Reports: No Porsche, Audi third cars at Le Mans in 2017

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Next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans will be the same as this year’s in at least one respect: there won’t be a third Audi and a third Porsche, respectively.

The respective LMP1 program heads confirmed to Autosport that as part of their parent company Volkswagen’s budget cutbacks in the wake of their emissions scandal that it wouldn’t make financial sense to go back to three cars after scaling back to two this year.

“Three cars is not in the plan,” Head of Audi Sport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich told Autosport’s Gary Watkins, thus confirming what Ullrich had hinted at to Endurance-Info during the Total 24 Hours of Spa GT3 endurance race.

In the same Autosport report, Porsche LMP1 team principal Andreas Seidl told Watkins the third car for Porsche was “not a topic for discussion.”

Toyota could still run three cars at Le Mans next year, but hasn’t done so since arriving in the WEC in 2012.

Porsche’s third car famously won Le Mans in 2015 overall with Nico Hulkenberg joining Porsche factory aces Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber in their LMP1 Le Mans debuts.

But the scale back that came into play this year was always going to leave a gap on the LMP1 grid. The LMP1 grid fell from 14 cars at Le Mans in 2015 to nine cars this year.

Porsche, of note, should have more of its works drivers to place around its GT program in 2017 because of the impending arrival of a new GTE car to replace the venerable latest 911 RSR, which premiered worldwide in 2013.

Audi’s leftover third car drivers wound up in LMP2 seats, with Rene Rast (G-Drive Racing) and Filipe Albuquerque (RGR Sport by Morand) running the full season this year.

SuperMotocross set to introduce Leader Lights beginning with the World Championship finals

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In a continuing effort to help fans keep track of the on track action, SuperMotocross is in the process of developing and implementing leader lights for the unified series.

Currently Supercross (SMX) utilizes stanchions in the infield that are triggered manually by a race official. At least two stanchions are used in each race as a way to draw the eye to the leader, which is especially useful in the tight confines of the stadium series when lapping often begins before the halfway mark in the 22-bike field. This system has been in place for the past two decades.

Later this year, a fully automated system will move to the bike itself to replace the old system. At that point, fans will be able to identify the leader regardless of where he is on track.

The leader lights were tested in the second Anaheim round this year. An example can be seen at the 1:45 mark in the video above on the No. 69 bike.

“What we don’t want to do is move too fast, where it’s confusing to people,” said Mike Muye, senior director of operations for Supercross and SMX in a press release. “We’ve really just focused on the leader at this point with the thought that maybe down the road we’ll introduce others.”

Scheduled to debut with the first SuperMotocross World Championship race at zMax Dragway, located just outside the Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 3D carbon fiber-printed LED light will be affixed to each motorcycle. Ten timing loops positioned around the track will trigger the lights of the leader, which will turn green.

SMX’s partner LiveTime Scoring helped develop and implement the system that has been tested in some form or fashion since 2019.

When the leader lights are successfully deployed, SuperMotocross will explore expanding the system to identify the second- and third-place riders. Depending on need and fan acceptance, more positions could be added.

SuperMotocross is exploring future enhancements, including allowing for live fan interaction with the lights and ways to use the lighting system during the race’s opening ceremony.