September 5, 2012
Editor-in-Chief's Note (Posted 9/5, 11:15 a.m.): Final thoughts? Again, it could be a momentous day for sports car racing in America. From my perspective, as an insider who lives in and around two of the Detroit manufacturers every day, I can tell you unequivocally that there was indirect but very pointed pressure applied to Jim France, Don Panoz and Scott Atherton in conversations with top executives from GM and Ford. And the message? You guys get it together or else our continued financial involvement in the sport would have to be "reevaluated." The same indirect pressure was applied by those same two manufacturers to NASCAR when they became very dismayed with the CoT, which is why the emphasis is on the production-like appearance of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup cars. Look, I'm not going to let the good feelings of the day cloud the fact that there is a very specific concern here, which I expressed in my question during the press conference. The American Le Mans GT class is the hottest class and the best road racing going on in the world right now. And it has been for going on three seasons. I liked Scott Atherton's comments about protecting the efficacy of the ALMS GT cars and that they were not going to be "dumbed-down." I however did not like Jim France's additional comment that his Rolex GT cars (decidedly second-tier tube-framed yester-tech race cars) would be accommodated. That suggests to me that the performance envelope of the ALMS GT cars won't be reduced or compromised, but that the Rolex GT cars will probably be given 500 cu. in. big-blocks in order to compete, when they in fact should be deleted from the new series entirely. Stupid is as stupid does, unfortunately. And Jim France's little comment at the end of the response to my question by Scott Atherton spoke volumes. A giant "we'll see" to be sure, but the potential for a giant bowl of Not Good is staring everyone in the face at the moment. - PMD
Editor-in-Chief's Note (Posted 9/4, 8:15 p.m.): I'll get straight to the point here. I spoke with Don Panoz, the founder of the American Le Mans Series on Monday and he asked me to keep the details of the Grand-Am/ALMS coming together "off the record" until tomorrow's announcement. But since John Dagys has decided to break cover on some of the details tonight (speedtv.com), I can tell you this about the arrangement between Grand-Am and the ALMS.
1. The Panoz Motor Sports Group (ALMS) has been sold to GRAND-AM/NASCAR Holdings LLC. The number? Reportedly around $20 million. It also includes the sale of Road Atlanta and a long-term lease of Sebring International Raceway. A new LLC will be formed going forward for the unified sports car racing entity in the U.S.
2. Jim France (GRAND-AM co-founder and NASCAR Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President) will be the Chairman of the unified series, which does not have an official name as of yet. ALMS founder Don Panoz will be Vice Chairman. And ALMS President and CEO Scott Atherton will be President of the new organization. Both Panoz and Atherton are likely to be on the board of directors.
3. The LMP1 class from the ALMS will no longer be a part of the new series. The ALMS LMP2 class will survive, along with the GRAND-AM's Daytona Prototype class. The DeltaWing will also be a part of this new class as well. The new racing series will equalize those three classes. (Uh, good luck with that.) I'm sorry to report that the Rolex GT class will hang around, but it will come in below the ALMS GT class, which will be retained, intact (thank goodness). A testing program will be undertaken to sort all of these performance adjustments out.
4. There will be a 12-race schedule, with a kick-off being the Daytona 24 Hour followed by the 12 Hours of Sebring, returning major league American sports car racing to its rightful rhythm. The rest of the schedule will be announced tomorrow. Teams will discard points from one of the 12 races. This will allow a team to drop a bad performance, but it will also allow a team to participate at Le Mans if invited.
5. The new road racing entity will kick-off with the 2014 season, as commitments were well in place for 2013 and could not be altered. The two series will operate separately for one more year.
6. There is no official connection to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) after the 2013 season.
So there you have it folks. beginning with the 2014 racing season, major league sports car racing in the United States will be represented by one entity. Right now, I will say this ahead of tomorrow morning's announcement, and that is that I will remain catiously optimistic until I'm given reasons to think otherwise.
Is there an extreme danger that the NASCAR-ization of pro sports car racing will ruin it forever? Absolutely. With NASCAR now in complete control of major league sports car racing in this country the stupidity could rear its ugly head at any moment.
The liklihood of this new racing entity dumbing down what's left of the prototype classes so that they're all on the same footing is high. Go back and look at the times of the LMP2 and DP classes when they ran at the same tracks this summer, and you'll see that it could get very ugly. But that doesn't concern me, at least not yet.
