JackOlsen

In my opinion, that's not racing. It's more like pro wrestling.

carreracup21

The brazen arrogance they showed us on the track, is the same trait that brought the whole house down.

What a crock of *##*. That wasn't racing, that was gang rape.

JJayB

Speed World Challenge pulls in the ratings and manufactures know it. With a blank check book GM makes a pos Caddy into a series winner. Does anyone really think that a Caddy will beat a Viper Competion Coupe! Reminds me of Audi RS6's a few years ago. Lets handicap the real fast cars and take a sedan and beat up on Porsche's Vipers and Vets. Will even let Volvos run and they can run 20 lbs of boost to make them competive except they won't beacause their drivelines will fall apart. Along the way lets hire killer drivers like Max the Axe, and 3 other world class hot shoes and we'll win and everyone will go out and buy our Caddy. This is an old theme thats been repeated many times when manufacters get involved. Eventually the bean counters in corporate america stop the foolishness when the bottom line shows that the public isn't buying the farce that a Cads a sports car. Cad will go another year and then bye bye.

thomas

Actually, Lou passed the cars after the green.

carreracup21

They eventually did give him a stop and go for the jumped re-start, but not until he had already done his little good deed for team caddy.

GUMBALL

If you watch the replay from the camera angle behind the field, Lou Gigliotti DID NOT jump the flag....one or two of the cars ahead of him did a "brake test", Lou sidestepped that and got to clear track, and with the torque of the Chev engine, got the jump on a lot of cars....but he did not move out of line until AFTER the flag was flown...

carreracup21

Apparently the SCCA officials calling the race didn't agree with your TV re-play analysis. He was in fact called in for a stop and go penalty for jumping the re-start, and upon learning this, he was free to screw Henzler.......which he did.

thomas

What hurt Porsche's chance of a championship was when two of the 911s collided.

Nordschleife

Ah, thanks Rolo. I am on record describing the Speed Challenge as a joke. Its really important for Marketing but its not life as we know it. You would NOT believe how expensive some of those cars are to build.

Interestingly, the new GT3 class, which will attempt to equalise racing between Gallardo, F430 Challenge, 997 Cup, TVR, Maserati, Z350, Mustang GT, Aston Martin DBS among others is likely to go the same way. It will be limited to 'Amateur' drivers, the entrants will not be in control of their cars as the organisers seek to equalise performance from race to race and it will be mostly confined to the SRO organised FIAGT/WTCC weekend, which has all the appeal of Bellringers' Weekly as far as the Marketing people are concerned.

R+C

race911

All in all a great weekend of racing. As I posted on another list, I was standing about as close as you could get without being an entrant during that second-to-last-lap restart. And it sure looked like Max A. punted Henzler off.

However, on further review (aka Tivo) when I returned home......notice how much contact there was between Henlzer and Archer (Viper!) entering and through T2. Obviously this is what caused the tire to go down, as he was limping by the time he got to the 2nd apex of T2.

As far as Gigliotti's nonsense on that restart. Wolf kinda did himself in by going outside there. Easy, easy for Lou to move him outside. Blatant? Sure, but totally, totally predicatable. Anyone who was there for the SM race that followed saw the same move pulled lap after lap between the leaders.

Greg Fishman

What are you talking about? This is by far the most developed car in the series. They bring in guest drivers (ringers) and extra cars to rack up points. There car has nothing to do with a street CTS-V. Do you notice how the car is chopped and the driver practically sits in the back seat?

Bull

Having watched the Volvos being built, along with the MBs for TC, and other makes (was involved with Team marketing for a year or so), I can tell you first hand that there is nothing close to the street cars in these race cars other than the name. Watching the SCCA folks make rule decisions designed to make the cars equally competitive is also very interesting.

earlyapex

The Cadillac is a purpose built race car with nothing in common with the street car except its general appearance. There are a lot of rumors floating on the internet on how the SCCA allowed this car to race when it's competitors have production based cars. They managed to get a major car manufacturer directly involved in their series when Audi was pulling out. I don't see GM staying in any racing series outside of NASCAR (may ALMS GT1) for any appreciable length of time. The manufacturers come and go depending on their marketing needs.

Are manufacturer teams good for race series? The Audi R8 kept ALMS alive and boosted the series clout. Does Caddy do the same for WC?

Lothar

I too watched that farce of a race. The guys calling the race called it what it was without apology. The GM teams made their little scheme so obvious both on the track and in the pits. Even after the race, their behavior confirmed what might otherwise have been just suspicious.

Yes, team orders have been part of racing for a long time. However, when team orders are executed by means of aggresive driving, obstruction and deliberate contact, and series officials fail to penalize such unfair competition, the series becomes a joke.

The problem with Porsche teams is that they are highly independent customer teams that all want to win races. To those who have defended this crap on this board: would you suggest that the Porsche teams employ some back markers to take out a few Caddys and Vettes upon being lapped? Is that the type of series you would like to watch? Go watch NASCAR if deliberate paint trading is your thing.

The Lou G. jump start could be avoided if the rule stated that no passing would be allowed until after the start/finish line on a restart. This is the case in F1 and perhaps in other series.

Carrera51

Max Angelelli crashes someone just about everytime he drives. He clearly punted Henzler plain and simple. That is not racing, at least my definition of racing. To bad the talking heads in the booth won't call him on it (don't want to upset GM). At least Dorsey Schoeder called it what it was in so many words.

It was pretty sad that the Cadillac guys could celebrate knowing that what Angelelli did was cheap. At least Papis took the lead fair and square. Angelelli also punted the white Viper. That was just as blatant as what he did to Henzler. He should have been DQ'd.

Don't even get me started on what a cheater car the Caddy's are in Speed GT.