I wasn't paying attention after it went yellow with 9 minutes left and I was listening again after the finish. It sounded like the Liddell Camaro was going to win the championship until the Mercedes AMG team parked their car, allowing another team to gain enough points to "steal" the championship from the Camaro team. If I've got that correct, the Mercedes team manager is either a slimeball, or a genius , depending on who you are rooting for.
Not sure why a Mercedes team would help a BMW team win the title, so I doubt there are any wild conspiracies.
In one season finale in Conti, a fellow BMW team manager came to our team (you can figure out who I worked for if you dig) and asked us to consider helping them win the driver's championship over a Mazda team. The response was basically "we won't sacrifice a podium, but we'll help as much as we can."
I got some extra feedback from my son who was watching it, too.. He says the Camaro took out the Mercedes in a race earlier in the season and this was retribution. If that's true, then the Mercedes handing it to BMW may make a little more sense. They likely didn't care who they aided.
DeadSkunk (Warren) said:I got some extra feedback from my son who was watching it, too.. He says the Camaro took out the Mercedes in a race earlier in the season and this was retribution. If that's true, then the Mercedes handing it to BMW may make a little more sense. They likely didn't care who they aided.
Interesting. NASCAR has a rule that essentially says "you have to try to your best" which would make this type of move (parking your car to influence the outcome) illegal. It's interesting that they don't flow this down to the IMSA side of the house but maybe it would be harder to enforce in a more Pro/Am series with fewer officiating eyeballs.
"It just quit running, but now it's fine. We need to sort this car before next season."
Just nod and smile, boys.
CrashDummy said:DeadSkunk (Warren) said:I got some extra feedback from my son who was watching it, too.. He says the Camaro took out the Mercedes in a race earlier in the season and this was retribution. If that's true, then the Mercedes handing it to BMW may make a little more sense. They likely didn't care who they aided.
Interesting. NASCAR has a rule that essentially says "you have to try to your best" which would make this type of move (parking your car to influence the outcome) illegal. It's interesting that they don't flow this down to the IMSA side of the house but maybe it would be harder to enforce in a more Pro/Am series with fewer officiating eyeballs.
Reminds me of something that happened in Formula Drift back in 2013. Mike Essa was leading the championship going into the final round, and the announcers had done the math and said that if Essa moved past Top 32, he mathematically locked up the championship and no one could catch him. Then, during practice before eliminations kicked off, Essa explodes his engine in dramatic fashion and has no backup engine. They start eliminations, Mike Essa is supposed to come to the line against Luke Pakula, and after Luke Pakula does his burnout and pulls up to the line, Essa calls his 5-minute Competition Time Out, used for if a vehicle is having issues and the crew needs to get hands on the car. He still has a blown up engine and no spare, and 5 minutes isn't going to make a difference, but as the counter is about to run out (at which point Essa would need to have his car on the ground and running or be eliminated) Luke Pakula backs up from the starting line, says his transmission is broken, and that he is forfeiting the round to Essa. It made absolutely no sense, since once the timer ran out, Pakula would have moved on to Top 16 and had time to fix the car before the next round, or at least grab some more points. Got even more controversial when first Pakula drove off the track under his own power, and then was spotted doing donuts in the paddock later that night. Chris Forsberg, the guy who was second in the championship, screamed bloody murder and protested the result but it got overturned. Sure looked like Pakula took a fall to hand Essa the championship though.
Streetwiseguy said:"It just quit running, but now it's fine. We need to sort this car before next season."
Just nod and smile, boys.
Works great until somebody finds your team audio where the driver is saying "why do you want me to pit, the car is working great!"
NickD said:CrashDummy said:DeadSkunk (Warren) said:I got some extra feedback from my son who was watching it, too.. He says the Camaro took out the Mercedes in a race earlier in the season and this was retribution. If that's true, then the Mercedes handing it to BMW may make a little more sense. They likely didn't care who they aided.
