Dakar To Daytona

The Dakar Rally
While it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, in the south it is middle of summer and more specifically, in Peru, Chile and Argentina, the 2013 Dakar Rally is currently taking place.

Through two days, two-time World Rally Champion and winner of the 2010 Dakar Rally, Carlos Sainz was the overall leader ahead of the defending race winner Stéphane Peterhansel. Sainz won the first stage and was retroactively awarded the second stage after a problem with the GPS on his car caused the Spaniard to drive back-and-forth for twenty minutes before he was given credit for passing the waypoint.

Stage Three is wrapping up and unofficially Qatari driver and 2011 Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah has won it, a minute and eighteen seconds ahead of American Robby Gordon, three minutes and fifty-two seconds ahead of Peterhansel. Carlos Sainz has finished in fourteenth position, thirty minutes and thirteen seconds back. Note these results are still unofficial, penalties could still be added.

Live timing of the stage can be found here.

2014 Class Structure
With the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Rolex SportsCar Series merging in 2014, the new class structure was announced last week.

The Daytona Prototype and LMP2 classes will combine to form the top division in the unified series leaving the future of LMP1 class in America uncertain. The American Le Mans Series Prototype Challenge Class will be carried over in 2014.

The American Le Mans Series GT class and Grand-Am GT class will not be combined but run as two separate classes. The GX classes, which is debuting this year and feature new, alternative fuels and technologies in Grand-Am, may either join the Grand-AM GT division or run as a fifth class.

My Response: There are still a lot of questions on the table. First and foremost, I do not want to see the LMP1 class go away totally. LMP1 is the premier class for the World Endurance Championship but existence of the class in domestic series are not as well built. While not producing mammoth fields, LMP1 does produce the most technologically advanced cars of all the classes. However, other than Sebring and starting in 2013, Austin, the big teams such as Audi do no show up any other time in the United States. The Petit Le Mans is not on the World Endurance Championship schedule and the manufactures do not field cars for the smaller events at Baltimore and Lime Rock Park for example.

But the big factory supported teams of Audi and Toyota are not the only ones affected. Greg Pickett and Rob Dyson both field full-time entries for the LMP1 class in ALMS and while only being a two car field, provided some exciting racing in 2012. Pickett has already made his mind known by saying he would not be open to fielding a Daytona Prototype.

My hope is a provision is made for LMP1 cars at the endurance events of Daytona, Sebring, Petit Le Mans, Watkins Glen, Road America and/or Indianapolis.

As for the talk of Daytona Prototypes possibly being invited to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while some are against the idea, I for one see no problem. Daytona Prototypes are seen by some as the "dumbed down- NASCARized sports car" and far inferior to the technologically advanced Le Mans Prototypes that experiment with diesel, hybrids, V8s and inline-4s. While I share the view of Le Mans as the premier proving grounds for automotive innovation, it should not been held as an exclusive club. Sure, Daytona Prototypes are nothing fancy inside or out and do not create heart pounding speeds, but the simplicity that are found in Daytona Prototypes should not be punished. Allowing two or three Daytona Prototypes will not kill the French classic. In 1976, two stock cars, a Ford Torino and Dodge Charger competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and they were not met with protest and cries for the cars to be send back across the pond, rather became things of interested and were welcomed into the paddock. If anything, inviting one or two stock cars may not be a bad idea either.

As for the talk of split races due to the size of the field, I am all for it at every non-endurance event. I maybe in the minority but I would rather see two 90 minute races (one prototype, one grand touring) at Lime Rock Park, Barber Motorsports Park, Mid-Ohio, Long Beach and Mosport than a two hour and forty-five minute affair with all cars on track. Why? It's been a while since GT teams have gotten a chance to go all out and not have to worry about having a prototype looming in their rear view mirror. I think a race where you have 22-25 prototypes going all out for 90 minutes and 35-40 GT cars going all out for 90 minutes is not a terrible thing. If anything you could argue a fan could get to see more racing in the same period of time.

There is still plenty of items to work out for 2014 and 2013 is only one week old. This is going to be a fun year for sports cars.