What does concern me and what is already looking to be a bright red flag? That GRAND-Am operatives are insisting that their tube-framed Rolex GT cars have a role. To me that is simply ludicrous and ridiculous. If this new entity screws up the ALMS GT class, which is the best road racing in the world, then I will be the first to bury this endeavor with both hands.
But, and this is a very large B-U-T, these people have a solid year to figure things out and get their proverbial shit together. Let's hope they do exactly that for everyone concerned. - PMD
The ALMS - Grand-Am "merger." It could be really, really good, but then again...
By Peter M. De Lorenzo
(Posted 9/2, 3:45 p.m.) Detroit. When John Dagys of SpeedTV.com first reported early Saturday afternoon (September 1) that the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am series will merge beginning with the 2014 season, which I confirmed after speaking with one of the manufacturer representatives who had directly participated in the discussions, my initial reaction was "finally." And after years and years of writing about this very idea (read Peter's definitive piece on the subject that we originally posted on October 26, 2011, reproduced below - WG), I was thrilled for the players involved for having the cojones to finally get it done.
My other initial reaction was that this development would be great for the participating manufacturers, it would be great for enthusiasts who love road racing, and it would be fantastic for the overall health of the sport itself. I still believe kudos are due to all involved for making it happen, but I'd like to temper my initial reaction from one of it would be to it could be great, because there are just too many factors involved that have to fall into place "just so" for all of this to work out.
After talking with various players at several different levels of involvement in this situation, I have pieced together some details about this "merger." First of all, this is anything but a merger. In fact Grand-Am is buying the ALMS lock, stock and barrel in a straight-up cash deal (I know the number but I'm choosing not to reveal it now), including Road Atlanta and Sebring International Raceway, the two road racing facilities the ALMS owns. I doubt whether this was planned to be unveiled on Wednesday at the announcement in Daytona Beach, but there you have it. (Besides, if this truly was a "merger" you would think that the announcement would come at a neutral site or at least near a major media center, instead of at the home of Grand-Am and of course, NASCAR, right?)
The knowledge that this is an outright buyout changes absolutely everything about this discussion. I have to wonder what direction this new road racing organization will take and that begs many, many questions. As in, will the hard-won international perspective and reputation of the ALMS be enhanced and continued, or discarded? Will Grand-Am leave intact the hottest road racing series in the world right now - the ALMS GT class - or will it mess it up by some convoluted "blending" exercise with its weak sister GT classes that will only serve to dilute the racing? Will the new series make sense of the racing calendar by walking away from the underperforming races and come up with one outstanding schedule? (You can see my schedule proposal below in my previous column from last October.)
Questions. Many, many questions. Some of them will be answered Wednesday, and then again some of them might be thrashed over right up until the beginning of the 2014 season.
In the meantime, this is my blueprint for the new racing organization, complete with some very specific recommendations:
1. What's going to happen with the ACO? This is the fundamental raison d'etre for the whole shebang. If there's no relationship or direct connection to the France-based ACO it will affect team budgets, schedules, the classes of racing, sponsors, the TV package, basically everything. Is this new road racing series going to go off on its own as sort of a American-centric entity, or will the link to the ACO and the 24 Hours of Le Mans be retained?
2. It's about the manufacturers, stupid. Racing enthusiasts may rail against this but the fact remains that the automobile manufacturers are the lifeblood of the sport, and to pretend otherwise is just plain silly. This new road racing organization, which automatically becomes the road racing entity in the U.S. (as well as the U.S. road racing entity to the world at large), must embrace manufacturer involvement rather than stifle it. That means developing a competition mindset and rules package that encourages manufacturers to participate, rather than turn them off with a smattering of capricious decisions that suggest instability.
3. An experienced management team must be assembled. This seems silly to even mention, right? Well, no. In fact anyone with even a passing knowledge of the inner workings of racing will know that this is absolutely crucial, because mistakes can be made and the wrong people can be put in place. It has happened throughout racing history and it has every chance of happening again. This new racing organization has a very narrow window - let's call it a sliver - to get things right, so cooler heads will have to prevail, egos will have to be set aside, and the very best team of people will have to be selected and assembled. That means several people currently in place at high positions will have to go (see Point 4). Make no mistake, the assembly of this management team has the potential to make or break this new racing organization before it even leaves the starting line.
