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 Miscellaneous Racing Series 2023: Shifted Into H This is the Misc. Racing Thread, home for discussion of all kinds of racing that aren't Formula 1, IndyCar, or NASCAR. Feel free to post about sports car racing, touring cars, rallying, off-road racing, motocross, and anything else you can think of. So much good racing is available to watch (especially online officially) that we can share and discuss while enjoying speedy race cars.  So what kind of racing are you talking about here, then? We talk a lot about sports-car racing. It’s the racing, primarily on road and street courses, of cars which come closest in design and spirit to street cars. And at the top of sports cars are what’s called prototypes -- single-seat racers with closed tops and fenders. The Grand Prix cars of long-distance racing. But this is a place for all sorts of series: Australian Supercars, Japanese Super GT and Super Formula, the World Rally Championship, Supercross (I will get murdered if I don't mention or watch Supercross), and more. Why should I care about sports car racing?  There’s a wide variety -- of cars, drivers, locations, and of race distances. It’s where your favorite drivers from Formula 1, IndyCar and NASCAR past will wind up. Races are often long (6-, 12- and 24-hour races are not uncommon), and feature multiple types (classes) of car racing on the same track but in individual class battles alongside the overall ranking. The world of sports car racing tends to be friendlier and more approachable than other parts, while still attracting many colorful characters. Okay. So what's new for 2023? Oh, we thought we were shifting into H last year in the world of sportscar racing, but that was a false dawn and finale - Toyota won the World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans once more, chased by a grandfathered LMP1 car and the plucky Glickenhaus. Peugeot eventually showed up, but this year should be the first proper challenge - in the form of the last factory to win before the current reign began... Last year was the finale for IMSA's prototype rules, the Daytona Prototype International, which gives way this year to the GTP class and LMDh rules. We already have nine cars for the Daytona 24, from four factories, with more due as the season goes on. The racing was drat good, the last two brands raced hard (sometimes too hard - hi Petit Le Mans Cadillac duel) and there's a lot of excitement for this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ize1rE7T8fE
And aside from the factories in the WEC, we have for 2023:
So, what are the series I should know?  The FIA World Endurance Championship is the highest level of sports-car racing. It’s an FIA World Championship, same as Formula 1 and the World Rally Championship, which means a lot. The WEC schedule includes the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which means almost as much, if not more, as Le Mans remains a hugely popular event and a major marketing point for all these big manufacturers. The WEC features LM Hypercar cars, LMP2 cars, and a GT class, and is pretty fun to watch. Its season is back to running during the calendar year, and though the first race is moved from Sebring to Portugal, it will continue on as a global championship this year.  Alongside the WEC is IMSA, which is based mainly in the United States but almost equal to the WEC in terms of longevity and prestige. Its a US and Canadian-based series, but many teams and drivers will also compete at Le Mans on an annual basis. IMSA also has a number of high-profile races: endurance epics include the 24 Hours of Daytona in January, the Sebring 12 Hours in March, and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in October, plus marquee shorter races at Long Beach, Road America, and more. Other regional series which are directly under the WEC and ACO (who co-organize the WEC along with the FIA) include the European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series, which both act as feeders of a sort to the World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans. There's no direct relegation/promotion, but teams gain experience in the regional series and sometimes step up to the WEC; also, all of IMSA, Asian Le Mans and European Le Mans all receive invites to the 24 Hours of Le Mans annually.  But there are other series in this sports car world! Many of them fall under a sports car rulebook called GT3. These are cars made by big companies (Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, Audi) which are sold to customers. GT3 cars are expected to be balanced to achieve a similar level of performance -- in theory, a driver could take each of those cars around a track and get roughly the same lap time. This has led to a boom in series aimed to customers, as the cars are relatively affordable, well-built, fairly easy to drive (especially compared to customer cars from the 1970s and ‘80s) and eligible to race in a lot of exciting events. The 24 Hours races at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and the Nurburgring in Germany, and also the 12 Hours of Bathurst in Australia are highlights for GT3-type racing worldwide. Great! So how/when do I watch? First, you need to know when a race is! Custard Undies recommended this link to Motorsport.com's schedule for racing series. Use it, learn it, love it. Because the sports-car world is so diverse, there’s a lot to watch. Happily, much of it is readily available online or even via YouTube.
