• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Official Motorsports Thread of 2012 (F1, MotoGP, WRC, Le Mans, Nascar, IRL, etc)

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

ANDY_098

Member
Dakar stage 6 is cancelled due to bad weather.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96899

Stage six of the 2012 Dakar Rally has been cancelled due to bad weather rendering the route from Fiambala to Copiapo unsafe.

Heavy rain and snow on Wednesday night forced stage five of the event to be shortened by around 30 miles, and with the bad weather continuing after Thursday's action came to an end, yet more of the route has now been affected.

Event organiser the ASO said: "Due to the bad weather continuing over the Andes Cordillera, the Chilean authorities were forced to close, for the night, the border at Paso de San Francisco, situated at 4700m.

"Because of the unfavourable conditions, added to the fact that the course has been hit by rain and snow, the organisers have decided guarantee the security of the competitors and those following the rally."

The sixth stage of the Dakar was due to have taken the crews over the Andes mountains and across the border from Argentina into Chile, with a 170-mile timed section forming the backbone of the 405-mile route.

Instead of the scheduled stage, a convoy has instead been organised to take the car, truck, bike and quad crews over the border.

Stephane Peterhansel continues to lead the event, 4m18s ahead of his X-raid Mini team-mate Krzysztof Holowczyc.
Click to expand...
 
M

mblitek

Member
Shaneus said:
Is hosting your concern? Abload.de doesn't compress and is free. Gotta feel your way around the site a little though, it IS in German :)
Click to expand...

No hosting is no concern, just that those are Red Bull's images I'm willing to share without having an account on my server.

ANDY_098 said:
Dakar stage 6 is cancelled due to bad weather.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96899
Click to expand...


That's garbage, to me that's the reason to be of the Dakar, unpredictability. Although, did any of you guys download my Dakar coverage? Interlaced in the "episodes" are scenes from previous Dakars in the 70s & 80s and one had teams lost in a huge dust storm.
 
D

Dead Man

Member
mblitek said:
That's garbage, to me that's the reason to be of the Dakar, unpredictability. Although, did any of you guys download my Dakar coverage? Interlaced in the "episodes" are scenes from previous Dakars in the 70s & 80s and one had teams lost in a huge dust storm.
Click to expand...

I would have liked to see it go ahead, but in their defence Chile has closed it's border, makes it kind of hard.
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
Dead Man said:
How does that work? I would have thought the WRC could choose their own promoter. Or are they purely an FIA creation?
Click to expand...

As far as I know WRC is completely organised by the FIA so they can do what they want with it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhdzwutjHPA&hd=1
Onboard video from the Nurburgring 24hr, can't believe the amount of traffic he has to deal with on the first lap. It must be so demoralising knowing that you have virtually no chance to overtake the car in front because every time you get close you run into some traffic which gets in the way and ruins the chance.
 
GTP_Daverytimes

GTP_Daverytimes

Member
ashk said:
SuperGT will most likely only be switching to similar chassis/bodywork regulations, engines will still be different. BMW is expected to join SuperGT with a DTM-spec engine when the switch happens, they're expecting some sort of performance balancing rules to be implemented to make it possible. Also, the big idea between the shared rules is for the Japanese and German manufacturers to join up and stage an American championship.

I'm not that happy about GT1 switching to GT3 rules. But if the alternative was no GT world championship, so be it. It's a shame that GT1 was dropped from Le Mans as well. Those were some great cars, and now there won't be any opportunities to see them racing anymore.
Click to expand...

I don't know much about the regulations that JAF will be implementing into SuperGT but they better not do anything to the performance of those beasts. Imagine is SuperGT cars were allowed to run in lemans, they are essentially LMP (GT) cars of the late 90's (Mercedes CLK GTR, Nissan R390). SuperGT should really get better coverage than it is getting now, they are the most beastly GT cars ever conceived.
 
moojito

moojito

Member
ANDY_098 said:
As far as I know WRC is completely organised by the FIA so they can do what they want with it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhdzwutjHPA&hd=1
Onboard video from the Nurburgring 24hr, can't believe the amount of traffic he has to deal with on the first lap. It must be so demoralising knowing that you have virtually no chance to overtake the car in front because every time you get close you run into some traffic which gets in the way and ruins the chance.
Click to expand...