4. One machine is clearly better than the other. The current technical system, capabilities and personnel that run the ALMS should be retained as the mechanism that runs the new road racing series. No, of course this won't sit well with the Grand-Am operatives but that's not the point, is it? If they buy into putting the best people and systems in place and if they truly want this new series to fly strong right out of the gate, they're going to have to suck it up and acknowledge which racing organization is bringing the right stuff to the table.
5. Whatever you do, please don't mess up a good thing. As I've previously stated and what is obvious to anyone who knows anything about racing, the GT class racing going on right now in the ALMS is as good as it gets. In fact it's the best road racing this country has ever seen. Let me reiterate, as in ever. What does that mean? That means that the current Rolex GT class must be deleted in favor of the ALMS GT rules package and its corresponding manufacturer interest must be retained "as is." To do anything else would demonstrate a level of cluelessness and tone-deafness that would defy all understanding.
6. Get real about safety, and the need for a traveling safety team. This is a deal breaker as far as I'm concerned. The NASCAR philosophy is that the individual tracks are responsible for providing the proper safety personnel, etc. And they would be wrong. It breeds inconsistency in a sober part of the business that can't tolerate any inconsistency whatsoever. It's clear that if you're going to be the premier road racing entity in this country that it's imperative that safety cannot be left to chance or to the vagaries of interpretation provided by the individual tracks. The ALMS has a perfectly capable and professional safety team that's turn key. Please use it.
7. Come up with one great schedule. As in please. In my previous column (below) I outlined a proposed schedule for a new United States Road Racing Championship. Please study it and hopefully you can come up with a better one, but it's a excellent place to start. Conducting races with no spectators may save on event insurance costs, but it's no way to run a major league road racing series. And once you do that, think about running separate races for the Daytona Prototype and GT classes on the same racing weekend. In fact, consider running doubleheader races for both classes wherever and whenever you can. (My gut tells me that the ALMS LMP class is going to go away in favor of the DP class. Don't be surprised if that's the case.)
8. Make TV matter. it's no secret that the ALMS TV package has been infuriating to most. Yes, I've heard the argument that the Internet will define TV watching of the future, but when you're delivering TV numbers close to being nonexistent, there's no rationale that justifies what's going on. Take one great unified racing series with one great schedule, add in massive manufacturer support and participation, and racing fans my just start showing up again, in-person and in front of the TV. A serious "blended" TV package that can utilize network television to showcase the major events and actually grow the new racing series is absolutely imperative.
9. A major league road racing series needs a major league sponsor. A series sponsor that will integrate/activate its product/service into this new road racing series is a noteworthy concept, too bad that it has been lacking in major league road racing in this country up until this point. We're talking a global corporate partner that will help expand exposure and grow audience. A heavyweight, in other words. Here's the magic formula that should be simple to understand: One Great Unified Road Racing Championship + Factory Participation + Recognizable Cars + Top Teams and Drivers + One Serious TV Package + One Major League Sponsor with Global Reach = A Major League Racing Series worth watching.
We are all aware of how the infamous "split" in Indy car racing destroyed the sport of open-wheel racing, for all intents and purposes. And with all that has transpired while watching that train wreck unfold, it was stunning to me that some very smart people involved in racing actually believed that this country could sustain two major league road racing series, when it was painfully obvious that it just wasn't possible.
Well, we have finally arrived at the crossroads for major league road racing in this country that I've been predicting for several years now, and the powers that be behind this new road racing series have a very clearcut choice as to how to proceed from here on out.
They will move in an enlightened, reasoned manner to finally make things right for road racing in this country, or they will fall into old habits and send the sport down the wrong road.
We will have a pretty good idea as to which fork in the road this new racing entity has chosen when the announcement takes place on Wednesday.
Stay tuned for more updates as they develop.
October 26, 2011
Why a unified, major league U.S. Road Racing Championship is desperately needed by 2014. And why it's probably not going to happen.
By Peter M. De Lorenzo
(Posted 10/23, 5:00 p.m.) Detroit. Those of you who have followed this column over the years know that one of my biggest pet peeves (among many) about the racing business here in the U.S. is the continued fractured state of major league road racing. On one side we have the Grand-Am series, owned and operated under the auspices of NASCAR and led by Jim France. On the other we have the American Le Mans Series, founded by Don Panoz and led by Scott Atherton.
