With one other spectacular version of the Le Mans 24 Hours within the rearview mirror, it’s now time to look forward to the second half of the FIA WEC season, with 26 hours of racing throughout 4 occasions left and World Championship titles in each courses on the road.
Up subsequent is the journey to Brazil, the place for the primary time since 2014 the WEC will compete on the Interlagos Circuit in São Paulo. Like at Spa, Imola and Le Mans, the occasion in Brazil’s most populous metropolis is anticipated to attract an enormous crowd.
However the Autódromo José Carlos Tempo just isn’t the one circuit welcoming the WEC again after an prolonged absence this season. The Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, will play host to the sportscar racing’s premier globetrotting championship in September (on Labor Day weekend), for the primary time since 2020.
The final time the WEC visited COTA, sportscar racing was struggling for relevance. The race was held in February that 12 months, coincidentally as a stand-in for São Paulo after its occasion that season was canceled. It additionally came about a couple of weeks earlier than the world froze for the Pandemic and whereas there have been rumblings of a brand new virus on the horizon, that weekend the paddock was extra targeted on the state of the championship and its murky future.
Simply three top-class automobiles made the journey stateside, with a single Rise up R13 taking over Toyota’s all-conquering TS050 HYBRIDs. Despite the fact that Rise up emerged triumphant, with an American driver in Gustavo Menezes as a part of its lineup, the followers that did make an effort to look at trackside would have discovered extra leisure within the hotly-contested GTE Professional battle. It was gained by Aston Martin, which acquired the higher of Porsche, Ferrari and Corvette on its approach to victory.
Rise up gained in a tiny high class final time WEC visited COTA. JEP/Motorsport Photos
However that wasn’t the headline of the weekend. The truth is, the 2020 version of Lone Star Le Mans is usually remembered for its information cycle, as within the build-up to race day the story broke that Aston Martin was shelving its unique Valkyrie Hypercar program. That left simply Glickenhaus and Toyota as the one confirmed Hypercar entries for the class’s debut season.
How wonderful it’s then, to see the WEC return to one of the thrilling and technical circuits on the planet after 4 years away, in an infinitely stronger place.
When the WEC paddock springs into life this time, race followers countrywide will get their first style of the astonishing 2024 Hypercar pack. All 9 factories will characteristic on the entry checklist, racing their prototypes that each one look and sound dramatically totally different. Extra particularly, it presents a uncommon likelihood to see Ferrari’s double Le Mans successful 499Ps, the a number of title-winning Toyota GR010s, Tom Brady-backed Porsche 963s from Hertz Crew JOTA and the suite of brand-new automobiles from Alpine, Peugeot, Isotta Fraschini and Lamborghini.
As such, there’s an actual buzz once more for Lone Star Le Mans, with drivers and crew members alike excited to journey to one of many extra thrilling locations in world motorsport for what guarantees to be a particular race.
“Everybody desires to be on this grid now as a result of the racing is so good and there’s motion all over on a regular basis,” Cadillac Racing driver Earl Bamber advised RACER. “It’s a number of the greatest racing on the earth proper now, particularly in Hypercar and I believe for followers going to CoTA, seeing this area shall be an important spectacle.
“It now seems like a giant deal, it’s lifting its stage an increasing number of and the paddock in WEC is a spot folks need to be.”
And it’s not simply the competitors that followers and opponents alike are trying ahead to when the WEC heads stateside as soon as once more, the circuit itself is a star in its personal proper.
“CoTA is a really technical observe, very troublesome to get proper. There’s numerous lap time to be discovered with drivers exploiting the kerbs. We don’t drive there quite a bit, so it’s a troublesome observe to nail. However it’s a problem all of us get pleasure from,” Bamber’s teammate Alex Lynn added.
“Sector 1 is by far my favorite. It’s the most effective sectors in world motorsport. You’ve acquired that vast hill to Flip 1, then the massive downhill sweeping into what is mostly a recreation of Maggots and Becketts from Silverstone. It truly is wonderful behind the wheel, and to look at from grandstands and viewing banks.
“Austin in itself is such a cool place too. Racing within the US is cool, however that metropolis simply provides to it. The folks there are so welcoming and for that cause I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love going there.”
In latest seasons – with CoTA off the schedule – Sebring held the USA’s slot on the calendar. And if your sportscar racing historical past, you’ll know simply how essential that airfield in Florida is to the game.
Internet hosting a double-header with IMSA and the Sebring 12 Hours had its deserves. For followers trackside it made for a real competition and celebration of endurance motorsport. However logistically and commercially, it was a troublesome nut to crack for the WEC, which on a month-to-month foundation is turning into extra related, fashionable and steady as a championship proper now.
With the WEC’s organisers eager to capitalise on this present ‘Golden Period’ and construct up standalone occasions at key areas that enchantment to each the championship’s followers and stakeholders alike, a troublesome resolution wanted to be made. A WEC race at Sebring on a separate weekend from IMSA’s 12 Hours was explored however logistically didn’t work, Indianapolis was additionally within the combine, however its possibilities fell foul of scheduling limitations.
Subsequently, championship CEO Frederic Lequien advised RACER, it made sense to return to Texas this 12 months. Every little thing’s ‘larger’ there in spite of everything… Proper?
“Sebring was a implausible occasion,” he defined. “The welcome was good, the historical past is unbelievable, nevertheless it was complicated for our viewers, for the viewers in Europe. The format was obscure, racing on Friday with IMSA on Saturday. It was complicated and since we’re an FIA World Championship, we need to have a standalone occasion.
“On high of that, it’s true that it was difficult for the groups to arrange the tents within the paddock. It was charming, it felt very native, however final 12 months’s race did really feel like the tip of the story.
“However we knew we should go to the US, it is a crucial market. We’re a World Championship so we should go to North America and we love the followers there. We evaluated numerous circuits and checked out which tracks might welcome the WEC with sufficient garages with F1-style infrastructure or near it. And instantly COTA was high of the checklist as a result of it was the one one.
“On high of that, we love the structure of the observe, and the crew on the circuit are so good to work with them. So the ultimate resolution was straightforward to take.”
Imola attracted document crowds earlier this 12 months. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Photos
Imola produced a document WEC crowd (exterior of Le Mans) of greater than 70,000 followers again in April, then Spa beat that document in Could with over 88,000. Le Mans was a sellout and tickets for the race in Brazil are believed to be briefly provide now after the native authorities’s latest push to advertise the occasion. Consequently, the expectation for CoTA is that we are going to see one other head-turning fan turnout.
The observe is spectator-friendly, tickets are priced pretty and the US producers concerned – Cadillac, Ford and Corvette – are all eager to activate on residence soil.
“The WEC right now is so totally different to the WEC 5 years in the past. It won’t be straightforward to promote the occasion out, however we’re investing on this occasion. It’s a market we imagine in, the OEMs do too. It’s why we have now seemed to place our races on the community channel MAX, we need to elevate it,” Lequien stated.
“We’re lifelike, we don’t anticipate to have the identical variety of followers as F1 in Austin, however we imagine it is going to be greater than we’ve ever skilled earlier than.
“It’s going to be an important ambiance, with such good entry to the paddock and so many unbelievable views trackside. And we have now already signed up the circuit for 2025 as a result of we all know that followers, groups and drivers will need to come again for extra.”
