Todd Benne

One rumor circulating, and I am not certain of the validity, is that Tim Mayer quit to form a new sports car series, called something along the lines of World Championship, that is supposed to launch in the next year or so. Cost containment and rules not so heavily based on European rules is the concept.

AU N EGL

I wonder. SRO ( Steven Ratal Organization ) which is the promoting organization for many FIA GT races ( GTLive.com) in europe wants to set up here in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

xsiveone

Why the F would a series like ALMS be in trouble and a series like Grand Am flourish? That's almost as big of mystery to me as the popularity of NASCAR. On top of this, a great series like Speed World Challenge is combined into a single hour of recap. WTF? Don't people like racing in the US?

It seems to me that the people that watch DP's and NASCAR don't care about cars or technology. I just don't get it.

xsiveone

Here's the original Riley DP.

AU N EGL

Gatorac

And they have only gotten uglier since....

Cobra4B

Why all the hate for DPs? I've been to the Rolex race at VIR a few times and found it very entertaining.

Zoxxo

Well, I certainly hate them. Aside from the fact that it represents the France family's effort to control (aka homogenize/ruin) professional sports car racing in the U.S., the things are just butt ugly and dog slow.

Both ALMS and GrandAm race at Laguna Seca which gives a great way to compare.

Oct 2008 ALMS qualifying - Pole= P1 Acura time= 1.10.103

May 2009 GrandAm qualifying - Pole= Ganassi Lexus Riley time= 1.19.874

That's right, the "prototypes" are almost a full ten seconds per lap slower than the P1 cars. But here's the real kicker... The ALMS GT1 Corvette of Jan Magnussen qualified at 1.19.291. That's right, the GT1 Corvette C6.R would have taken *POLE* at the GrandAm race (and given that they had no competition in their class, you know they weren't going nearly as fast as they could have.)

I'm sorry, but that's sad and not what *I* grew up watching (the original Can-Am, actually) and not at all what I want to watch today. Yes, GrandAm is working on developing all the requisite NASCAR treats like "fender rubbin'" and fist fights. So if "race-O-tainment" is what you're looking for, they're perfect. I'll take ALMS any/every day, thanks.

I laughed out loud. Perfect!

Z//

JEPopp

I'll admit I don't follow the behind the scenes politics of racing, but I don't understand how the France / Grand Am empire could put down ALMS. I figure it would be financial play to the ALMS teams of some type (less expensive to race in Grand Am ?), but not sure of how. An advantage the ALMS has is entry into the 24hrs of LeMans... unless France figures out a way to get linked in there.

Is there any additional insight / opinion you could provide?

xsiveone

Don't forget that the France family took over AMA motorcycle racing as well. I refuse to watch whatever it's called now. I now only watch WSBK and MotoGP.

Zoxxo

That's the *ONLY* reason that GrandAm has any success (if racing in front of crowds measured in 4 digits can be considered success) - it's much cheaper to play the game. Oh yeah, and playing the game is a great way to suck up to the France folks.

The France family *did* have the connection with Le Mans. For years the Daytona 24 hour hosted the same cars that ran at Le Mans and Sebring. That ended when they started GrandAm and booted the international crowd to use the 24 hour race as their "Daytona 500" keystone race (see also IRL+CART+Indy 500.)

I don't and ditto.

Never forget that Speed (aka FOX) is deeply in bed with NASCAR.

1. The ALMS race conflicted timewise with the Sprint Cup "all star" race (whatever -that- means - Speed carried on all week like this was the second coming or such.)

2. GrandAm *is* NASCAR. Hmmm...

:-/

Z//

TheSkunkWorks

What can essentially be called a split between the ALMS and GA series is every bit as bad for sports car racing as was the split between the IRL and CART. Not that I'm thrilled with every aspect of the latter's re-merger, but IMHO formula car racing in the US is somewhat on the rebound despite the economy. Problem is, there is likely a wider gulf between ALMS and GA, and as long as the two can somehow remain solvent I don't see them sitting down at the same table any time soon.

I agree with the idea that the ALMS might ought to cut back to 4 or 5 higher profile events each season, and would think it a good idea if Mr P's suggestion box received some well thought out input on this and other matters which might improve the series' stance and long term outlook.

Yes, I'll admit the competition in those fugly GA cars can be entertaining, but the series doesn't inspire me anymore (maybe not as much) than NastyCar, and I don't watch all that much of either one. ALMS, on the other hand, captivates my interest somewhat in the same manner as does F1 (time being, but that's another story ), tho not to quite the same degree. I know this last statement is going to draw some ire from those who've never experienced the 12-Hour, but America's marque sports car race isn't (and has never been) at Daytona; rather it's at Sebring.