Simply put, the Grand-Am series was formed as a stopgap measure to prevent Don Panoz from controlling major league road racing here in the U.S. Beyond that there wasn't any noble ideal attached to this endeavor, it was just the France family - which controls the Daytona International Speedway and NASCAR - moving to protect the one major league road race asset they controlled - the Daytona 24 Hours - by forming a road racing series around it. (Much in the same vein as Tony George once did by forming the Indy Racing League through his control over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500.)
The only problem with this strategy was that the Daytona 24 Hours had devolved into a minor league event, propped up by the France family but not commanding the international status that it once did. There were many factors involved in the degradation of this event over the years, of course, but the France family didn't do themselves any favors by creating a series that featured its own "Daytona Prototype" class of semi-prototype racers, a class of racing machines that doesn't fit under any established international racing classification.
This approach was hardly unexpected, however, as it was consistent with the way that the France family approaches all of its racing, which goes something like this: 1. We know what's best for everyone involved, especially when it adheres closely to our interests. 2. It's better when we control things (see No. 1). And 3. We don't necessarily need international certification or acceptance because here in the U.S. NASCAR is the straw that stirs the drink for all of American racing, and if we want to go road racing we'll do it under our rules, with our cars, at our tracks (mostly) and we will do it at a cadence that works best for us.
But the results have been decidedly mixed, to put it charitably. Like the Indianapolis 500 and the IRL, the Grand-Am series has one race - the Daytona 24 Hours - of note. The rest? A makeshift schedule of races that are so poorly attended that they could be legitimately classified as "non-spectator" events for insurance purposes, with negligible interest from the media to boot.
It didn't help matters much that the Grand-Am prototype ranks were and are primarily made up of amateur teams that choose not to compete in the ALMS for whatever the reason - you can zero in on cost as the overriding issue, for starters - and also, Chip Ganassi's team. Ganassi consistently lures a primary sponsorship from an engine manufacturer (most recently BMW) interested in running - and winning - the Daytona 24 Hours and he usually delivers the win, while getting a deal that allows his team to run the rest of the series. The rest of the DP teams make do with limited sponsorships, while having access to substantial subsidies from Grand-Am itself in order to keep running.
As for the GT class in Grand-Am, success hinges upon whichever manufacturer is doling out enough money at any given time, while the Grand-Am Cup events are - surprisingly enough - the best thing Grand-Am has going, with deep fields and ultra-competitive racing.
Let's leave Grand-Am for a moment and talk about the American Le Mans Series, which exists solely because of the vision, considerable financial wherewithal and pure love for sports car racing that one man - Don Panoz - has brought to the table. Panoz, whose love for the 24 hours of Le Mans and everything associated with it is well-documented, legitimized his series by becoming a sanctioned partner of the ACO and the 24 Hours of Le Mans itself. If, as an American sports car team, you aspire to compete in the world's greatest sports car race - the 24 Hours of Le Mans - there's only one way to do it. And that is to win in the American Le Mans Series first.
Strictly adhering to established international racing classifications, the ALMS specializes in (or, at least it used to) the dazzling Le Mans prototype racers such as those entered by the Audi and Peugeot factory teams, and factory-supported GT racers from BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari and Porsche. A high-cost series, the ALMS enjoys its status as the only sports car racing series here in North America with direct, formal ties to the international racing community.
The ALMS affiliation has worked out exceedingly well for Dan Panoz - at least up until last year - with full fields and tremendous races at classic North American tracks such as Sebring, Road America, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca, Mosport and the Long Beach street racing extravaganza.
But Panoz' strict adherence to Le Mans has begun to take a turn for the dicey. After working for years at legitimizing the ALMS in the international racing community and spending untold millions out of his own pocket on the series, the French-controlled international racing body (FIA) has moved to establish a new road racing endurance championship that supersedes any national or regional series around the globe. This move has immediately neutered the entire ALMS schedule except for two events, the 12 Hours of Sebring (the premier sports car race here in the U.S.) and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Meaning that, unless a manufacturer such as Audi or Peugeot commits to run the entire ALMS series, the fastest prototype racers can only be seen at two ALMS events all season.
