May 4, 2011
A Desperate Need: One great road racing series in the U.S.
By Peter M. De Lorenzo
(Posted 5/2, 1:00 p.m.) Detroit. After wandering around in the desert for the better part of 15 years, it's gratifying to see major league open-wheel racing in this country finally on an upward trajectory. As I stated last week, from the moment Randy Bernard arrived at IndyCar he has done a superb job assessing the situation, listening to and then marshaling the various constituencies, and getting everyone involved pulling in the same direction. And that's a very good thing. But this week my attention turns to the state of road racing in this country, and why I find it to be perilously close to sinking into oblivion.
The High-Octane Truth about major league road racing here in the U.S. is that it is splintered and broken, and unless cooler heads prevail and the principal players get together to save it, redirect it, and position it for the future, I'm afraid we're going to see it continue to dwindle in importance and popularity.
And it just doesn't have to be that way.
Right now there are two main players in U.S. road racing, the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am series. (The World Challenge series is a decidedly second-tier series and any of the other fractional road racing groups across the U.S. qualify for regional obscurity.) The ALMS, fueled by the funding of Don Panoz, steered by Scott Atherton and formally aligned with the ACO-controlled 24 Hours of Le Mans, is clearly the most noteworthy and international series of the two. The Grand-Am series, which was basically founded by NASCAR's Jim France to prevent Don Panoz from gaining control of all of American road racing in this country, is a NASCAR-ized version of road racing, made up of predominantly amateur sportsmen with a few pros mixed in looking for an outlet "bigger" than SCCA racing but not as costly as running prototypes or GT cars in the ALMS.
The ALMS has two premier events - the 12 Hours of Sebring in the spring and the Petit Le Mans in the fall - along with notable other stops on the calendar, including Long Beach, Mid-Ohio, Mosport, Laguna Seca, and Road America. The new event in Baltimore this September holds promise, but that's a giant "we'll see." The Grand-Am series has the Daytona 24 Hour race and a bunch of other forgettable races that could legitimately qualify as "non-spectator" events for insurance purposes, it's that bad. You only have to look at the "attendance" at Homestead-Miami Speedway to understand what I mean.
These two series have been butting heads and going at cross-purposes for years now. The Grand-Am series - whose teams live on direct support from the series for survival, along with a smattering of legitimate sponsors and "sponsorship" from team owners' own businesses - trundles along lost in a fog of somewhat good intentions, blissfully and somewhat stubbornly oblivious to the realities of the world around them.
The ALMS, on the other hand, relies on its direct connection to the 24 Hours of Le Mans for legitimacy, which is great when the factory Audi and Peugeot teams show up at Sebring and Road Atlanta, not so much for the rest of the schedule. If it weren't for the factory-supported GT teams in the ALMS, and the few serious American-based prototype teams (although the ALMS is desperately missing Highcroft Racing's presence this year) the series would be in deep trouble.
My contention is that these two series together don't add up to the one terrific road racing series that road racing enthusiasts in this country deserve.
The Grand-Am in particular is a pathetic excuse for a series, as a matter of fact Grand-Am has one legitimate race - the Daytona 24 Hours - and that's it. The rest of its schedule is made up of glorified club races that don't even deserve the minimal coverage and attention that they get. Right now I can assure you that the participating manufacturers in Grand-Am are seriously reevaluating their involvement for 2012 and beyond, because it's becoming harder and harder to justify spending money in a series that has one legitimate race and a bunch of other "ghost" events
The ALMS on the other hand has learned that there's a deep downside with aligning themselves with the whims of the French, who recently rewarded Don Panoz's massive investment in the ALMS over the years by coming up with a new international sports car series that only deigns to stop in the U.S. twice, leaving the ALMS in the lurch the rest of the time.
My point is that this country - its fans and the automobile manufacturers who do business here - deserve one great road racing series. Not one international series plus a few half-baked and half-assed series providing filler, but one great road racing series that provides an opportunity for all of the interested auto manufacturers to square-off against each other in a provocative, relevant, popular, and superbly focused racing series.
