Pirelli World Challenge round 1 race cancelled due to rain on track. GRM facebook page JUST posted a picture of the SST's running on a wet, but drying track. PWC was scheduled to run right after them.
http://www.world-challenge.com/news/series-news/item/2389-st-petersburg-round-1-race-canceled-due-to-inclement-weather.html
Yea I'm kind of disappointed in this as well. Maybe it's bc it's a street course that smells like a water treatment facility?
Things were pretty hairy there for a while. At one point they cleared the streets and got everyone inside because of tornado warnings. And being a street course, it gets very difficult to push the schedule later. Being a street course, it also drains quite poorly, so they're a little more conservative when it comes to calling things due to rain.
Disappointed here, too.
Weather radar showed a line of heavy t-storms rolling through venue right about start time. I don't think the track has the drainage capability to deal with anything more than an overturned port-a-potty. The first race of the season, St Pete and rain sounds like a guaranteed caution-fest and I prefer racing under green.
I can wait for two races tomorrow.
There's only gonna be one race tomorrow, single points, according to their Facebook page and the link I provided.
I've seen F1 and Indycar cancel or postpone because of heavy rain. It reaches a point where it's just not safe no matter what kind of tires you have.
This pic was taken (by GRM) about 20 minutes after what SHOULD have been the start of the Pirelli World Challenge race.
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How about Petit Le Mans 2009? 
I did an SCCA event at Charlotte last summer, and I had one session of Friday practice on a drying line. The rest of the weekend varied from drizzle to biblical deluge. At one point I said, out loud in my helmet as I careened around the 28 degree banking of NASCAR turn 3 at about 130 mph and well over a G, in my tiny open cockpit sports racer in the near-zero visibility roostertail behind a Formula Enterprises car:
"I will never, ever, ever again bag on NASCAR drivers for not running in the rain"
It's been done but we'll never see it on an oval - unless you want to see the slowest demo derby ever run.
Livestream of race 2 is absolutely abysmal. I've been refreshing for an hour and can't get it to work...
If Indycar has the first race of the year that isn't filled with problems, I just might cry...
Maroon92 wrote: Livestream of race 2 is absolutely abysmal. I've been refreshing for an hour and can't get it to work... If Indycar has the first race of the year that isn't filled with problems, I just might cry...
It took (me) one refresh to get the stream but the audio sucked; it took several minutes for them to fix it. You gotta wonder if they're incompetent or unprepared for the volume.
And that announcer, Leppert(sp)? He must be paying Pirelli to work the mike because he doesn't have the skills to be there otherwise.
JG Pasterjak wrote: Things were pretty hairy there for a while. At one point they cleared the streets and got everyone inside because of tornado warnings. And being a street course, it gets very difficult to push the schedule later. Being a street course, it also drains quite poorly, so they're a little more conservative when it comes to calling things due to rain. WE had Hail up in Homosassa about 1.5 hrs north of St pete so Best to air of the side of caution
A little more explanation about what happened.
Around noon, the weather took a turn for the worse. We got the word: tornado warning. Seek shelter. The grandstands were cleared.
We were in the Pirelli World Challenge tent at the time and given our options: stay in place, go to our cars, or head into the truck. Most of us rode it out inside the tent, figuring that we could quickly dash inside. Plus there were still cookies left from lunch.
At the same time, all of the corner workers were brought in from the track. Now the track is cold.
Around 3:00-ish, the worst had past so the workers could return and the track could go green soon after. Pro Mazda qualifying was the first session scheduled for after lunch, and I heard that they elected to pass. It was still raining, and there was a lot of standing water on track--like deep standing water.
You can see the schedule here: http://www.world-challenge.com/images/events/2014-St--Pete-Schedule-v2-pdf.pdf
The stadium trucks were next on the schedule, so they ran. I want to say they took the green around 3:30. These guys seemed to have a ball in the rain. The track also looked slick. Maybe they could have stuck the World Challenge race into this time slot, but it would have been a major crash-fest. Also, you're talking maybe 10 stadium trucks vs. 50 World Challenge cars that have to run in Long Beach in two weeks.
After the truck race, things started to dry out. By now it's 4:00-ish as I recall. Indy Light qualifying and IndyCar qualifying were next on the schedule, and since they're kind of the main acts, they got to run.
Just looking at the time allotted for those groups on the original schedule, that meant that the Indy/Indy Lights cars would be running until about 6:00. I wasn't in the official meetings, but there was talk that the track had to go cold around that time due to the noise ordinance. As a result, the rest of the day's schedule, including World Challenge, would have to be scrubbed.
I know, it's a bummer, but that was just the reality.
David S. Wallens wrote: The stadium trucks were next on the schedule, so they ran. I want to say they took the green around 3:30. These guys seemed to have a ball in the rain. The track also looked slick.
Wait, what? They raced stadium trucks on a road course, in the rain? I almost can't wrap my head around that kind of awesomeness! My inner hoon now has a new item for the bucket list...
Give the SST guys any irregular situation and they'll have a blast. They are some of my favorite guys to watch.
dinger wrote: Wait, what? They raced stadium trucks on a road course, in the rain? I almost can't wrap my head around that kind of awesomeness! My inner hoon now has a new item for the bucket list...
Googlymoogly is your friend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhlZs1BKXMI
David S. Wallens wrote: Plus there were still cookies left from lunch.
Priorities . . .
Strike_Zero wrote:David S. Wallens wrote: Plus there were still cookies left from lunch.Priorities . . .
Yup. Also, where was I going to go? My car was waaaaaaay at the other end of the paddock.
Honestly, I'm okay with the Saturday race being cancelled.
I really wish that the Sunday live-feed would have been seamless, though. After the cockup and subsequent media berating that stemmed from it, I would have hoped the SCCA would have learned from IMSA's mistakes.
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