Even though the two premier stops on the ALMS schedule - Sebring and Road Atlanta - are indeed spectacular events, the reality for the series is that the prototype class without the regular participation of the top factory teams is sparsely attended, to put it mildly. And even though the ALMS had some of the best pure races in its history this past season, the fact that the top factory prototype teams weren't there for the most part was a glaring negative. (The ALMS GT class racing, on the other hand, has simply been the best road racing this country has ever seen. Yes, even better than the hallowed glory days of the original Trans-Am series.)
So after this admittedly brief primer on these two road racing series, where are they going? Better yet, where is major league road racing in this country going?
Unfortunately it's clear to me after recent developments that the Grand-Am series and the American Le Mans Series are more entrenched than ever in their respective camps.
Grand-Am, knowing full well that its schedule - except for Daytona, Watkins Glen, Road America and perhaps Montreal - is too close to being a running joke, is courting international sports car interests for 2012 and beyond in an attempt at adding legitimacy to its endeavors. Grand-Am believes that by luring some European manufacturers and their road racing teams it will provide exactly the magic elixir it needs to bury the American Le Mans Series once and for all. An unrealistic goal sure to be followed by a bitterly disappointing result, no doubt. But see points 1., 2. and 3. (above) to remind yourself why it will happen anyway.
And the American Le Mans Series, despite being burned by the maneuvering of the FIA to establish a global endurance road racing championship, is hell bent on staying the course by keeping its ties to the 24 Hours of Le Mans solid and active, while tweaking its rules and races to lure more entries.
So this isn't just a standoff, folks. No, it's racing's version of the 100 Year War. Only road racing in this country - and the fans who support it ever so enthusiastically - can't afford even one more season of discord. Why? There are a long list of reasons, but I'll give you a few of the most pressing:
1. Forget the quality of the media coverage of the racing itself and instead zero in on the coverage offered by the traditional "stick and ball" media for both series. Let's call it for what it is, which is borderline nonexistent and abysmal. If I'm a sponsor or a manufacturer I would find this to be totally unacceptable, no matter how much I loved the sport.
2. I can also assure you that in a corporate environment moving toward the globalization of marketing strategies, advertising, media budgets and even creative executions, two road racing series existing in their own little vacuums in a market that's still crucially important in the global arena add up to none. In other words, the fact that there's no single right "buy" for road racing here makes it easy for sponsors and media players to just keep walking on to something else.
3. Manufacturers are devouring new technologies and adding them to their production offerings at a prodigious rate. Direct fuel-injection, turbocharging and other technologies revolving around fuel-efficiency with power are now the basic price of admission in order to compete at virtually every price point in the market. And right now, a manufacturer trying to advertise these technologies has few options. NASCAR can be dismissed by road racing enthusiasts as a branding exercise, but it's still the biggest media play in motorsports in the U.S. Period. Road racing isn't even close. It's barely even on the radar screen, as a matter of fact.
The three above points alone add up to a giant bowl of Not Good all by themselves, but there's more. When you're just barely on the radar screen with the "stick and ball" media and to corporate America's media buyers as these two road racing series are, then there's no rhyme or reason to the support given to them either. Which means if there isn't a reason for being involved with either one of these series as a major sponsor or manufacturer other than "we feel like it" then the strategic, transformative investments so crucial to the long-term health of the sport itself are never established, and thus the series can never grow.
What can be done about this situation, realistically?
When you have two warring factions that would prefer that the other side just go away and die because it would make life easier, well, any form of conciliation or discussion is hard to come by. Damn near impossible, really. And right now I'm feeling that the two road racing factions couldn't be further apart.
But sometimes ideas have to be put on the table and be allowed to percolate in order to ignite discussion or consideration. And that time is now.
Let's consider the two series racing calendars for the 2012 season (below).
2012 American Le Mans Series
March – 12 Hours of Sebring
April – Long Beach
May – Monterey
June – 24 Hours of Le Mans
July – Lime Rock
July – Mosport
August – Mid-Ohio
August – Road America
September – Baltimore
October – Road Atlanta
(A total of 10 races including Le Mans)
2012 Grand-Am Series
January – Daytona 24 Hour
March – Miami
April – Alabama
May – Virginia
May – Lime Rock
June - Detroit
June – Watkins Glen
June – Road America
July – New Jersey
August – Montreal
September – Mid-Ohio
(A total of 11 races)
The two schedules have high points. For Grand-Am the premier event on its 11-race schedule is the Daytona 24 Hours, obviously, with Watkins Glen being the first of the "next best" events. Other highlight stops include Road America, Montreal, Mid-Ohio and possibly the new event in Detroit.
