COTA's ALMS/WEC events? | Page 6 | FerrariChat

COTA's ALMS/WEC events?

Discussion in 'Other Racing' started by texasmr2, May 20, 2013.

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  1. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    Probably not. I'll bet those guys know a thing or two about how to stage a race, too.
     
  2. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    it's more about long time events with firm calendar spots that have a following.

    anyone can stage a race. staging a race with 100k+ fans there, that's a talent ;)
     
  3. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    #128 GuyIncognito, Sep 24, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  4. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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  5. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    #130 GuyIncognito, Sep 24, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  6. texasmr2

    texasmr2 Two Time F1 World Champ
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    A big "thank you" to everyone posting their pictures.
     
  7. BEisler

    BEisler Formula Junior

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    Anyone know where I can get a video of the WEC race?
     
  8. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    +1
     
  9. fatbillybob

    fatbillybob Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Pet peeve with CoTA is that in a whole year of racing this track still uses flatbeds and takes 15 mins to clear a car off track. They did this stupid stuff for our march SCCA race and I thought it was just growing pains. Does anyone have a contact with CoTA upper management that every other track in the USA uses those little "tow hooks" we are mandated to have to expedite pulling cars off track with a stadard wrecker easily and quickly? Geeze if you are have 30 min HPDE or 30 SCCA sprint race sessions and 1 car goes off track you may as well end your session and waste your time and money.
     
  10. Juan-Manuel Fantango

    Juan-Manuel Fantango F1 World Champ
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    Been listening all day to Radio LeMans..my favorite internet radio station. Something about he foreign accents must make it better...cooler...smarter.

    JWP6 radioshowmp3
     
  11. F1tommy

    F1tommy F1 World Champ
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    Will have to try and go next year. Not to happy about the Cota policy of not showing Tech to the fans, but the prototype WEC prototype cars are interesting. The ALMS GT field looked alot better with more top line cars than the European series. Can't wait until the 2014 Daytona 24 hours. Have not been there since 2003.
     
  12. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    They've been told about it. They don't care to fix it.
     
  13. fatbillybob

    fatbillybob Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I won't be racing at CoTA again until they fix it and a few other things. The March SCCA race was a cluster of all clusters. They don't need my business...YET. They will. I'll bet I will be racing longer than they can stay solvent pissing off all the racers.
     
  14. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    Yep.
     
  15. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    FWIW my experience at COTA as a fan was excellent. the event and security staff was very polite and except for obviously restricted areas, fans had the run of the place. (I watched WEC qualifying from the apex of T19, standing on a guardrail so I could see over the fence; not a word from any COTA staff, including a security guard standing 50 feet away the whole time). so maybe they are slowly learning a few lessons in customer service :)

    I stood in T1 for the start of the WEC race, so I saw the "15 minutes to get a car on a rollback" debacle. even my BIL, who had never been to a race before, understood that it was taking way too long. I'm not sure the reasoning behind that, but it's one thing that can change. it doesn't matter in a 6 hour endurance race but as mentioned in a 30 minute sprint race, it's a disaster.
     
  16. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    I've heard from lots of people who have run into the fifes out there, but I've only run into one. That was this weekend. He was being wayyy over the top making sure I didn't enter a restricted area which I had no intention of entering in the first place. Other than that the staff there has always been very friendly to me. I have heard many stories of overzealous staff, even one about some parking lot attendants who were demanding ID from people wanting to use the shared Lot L/M entrance road to get to Mr. Haywood's lot (it's the only way in or out).

    The staffing this weekend was sparse and seemed very disorganized for the first couple of days. During the week prior to the race, COTA told Stadium People to staff for about 8K people. There weren't enough people (only 2) to take parking payment and keep the few arriving cars from backing up entering lot A. Once inside lot A, that Ticket Office wasn't staffed, so the Main GS entrance crew fielded lots of complaints from people who were being told to walk to the main ticket office at the Grand Plaza after being herded into Lot A by the Main GS. Some of the large crew there could easily have worked the Lot A office. When fielding the numerous complaints, the staff at the gate just shook their heads and voiced their agreement.

