, I've said the same thing myself several times. I do think some of the bodies look better than others, course I may be kind of partial to the general shape of the car just a little.....

ScaryFast

I started watching for the Rolex GT cars (although since they're all Pontiac fake cars that got old) but have completely gotten addicted to the DP racing. Have you naysayers watched the last few races? Even on top of the huge Gainsco / Telmex rivalry that seems to materialize EVERY race with serious intensity, the last three races were amazing.

The Montreal race was one of the best races I've ever watched. If you saw the Gold Reserve car take pole, get spun on lap one/turn one, and end up last in class, fight back to third over the next three hours, then take the win when the first place car ran out of gas on the finish line straight, you know what I'm talkin' about.

This series has set the record for closest finish, and then broken it's own record twice. Amazing.

But uh...yeah, they're ugly.

I am a big ALMS fan, but it's gotten boring watching the two Audi's win P1, two Porsches win P2, and the Corvettes chase each other. GT2 is good racing, but gets zero coverage.

Everett Ogilvie

Exactly. These are some of the best races you can watch. And unlike other series where the cars can't touch b/c they are too fragile, these things can beat and bang - sort of a cross between GT1 and NASCAR - close, hard racing.

Gatorac

You can't deny that Grand Am has had some awesome racing this year. ALMS has been great this year too. ALMS is my favorite though. For one the cars are awesome. Two, Sebring is my home track and the biggest sports car race in America happens there every year. Three, the teams in the ALMS can run with and kick the butts of the fastest sports cars in the world.

It's interesting to see the different opinions on this forum. One says, I hate "spec" cars, they are boring to watch, manufacturer's want real competition against each other.... Another says, the big budget of the factory teams reduce competition as the price tag to race is too high....

Here's my proposal. 1 sports car series with 4 classes. LMP, DP, GT1 and GT2. Keep the ACO and FIA rules for the LMP and GT1 classes and let the manufacturers duke it out with cubic dollars. European teams can come and compete in those classes and American teams can go to Le mans to show the world who's the best. DP can use the same "semi-spec" prototype cars they use now for the more "budget conscious" race teams. GT2 can be what Grand Am currently runs as GT class. Lot's of performance balancing to keep the fields level and attempt to keep costs down.

And yes, I have watched every race of both series this year. I've even gone to 2 races and then watched them on TV when I got home. I love sports car racing.

gbvette62

ALMS would be good if there were more cars, face it, 2 Audis in P1, 4 Porches in P2 and 2 Vettes in GT1. Not much racing in any of these classes and the Porche 911 parade in GT2 has grown old. I've been watching the reruns of the 911 show for 40 years now. The only excitement is when Penske's Porches are challenging for the overall win, and now LeMans wants ALMS to "adjust" the rules to protect the P1's.

I'll admit that the roof line on the DP's is a little funky, but I'll live with it when I get 15-20 competetive teams out racing every weekend. To me , an added benefit is seeing David Donohue racing, I was and still am a hugh fan of his late father, Mark. He was clearly one of the best ever. I also enjoy watching Pruitt, I crewed for a privateer team in the Trans Am and IMSA GTO when he competed in those series. I always remember him being a nice guy and a class act.

With the Rolex coming to NJ this month, I can't wait to go. I was at Thunderbolt this weekend for the SVRA vintage races and the DP's should be great to watch here.

Of course if we could get Sunoco to sponsor Penske's P2's, paint up the #6 car like the 1973 Sunoco Porche 917 (the "Turbo Panzer" Can Am car that Mark Donohue drove) and put David Donohue in it, well that might be fun to watch.