Petit TR: Petit le Mans

[BmillsSkier]

Hit up my first Petit le Mans today with the fam. Driven the track a bunch, but never taken in the show. Holy shit was I impressed. First class operation from start to finish.

Only shitty thing was my phone dying just about sundown as I hoped to get some mediocre iPhone Xs shots of the night action.

Takeaways:

The production is top shelf. I've been to Indy, NASCAR, F1 and other IMSA races before and this one was on par if not markedly better then them all. Clean, easy access right up to the action, excellent facilities and complete access to the grid and pits before the race - even got to meet Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya.

The patrons' cars were just as impressive as what was on the track. We had Porsche hospitality access and the infield parking lot at "Porscheplatz" was like a fucking museum: 959s, vintage Pcars, GT2s... The Acura hospitality area had so many mint NSXs that I lost count. I was able to get one pic of the Ford hospitality area where there was easy a few million in Ford GTs lined up.

Last but not least, the sounds. Great thing about IMSA/LeMans racing is the different classes all on the same track and hearing how different each engine is. I know I'm a homer but the 911 and 912 were the best sounding cars on the track bar-none, high strung and unmistakable (bonus! the two Atlanta brands pulled out the classic Coke livery for the race: Porsche+Coke. That said, the outgoing C7 Corvettes were the most savage, American, loudest, raw thing on the track - like Swartzenegger in Predator with the gatling gun loud. The Lexus V8s sounded great too (until one binned it right in front of us). Ferrari and Audi despite being so different sounded almost identical. The AMG GT was remarkably silent. Those BM M8's are as massive as advertised and their engines are insane on the straights.

Anyway, pics!

[BmillsSkier]

[MTT]

Placeholder

You tease!!

[BmillsSkier]

*consent obtained




*We've gone to plaid.

[BmillsSkier]

*cross post to boat shoe thread


The noise from the frantic downshifting right before the first team Lexus binned it into the wall right in front of us was epic. Driver ok and the car would return to the race.




The noise these two made up this hill was pure sex.

[BmillsSkier]

*Just a couple million in GTs parked on the grass by the Ford hospitality area.

[BmillsSkier]

If anyone knows how I can upload video from the phone/laptop I've got some downshift footage coming into the hairpin that makes amazing noises.

[Art Shirk]

Saweet man. I love that GT


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[hawkgt]

heh, thanks for sharing, I’m in!

[BmillsSkier]

No clue why the subsequent posts only show links if anyone can advise I’ll fix. Thanks

[Buster Highmen]

No clue why the subsequent posts only show links if anyone can advise I’ll fix. Thanks

You need to right click the images to get the full path and paste that in between the IMG tags. attachments are fucked.

[BmillsSkier]

You need to right click the images to get the full path and paste that in between the IMG tags. attachments are fucked.

Thanks, I'll try and unfuck on the desktop

[Self Jupiter]

Great to see Bill Auberlen driving at the end to win the class, real exciting finish. X2 that there is what feels like full access to the drivers and teams at IMSA events IME, but I’ve never been to a race with that many popular drivers

[BmillsSkier]

Ok, think I fixed the images. Uploading directly from laptop. /shrug.

Great to see Bill Auberlen driving at the end to win the class, real exciting finish. X2 that there is what feels like full access to the drivers and teams at IMSA events IME, but I’ve never been to a race with that many popular drivers

Right? It was a real exciting finish indeed. That 3 way battle to the end in GTD between AMG/M6/R8 was insane. The names on the teams were pretty impressive, I mean just look at the Penske car alone: https://sportscarchampionship.imsa.c...urrent-results

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Outstanding way to spend the day.

[ACH]

Awesome TR!
I really love this racing format.
Used to hit Watkins Glen a bunch BITD.

[BmillsSkier]

Rolex 24 at Daytona entering its final 30 minutes and there is a pretty epic battle going on between BMW and Porsche for the GTLM class right now.

[54-46]

Cool report. Thanks BMills!

[wooley12]

Love the idea of endurance racing. Never saw one but a day at the track is time well spent. My neph drove at Daytona in one. ChumpCar Endurance Series.

[sb]

Sweet stuff!

Thanks for sharing!

[wooley12]

You did see it was "Chump" not "Champ" eh? You were in the pits in the Coke shot?

[BmillsSkier]

Woolley, Yeah, the fans have full access to the grid before the start - rub elbows with owners, manufacturers, drivers and crew - it’s pretty sweet. What was your nephew’s Chump Car?

Apologies if the bump was odd, I didn’t know where else to comment on the start of the WEC/IMSA season and today’s Rolex 24 hours at Daytona. Awesome race on so many levels. F1, 24 Heures du Mans, Indy 500 and NASCAR champions littered the driving teams today; insane talent.

Cadillac prototype dominates again and set a distance record. They ran 8 hours straight without a caution. That’s racing in a groove. The new C8R Corvette that was unveiled at Petit LeMans in October, pictured above, did not fare as well as hoped and well back of the GTLM class leaders - which was an epic battle between the M8 BMW and both factory team Porsche 911 RSRs. They raced nose to nose for 24 hours and finished 13 seconds apart. That’s nuts to think about.

[wooley12]

It was a good bump IMO. I was feeling your stoke. Being able to get close to cars and drivers adds a lot. Got the chance once when I snuck into the pits and wandered up close to my heroes. Neph is a 40yo who lives cars, has always had a bunch of auto businesses andracing ventures going. Chump Car is amateur endurance racing in cheap stock cars. "Real Racing, Real Tracks, Real Cheap Cars". Bring plenty of friends and spares.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread. A lot of factory involvement in the Petite?

[BmillsSkier]

That’s awesome Wooley, just read up a bit on Chump Car and it seems like a ton of fun.

No hijack at all. Racing stoke and car stoke in general is always welcome.

Yes, massive manufacturers presence at Petit Le Mans, Porsche North American Headquarters and Mercedes-Benz North American Headquarters are both in Atlanta and they have entire buildings at Road Atlanta for hospitality.

But really all of them do - Acura, BMW, Lexus and Ford all have substantial presence on the grounds with varying levels of access for fans and owners (Acura had something like 100 original NSXes in their hospitality lot), but all of them pale in comparison to Porsche’s “Porscheplatz” where the clubhouse has prime views of the pits and finish line and the patrons lot is full of stuff that would make most museum collections blush.

[wooley12]

The business side of racing has always been an interesting mystery to me. Always was big but seems there is a lot more big dollar racing today. The kid had a Rent- a-SCCA racer and crew biz for a while renting to $$ Amateurs for SCCA and drivers wanting to put in some familiarization laps at the Glenn before the big endurance races.