Well now I have to change my whole schedule and store my Ferrari in France until August.
Paketo is pinchvalve in French
In hopes of “spectators being able to attend the race, in strict compliance with the applicable health and safety measures,” the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans—the Automobile Club de l’Ouest—have rescheduled the famed race from its original dates of June 12-13 to August 21-22 of this year.
The release notes that the ACO is working closely with both the World Endurance Championship and the FIA to give “competitors, partners and spectators as much visibility as possible and to maintain the current FIA WEC calendar, and that the ACO “remains extremely keen to have fans attend” as this year’s race marks the debut of the new Hypercar prototypes.
More information about the format of the event, as well as ticket availability “will be released at the end of April.”
Read the full press release below:
The 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans was originally due to take place on 12–13 June. However, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has now rescheduled the event to 21–22 August, when there will be a chance of spectators being able to attend the race, in strict compliance with the applicable health and safety measures.
The Automobile Club de l’Ouest, organiser of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in liaison with the World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) and the Fédération Internationale Automobile (FIA), has postponed the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans, originally planned for 12–13 June 2021.
The ACO has made this decision early in the season to give competitors, partners and spectators as much visibility as possible and to maintain the current FIA WEC calendar. The dates of the other races and events to be held at the Le Mans Circuit remain unchanged at the present time. The ACO is working closely with the organisers of the various events that could be impacted by this change.
This year’s race will see the new Hypercars make their on-track debut and the ACO thus remains extremely keen to have fans attend.
Information on tickets and full details on the race format will be released at the end of April.
Pierre Fillon, President of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest: “Although it was a tough decision to make, it is the right one. Holding the 24 Hours of Le Mans behind closed doors for the second year running would be unthinkable. We are therefore doing all we can to avoid that happening and to give competitors a clear view of the whole season. We are working very hard to put on a safe event, with all the necessary health precautions in place. This year’s race promises to be another thriller as the new Hypercar class makes its debut.”
Well now I have to change my whole schedule and store my Ferrari in France until August.
Paketo is pinchvalve in French
Man I hope this E36 M3 is over by then. I don't care if I need a vaccine card to get on a plane, or whatever, I just want to go do stuff again.
It's not the first time it's happened. The 1968 race was delayed until September because of civil unrest.
Interesting note in the Wiki page about that race - the later date meant an extra 3 hours of dark running. How will that affect the race?
Gonna be hot in August. That should really test the new hypercars.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
When it was run in September last year, a new issue I remember hearing about was that leaves were collecting in the brake ducts of the LMP1s so clearing them out was an extra step needed in pit stops.
And on a related note, news from IMSA:
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 4, 2021) – IMSA today announced date changes for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIRginia International Raceway and the season-ending Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta following today’s announcement that the 24 Hours of Le Mans has been moved to Aug. 21-22.
The new Le Mans date falls on the originally scheduled IMSA weekend at VIRginia International Raceway, which was slated to have a live, NBC network television window for the two-hour, 40-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race featuring the GT Le Mans (GTLM) and GT Daytona (GTD) classes.
As a result of that, and the fact that several teams and drivers plan to compete at Le Mans, the WeatherTech Championship race now will be run on Saturday, Oct. 9, airing live on NBC. It also will become the WeatherTech Sprint Cup season finale for the GTD class. The new VIR event weekend will be Oct. 8-10.
The new date for the 24th Motul Petit Le Mans will be Saturday, Nov. 13 and also will include a live, three-hour NBC network television window. The race will include five WeatherTech Championship classes – Daytona Prototype international (DPi), LMP2, LMP3, GTLM and GTD – and close out both the 2021 WeatherTech Championship and IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup seasons. The event weekend will run from Nov. 10-13.
"Given the momentum we are carrying in regard to television viewership, it is important for us to preserve live, NBC network windows," said IMSA President John Doonan. "Holding our season finale in November proved successful last year in Sebring, and we have every reason to believe we can be successful again this November at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. As always, we are grateful to all of our stakeholders – and particularly our promoter and television partners – for their flexibility and understanding as we maneuver through these changes."
In addition to the WeatherTech Championship events, the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and IMSA Prototype Challenge races scheduled for both VIR and Michelin Raceway also will be moving to the new event weekends.
Three IMSA-sanctioned single-make series – Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires, Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America and Porsche Carrera Cup North America – also will be affected by these changes. Updates will be provided by the manufacturers when confirmed.
All 2021 IMSA schedules remain provisional.
Keith Tanner said:It's not the first time it's happened. The 1968 race was delayed until September because of civil unrest.
Interesting note in the Wiki page about that race - the later date meant an extra 3 hours of dark running. How will that affect the race?
The headlights will be on longer.
Also, there's been civil unrest going on in France for the last two years. The ACO seems to not care too much about those issues.
I should probably mark this on a calender.
Watched the live stream on YouTube in September and it was a good time. Probably should have slept when they called the race for rain tho...
DirtyBird222 said:Keith Tanner said:It's not the first time it's happened. The 1968 race was delayed until September because of civil unrest.
Interesting note in the Wiki page about that race - the later date meant an extra 3 hours of dark running. How will that affect the race?
The headlights will be on longer.
Also, there's been civil unrest going on in France for the last two years. The ACO seems to not care too much about those issues.
<rimshot> Thank you for that analysis :) I'll watch for that.
I think the 1968 events were a little more, umm, absorbing for France than currently.
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