Right now the best road racing going on in this country - if not the world - is in the GT class in the ALMS. The simple formula at work here is world-class manufacturers + world-class teams + world-class drivers = absolutely incredible racing. And if you know what you're looking at - as most hard-core road racing fans do - you know that this is the most ferocious road racing on the planet.
So how do we take that, blow it up to its full potential, and rearrange the landscape of American road racing to yield one great road racing series? Here are my recommendations for a productive scenario for an all-new road racing series by 2013:
1. Convene a manufacturer summit to agree on the rules for this new road racing series. All interested manufacturers would be welcome. The usual suspects? Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Toyota, VW, and anyone else who wants to be there. The reality? Without manufacturer interest and involvement any new road racing series would never get off of the ground, that's why a new, major league road racing series would start here. And the starting point for the new rules? The current ALMS GT class rules.
2. After the manufacturers convene and agree on the rules package, the warring factions of the ALMS and Grand-Am would be brought in and informed of the direction of this new series. At this juncture they would also be informed that the manufacturers involved in the new road racing series would no longer be participating in their respective series, effective beginning in the 2013 racing season. That includes World Challenge and every other semi-pro road racing series out there, and it also includes Grand-Am's dream of shoring up its legitimacy by affiliating with the DTM series. (That's notgonnahappen.com anyway, but it's really not happening once this new series is framed.) There will be one major league road racing series in this country, period.
3. A new North American Road Racing Group would be created made up of a representative sampling of manufacturers, racing team owners, track promoters, TV media representatives, and appointed marketing partners. This new racing entity would sanction the events, determine the schedules, and promote, market and run the series. One person would lead the group, a road racing "czar" if you will.
What would this series look like? It would consist of two race groups running on each race weekend: GTAmerica (basically cars designed to the current ALMS GT rules package with some updating and tweaks), and GTCAmerica (a support series made-up of B+ and C-segment cars like the Chevrolet Sonic, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, VW Jetta, etc.). Each series would run two 45-minute heat races on race weekends - one each on Saturday and one each on Sunday - except for the premier long-distance events indicated below, which would be for GTAmerica cars only.
The schedule? Open with the Daytona 24 Hour (GTAmerica only with GTCAmerica support races), 12 Hours of Sebring (GTAmerica with GTCAmerica support races), and then go on to a full schedule that includes Barber Motorsports Park, Charlotte (special mid-week night races using the banking and inner road course), Mid-Ohio, Mosport, Montreal, Toronto, Lime Rock, Road America, Road Atlanta (GTAmerica with GTCAmerica support races), Long Beach, Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway), Sears Point (Infineon), and Watkins Glen.
Imagine all of the participating manufacturers and the top-rated teams and drivers currently involved in all of the various road racing series in this country competing in one series, in one of two classes, focusing on one championship. That means one TV and marketing package that marketers can sell, interested advertisers can focus on, and track promoters can promote. That means road racing fans can have the best of all worlds, with top-notch competition featuring recognizable cars and top drivers battling on the best road racing venues in North America. That means a national road racing series beginning in 2013 that would combine the best of the Australian V8 Supercar series while capturing the spirit of the heyday of the original Trans-Am series, with races broadcast live throughout the season.
In order to pull this off it would take vision, and the warring factions would have to lay down their arms for good. But most of all it would take a cohesive, tight-knit group of manufacturers hell-bent on not only seeing this happen, but demonstrating the will to make it happen.
And believe it or not, I think we are a lot closer to this happening than you might think.
Stay tuned.
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)
Indianapolis, Indiana, May 30, 1963. Just how radical was the "mid-engine revolution" at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Look closely at this photo during the 1963 Indianapolis 500 and you can see Dan Gurney and Jim Clark running 3rd and 4th amidst a pack of front engine "roadsters" in their Lotus-Fords.
Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD
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