    I didn't arrive until about 9am, but I heard from one gentleman who couldn't cross the property between the bridges at 930 because the gate between them was locked. So everyone at the T15 area was stuck there for the first 1.5 hours of the event until someone tweeted about it & the gate was unlocked.
     
  17. Napolis

    Napolis Three Time F1 World Champ
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  18. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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  19. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    hmmm...

    Future Unclear for Austin WEC/TUSC Event - Sportscar365

    hope this isn't the beginning of the end.

    yes, the Sunday crowd was awful but so was the event promotion by all involved. lots of blame to go around here.

    I do like the idea of a "day into night" WEC event.
     
  20. F1tommy

    F1tommy F1 World Champ
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    Move it to Sebring on the Sunday after the 12 hour race. The kids would just party into Sunday:) Or they could combine it with Sebring...Now that's an idea.
     
  21. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    you mean they shouldn't have messed with a good thing? ;)
     
  22. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    #147 hairy_scotsman, Nov 30, 2013
    Last edited: Nov 30, 2013
    Just came here to post this. Y'all heard the basics of this from us way back starting that weekend (or at least I thought I posted it here, but maybe not). We were told then that the WEC/FIA had called a meeting with COTA people & told them that they wouldn't be returning to COTA under the same management, and that the event was the worst-run event they'd ever seen.

    So, apparently even though COTA is still on the calendar, it's still not a done deal. Not sure there's really plenty of blame to go around though. The WEC wasn't the promoter. COTA was & they didn't promote the event for ****. Pretty common for them.

    I agree about the day/night race. That's what I've been hoping for since I first heard WEC was coming.
     
  23. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ
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    The WEC round should revert to the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, where it was very successful the last time run there.
     
  24. GuyIncognito

    GuyIncognito Nine Time F1 World Champ
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    I think we all saw this, or the possibility of this, coming.

    that said WEC is nowhere on the radar of the average American, even the average racing fan in America; when a popular American series gets 25k spectactors and the next day your series gets 8k at the same venue, that's a promotional problem on your end not just the track's. so both COTA and WEC have to work together to raise the series' profile, and therefore the race's profile, in the US.

    supposedly WEC will now only run on FIA grade 1 (ie F1) tracks now. not sure when or why that changed. might be part of being an FIA recognized "world championship", the rules there changed in the last few years.
     
  25. hairy_scotsman

    hairy_scotsman Formula 3

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    #150 hairy_scotsman, Dec 2, 2013
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2013
    Sure. The thing is, we were told about that meeting before the race weekend even began. It was held mid-week. They were very unhappy with COTA basically on arrival. We were told of the mid-week meeting on Thursday or Friday before the race. Can't remember which it was.

    But like they said, WEC helped the Saturday ALMS crowd, but on Sunday, ALMS was packing up & didn't help their crowd. That's one of the major things they want changed. Saturday at this event was a great value, esp for the fan who is familiar with ALMS & just wants to check out WEC. The way the schedule was set, Sunday was always only going to draw WEC fans. It didn't help that COTA did little to no promotion & none which gave the casual fan a clue as to the magnitude of WEC or even telling them what it is. This is one of the essential problems we were hearing during the V8SC weekend. COTA is the promoter. Not WEC or V8SC. When a foreign series like WEC or ALMS pays COTA lots of money and then spends lots of money to bring their show here, they expect the promoter to do their job and promote the race well. They don't expect to have to promote the U.S. race from home, to an unfamiliar market thousands of miles away. That's why they hire the promoter, which is of course often separate from the circuit, but in this case was the same entity. COTA doesn't like promoters (ahem...Schwantz, Hellmund). They view them as middlemen taking money from them rather than people bringing them moneymaking opportunities by bringing races. So they are the promoter for their races. That's all well and good, I suppose, if they do the job and do it in an effective way.

    I do think WEC/ACO/FIA are trying to work together with COTA to get this done, but COTA doesn't seem too interested in committing to anything where they actually have to promote the race to get a crowd...and in that case, it seems WEC isn't too keen on returning. In fact, it seems COTA may be content with just MotoGP & F1 going forward. Even so, they've done nothing to help grow F1 or lure new fans to the sport.

    And obtw, even the piss-poor numbers announced by COTA (25K, 8k, etc) are a stretch at best. The place was a veritable ghost town on Sunday.
     

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