For the ALMS it is the 12 Hours of Sebring, America's oldest and most prestigious endurance race, and Petit Le Mans, with highlight stops at Long Beach, Monterey, Mosport, Mid-Ohio, Road America and the new event in Baltimore. And of course the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at least for the teams that qualify. The ALMS schedule consists of nine events, plus the French endurance classic.
Now let's imagine for a moment that a ray of enlightenment reached Jim France and Scott Atherton simultaneously - kind of like the one that hit John Belushi in the church in The Blues Brothers when he realized that he needed to get the band back together - and together they decided to merge their schedule into one, unified, major league, U.S. Road Racing Championship.
Here's what it might look like:
Proposed 2014 United States Road Racing Championship
January – Daytona: The advantages of a new USRRC are apparent right away. The Daytona 24 Hours opens the season with an impressive array of top line cars in a shoot-out that regains its international stature.
March – Sebring: The natural flow that marked U.S. road racing for decades is restored. Daytona in late January, Sebring in March. The way it should be. The road racing world again turns to the U.S. for the second major endurance race on the calendar.
April – Alabama: The heart of the reborn USRRC schedule begins at Barber Motorsports Park.
April – Long Beach: It's a street circuit, it's a happening, it draws tremendous crowds and the USRRC needs to be there.
May – Monterey: Roll-on up the California coast to Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway) where the unified, new-look, USRRC finally finds its footing with road racing fans in Northern California.
June – Detroit: The Belle Isle venue is not my favorite, but if GM's buying and Roger Penske is organizing, then the USRRC will be there.
June - Le Mans*: Accommodations will have to be made, but the qualifying USRRC teams selected for participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans will be occupied "over there" for the better part of two weeks. A very, very good thing.
June – Watkins Glen: The Glen deserves to be a stop on the unified USRRC calendar, because it's one of the pillars of road racing in the U.S.
July – Mosport: Canada's greatest track with some of road racing's most ardent fans. A natural fit.
July – Montreal: The fervor for road racing in Canada is well-documented, which is why the USRRC needs to make a second appearance north of the border.
August - Mid-Ohio: The first of a Midwest swing of road races, with the central Ohio circuit - the site of many classic battles in Trans-Am - hosting America's new unified road racing championship.
August – Road America: "America's National Park of Speed," the premier road racing circuit in the United States would be a "must see" stop on the USRRC schedule.
September – Baltimore: This new street circuit event, which met surprising initial success, would be an essential stop on the USRRC calendar.
October – Road Atlanta: Petit Le Mans would be the annual crescendo and culmination of the USRRC season.
*Optional Participation. 14 events total, 13 excluding Le Mans.
Yes, of course there are options and choices. The new track in Austin, for instance, could easily be a stop for the USRRC. And this calendar is only roughed-in with track visits during which months needing to be nailed down, but you can see right away that this new schedule makes tremendous sense on so many levels.
And what about the cars? If I were USRRC czar I would have three classes: Prototype, GT Experimental (GTX) and GT. The prototype class would accommodate all forms of prototypes currently running or on the drawing board, but there would be no sub-classes. For instance, if you want to run a DeltaWing car against the bigger machines, then you'll win because of power-to-weight ratio, handling, aerodynamics and fuel-efficiency. GTX would be an unlimited class left to the manufacturers desires. Somewhat production-based and part run-what-you-brung, cars would have to retain production shapes (more or less) but everything else would be open to interpretation. Wide open. And finally, GT would adhere to the current and future ALMS GT specifications. (The current Grand-Am Cup would compete on the same weekend in their own race.)
First of all, the advantages are clear. With unified marketing, sponsorship and promotional opportunities presented for consideration in one package, media buyers and corporate sponsors could focus their interest on one series. I can't stress enough how this would be positively received. The same can be said for the obvious TV network opportunities. A unified series with more significant financial support would naturally make a better content fit for networks trolling for live programming. A new, unified road racing championship would open the flood gates of consideration for TV network partners, the kind that heretofore hasn't been available to major league road racing in this country. At least not to the depth and breadth that has been desired by the players involved at any rate.
