What's The Appeal of The European Le Mans Series?

[Nelson Ullinskey]

DISCLAIMER!!! I am not trying to start a fight or prove a point with this thread. I have a genuine question for which I hope I can get a good answer for.

So- what is the appeal of the European Le Mans Series? I ask this as an avid sports car racing fan. I love the Blancpain GT series, the World Endurance Championship (I will admit the favoritism to Toyota infuriates me), as well as IMSA and the Pirelli World Challenge here in the United States. The main reason I like these series is that aside from the good racing, they have very wide mechanical diversity. GT3 series alone have dozens of different cars, IMSA has the DPi cars that run alongside the spec LMP2s and the WEC has a rejuvenated LMP1 category with all the privateer entries.

But then we come to the ELMS. The premiere category has their spec Gibson engines as does the LMP3 with the Nissans. While these classes do variation in the chassis, it feels cheap considering the restricted engines. Even the GTE class is not especially exciting with only handful of cars and those being only Porsche and Ferrari.

Again, I have no quarrel with anyone and I don't necessarily think the ELMS is a bad series. I would like to enjoy it, but I don't see how to do that. Yes, close racing is fun to watch, but mechanical diversity is paramount in sports car racing. So I ask; what is the appeal of the ELMS?

 

[Andreas Knöpke]

You got that wrong.
Not every racing series is necessarily meant to be a supaH dupaH spectacle on TV.
Hence why you shouldn't compare an IMSA race at Long Beach with an ELMS race at Monza for instance.
Plus, if you look at the horrible BoP fails in IMSA since the beginning of the 2017 season in the P class, then I find it very hard to argue against a spec-engine class actually.
In the end, I guess you should take the ELMS as a feeder series for the Le Mans race and as a chance for wealthy amateurs to drive fast cars.
I do share your view though, it's not particularly appealing because there are no big teams / names / brands to cheer for, so I guess I would never watch a full 4 hours race like I do with WEC and IMSA but then again it's probably not supposed to be seen as one of those series anyways.

 

[Nelson Ullinskey]

Good points! Thanks for the input. My main thinking was that the ELMS should be the premiere sports car series of Europe (not counting the WEC as this since it is technically a world championship). In my honest opinion, the ELMS only needs a few tweaks to be interesting. Remove the spec engines from LMP2 (I understand having LMP3 cars all run the same engine) and try and lure in a few more cars into the GTE class.

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I watched a bit after the Nurb 24hrs, just like I've occasionally watched a bit in the past - the Monza race completely failed to keep me interested ( and it seemed every time I looked back someone else had crashed ). Once upon a time ( briefly!) ELMS was a full big-name Le Mans spec series, literally the European version of ALMS. Nowadays it seems more like the old FIA Sportscar Championship, a minor series to run lower spec prototypes that noone really gets excited about.

LMP2 was turned into a more spec-based class to encourage people who couldn't afford LMP1 - rather than open LMP2 more, why not just have a LMP1 privateer class in ELMS - especially with the current cost-cutting drive in LMP1.

 

[Maxstrong01]

DISCLAIMER!!! I am not trying to start a fight or prove a point with this thread. I have a genuine question for which I hope I can get a good answer for.

So- what is the appeal of the European Le Mans Series? I ask this as an avid sports car racing fan. I love the Blancpain GT series, the World Endurance Championship (I will admit the favoritism to Toyota infuriates me), as well as IMSA and the Pirelli World Challenge here in the United States. The main reason I like these series is that aside from the good racing, they have very wide mechanical diversity. GT3 series alone have dozens of different cars, IMSA has the DPi cars that run alongside the spec LMP2s and the WEC has a rejuvenated LMP1 category with all the privateer entries.

But then we come to the ELMS. The premiere category has their spec Gibson engines as does the LMP3 with the Nissans. While these classes do variation in the chassis, it feels cheap considering the restricted engines. Even the GTE class is not especially exciting with only handful of cars and those being only Porsche and Ferrari.

Again, I have no quarrel with anyone and I don't necessarily think the ELMS is a bad series. I would like to enjoy it, but I don't see how to do that. Yes, close racing is fun to watch, but mechanical diversity is paramount in sports car racing. So I ask; what is the appeal of the ELMS?

Mainly you are right. I followed Monza and the variety of cars on track in each of different classes was not so high. Especially GTE with few cars and only two brands was not so attractive. Additionally at least where I live the media coverage was very limited and this do not emphasize this championship.

 

[Rob Every]

The series is for drivers really, as in most circuit race series it is not much fun to watch as a fan, the races are very long, and you dont get the thrill of the works drivers and faster cars.

A sort of Britcar series for me, great for drivers and teams, not for much anyone else

 

[Richard Dastardly]

I wonder what is stopping the European works GTE teams from entering it - why *isn't* it popular enough? There's only four WEC rounds a year, that seems a lot of time with cars sitting around doing nothing unless they want to continually hop to IMSA events.

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

I wonder what is stopping the European works GTE teams from entering it - why *isn't* it popular enough? There's only four WEC rounds a year, that seems a lot of time with cars sitting around doing nothing unless they want to continually hop to IMSA events.

Rules. The ELMS is for amateur drivers mainly. The number of pro drivers (though categories are bronze through platinum with gold/plat being pros based on achievements in the past) is limited as well as driving time. But your answer to the question is in this case more the lack of a GTE-Pro class. Only old cars of GTE-Am are eligible in the ELMS.
The series is half a place for amateurs to live their hobby and half a feeder category for rising youngstars. With a few Le Mans winners running just for the sake of it and to support customers.
All in all, I enjoy it big time. Atmosphere of the pit walk is extraordinary!

 

[Richard Dastardly]

That's a strange decision - GTE cars are never going to be in the running for overall victory, so a class win in GTE-Am would be the same as a class win in a single GTE category. GTE-Am would still serve the same purpose & driver market anyway even with works GTE-Pro entries. Plus, bigger GT grid & the draw of works teams.

Oh well.