Conclusions
The very long 2014 endurance racing season (Jan - Nov) finally came to a close. We saw the ELMS complete a highly successful season; their short-weekend, five 4hr race format is a winner. In the WEC, we welcomed Porsche into the LMP1-H ranks along with Rebellion and (briefly) Strakka into the LMP1-L. In North America we witnessed the first season of the merged former ALMS and GrandAm in the TUSCC.
The WEC and ELMS had mid-season breaks that were uncommonly long, to the point of forming nearly two separate seasons. Something needs to be done to tighten up those calendars.
In TUSCC, the "balance of performance" (BoP) came much closer to the objective of shoe-horning diverse cars into both the Prototype class and the GTD class than I expected. While I concede they did an amazing job with BoP, the differences between the cars, especially in Prototypes, still doesn't make the former LMP2 cars and former DP cars equivalent. I don't think it can be done while being scrupulously fair. We'll have to await the 2017 season and new regulations to finally have a single Prototype class in TUSCC.
The loss of LMP1 and the attrition in LMP2 teams from ALMS competing in TUSCC has taken a toll on my enthusiasm for North American endurance racing. Driving standards and the proclivity to call for full-course-yellow (FCY) flags have also subtracted their share of my excitement. I am willing to believe that the organizers will make significant efforts to improve things in their second season, but there is no assurance that those efforts will be adequate. I'll have to wait and see.
With the recent retirement of Tom Kristensen and Howden Haynes from Audi, the "dream team" that included Allen McNish, Dindo Capello, TK and "H" has completely left the scene. Their exploits in the ALMS and especially in Le Mans 2008 were real high points for me. Their absence adds to my ennui. Truly an end of an era.
So, what can we look forward to in 2015? New teams in LMP1 in WEC. New LMP2 coupes from HPD and Oreca in ELMS, WEC and TUSCC. Oh, and another long season ....
Calendars
Here is a handy summary of the 2015 endurance events:
So that makes 20 hours of racing in the ELMS, 66 hours for the WEC, and 68.8 hours in the TUSCC. There are 52 hours in the 4 rounds of TUSCC's North American Endurance Cup (NAEC) alone.
As I have done in the past, I am making public two Google calendars. The first is called "ACO Racing" and contains the ELMS and WEC calendars. The second is called "TUSCC Racing" and holds the North American endurance calendar. Here are the links:
ACO Racing links : HTML XML ICAL
TUSCC Racing links: HTML XML ICAL
Keep in mind that there are no events until January 24th (TUSCC Racing) and April 11th (ACO Racing).
As in previous years ...
These can be used directly from a browser, in Apple's calendar program, in Thunderbird/Lightning, and other calendar applications. You can find instructions for use of Google calendar with several popular applications here.
As more detail is provided by the organizers, these calendars will be updated to include event times, coverage etc. For those who are already using the calendars I published previously, those links are being re-used with new names. Last year's "ACO Racing 2014" becomes next year's "ACO Racing" and last year's "TUSC Racing 2014" becomes "TUSCC Racing" (since TUSCC no longer conforms to ACO rules). As always the times will be for U.S. Eastern Time, with race local times included along with other details in the "Description" field.