TSW

edit - IMHO, VS. extended coverage of Indy 500 qualifying was worth every hour it chewed up in my DVR, certain acquaintances being involved.

rfn026

Let's get back to basics. In order to have a race - or a series of racers - you need cars. In sports car racing only two types of people have cars. First the automobile companies can build race cars. Next, rich guys can buy cars and race them.

The ALMS model was built on factory race cars. As long as the factories had huge piles of money it worked very well. When you're GM and you can afford to spend $17,000,000 on one race it's pretty cool.

If you're a rich guy you would have to be crazy to race against the factories. Their food budget is bigger than your engine budget. It's no surprise that the only Corvettes in the ALMS are factory cars. We all saw what happened when Lou tried to race a Corvette in the ALMS. GM did everything they could to make sure the LG Motorsports Corvette would fail.

Grand AM was created to give an average rich guy a place to race. You could buy a car and have a decent chance of winning. This model works. While the ALMS has to hunt around for old Porsches to fill out the field the Grand Am series has huge fields.

Grand Am is built on the old IMSA model. It's no surprise that John Bishop, who created IMSA, did a lot of work with the folks at Grand AM. Grand AM is built for the long haul.

Everyone has always known that as long as the factory teams had money the ALMS series would flourish. Everyone also knew that as soon as the factory money went away the ALMS was screwed. We're watching that scenario play out right now.

The irony of all this is that the Corvette is the poster child for the ALMS. The entire Pratt and Miller effort has been to discourage Corvettes from racing in the ALMS.

Once Obama pulls the plug on the Pratt and Miller team we might actually have more Corvettes racing. It would be nice if the new FIA series manages to keep the factory money under control. I'm not sure that's possible but one can always hope.

Richard Newton

TheSkunkWorks

As much as I prefer my view of the sports car world, Richard makes some very good points. ...which is why ALMS could use some suggestions...

Cobra4B

Is Lou no longer campaigning a GT2 car? What happened?

LG Motorsports

Hi GUys,

Great thread. So many true statements here.

the Grand Am but for the Ugly Prototype design mandated by the rules, is a great place to race. If I controlled the series, I would allow all prototypes to shrink the greenhouse size and make them look like real race cars.

The GT class is very well regulated to keep a manufacturer from dominating using politics and sheer volume of Cash to control the outcome.

The ALMS allows manufacturers to buy their way to favorable rules for some reason, and they have a tire situation that is controlled by Michelin and the manufacturers. If you don't get a CALL from the manufacturer, you don't get Michelin tires. And if you don't think Michelin has a monopoly then how come they just won their "100th overall victory" at Utah. (I think that is also 100% of all the races run since inception)

Ok, so for a team like LG Motorsports the Grand Am is a better place to race if you don't mind having no spectators. That is what SCCA Club racing was for years only the GA has prize money.

As many of you know, we had a "Hot Race" at Long Beach with Boris in the car.
We have taken the car down to the last bolt and we are rebuilding it. Our plan is to come out in August and do one race before the Petit LeMans race at Atlanta in October.

We will see what happens after that race to determine our ALMS future.

As far as the ALMS series in general, i am not sure where they are going. I doubt that there will be much participation in the Prototype class other than the big races like Sebring and Petit. Acura is not as stupid as GM was and they will not race against no one past this year. Corvette racing allowed the GT1 team to spend and waste money racing no one, and look what it got them... Government motors. And every time they finished "Last and Second to Last" I was embarrassed for them.

So if you think the new ownership of GM will allow them to pretend that using wood alcohol is worthy of spending $20 million a year then we are all in denial.

Remember that there were 13000 Corvette sitting on dealer lots as of April 1st, so the "wood alcohol marketing program" was not working.

At any rate, our country is heading down the slippery slope, and I doubt that the new marxist in power care much about car racing.

Racing in the future may be over anyway.

LG

AU N EGL

Back to SPWC Lou?

or maybe LGM Motorsports Racing Schools ??

LG Motorsports

I doubt any Speed WC because they have the cost of the cars up close to the ALMS cars, and their tech dept has no clue.

I still want to make it to Le Mans one time so we shall see.

Might be time to put my son Louis in my seat.

Driver schools, you never know.

We have to see what the future of the car industry will become and if it can be changed in future elections before we make plans to race electric cars. (My battery is bigger than yours is )

LG

Cobra4B

I think this is what we fear the most... dear leader outlawing "wasteful" car racing becuase it pollutes the atmosphere and wastes precious natural resources

AU N EGL

Not just any drivers schools, but specialty "Lou's make you a better racer" Racing schools