Big ol' fogaroonie since about 11pm last night. It's now 12:45pm and it looks like the absolute earliest we could go hot again is around 1:30, but I'm saying that's unlikely. Visibility is barely 150-200 feet.
around 9:30 they rolled cars back onto the front straight and gridded up in anticipation of a restart, but honestly it may have gotten even worse since then.
And it looks like we're (sort of) racing again at 1:30. Five (?!?!?!) formation laps followed by ?????
Five laps behind the pace car is going to be an hour +. We'll see what the weather spirits have in mind after that.
In any case, the previous record for the shortest N24 was just under 10 hours. Even if the green was flying as I write this* we've already eclipsed that.
(Morgan Freeman voice: "The green, of course, was not flying)
And an update: The five lap parade will produce enough laps to meet the qualification for an official race. So maybe we get a green. Maybe we get a checker.
And an update: The five lap parade will produce enough laps to meet the qualification for an official race. So maybe we get a green. Maybe we get a checker.
JG Pasterjak said:And an update: The five lap parade will produce enough laps to meet the qualification for an official race. So maybe we get a green. Maybe we get a checker.
Betting checker pretty heavily here.
JG Pasterjak said:And an update: The five lap parade will produce enough laps to meet the qualification for an official race. So maybe we get a green. Maybe we get a checker.
Betting checker pretty heavily here.
Thanks for the updates.
So was the race called? I can't seem to find out anything about anything.
In reply to Feedyurhed :
Yes, they had some laps behind the pace car, and called it after 1.5hrs. No actual race running on Sunday due to the weather
Hoppps said:In reply to Feedyurhed :
Yes, they had some laps behind the pace car, and called it after 1.5hrs. No actual race running on Sunday due to the weather
So about 9:30 am they rolled the cars back out on the main straight and re-gridded them with the intent of an 11am restart. But as 11am grew closer it became clear that wasn't going ot happen. So they kept updating every half hour after that, and it was preetty much always thee same. No go.
Finally shortly after 1pm they announced that the field would roll off at 1:30 behind the safety car for five laps, the thinking being that those five laps would give the race enough track time to make the result official. After those five laps... we still didn't know. Maybe they'd red flag it again. Maybe they'd throw the checker early. Maybe we'd see the first green/white/checker in N24 history.
Those laps took about 19 minutes each and, dear reader, I cannot stress enough how ridiculously foggy it was during those laps. I went to the nearest spot of open wall within quick walking distance for a few photos, and I was about 80-90 feet from the cars and could literally barely see them. We're talking straight up Jack The Ripper/Werewolf level fog here.
During the final lap of that five lap exercise, they announced that there would definitely be no restart. By the time the cars returned to start/finish they announced and executed a drop of the checker. 2024 set the record for the shortest Nurburgring 24 in history, barely eight hours. I'm sure we'll hear lots of excuses and asterisks applied to this year's event, but in my humble opinion, a big part of racing is reacting properly to unpredictability. This race is maybe the most complex endurance race in the world, and when the weather complicated things even further, the teams that best dealt with the curveball and had positioned themselves favorbaly in the right place at the right time succeeded.
The US Hyundai TCR team made a very last second call to start on wet tires, while most of their competiton was on slicks. They stayed out while the EU Hyundai TCR team—a far more experienced lineup of Nurburgring specialists—found a wall and lost a lap for driveline repair. That break fell in favor of the US team, which went on to win, but they weree able to take advantage of that break by making the right decisions to maximize their luck in the first place.
Thanks JG. Coverage was so spotty this year and with the fog related delay it was difficult to get any information. I feel very sorry for all the teams and spectators, what a disappointment for them. Always best to put safety first though.
Thanks for the report , was there any talk of racing on Monday if they did not get the required time on the track ,
OHHH and what speed were the last 5 laps "raced" ?
Thanks for the updates throughout the event JG! I hope the strip was still fun for you even if it was only half a race!
californiamilleghia said:Thanks for the report , was there any talk of racing on Monday if they did not get the required time on the track ,
OHHH and what speed were the last 5 laps "raced" ?
Yeah Monday was out. Basically the race goes from 3:30 Saturday to 3:30 Sunday and if it doesn't happen in that window it doesn't happen. The level of temporary infrastructure that needs to be engaged to accommodate 400,000 people in a village that's usually under 1000 doesn't take well to schedule changes.
The five laps behind the safety car were clocking in right around 19 minutes each. Compare that to a pole time of 8:10. So they were cruising along, but slow enough where it was still safe.
Hoppps said:Thanks for the updates throughout the event JG! I hope the strip was still fun for you even if it was only half a race!
One of the things I love about this race is it's always interesting. Even if only a third of it gets completed, it's still ridiculously compelling.
This is the first Elantra N TCR that I've seen with the updated bodywork for the '24 model. That thing looks sweet.
I need to research a VPN for next year so I can properly watch the race again. I watched car #911 onboard for about 99% of the race, I went to bed when it was called for fog and I was not awake when the 'restart' happened.
Pictures are awesome JG, it is an event I want to attend one day!
DjGreggieP said:I need to research a VPN for next year so I can properly watch the race again. I watched car #911 onboard for about 99% of the race, I went to bed when it was called for fog and I was not awake when the 'restart' happened.
Pictures are awesome JG, it is an event I want to attend one day!
I use Hola VPN. It's free and works just fine. It's what I've been using all week to watch Hulu and YouTube from back home and send stuff on our internal work chat. Only catch with the free version is you have to reset it every hour, but that basically just involves clicking one button.
I found out that the Opera browser actually has a built in VPN for free. Speedsport threw up a bunch of fishing ads so I had to find a different way. Downloaded opera, turned the VPN and chose Europe, and watched it on YouTube!
No issues, no having to refresh. Was very nice that it just worked.
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