Recommended Links/Follows
Other questions? Reach out and ask! Recommendations? Please suggest and we'll try to add them in. Come join us on Discord! https://discord.gg/kg3d2Uu Misc Threads of the Past Misc. Racing Thread 2022: H-Sample Test Phase Misc. Racing Thread 2021: Shifting to H Intensifies Misc Racing Thread 2020: Put it in H! Misc Racing Thread 2019: I woke up to a smoking hulk Misc Auto Racing 2018: Mazda gonna Mazda Misc Auto Racing 2017: gently caress off Whincup Misc Auto Racing 2016 : Downgraded From Silver Posters to Bronze Misc Auto Racing 2015: At least our criminals are non-violent Misc Auto Racing 2014: So long and thanks for all the McNish Misc Auto Racing 2013: Beware: Ferrari Ahead Misc. Auto Racing 2012: No War But Class War Sportscars 2011: Racing with Class (ILMC/ALMS/GrandAm) 2011 Daytona 24 Hours 2010 Daytona 24 Hours
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Jan 27, 2023 14:14
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 10:00 |
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[Reserved for LMP2]
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Jan 27, 2023 14:14
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[Reserved for GTD and GTD Pro]
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Jan 27, 2023 14:14
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SPACE HOMOS posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XySlnWVj7I It sounds like this was an absolute banger, Miatas on the huge super-speedway is always a good combo MazeOfTzeentch posted:LMDh BoP is pretty straightforward right now, especially since they are only running against themselves. Power is limited (and measured) at the axles to 500kW peak. IMSA defines a power curve in the BOP documents that all cars must adhere to over their rev range, by percentage, so at X percent of your rev limit you're allowed to make Y power. The trick is how it balances against the LMH cars, but yeah, the idea that the software and integration is what matters keeps it road relevant. Definitely will be interesting to see how it works going forward.
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Jan 27, 2023 14:18
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Custard Undies posted:Is this only streaming on Peacock? Trying to watch in Australia but not finding any options compared to last few years If your country doesn’t have a Proper TV deal, then you can watch the IMSA TV feed, which combines the videos with the IMSA Radio feed (powered by Radio Le Mans). Even if you get Peacock in the US, it might be worth putting the IMSA Radio feed on just for the dulcet Mackem tones of John Hindaugh. And yeah, the 787B was last active 30+ years ago, but still gets wheeled out occasionally… https://youtu.be/neHfmMeRr9Q
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Jan 28, 2023 23:28
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algebra testes posted:God I love Sleepy Mechanic Hours.  Yeah the Cadillac and the Acura seem tops right now, I think it may even come down to the proverbial three bites at it instead of two for everyone else. Dawn at Daytona.
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Jan 29, 2023 13:12
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Bathurst 12 Hour is almost 1/3 of the way done: https://www.youtube.com/live/yfS3OXbrpdU After seeing the Rossi BMW, I’m now convinced that the ACO/FIA changed the rules about car number fonts a couple years back anticipating a need to incorporate that 46 in future years.
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Feb 4, 2023 23:34
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Dudley posted:Yeah, given he's racing the literal best there that's what BMW want to see. Still expecting LMP2 this year at LeMans, BMW Hypercar Drive next. Would not be surprised if one of the two WEC BMW Hypercars for next year has a fluorescent yellow 46 on it. Rossi is a draw, and isn’t making GBS threads it up too badly in the car either. I’ll try to fill out the OPs a bit more soon, it’s still early in the year but sports car world, WRC and Formula E are all getting going. Racing doesn’t stop!
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Feb 8, 2023 08:58
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algebra testes posted:Pescarolo are back next year and will also run Peugots. Monsieur Pescarolo isn’t involved in the team, so let’s see if the money turns up. We’re bound to have a customer hypercar team run into problems, this is sports car racing after all.
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Feb 18, 2023 02:12
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Arcella posted:Iron Dames in a Porchse rather than a Ferrari is new to me; Michael Fassbender in a Proton Porsche, and only 1 Corvette. Really excited that this is the year we're going. Iron Lynx (and therefore the Dames) have switched allegiance and are becoming a factory Lamborghini effort, hence running that at the Daytona 24 last month. And next year, when the Lamborghini LMDH arrives, they’ll be the team to first run it (alongside Prema). So that would make running a Ferrari this year a bit awkward! Three Cadillacs, four Porsches (three factory plus the JOTA car) and a second Glickenhaus are the additions for Le Mans on top of the standard WEC Hypercar group. Should be fun.
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Feb 28, 2023 00:19
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Dudley posted:The only surprise there, other than Jim glickenhaus finding some change down the back of his couch is Action Express, which is great to see. Action Express apparently won/earned one of the automatic bids from IMSA, so it's nice they can bring the LMDH over (or that three chassis will be over there). seems like Proton don't think they'll make it to Spa or Le Mans with the 963, which is a bit of a shame.
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Feb 28, 2023 14:26
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coconono posted:Hey it’s the gator nationals. Please watch. Are there any details on how/when to watch? Legit curious, but I’ve been out of the loop on drag racing for a while.
