FUMES

Tuesday

Feb012011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 12:28PM

February 2, 2011

From relevance to... survivability.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. Those of you who have loyally read this motorsports column know that I have been talking steadily about "relevant" racing for over four years now. As a matter of fact I alluded to this concept in the very first Fumes column I wrote on June 1, 1999, back when we started this publication. In my travels among the manufacturers, "relevance" in their racing programs is the one concept that has absolutely resonated, taking precedence over everything else in the last few years. These manufacturers aren't looking for a "kinda-sorta" relationship between their racing programs and their production vehicles, they're looking for a direct connection that can become part of a mutually beneficial element of their ongoing research and development programs that can be exploited in their marketing initiatives.

"Talking" relevance and actually doing something about it are two vastly different things, however. No matter how many committed enthusiasts are involved in the decision-making process for these manufacturers when it comes to racing -- and believe me there are plenty -- it still comes down to whether the costs involved justify the expense.

In previous eras that wasn't the case at all. If a corporate executive in charge of motorsports was a racing enthusiast, then that company was going to go racing. And if the top executive of a company was a hard-core racing enthusiast, then that company was going to go racing, big-time. And the sport survived just fine that way -- albeit with some crises here and there over the decades -- as it careened from one corporate-sponsored era to another. But all that changed when the economic breezes that fueled racing in this country over the previous decades turned into nasty storms roiled by the financial markets, and the pursuit of sponsorship in racing -- whether it was at the team or series level -- became a 24/7 slog of fleeting moments of exultation punctuated by deep troughs of disappointment, as the pool of sponsorship dollars became smaller by the minute and much tougher to come by.

Right now, beyond relevance for the manufacturers and the never-ending fight for sponsorship, however, I'm getting the sickening feeling that the sport itself is on the precipice of disaster. The manufacturers are seeing alarming statistics about young people and their general interest in anything automotive -- or lack of same -- and it's is beyond sobering. Remember when we all -- or at least most of us anyway -- couldn't wait to get our driver's licenses? That's not the case today. A large number of Millennials --that's the alarming part -- couldn't care less about getting their drivers' licenses and are much more geeked about acquiring the latest smart phone or the latest communications device. And it's that statistic alone that is making these manufacturers burn the midnight oil in an attempt to figure out how to reach this younger generation.

I've said it before and I'll probably say it again before we walk away from doing this, but the last thing I want for racing is for it to turn into an exercise in nostalgia for a generation that keeps dying off each and every year. Make no mistake, I love and support vintage racing but we can't have the entire sport turn in that direction, it just wouldn't work. But I'm afraid that if we don't change racing now, which means combining the manufacturers' interest in relevance with new thinking in how to reach this new generation of consumers coming up, then that's exactly what will happen and the very survivability of the sport itself will be at risk.

I do know for a fact that some of the brightest and most talented people in the industry are hard at work on this very subject as you read this.

Let's hope that they can come up with something that will draw in a whole new generation into this sport by making it is as compelling to them as it has been for all of us.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Dearborn, Michigan, 1964. The sophisticated Ford DOHC Indy V8 engine -- pictured in a studio shot -- was designed to win the Indianapolis 500, and it would power Jim Clark to his victory at The Speedway in 1965. It started out as a 255 cubic inch, normally aspirated V8 which delivered 376HP @ 7,200 RPM, but by the end of its life -- when the engine program had been handed over to the care of A.J. Foyt -- it was reduced to 160 cubic inches of displacement and turbocharged to deliver over 825HP @ 9,600 RPM.

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out ford.artehouse.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.