What a great video! The patience those guys have to have to stay behind and wait for the right moment to inch up the line is tremendous. When he got a bit of clear track 5 minutes in I felt like I'd been holding my breath the entire time and could only just start breathing :eek:
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
Mini calculate that Nasser's Hummer is quicker by around 2 mins/100km... so if nothing serious happens he could be the leader in 2 days!
Click to expand...

http://twitter.com/#!/carltonkirby/status/156119933967794176

Can't say that he wouldn't deserve it. He could be a long way ahead by now if he hadn't had so many problems during the stages. They have finally got enough spares for the Hummers so it means they can properly push on the stages rather than nurse the car each day.
 
M

mblitek

Member
ANDY_098 said:
http://twitter.com/#!/carltonkirby/status/156119933967794176

Can't say that he wouldn't deserve it. He could be a long way ahead by now if he hadn't had so many problems during the stages. They have finally got enough spares for the Hummers so it means they can properly push on the stages rather than nurse the car each day.
Click to expand...

Have you been downloading my coverage/uploads? He's been absolutely flying, not too a mention a good guy all around. Stopping to help others, doing press interviews etc.
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
mblitek said:
Have you been downloading my coverage/uploads? He's been absolutely flying, not too a mention a good guy all around. Stopping to help others, doing press interviews etc.
Click to expand...

I was able to watch the first 4-5 days on TV, downloaded the last few though.

Absolutely. Can't imagine many others stopping to help repair a quad bike at the side of the road. He reckons he can make up around 7 mins each day, it will be very tight in the last few stages.
 
C

caramac

Member
Edmond Dantès;34120705 said:
Any MotoGP fans here? Any predictions for the upcoming season?
Click to expand...

Yes! l'll reserve my predictions until after the tests with the new spec bikes. Sepang test at the end of January l believe.
Sad to see the total demise of the 2 strokes in the series though :(
 
D

Dead Man

Member
Edmond Dantès;34120705 said:
Any MotoGP fans here? Any predictions for the upcoming season?
Click to expand...

Rossi will be fast? I don't follow it closely, but I like to watch most of the races if I can.
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
Bit of a cock up in the Dakar today. A bunch of the early bikes ran into unmapped mud and lost a load of time, the time was then given back as the organisers changed the route for the rest of the riders to avoid the mud.

Nasser
had a bad day as well, lost about 3 mins to the leader. This was the longest stage of the rally and he could have made up around 10mins.
 
E

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
Dead Man said:
Rossi will be fast? I don't follow it closely, but I like to watch most of the races if I can.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the usual suspects (Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo, Rossi) should be at the front and Ben Spies should be a lot more competitive this season and should be counted as one of the top tier riders. The rules changes may work in his favour and Rossi and Ducati will most certainly be more competitive this year as well. It's shaping up to be a great season, but would have been even better if Marco hadn't been taken away from us in such a tragic manner.
 
L

Leunam

Member
Edmond Dantès;34120705 said:
Any MotoGP fans here? Any predictions for the upcoming season?
Click to expand...

I only really started watching MotoGP this season, but wasn't able to keep up with it too much. I did enjoy the races I watched though, barring one obvious tragedy.

Besides the top guys, I'm also rooting for Ben Spies. Watched Assen where he got his first win and to top it all off it was a special win for Yamaha. Also, dat livery.
 
E

Edmond Dantès

Dantès the White
S. L. said:
supposedly the Toyota LMP1 will do it's first laps on Paul Ricard today
Click to expand...
Mmmmmm, I can't wait for the spy shots. I wonder if Toyota can recapture the beauty of the GT-One.

470-toyota-gtone.jpg
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
Dakar:

Robby Gordon won todays stage and closed Peterhansel's lead down to 6mins. Peterhansel could be in for a penalty though after running into a stranded bike and rider in a river crossing.

pic: http://i.imgur.com/BiVau.jpg

Al-Attiyah has quit after yet another mechanical problem, alternator failed this time apparently.
 
N

NihonTiger90

Member
ANDY_098 said:
Dakar:

Robby Gordon won todays stage and closed Peterhansel's lead down to 6mins. Peterhansel could be in for a penalty though after running into a stranded bike and rider in a river crossing.

pic: http://i.imgur.com/BiVau.jpg

Al-Attiyah has quit after yet another mechanical problem, alternator failed this time apparently.
Click to expand...

