WHINERS, LAWYERS AND OH BY THE WAY, RACING.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. With the racing year getting started with the "Roar Before The 24" at Daytona Beach this weekend, the 2016 racing season is shaping up to be another year of ups, downs, contretemps, bad blood, recrimination, lawsuits, political shenanigans and, of course, interspersed somewhere in there actual real live racing. (What is the "Roar" in case you're wondering? It is a mandatory test at Daytona International Speedway three weeks before the Daytona 24 Hour race that adds a bunch of expense, time and travel for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship teams because, well, just because the powers that be in Daytona Beach want it that way. Ain't racing grand?) Most assuredly the 2016 racing year will be a kaleidoscope of everything that motorsports has become, which is fleeting moments of on-track brilliance punctuated by an endless series of debilitating off-track annoyances.

This year, Formula 1 will be the Bernie Ecclestone vs. Sergio Marchionne Show as Ferrari's Accidental Tourist of a CEO threatens to disrupt Bernie's Way, big-time (he's already gone on record saying that Bernie needs to go). It's a testament to the degree of outright loathsomeness associated with the industry's favorite carpetbagging mercenary (Marchionne) that Bernie will actually come out looking good in comparison, which as you know, is an exceedingly tall order. Ferrari wants to win and win right now. The company is tired of the Mercedes dominance, just as it was tired of the Red Bull-Renault dominance before it. Ferrari also wants nothing to do with Bernie's exploration into an independent "power unit" designed to be a more affordable, simpler and more powerful engine choice for the smaller teams, but I don't think Marchionne has a chance in hell of stopping it if that's what Bernie wants to do.

As is tradition in Formula 1, the team that alights on the magic combination of technical strength and driving talent usually wins the championship going away. Ferrari had its turn in the Schumacher era, Red Bull-Renault had their turn and now Mercedes has had its turn at the sharp end of the field. Marchionne thinks it should be Ferrari's turn this year, but I wouldn't expect that to be automatic by any stretch, especially with Bernie and Sergio clashing every step of the way. One thing can be certain, however, and that is F1 - aka "The Greed Circus" - will continue on its merry way, with or without the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas, which as of now is nothing more than an asterisk on the calendar.

IndyCar will, despite the optimism, be more of the same. It's racing in a vacuum of the highest order, with a few cornerstone teams hammering away at each other in front of, for the most part, sparse crowds. If it wasn't for the 100th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 next May and the return to Road America - "America's National Park of Speed" - there would be no IndyCar stories to tell this year. Yes, the racing was intermittently excellent last year and yes there were some superlative moments, but the entire aero kit dance was an unmitigated disaster and a total waste of time, money and effort. The manufacturers involved - GM and Honda - should know better, but cooler heads never get in the way of inertia when it comes to car companies and racing. The High-Octane Truth for IndyCar - and for all of racing for that matter - is that it needs less downforce and more horsepower. Ask any IndyCar driver - past or present - and they would agree.

And when I say "racing in a vacuum" I mean that IndyCar racing is being conducted for the edification of the team principals, the competitors themselves, the sponsors and their "business-to-business" schmoozing, and oh by the way, the hard-core spectators who still care. To the mainstream "stick-and- ball" media which, whether you like it or not, calls the shots and sets the tone for the greater public, IndyCar racing will take its rightful place (except for the Indy 500) where it always does, as filler for the back pages of their sports sections. Isn't that a shame? Yes. Yes, it is. But it's the ugly reality for the sport.

As for the aforementioned WeatherTech SportsCar Championship - the one major league racing series that should be growing by leaps and bounds, by the way - the positives are few and the progress is excruciatingly slow. Jim France has decided that rather than use his power to define a North American sports car racing series that has a distinctive cadence all its own, he will continue to acquiesce to the FIA and the ACO and allow them to dictate the terms for his racing series. His beloved Daytona Prototypes go away after this season, thankfully, but rather than take definitive steps to define a showcase all-GT series for North America, IMSA will instead present its usual mix of prototypes - from capable to field fillers - along with the best GT class racing in the world. Should there be a premier all-GT series in North America? Yes, of course. Will we ever see that come to fruition? Probably not. For enthusiasts of world-class sports car racing, IMSA remains a hit-or-miss proposition. At certain tracks it is glorious, but there are too many lackadaisical stops on the schedule and too many woulda-coulda-shouldas surrounding the series, which keep it from being as good as it can be.

NASCAR? I really don't need to say anything at this point. The NASCAR brain trust has had myriad opportunities to make some definitive changes to their sport for the better, but they have either squandered the opportunities presented or steadfastly refused to do anything in the interest of "Why fix it if it ain't broke?" Too many races, too many repeat visits to the same tracks, the same-ol', same ol' dance on the restrictor-plate tracks - 2016 will be exactly the same for NASCAR, which is almost too depressing for words.

As for racing in general, the usual scenarios will unfurl. Manufacturers on the winning side will gloat. And manufacturers who aren't winning will whine. The same for the drivers, because, let's face it, drivers aren't happy unless they're winning. Bernie will cajole, strong-arm and maneuver, because that's what Bernie does. And the Other Forces in F1 - orchestrated by Marchionne - will make lives miserable just because they can. The powers that be at IndyCar will crow about an uptick of a tenth of a percentage point in the TV ratings, because well, that's what they always do. IMSA will present its usual highs and lows, and NASCAR will suck the air out of the media landscape. And so it goes.

As for the racing enthusiasts, without whom none of this would be possible, they will have to pick and choose their way around the calendar, because no one racing series has it together enough to present a first-rate on-track product throughout an entire season.

And that's the High-Octane Truth on the eve of the 2016 racing season.

Editor's Note: Don't miss the fabulous 2015 Year-End Gallery from photographer extraordinaire John Thawley in "The Line." -WG 

Check out the latest episode of The High-Octane Truth on AutoextremistTV below. -WG

Editor's Note: Many of you have seen Peter's references over the years to the Hydrogen Electric Racing Federation (HERF), which he launched in 2007. For those of you who weren't following AE at the time, you can read two of HERF's press releases here and here. And for even more details (including a link to Peter's announcement speech), check out the HERF entry on Wikipedia here. -WG

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 by Dave Friedman, courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Daytona Beach, Florida, February 6, 1966. The race-winning No. 98 Shelby American Ford Mk II driven by Ken Miles/Lloyd Ruby gets pit service early Sunday morning. The Miles/Ruby machine would sit on the pole and win the race by eight laps, the first time that the sports car opener at Daytona was contested for 24 hours. Dan Gurney/Jerry Grant (No. 97 Shelby American Ford Mk II) would finish second, followed by Mark Donohue/Walt Hansgen (No. 95 Holman & Moody Ford Mk II) in third for a Ford sweep. Pedro Rodriguez/Mario Andretti (No. 21 NART Ferrari 365 P2) finished fourth and Chris Amon/Bruce McLaren (No. 96 Shelby American Ford Mk II) came in fifth.

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