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Mar 9, 2023 23:20
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Dudley posted:The other difference is there's BoP now so Peugeot just need to be in the general area whereas Nissan somehow thought they'd be quicker on merit. In fairness, the Nissan I believe had its year of testing brought forward so they were racing right now. Don’t think they ever got the hybrid system working, and that was more than half the designed grunt for the thing. Peugeot is just rebuilding a race team and developing a car, both from almost zero. Even Toyota took a couple years to get competent, never mind an outright challenge to Audi. Porsche is the outlier since they have so much institutional knowledge they could lean on that Peugeot just doesn’t have.
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Mar 13, 2023 12:19
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Dudley posted:Yeah Porsche is altering a Multimatic, the Peugeot is a clean sheet design. I mean even comparing Peugeot now to Porsche building the 919 Hybrid. Porsche never lost their prototype guys, but Peugeot? Lord knows.
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Mar 13, 2023 13:00
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algebra testes posted:Yes but it still owns. Lol, because it’s the WEC they don’t do anything easy.
So yeah, they created a new app and it didn’t port over any of the account details. glad to see “the WEC app is a shambles” still holds true this year.
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Mar 14, 2023 00:17
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orange juche posted:Apparently MSR got clapped by IMSA, and lost all winnings and their points, as well as picking up a 50k penalty. One of their engineers was apparently falsifying telemetry data somehow, and IMSA found out. Could’ve sworn I posted it here too but the news article here has the details. Sounds like the engineer ‘responsible’ both lost his IMSA accreditation and also got turfed by MSR. Honda Performance sounded very mad about this.
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Mar 16, 2023 00:47
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coconono posted:HPD? Supercar racing has a secret police? Honda Performance Development, their US motorsports division. The ones in charge of the IndyCar and IMSA programs.
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Mar 16, 2023 14:43
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You talk about pink racing cars and forget sports cars in this, of all threads? Shameful.  
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Mar 17, 2023 16:10
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track day bro! posted:Is it just me or is it impossible to login to fiawec.tv I would’ve been posting in here but it started at 1 am my time. Also the FIA WEC app refreshed for this year, and is hilariously unfinished. Won’t even allow you to AirPlay which, like, should be a system default  [Edit] lol Ferrari harperdc fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Mar 17, 2023 |
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Mar 17, 2023 22:55
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algebra testes posted:I got up at 4am lol to watch the last 6 hours and im hurting. I have a very small human that wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30, so I could watch the last ~3 hours live. And man that new app is kinda trash, at least the racing is good. They also highlighted the SpaceX launch on the race broadcast, was fun to see.
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Mar 18, 2023 01:44
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track day bro! posted:I mean you can’t expect any team to be challenging toyota just yet. I recon in a season or two you’ll see Ferrari catching up to them though. Dunno about Porsche and I have a feeling that Peugeot will either just give up or have a more conventional car next year, although maybe Sebring was just a bit too rough for their car idk. Ferrari and Porsche will improve, Peugeot should as well. Should. Remember there’s also Alpine, Lamborghini joining new plus a BMW program for WEC. Gonna be good for a couple years here.
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Mar 18, 2023 15:38
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Caddy on fire, oops
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Mar 19, 2023 00:04
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Oh hey the Sambadrome is getting motorsports use again - it was the front straight when IndyCar raced there in the 2010s.
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Mar 24, 2023 22:56
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Couple pieces of sports car news / upcoming races (or not, lol) for the weekend since it's now April and things are getting underway:
I'll try to drop anything else I see (especially YouTube links for series) in here later, but we're starting to get busy. coconono posted:NHRA’s marshalls are called Safety Safari and it’s a paid position. It’s a lot of “if this isn’t done the event can’t happen” work. Stuff like coordinating parking for trailers, track prep, incident response. All one team. They don’t get paid enough. And the pay scales down considerably for the same position attached to tracks instead of the tours. I think that exists for some series as the safety team (eg IndyCar) as rapid response to accidents, but there's also the corner marshals who are there to wave flags and communicate with race control over things going wrong, and those teams are generally volunteers. I think there's more necessity there for marshals for road courses than drag strips  but yes, 'paying' volunteers for their enthusiasm with good vantage points and no money isn't the greatest stance, it feels like a real relic of past times. I think the top series coordinate to get experienced corner workers from the national governing bodies, but there's also no reason those series can't pay for the time and efforts as well.
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Apr 13, 2023 11:41
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Unfortunately, Irish Hyundai WRC driver Craig Breen died from injuries suffered during a testing incident yesterday. quote:The Irish driver, 33, was preparing for the next round of the WRC – the Croatia Rally, which would have been his second outing of the 2023 season for Hyundai – when the accident occured. I don't know if photos or video are out there, but the suggestion in other places/stories is that it's a similar accident to what injured Robert Kubica and, more tragically, the incident Breen was in as a younger driver which took the life of his co-driver 
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Apr 14, 2023 11:25
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WEC 6 Hours of Portimao coverage starts in about an hour 
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Apr 16, 2023 10:29
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Glickenhaus running amongst the P2 cars was...certainly something.