So that's where he's gone off to. Was wondering where he went after spending the last few years running at the tail end of the NASCAR field.
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/news/drayson-racing-launch-all-electric-lmp/

Drayson Racing launch all electric LMP

The long awaited Lola B12/69EV electric Le Mans Prototype has been unveiled at the MIA’s Green Racing conference in Birmingham today. Powered by the Drayson 4X2-640 drivetrain the Lola weighs 1085kg and produces around 850bhp.

Rather than being a pure racecar the car is aimed at going for outright lap records, similar to the TMG Radical P01 of 2011 (video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jP5gaZGtZg). The Lola is fitted with a plethora of innovative technology, such as inductive charging, composite batteries, moveable aerodynamics and KERS dampers.

A full technical feature on the car will appear here soon but for now check out the images for now. Note that the car does not feature headlights like a standard Lola LMP1, but it does curiously still feature the three position lights on the side pod. The suspension arrangement is conventional at the rear with twin inboard dampers however these of new KERS type from Multimatic.
Click to expand...

-----

Stage One Technology, WRC's expert timing firm, will not be in Monte Carlo
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96959

The World Rally Championship's expert timing firm Stage One Technology will not be in Monte Carlo for next week's season-opener after it was unable to find agreement with the administrators of North One Sports.

...

AUTOSPORT has contacted the Automobile Club de Monaco to ask who will supply the timing and tracking systems. On last year's Intercontinental Rally Challenge round, the system was provided by MovadoSolutions – which provided instructions of how to tie-wrap the unit to the roll cage before plugging it into a cigarette lighter.
Click to expand...

A nice hi-tech solution then!

-----

FIA grants Mini World Rally Team full manufacturer status
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96960

It remains unclear precisely how many rounds of the series the Prodrive-run cars will attend, with the long-haul events believed to be the most likely - but when they do attend they will be eligible for points as a full manufacturer.

Mini's full manufacturer status has been achieved via a waiver which allows the team to escape the clause which states they must contest all 13 WRC rounds.

The FIA has also confirmed numerous other WRC teams, which are making a smaller commitment to the championship and are not required to name a number one driver or contest a full programme.
Click to expand...

-----

Dakar overall leader board:
PETERHANSEL (FRA) MINI 04:41:12

ROMA (ESP) MINI 05:00:17 @00:19:05

GORDON (USA) HUMMER 05:01:03 @00:19:51

Stage news:
Bad day for Robby Gordon, stopped for lost 12mins today. About 1000km worth of special left, he could catch up again but anymore problems could seal the win for Peterhansel.

Bikes will go right down to the wire as well, Coma and Despres both took new engines (and 15mins penalty, makes no difference in the rankings 3rd place is 45mins back). They are separated by 21 seconds.

Leaders in the trucks and quads have about an hour lead, so unless they run into problems they should win.

-----

Dubai 24hour is this weekend, live on MotorsTV in the UK.
Live stream by the looks of it: http://live.24hseries.com/Live-cam

-----

Onboard camera and commentary from Mike Hawthorn driving a Jaguar D-Type round Le Mans in 1956
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2irKVQB4I

-----

AFP report Gordon's engine has modified ventilation system to improve performance. He denies this tinkering has impact on speed. Oh dear!
Click to expand...
http://twitter.com/#!/carltonkirby/status/157180607850496001

Gordon now running under appeal. May go all the way to FIA arbitration.
Click to expand...
http://twitter.com/#!/carltonkirby/status/157180946557308928
 
D

Dilly

Banned
That onboard video with Hawthorne is amazing, there's still trafic and bikers on the track. Saw the documentary about the crash from the Mercedes at LeMans '55 some time ago.

Any word on Toyota's LMP reveal?
 
T

thefro

Member
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96983

1315768799.jpg


Sebastien Bourdais secures full-time IndyCar return with Dragon Racing
Sebastien Bourdais and Katherine Legge will both make full-time returns to American single-seater racing this year after being announced as the drivers for Dragon Racing.

The Jay Penske-owned team, which ran selected races last year with Paul Tracy and Ho-Pin Tung, will use Lotus engines.

Claudio Berro, Group Lotus Director of Motorsport, said: "We are very pleased to be able to announce this new and exciting partnership with Dragon Racing today, a team which has demonstrated its potential and which we believe will achieve great success thanks to the Lotus IndyCar engine and the security of a major backer."
Click to expand...

