Bryan Watts

GREAT RACE!! Melo drove the wheels off the car to hang onto the lead...you could tell his tires were gone, and he still made an awesome move to repass Jorg in the final turn. The rules allow the officials some leeway...if that had happened on Lap 20, there would have been a pit penalty...on the last lap of the race, that's darn good racing. Jorg is pissed, as he should be since he lost, but he's a racer and would have done the same thing to get the win.

bgiere

I do not know what the rules in ALMS would officially say as I have never seen them....In my opinion, it looked like a cheap way to way a race. I cannot say wether it is a legitimate win, but I know that I would not feel real proud of it if I had to win that way. It was exciting to watch for sure!

clif

this ain't nascar, and since the "rules" were enforced on earlier avoidable bumping , even on pit lane, i think it should be consistently enforced as not enforcing encourages more problems in the future. were the roles reversed i would say take a penalty for the porsche. i think this sets up a scenario where the ferrari gets a "justice" bump in a future race. by not being consistent i think you encourage this type of driving which is both unsportsmanlike and dangerous. the danger is the mentality of the ends justifies the means.

clif

having spoken my piece about being consistent, it was probably one of the all time great finishes. jorg should be congratulated for getting to the front and making the pass. the brazilian for driving a great 12 hours and not giving up. i still don't think the bump should have happened.

mdrums

Basically on the last turn (turn 17) Jorge drove in and braked late which made him go a little wide and Melo got on the inside and back on the throttle sooner and was tracking out and squezzed Jorge, bumping him and passing him.
All I can say is I wanted Jorge to win but WOW that was great racing and this event really set up some great drama for the rest of the season! I'm hooked!
Mike

DrJupeman

Actually this isn't accurate. Go watch a replay (I'm sure they will exist on the web soon, if they are not already) and you will see that Melo bumped Jorg causing him to go wide. Then when they reached the outside Melo bumped him twice more.

The initial bump was the kiss of death because it caused Jorg to delay getting on the gas. That's the one that allowed the Ferrari to come up alongside.

There were three bumps total.

At any rate, I am sad that Porsche lost. I was jumping out of my seat and yelling at the TV as I watched those last few turns. It was incredible. .2 seconds and two lead changes in the final turn after 12 hours? Come on, that's awesome! I hope word of this kind of racing spreads enough to increase awareness of ALMS. I think we have a good stage set for Ferrari vs. Porsche battles all year.

Now, how pathetic are the RS Spyders?

Blackness

Well, I've been a Lizard fan from the start, so I'm a little biased. I think you could go either way on your feelings about the win and how it was accomplished. Very dissapointing at the end, but an incredible finish.

I think you're out of your mind if you think Jorg should be reprimanded for sub-par driving. He would have never went that wide coming out of 17 if Melo hadn't unsetteled the car with that bump in the right rear quarter.

All in all, the 997 RSR is a lot closer to the F430 than I thought it would be. Should be a great GT2 season. The biggest disappointment to me is the Acura's finishing 1-2 ahead of the RS Spyders their first time out.

Rick DeMan

That was the worst display of unsportsmanlike conduct I have ever seen..!! Deplorable..!

Melo didn't earn it he stole it. That was not defensive driving, he purposly made contact to advance his position. You could see it in the faces at the interview, they knew it was not right and the teamates of Melo couldn't hide it either...watch it again...

Flying Finn

In deed, awesome racing! I don't blame Melo too much, I would've done the same thing if it was me, it is after 12 hours and you just can't lose in last corner, no way.
IMO it was very rough but I would not penalize.

I am much more upset about RS Spyders. Porsche prototypes sucked.

Sean F

I don't know. Things get a little suspect when there is one set of rules for every lap and one set of rules for the last lap. I'm no expert, but I think that move would have drawn a penalty at any other point in the race. That makes it pretty hard to race unless you just say all bets are off on the last lap and you expect to get hit in a corner and drive appropriately. Selective application of the rules is always going to be problematic.

leif997

Rick, how is it that most of the other avoidable contact issues were penalized and not this one? is it just politics? do you think further review of the race will yield any penalties?

cooleyjb

This would all have been a moot point had the window cleaner for Ferrari had his visor down. "oh my goodness I got windex in my eyes, I can't see... ARGGGHHHHHH... I'm blind"

I agree it wasn't the nicest way to win a race, Melo won it.

However I think the entire story has yet to be played out. I'm sure that things will happen in a future race that people will trace back to the last turn of Sebring

JayP

Acura won class in it's first time out- even Audi cannot claim that.

From the FL release...
"... only to have Melo regain the position with a hard bump to Jörg which nearly sent him into the wall."

Naw- they're not bitter.

mark kibort

I think that was some great racing! However, if you look at it from the porsche perspective, jorg was hit from behind as the ferarri had no other option than to disrupt his exit, as clearly the porsche HAD the advantage. so, a hit, and then a slow move to the outside as the wall starts to pinch back in, caused the porsche to have to lift, making the pass even more dramatic.
personally, as much as i LOVED the close racing and the excitement of the finish, it was clearly an unfair move to hit the porsche as they both were exiting the final turn. the other two bumps were just close racing, and even the wide driving on the exit could be argued as fair by the ferarri. Its that initial hit by the ferarri that should be looked closer at. anyone in that situation can punt another car, and that kind of rubbing , aint racing, IMHO.

But, what a race. Two of my most favorite and exotic cars, going at it like cats and dogs!

MK

A.Wayne

Not feel proud