They would have had more "testing" time by the time LeMan came along if they R15 had been run for the entire season. As is, they had just one ALMS race and whatever they ran in Europe.

I just find it so disappointing in general when teams decide to run only some races--especially diesels. As is, at Petit LeMans, all 4 diesels were expected to finish in front of all the gas-powered P1 cars. Yet, it was the gas cars that ran the entire season. When cars that only race a few races finish in front of championship contenders, it means that the championship is affected. I hope that the championship standings ignore such partial season contenders somehow.

So you would rather not allow partial entrants then?

Yes, I would allow them. But what I wouldn't do is allow those entries to affect the points race. If the Peugeot finishes in front of a contender, when it comes to points, the Peugeot would be treated as though it didn't race, even though it did.

Life isn't a T-Ball world...

Since part-time entrants don't accumulate enough points to contend for the championship, it does not seem to be an issue. If they wrecked championship contenders that would be different.

Blame it on the French:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78961

Wasn't there a rumor that Penske was coming back to ALMS with an Audi effort?

LOKI65 - 27 September 2009 12:19 PM

Since part-time entrants don't accumulate enough points to contend for the championship, it does not seem to be an issue. If they wrecked championship contenders that would be different.

Actually, I wasn't talking about the single race guys getting points and winning the championship. Rather, look at the standings at Petit LeMans. The best a gasoline car could do is finish 5 if all diesels had good runs. If that car had been Patron/Highcroft or DeFerran had finished 5th instead of 1st think about how many points they would have failed to gain simply because neither could keep up with the diesels.

All I am suggesting is that since Audi and Puegot don't care about points, don't include them. Basically, when it comes to points, we pretend the diesels weren't there. Now that 5th place car gets points (which they want) for 1st, not 5th.

Hitokiri2 - 27 September 2009 11:03 PM

Wasn't there a rumor that Penske was coming back to ALMS with an Audi effort?

Older R10s? R15s? Pull R8s out of storage? How about GT Audi R8s based on the street car?

Well Audi is starting to sell some TDI's in America in 2010, so maybe that is hope fore more races. It's a shame they don't come to Mid-Ohio.

Does the R15 have a tighter turning radius than the R10 thanks to that shorter block? I remember McNish saying that Long Beach's hairpin was almost too tight for the R10.