Interesting. NASCAR has a rule that essentially says "you have to try to your best" which would make this type of move (parking your car to influence the outcome) illegal. It's interesting that they don't flow this down to the IMSA side of the house but maybe it would be harder to enforce in a more Pro/Am series with fewer officiating eyeballs.
Reminds me of something that happened in Formula Drift back in 2013. Mike Essa was leading the championship going into the final round, and the announcers had done the math and said that if Essa moved past Top 32, he mathematically locked up the championship and no one could catch him. Then, during practice before eliminations kicked off, Essa explodes his engine in dramatic fashion and has no backup engine. They start eliminations, Mike Essa is supposed to come to the line against Luke Pakula, and after Luke Pakula does his burnout and pulls up to the line, Essa calls his 5-minute Competition Time Out, used for if a vehicle is having issues and the crew needs to get hands on the car. He still has a blown up engine and no spare, and 5 minutes isn't going to make a difference, but as the counter is about to run out (at which point Essa would need to have his car on the ground and running or be eliminated) Luke Pakula backs up from the starting line, says his transmission is broken, and that he is forfeiting the round to Essa. It made absolutely no sense, since once the timer ran out, Pakula would have moved on to Top 16 and had time to fix the car before the next round, or at least grab some more points. Got even more controversial when first Pakula drove off the track under his own power, and then was spotted doing donuts in the paddock later that night. Chris Forsberg, the guy who was second in the championship, screamed bloody murder and protested the result but it got overturned. Sure looked like Pakula took a fall to hand Essa the championship though.
Yep, those scenarios always suck. That's why NASCAR wrote the rule. Still tough to enforce but at least teams fear being punished for manipulation.
CrashDummy said:NickD said:CrashDummy said:DeadSkunk (Warren) said:I got some extra feedback from my son who was watching it, too.. He says the Camaro took out the Mercedes in a race earlier in the season and this was retribution. If that's true, then the Mercedes handing it to BMW may make a little more sense. They likely didn't care who they aided.
Interesting. NASCAR has a rule that essentially says "you have to try to your best" which would make this type of move (parking your car to influence the outcome) illegal. It's interesting that they don't flow this down to the IMSA side of the house but maybe it would be harder to enforce in a more Pro/Am series with fewer officiating eyeballs.
Reminds me of something that happened in Formula Drift back in 2013. Mike Essa was leading the championship going into the final round, and the announcers had done the math and said that if Essa moved past Top 32, he mathematically locked up the championship and no one could catch him. Then, during practice before eliminations kicked off, Essa explodes his engine in dramatic fashion and has no backup engine. They start eliminations, Mike Essa is supposed to come to the line against Luke Pakula, and after Luke Pakula does his burnout and pulls up to the line, Essa calls his 5-minute Competition Time Out, used for if a vehicle is having issues and the crew needs to get hands on the car. He still has a blown up engine and no spare, and 5 minutes isn't going to make a difference, but as the counter is about to run out (at which point Essa would need to have his car on the ground and running or be eliminated) Luke Pakula backs up from the starting line, says his transmission is broken, and that he is forfeiting the round to Essa. It made absolutely no sense, since once the timer ran out, Pakula would have moved on to Top 16 and had time to fix the car before the next round, or at least grab some more points. Got even more controversial when first Pakula drove off the track under his own power, and then was spotted doing donuts in the paddock later that night. Chris Forsberg, the guy who was second in the championship, screamed bloody murder and protested the result but it got overturned. Sure looked like Pakula took a fall to hand Essa the championship though.
Yep, those scenarios always suck. That's why NASCAR wrote the rule. Still tough to enforce but at least teams fear being punished for manipulation.
There was another driver, Danny George, who was a real character and just to stir E36 M3 up, a couple days after everything happened, he went on Facebook and posted a photo of a $10000 check with the payor as Mike Essa and the payee as Luke Pakula with the caption of "The postal service accidentally sent this to me"
CrashDummy said:DeadSkunk (Warren) said:I got some extra feedback from my son who was watching it, too.. He says the Camaro took out the Mercedes in a race earlier in the season and this was retribution. If that's true, then the Mercedes handing it to BMW may make a little more sense. They likely didn't care who they aided.