And what about the advantages to the participating manufacturers involved? Let me stress that the global push for more efficiencies at every level by these companies is real and a daily overriding concern. This extends to the motorsport budgets as well, in some cases even more so because they're so visible. Let's say a manufacturer is involved in NASCAR and the NHRA but lacks a cohesive position in road racing, having to spread its motorsports budget over several series. To participate in one major league road racing series would make a lot of sense and be a huge advantage for planning and budget efficiencies.
So there we are. A reborn United States Road Racing Championship would establish a major league presence for road racing in this country while providing viable sponsorship, TV and media opportunities that heretofore were unavailable, or were scaled back to the point of being inconsequential. The USRRC would fundamentally transform the sport of major league road racing in the U.S., something unthinkable or impossible to contemplate in the current environment.
But does it have a chance of happening? Really?
As long as Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series stay ensconced in their respective silos, moving forward together is unlikely to happen under any scenario. And that is the unfortunate reality. There is too much pride (and ego) involved for it to be any other way. One side is convinced that they're right and the other side is wrong, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
There is one way that things could change, however, and that is if the interested manufacturers banded together and said "enough" to the practice of doling out money in random fashion to the ALMS and Grand-Am series in favor of pooling their resources and interest in a new USRRC. How could this happen? If the manufacturers summoned Grand-Am and ALMS interests to a "summit" meeting and informed them that 2013 was the last year either one of them would be getting technical and financial support, and that beginning in 2014 they would be backing a new USRRC, then things would change - unequivocally and emphatically.
But just how realistic is that?
Well, as you read this GM is preparing to unveil their new Grand-Am DP contender at the SEMA show next week in Las Vegas. This car features a chassis configured for the new Grand-Am DP rules, but it also features extensively revised and dramatically swoopy bodywork (with the assistance of Pratt&Miller Engineering) that's much more racy looking, which admittedly has been something long overdue in the DP ranks. But, and this is a very large but, these new cars will also wear the "Corvette" name, which, as you might imagine, is causing more than a little stir within GM Racing and in other parts of the corporation.
Injecting serious money into the Grand-Am series while calling the racers Corvettes is a direct affront to their hugely successful production-based Corvette Racing Team, an organization that has won the GT class in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans six times in twelve years. What this will do to the reputation of the production-based Corvette C6.R ALMS GT racers - machines that have legitimacy around the world due to their tremendous record in international racing - is anyone's guess.
Oh, and by the way and for the record, isn't this the same GM that ridiculed Ford for calling their Nationwide entries "Mustangs" saying they would never do that? That they would never run "Camaros" in Nationwide because they wouldn't be "real" Camaros? And yet now they're going to hang the Corvette name on DP racers that have zero connection to the Corvette? Sounds a bit disingenuous to me. Oh hell, let's call it for what it really is: Bush League Bullshit.
I am quite certain of one thing after all of this, however, and that is this is a classic case of a manufacturer playing on both sides of the playground. Not only is this move nonsensical and a giant insult to Corvette Racing, it's exactly this kind of attitude that will keep American road racing in a permanent state of chaos for years to come. When manufacturers can only play favorites and compete in arenas that they deem politically expedient - or where they've stacked the deck to be certain they'll win - instead of stepping back and looking at the "Big Picture" and doing what's best for the long-term health of the sport, then any idea of a unified road racing series in this country will remain a pipe dream.
And that's the High-Octane Truth for this week in motorsports.
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
(Photo Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives and Wieck Media)
Nurburgring, Germany, May 31, 1964. Phil Hill at speed in the brand new Ford GT40 in the Nurburgring 1000 Kilometer race. Hill shared the new machine with Bruce McLaren and qualified second with a time of 9:04.700 behind the pole winning No. 143 Ferrari 275 P driven by John Surtees/Lorenzo Bandini who qualified with a time of 8:57.900. The No. 140 Hill/McLaren Ford GT40 would DNF due to suspension problems, as the early days of the program were marked by relentless teething problems. The Surtees/Bandini entry would DNF with a lost wheel, while the No. 144 Ferrari 275 P driven by Ludovico Scarfiotti and Nino Vaccarella would win with an average speed of 140.549 kph after qualifying third. The No. 83 Ferrari 250 GTO driven by Mike Parkes/Jean Guichet would finish second, and the No. 45 Porsche 904 driven by Ben Pon and Gerhard Koch would finish third.
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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