2017 Bathurst 12hr – Tenko Autosports McLaren GT

The #1 Tenko Autosports McLaren GT finished 5th overall, one lap off the lead.  The strong driver line up of Rob Bell, Alvaro Parente, and Come Ledogar.   Bell has extensive GT racing experience, including recent McLaren GT experience.  Parente not only has prior experience, he has been a McLaren factory driver since 2012, won the Pirelli World Challenge GT championship in a McLaren in 2016, and won the 2016 Bathurst 12 Hours race overall.  Come Ledogar is also a McLaren factory shoe, so the line up was very strong!  Enjoy the pics!

 

Parente and Cindric Battle

K-PAX Racing joined together with Flying Lizard Racing to run three McLarens in the 2016 Pirelli World Challenge season.  Alvaro Parente in the yellow car, Austin Cindric in the blue car, and Colin Thompson in the orange car make a vibrant easter basket of colorful entries.

In the Sonoma round, Parente and Cindric showed very similar pace and ran closely together.  In the Sunday race, they ran nose-to-tail for most of the event.  This shot is taken at the quick right/left sequence of Turn 9 and also shows damage on the front of Parente’s car.

A 1/500 shutter speed with aperature at f/8 and 420mm was enough to freeze the yellow McLaren.  It was enough to freeze the action, but a touch too fast to produce enough blur of the yellow logos on the tires to show movement.

Colin Thompson’s McLaren

Colin Thompson’s orange and black McLaren provides a sharp contrast against the white retaining wall and red Coca-Cola signage.  Thompson was on the gas and accelerating out of Turn 9 in this shot.  The objective was to get a good panning shot by moving the lens with the car to make the car sharp but everything else slightly blurry to show motion.

The shutter speed of 1/250 was just fast enough to show some blur without freezing the scene completely.  A faster speed would have not shown much blur.  A slower speed may have shown more blur and been more dramatic, but the objective of the shot at the time was to show just enough blur – not so much to throw the background into an indistinguishable splash of color.  Slower shutter speeds can produce more artistic shots, but are more difficult to get and be less useful in conjunction with a story that merely wants to show a good shot of the car rather than a shot that draws attention to the dramatic flair of the photo instead of the car.

Camera Settings – 1/250, f/8, ISO 100, 165mm.

Window shopping for race cars

Always interesting to see what is for sale and how much money is being asked by sellers.  Just for giggles, have a look at these goodies courtesy of Racecarsdirect.com:

Reynard 2KQ that ran at LeMans in 2000 for €198,000.

2015 Audi TTRS that claimed multiple SP3T class VLN wins at the Nurburgring for €135,000.

Private collection of Adrian Reynard of eight open wheel cars.   Includes BAR Formula One cars from 2002 and 2003.  POA.

2001 Arrows A22-03 Formula One car for €85,000. Does not appear to be running.

2013 Mercedes AMG SLS for £180,000 run in British GT and undergoing a rebuild.

2012 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup for €89,000 with 25 hours on the engine and 5 hours on the gearbox.

2013 championship winning BMW Z4 GT3 for £180,000.  Ran ELMS, Blancpain and British GT with upgrades.  Extensive spares.

2014 Viper GT3-R run by Black Swan Racing in Pirelli World Challenge events for USD$500,000.  Includes extensive spares and is ready to race.

1995 Simtek Formula One car driven by Jos Verstappen for £115,000.

2012 McLaren MP4-12C GT3 for €158,000.  Blancpain Endurance and sprint history.  Some spares included and more available.

2012 Mercedes SLS GT3 with extensive race history, including Nurburgring 24 and many other races.  Updated to 2014 specs.  Car Collection owned in Germany.  €210,000.

Abt Racing 2013 Audi R8 LMS ultra GT3 for €150,000.   They also have three other Audi R8 race cars for sale as well.

2014 Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra for €225,000.

2013 Mercedes SLS GT3 for USD$295,000.  Car is in Australia.

2015 spec Marc VDS BMW Z4 GT3 car – second overall at the 2015 Nurburgring 24 for €250,000.  If the car would have finished one place better, surely it wouldn’t be for sale – let alone at this price.

These listings might suggest that the recent listing of the Falken Tyres 997 GT3 car on Mobile.de with an asking price of €500,000 is perhaps a bit ambitious.

With the new AMG GT3, Porsche 991 RSR, Audi R8, Ferrai 488 and BMW M6, there are lots of previously enjoyed GT3 cars for sale.  Happy shopping!

IMSA GT Silly Season

The news and changes have been flowing, including some surprises.

Christina Nielsen is moving to Scuderia Corsa to drive a Ferrari 488 in the IMSA GTD category.   She is moving from The Racers Group and the Aston Martin.  She finished just behind the Scuderia Corsa car in the 2016 GTD championship.

The 2016 IMSA GTD championship winning drivers for Scuderia Corsa, Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler are moving to O’Gara Motorsports to drive a brand new Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in the IMSA GTD class.  The team hasn’t yet taken delivery of the car, but they’ve been busy winning the 2015 2015 Lamborghini Super Trofeo championship.  A single Lamborghini Huracan has been shared by multiple customer teams and drivers, steadily putting on mile after mile.

Somehow Dion von Moltke still doesn’t have a ride for 2016.  He tied for third in the GTD standings with the Paul Miller Audi.  The Paul Miller team is joining the move to the Lamborghini Huracan platform for 2016.   For a driver line-up, Brian Sellers, Madison Snow and Bryce Miller will drive the Paul Miller Lamborghini.   Miller joins for the endurance races.  The pairing of Sellers and Snow is a very potent combination.

Meanwhile, the Porsche ranks are starting to become more clear.  Cars for Alex Job and Black Swan are coming.  Park Place Porsche is also reportedly going to run in 2016 with a brand new 911RSR, but driver Patrick Lindsey will not be continuing with the team.  Could there be more?

As if the IMSA GT class isn’t busy enough, the Pirelli World Challenge is busy on its own.  Somehow, Andy Pilgrim Andy Pilgrim has been dropped by Cadillac in PwC.  Could he find his way to an IMSA ride?  Gainsco/Bob Stallings, historically associated with the IMSA series, will be entering a McLaren 650 in the PWC series with Jon Fogarty at the wheel.  Sadly, McLaren is not an authorized manufacturer partner with IMSA, so the car is ineligible to run in 2016 IMSA events.

How about another Viper in the form of Lone Star Racing?  The team ran at COTA and expects to run the 2016 season with Dan Knox and Marc Goosens.  The ViperExchange 2016 details were released in October, so there should be at least two Vipers on the grid in 2016.

In the meantime, Risi expects to take delivery of its brand new Ferrari 488 in December.  Perhaps not a surprise at this point, but still worth a note that timing may be tight to get the car and get it prepared for the Roar prior to the Rolex 24.

Audi will be represented by several customer teams, including Magnus Racing with John Potter and some guy named Andy Lally.  Stevenson Racing is not only making the move to the Audi R8 platform, but took home the shared Audi test vehicle after the Daytona test.  Don’t think there has been a public announcement, but rumor suggests Flying Lizard will be running a new Audi (or two?) as well.

Oh yes.  In the category of open secrets, the full time drivers for the Ganassi Ford GT IMSA season were announced.

Is there more?  Undoubtedly.  Lots of work for teams as they start to take delivery of new cars and get them prepared for the Roar and the Rolex 24. It still would have been more fun at Daytona with Aston Martin and Mercedes.  Stay tuned…