First things first, the Fuji event was last year and remained in 2013 (so far) the best run, most welcoming and most refreshing event on the WEC calendar.
The Japanese fans understand their sport and they turn up in their thousands.
They arrived to find a high quality grid with teams that understood what was expected of them in terms of fan interest. And we had a great race on prospect too with the real potential of close and meaningful racing in all four classes as the Championship moves towards a conclusion.
That level of expectation was only heightened through free practice and qualifying when the gaps between cars in every class were measured in Tenths, hundredths and thousandths time and time again on what started as, and remained a very slippery dry track surface. There’s a side issue here that many feel that the Speedway is long overdue at least a partial resurfacing.
And then we got to Sunday!
The weather looked, in the shadow of what, just a couple of hours down the road, a day or so earlier had been a deadly Typhoon, threatening all weekend.
And the weather forecast said days before that we were set to get heavy rain on Sunday, very heavy. The forecast was correct, and it was clear as race time approached that Eduardo Freitas and his team were going to have a very busy day.
From there on in the facts are known, race starts under the Safety Car, short periods of lappery behind the Audi RS5 and then the red flags, followed by the frustration of weather conditions that never got to the stage of being good, and only reached the point of being acceptable for very, very short periods.
The very nature of comment is that you look for things to comment upon – For the most part it was simple, it was simply not safe to race. There is an argument that there might, just might, have been a 20 minute window at around 15:10 where the conditions were passable, but by 15:30 the heavens opened again and the die was cast.
We heard from prototype drivers aplenty that the conditions were dangerous, and from GT drivers who agreed that whilst, in extremis, there were times when the GTEs could have run, the LMPs would have been undriveable with standing water on several parts of the track turning them into glorified hydrofoils!
FIA WEC Driver advisor Yannick Dalmas was a very busy boy indeed on Sunday, trying, and trying again to see whether the prevailing conditions were safe, and time after time finding them very, very tricky even for a capable 4wd road car.
The Race Director’s duty is clear, Safety First, and in this week of all weeks, and this season of all seasons, nobody should be under any illusions that this is a duty that should be, and undoubtedly is, taken very, very seriously indeed.
So this writer holds no truck whatsoever with any armchair critics of the decisions made, with further common sense being shown towards the points situation too.
Which leaves two important audiences – TV/ Radio and those who paid on the gate.
I haven’t had the opportunity yet to see and hear what all of the reaction has been from the fans at home but would just like to observe that yet again, those fans that do regularly interact with the media, and in particular the Radio Le Mans commentary team, never fail to amaze with their insight and knowledge. Thanks to all of you for that because believe me it helped us to fill hour after hour on air with little new to inform the audience of on track!
Then there were the fans in the stands.
Precious few of them will read these pages but I hope those that do spread the word of our heartfelt admiration for their dignity and enthusiasm, staying through hour after hour of nothing much and staying too to applaud the podium ceremony in their thousands.
The organiser’s gesture of re-opening the pit lane was welcomed by a large number of fans and their families, despite the near torrential rain, and very many of the teams responded too with drivers making themselves available to the most polite group of true supporters that this writer has seen anywhere for any sport.
And it is for them that I offer my one mild criticism of the way that the end of the race was handled.
In the circumstances it might have been better to allow the cars to complete a saluting pass of the main stands then run them back, albeit the wrong way, down pit lane to parc ferme. The race that never became the firework we hoped for, instead finished amid confusion and disappointment, a spluttering dud that we probably shouldn’t go back to once lit!
I hope too that every single one of those fans is welcomed back next season, with at least a very substantial discount on their ticket – The WEC needs fans like that!
GG