Great to see Bourdais back in IndyCar full-time this year! Dragon Racing is owned by Roger Penske's son and could be a really surprising team, especially if the Lotus engine has as significant of a weight advantage over the Chevy and Honda as reported.
 
T

thefro

Member
ANDY_098 said:
Does this mean Bourdais will not drive for Peugeot in Le Mans anymore?
Click to expand...

Seems very doubtful that he'd be able to do both... IndyCar is rumored to be returning to Milwaukee on June 17th and there are already other races that conflict with the various testing days.

Simon Pagenaud would be in the same situation, as he's running a full season with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2012 in IndyCar and won't be able to return to Peugeot for Le Mans.
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
Maybe the rumours of Peugeot only entering 2 factory cars are true then, they have lost three drivers with Pagenaud and Bourdais gone to IndyCar, and Wurz has moved to the new Toyota LMP.

Then again they could just get 3 new drivers.
 
A

ashk

Member
ANDY_098 said:
ILMC was on Eurosport so I guess this will be the same.
Click to expand...

Yeah I suppose Eurosport will keep at it. But while their complete Le Mans coverage is superb, some of the other races last season weren't so good. There were big gaps in the coverage for all of the other races, and IIRC for the last race in Zhuhai they only covered the starting hour or so. I know it's gotta be difficult to wrap a TV schedule around a 6-hour race, especially when most of the other broadcasts are live sports as well, but I'm hoping that gaining World Championship status brings on some improvements.

The ALMS coverage on the other hand is awesome with free streaming in great quality. So at least the Sebring coverage won't be lacking.
 
A

ANDY_098

Member
Bloodhound SSC will be completed this year.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96990

"By early next year it will be a car, and by the middle of the year we will be driving it up and down on runways and testing it up to 200mph.

"Then we will fly out to South Africa, where they have already cleared – by hand – 10 million square metres of track so far. They now have to clear the safety zone on either side, in case the car goes off line, of another 12 million square metres. So our first world record is going to be on the largest surface on earth, cleared by hand."

...

"A fast car in this hall is 200mph; a fast car for us is 1000mph – 25 times the aerodynamic load, 25 times the load through the suspension. Here a powerful car has 1000bhp; for us its 133,000. We're using a Formula 1 engine just to drive the pump for the rocket motor.
Click to expand...

Only 200mph, but at least it will be moving under its own power. Been looking forward to this for a long time now, hopefully it doesn't end up a failure. Bolded part really puts it into perspective.

There are also CAD files available of it (http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/car/facts_and_figures/cad_drawings.cfm).
 
N

NihonTiger90

Member
thefro said:
Seems very doubtful that he'd be able to do both... IndyCar is rumored to be returning to Milwaukee on June 17th and there are already other races that conflict with the various testing days.

Simon Pagenaud would be in the same situation, as he's running a full season with Sam Schmidt Motorsports in 2012 in IndyCar and won't be able to return to Peugeot for Le Mans.
Click to expand...

Especially if he's going to run the 500 this year, that'll be his focus for the entire month of May.
 
N

NihonTiger90

Member
twinturbo2 said:
No love for NASCAR? 2012 is the first year for fuel-injected engines, Tony Effing Stewart is the reining champ, Kurt Busch is starting over with Phoenix Racing, and testing at Daytona is set to begin soon.

http://espn.go.com/racing/nascar/cup/story/_/id/7447784/nascar-eyes-danica-daytona-test-looms
Click to expand...

Yep, I've posted a few things about the upcoming season so far. Completely forgot about the fuel injection, though, because we were supposed to have it three years ago and it got pushed back.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

EA Sports WRC | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2
58
4K
Bry0 replied
Update 7 reduces the installation footprint of Forza Motorsport by around 15-20%, decreasing its file size by 25GB on Xbox Series X|S and 29GB on PC
News 2
62
3K
Fredrik replied
Forza Motorsport Won’t Begin Polishing Until Next Year, Casting Doubt on Spring 2023 Date
2
82
5K
ChorizoPicozo replied
NeoGAF GOTY 2023 |OT| Voting thread
2 3 4
198
15K
Palliasso replied
Baldur's Gate 3 Devs Working on Official Mod Support Plan, Including for Consoles
News
9
796
Doom85 replied
Top Bottom