Interesting. NASCAR has a rule that essentially says "you have to try to your best" which would make this type of move (parking your car to influence the outcome) illegal. It's interesting that they don't flow this down to the IMSA side of the house but maybe it would be harder to enforce in a more Pro/Am series with fewer officiating eyeballs.
I saw a news post that the Rebel Rock Camaro team had filed a protest against the team running the Mercedes, hoping to appeal to some general IMSA rules about sportsmanlike conduct. I don't know what came of it though.
Just watched the race on YouTube, and it seems two of the Supras between the Camaro and BMW didn't serve their drive-through penalties, so they were given penalties after the race, which moved the BMW up enough to take the championship by ten points.
Now it seems it was three cars. One, another BMW (possibly the teammate) got a penalty for going over the driver time limit. It happened early in the race, so they couldn't have know it would play into the race, and the two Supras, which did not serve their drive-through penalties during the race, and were assigned a time penalty after the race.
Wow. There was a lot of stuff that went down after the race. Like one of the drivers of the 27 Mercedes flipping off Liddell (Rebel Rock Camaro) on live tv. Seems they did park their car on purpose so that the championship didn't end in a tie, which would go to Rebel Rock on wins. Seems the Lone Star team has been really taking to social media lately too with remarks about Liddell in particular.
Here's the Sportscar365 write-up so far.
I went back and watched the VIR race that was the 'cause', and I see a one lap shoot-out for the win. Liddell made a move down the inside and was three wide when the LSR driver decided to try and shut the door exiting one, then tried turning hard right and spinning around the front of the Camaro. There's more to it, like the leading Porsche on the outside of that three wide, but I don't feel like typing forever on a tiny keyboard to explain every detail.
Here's the extended highlights-
I'll just point out that the VDSR Aston Martin team didn't cry and whine and ruin Turner Motorsports championship chances after what Turner did to their car at Nashville.
Yeah, different Turner car, so that might be why.
Still the same team though.
racerfink said:Wow. There was a lot of stuff that went down after the race. Like one of the drivers of the 27 Mercedes flipping off Liddell (Rebel Rock Camaro) on live tv. Seems they did park their car on purpose so that the championship didn't end in a tie, which would go to Rebel Rock on wins. Seems the Lone Star team has been really taking to social media lately too with remarks about Liddell in particular.
Here's the Sportscar365 write-up so far.
I went back and watched the VIR race that was the 'cause', and I see a one lap shoot-out for the win. Liddell made a move down the inside and was three wide when the LSR driver decided to try and shut the door exiting one, then tried turning hard right and spinning around the front of the Camaro. There's more to it, like the leading Porsche on the outside of that three wide, but I don't feel like typing forever on a tiny keyboard to explain every detail.
Here's the extended highlights-
That looks like an aggressive move turning into an "oops we tried to fit three cars in a space made for two" moment, not something I'd hold a grudge about for the rest of the season.
Wouldn't be pro-am sports car racing without a bit of drama, I guess.
I finally made time to watch the yellow flag parade.
The thing that stood out to me was the second to last FCY that started with 46 minutes left and ended with 30 minutes left.
The car that caused the delay couldn't have pulled off course in a more convenient area, taking that paved loop just out of 10b up near the top of the hill ... and a stone's throw from the pit entry.
But nope, everyone was treated to 16 minutes of FCY.
Jeebus, what a cluster. I saw they took the "opportunity" to have a debris sweeper go around (at least) the opposite side of the track. Yay.
Instead of all the manufactured drama of "are the pits open/closed, closed/open?" how about just clear the stranded car as quickly as possible and let the race go green and have the teams determine when to pit.
Easily one of the worst races I've seen in what is normally a great series. Makes me long for the ADAC 24 hours at the Nurburgring and how they handle such things.
The final result was fitting for the way the race in general went.
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