Le Mans: Audi endures for 2014 24-hour victory - MotorSportsTalk

Audi has captured its 13th win in 15 years in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the trio of Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler winning their third Le Mans in four years (2011, 2012).

The 2014 edition wasn’t so much an edition of pace versus pace as much as it was pace versus reliability, as the new LMP1 regulations threw a number of curveballs at the field.

Audi ended 1-2 although both of its cars required turbo changes. Meanwhile a series of issues plagued Porsche, which was down on outright pace but used a tortoise strategy and a fewer pit stops to play the No. 20 car (Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley) into contention.

Webber’s car though, ground to a halt from an unidentified mechanical issue with just over two hours remaining, which stunted the charge and ended their race.

Behind the top two, Toyota’s No. 8 made it onto the podium despite losing eight laps and 50 minutes in the garage early in the race from accident damage.

The remaining class victories went to Jota Sport (LMP2) with the venerable Zytek Z11SN Nissan, AF Corse with its No. 51 Ferrari F458 Italia in GTE-Pro and the No. 95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage in GTE-Am.

More to follow later today on MotorSportsTalk.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”