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Apr 16, 2023 12:26
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ewe2 posted:Catching the shakedown stream of the Croatia WRC rally on youtube and lots of talk from the drivers and commentary about Craig Breen of course, all the cars have little trophies dedicated to him, its very touching. https://twitter.com/AmericanWRCfan/status/1648773609136197633 https://twitter.com/OfficialWRC/status/1648677605246156800 A few more details from before the rally started. Sounds like all of the teams have agreed to only have two points-paying cars at this rally as well, which is pretty nice as a sign of solidarity as well from the other factories.
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Apr 20, 2023 10:54
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spaceblancmange posted:ELMS 4h of Barcelona starting now oh they're running the old layout at Barcelona without the chicane in the last sector too 
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Apr 23, 2023 11:17
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SlowBloke posted:If the mods don’t mind, I have no qualms about writing here It’s me, sitting here taking notes for future years. Feel free.
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May 5, 2023 12:07
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lagidnam posted:Weather forecast is really good, lots of sun and a few clouds, basically no chance of rain. Well that’s done it, expect to see fog this year.
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May 17, 2023 10:27
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algebra testes posted:I love the Dacia The be-fox tailed Opel Manta is back this year too.
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May 18, 2023 13:59
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Live link for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, should start 6 hours from now. https://www.youtube.com/live/-QamjyNCypg
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May 20, 2023 07:34
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harperdc posted:Live link for the Nurburgring 24 Hours, should start 6 hours from now. This is now live and without a geoblock for the United States
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May 20, 2023 15:40
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SlowBloke posted:While I understand accepting weird entries for entertainment reason, having a trabant running in the same race of a gt3 on a narrow track like the nurburgring is not the best. I think they should cut the main race allowed classes to gt4 and up and move the dacia+manta to a "tcr and shittier" dedicated race. It's not an SRO event, it's a NLS organized one, and I'm sure they have a lot more membership in the slower production-based classes than they have from GT3 teams with factory connections. The top class has always been a draw, but it's also not part of a series dedicated to those, so you have to keep your whole constituency in mind. in the same way, the Bathurst 12 Hour losing some of those slower classes definitely was a place where they lost something of the event.
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May 21, 2023 12:04
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SlowBloke posted:You can't deny that to a lot of viewers n24 is felt like a lesser race than any other race in the LMC circuit due to the excess of classes on the track. the Nurburgring 24 Hours is associated with the NLS (Nurburgring Endurance Series in English), which is a group of races organized by German amateur racing clubs. It's a high-profile event, but it's not part of a global championship for GT3/GT4 cars. It's not connected to the Spa 24 and the GT World Challenge endurance races, it's not connected to the FIA WEC, it's its own thing.
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May 21, 2023 12:12
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Dudley posted:Then it'd be any other generic GT race of which the world has about 9 million. It’d be at the Nordschleife so it’d be a spectacle instead of a circus, but it would lose what makes it special. 32 top-class cars alone is drat near the size of the WEC grid, and they had 230,000 plus people over the race weekend, so clearly the formula needs tweaking
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May 21, 2023 15:08
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ewe2 posted:And Ferrari won 2 classes, the #7 position won its class. AND a course lap record. Two of the three Ferrari 296 GT3s in the race won their respective classes First win for Ferrari overall, and one of only a small handful of victories by a non-German brand (the last one being a Chrysler Viper in the early 2000s, the other being Ford though that's debatable).
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May 21, 2023 15:20
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The Japanese Super Taikyu Fuji 24 Hours is live now - just under 19 hours remaining, though it's under caution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-4AzTM_mpk The interesting news from here is that Toyota's Rookie Racing Corolla, which had been running hydrogen for the past couple years (including the 24 Hours), is...going to run hydrogen this weekend. But instead of compressed gas, they're running liquid hydrogen. And with news breaking that the ACO has added hydrogen combustion technology as a potential option for the 24 Hours of Le Mans and therefore also WEC as a sub-class probably of
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May 27, 2023 12:15
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 10:00 |
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SlowBloke posted:Second day of scrutineering at LeMans I think I heard that parts/chassis were flown over from the U.S., so even though the tub involved in the Spa wreck is salvageable, maybe the time-frame for getting it ready wasn't right? in any case, glad they didn't have to pull out. Excited to hear that thing in person at Fuji later this year.
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Jun 3, 2023 11:57
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