Nice photos thanks. Yes that is what happened. Joey thought it was Beretta in the 71 Ferrari that hit him when it was actually his AF Corse teammate in the 51 Ferrari that caused Joey's BMW to lose control. The ironic thing is that Beretta said he spun when he was trying to avoid the BMW. If his teammate hadn't hit the BMW Beretta could've gotten 2nd (maybe even 1st?). Too bad the Aston damaged a rear wheel. I was hoping to see them do well. And too bad about Melo, they were cruising there for a while. Oh and Muscle Milk had a tough break.
Great weekend and nice to see all my homies at the track. The unfortunate incidents at the start and end of the race don't reflect well on the event or organizers and unfortunately seem to punctuate these races lately. It's a shame but at the same time, fitting that BMW won in this case as it would have been tragic had Hand's tangle with the Ferrari knocked him out. A question came up, someone here may have an answer. Listening to scanners in friend's RV, we tapped in on officials and on a team's pit stop, one of the crew members didn't have his goggles on properly. Rather than hold the car in the pits for five or ten seconds, the report went out "Car #XX, pit stop violation, crew goggles improper, $1000 fine". Since races have been lost due to incidents like this, have they opted instead for fines rather than time penalties? PS: Tom Kristensen, six overall victories at Sebring, eight at Le Mans. Who could have ever predicted? Oh, wait... BHW
Thats very odd, 'cause that's the reason Risi got delayed at the end of 2007 Sebring, and put Melo in the position to have to fight Jorg till the last corner (they were a lap in the lead otherwise)
Exactly. It seems a crumby reason to lose a race just as happened to Melo. So, instead of a timed pebality now, they're handing out fines (or both). Listening to the radios, one thing as clear. When a car comes in, the crew chiefs make sure everyone is "properly attired" which in this case dosent mean "Palm Beach casual". BHW
A few more pics from the weekend. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
We were sitting in an RV fronting the track right before turn 5 where the 51 Ferrari nosed out Joey Hands BMW at the turn in point. It was right in front of us. Make no mistake this was not two cars fighting for a corner. The BMW had the line. It clearly looked like the Ferrari intended to push the BMW out of the way. But while we watched Joey Hand recover the Bimmer back on track we completely missed Baretta in the 71 Ferrari spin at the same corner! if only he had kept it on track he would have gone on to win. When Hand recovered he went after the 51 thinking it was the 71. In an interview Hand said he saw the Ferrari ahead and struggling. He thought the Ferrari had a low front tire. So he pushed him to the outside in turn 17 to pass and win. He had no idea the 71 Ferrari had spun and was out of contention for the win. Hard to believe this took 12 hours to find the winner on the last lap. Baretta had his chance with the Ferrari, but he just lost control. It was not his first mistake of the day as he had a couple of other unassisted goofs during the race. I also wonder if someone in the pits instructed the 51 to run interference so Baretta could catch up. These cars were on the same AF Corse team. Guess we will never know. Also going on at the end was the 2nd place Audi come in for fuel only to find out they needed tires and more. I thought for sure the Muscle Milk car was going to snag a 2nd place. They had been hanging tough all day while chasing the Audis.But the refueling snafu cost them dearly. The Audis were almost surreal. They make almost no mechanical or exhaust noise. When they went by you could only hear road and wind sounds. Then whoooshh and a low whistle and they were gone. On turn 15 we were watching them pass slower cars. It made little difference what line they took. The R18s were so glued to the track they darted around like spaceships. I joked that the Audi drivers could actually listen to some tunes while they drove. It was quiet and appeared effortless. Amazing stuff.
About the " it took 12h to find a winner" is BS. not your sentence but ALMS fake safty cars and idiotic start-up procedures...they are designed to bunch up the field in each class...
As far as I've seen though, no one has won an ALMS or Le Mans race (overall or in class) as a result of a "Lucky Dog" as in other series where competitors that are three laps down are given the pass and put on the lead lap and an eventual melancholy win. If there's drama, it should be on the track, not up in the control tower. BHW
I on the other hand have seen many races where the control tower decided the win in ALMS, ACO, and FIA GT racing...And I 've watched them all since 2000.... When a car makes a 45s lead and has only 15minute to go till the end....To obtain that huge lead he pretty much destroyed his tires...so the plan was for him to cost the last 15 minutes and let the competition catch up maybe 20s and still have a 25s lead at the end.... And then there is an idiotic safety car caused by a car spinning, a car that rejoined on its own power within a minute... The the first dude comes in 5th... But contrary to popular opinion, Luck is the single most important factor in a racing...not tires, not the engine, not the chassis, or the Drivier, its luck
In the case of the Audis it was the car, the factory teams and top drivers combined...no one else on the runways were even close. I did notice and remark how the track decisions had "gone Nascar" by bunching up the field in multiple full course yellows. I don't remember seeing this yellows many at Sebring before. Regardless there was some fantastic racing going on. Could it have been better? Yes.......if Ferrari fielded factory teams, Peugot was there to combat the Audis, Aston with more cars, etc..............but it was still quite a show to experience.
I didn't realize this: http://corseclienti.ferrari.com/2012en/2012/03/wec-%E2%80%93-af-corse-takes-ferrari-victory-world-endurance-championship/
Me too. Other than this, I haven't seen a thing about Sebring on Autosport. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98142 As for cautions, with 64 cars taking the start, yellows were to be expected. In 1999, for example, there was a very high number of cautions and many point to this race where Tom Kristensen in the BMW LMR V12 won over James Weaver in the Dyson Riley & Scott by nine seconds as the best Sebring ever. Despite not winning GT, AF Corse Ferrari would be leading the WEC points standings as they are designated a full WEC team. Whereas the GT winning Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan BMW team is designated as an ALMS team which is not taking part in the full WEC schedule. BHW
15 minutes of pure Sebring racing porn. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEBLDOeM7f4&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/ame] BHW
New ALMS video released titled "2012 Full Contact Sebring Ending Explained" in regards to the BMW and Ferrari. It basically shows what we already knew but with some commentary from Hand about the incident http://www.alms.com/alms-tv/episode/2012-full-contact-sebring-ending-explained