Grand Am Rnd : Homestead-Miami 203

Fab · 28 Feb 2003, 13:29 (Ref:520409)

Just for fun, did you have a look at the practice times at Miami ?
http://www.grandamerican.com/race_re...w_prac203.html

Where are the DP ? :confused:

A GT for the fourth overall at the qualifications ? :confused:

Brant · 28 Feb 2003, 13:47 (Ref:520429)

14 big cars participated! They just aproved a new drive train for Daytona Prototypes, elastic bands and duct tape! Just get it over with! Unconditional surrender to the ALMS! Don Panoz will be lenient!

BSchneiderFan · 28 Feb 2003, 14:41 (Ref:520470)

Grand Am does have the stench of death about it, doesn't it? Oh, for IMSA to take over the Daytona 24 Hours and the Watkins Glen 6 Hours...

Fab · 28 Feb 2003, 15:44 (Ref:520524)

Come on, Don, buy Daytona and the thing is done !

Lee Janotta · 28 Feb 2003, 16:44 (Ref:520584)

Uh.... _That_ one will never happen, Fab, but yes, the collapse of the Grand-Am series and the arrival of IMSA at the Daytona 24 and 6 hours at the Glen do seem imminent.

But both tracks are owned by the International Speedway Corp, which is owned by the France family... It's essentially the real estate side of NASCAR. Massive, monolithic... And so far it's done everything it can to lock IMSA and CART out of their tracks (Fontana had a contract with CART _before_ it was acquired by ISC, it won't be renewed).

This is why you never see CART at Phoenix, Michigan, the Glen, Daytona, Homestead, or any of the 13 track ISC owns, except for the aforementioned Fontana.

Fab · 28 Feb 2003, 16:58 (Ref:520593)

Quote:

Originally posted by Lee Janotta
Uh.... _That_ one will never happen, Fab

't was just a dream !

ZXKawboy · 28 Feb 2003, 19:00 (Ref:520709)

What does the France family have against IMSA or the ALMS, other than a lack of ownership?

Or is that the whole issue?

H16 · 28 Feb 2003, 19:11 (Ref:520723)

I won't pronounce Grand Am dead until it finally is offical, but 16 cars, with one possible withdraw, is not good at all. Not suprising after what has happened in the last year. I feel that they overestimated far too much their importance in the sports car world, and their own formula, which most people feel is about 25 years back in time, is not enough to stand alone. Swapping a diffuser and brakes was one thing, drawing a line in the sand is another, and most people have seleceted ALMS.

Early days for the DP yes, but the reaction from everyone, including, according to Brock Yates, the France family, has been terrible. The Grand Am seems to be very firm in their rules, which is sad. They may like the stituation, but very few others do.

veeten · 28 Feb 2003, 19:44 (Ref:520746)

I find it quite funny, the #3 car on the time sheet the Porsche-Brumos. But look who's behind them, the spectre of death that is...the #66 Porsche of The Races's Group.

paul-collins · 28 Feb 2003, 21:35 (Ref:520842)

Quote:

Originally posted by ZXKawboy
What does the France family have against IMSA or the ALMS, other than a lack of ownership?

Best as I can tell, this all goes back to a split between some team owners and PSCR - with Porsche siding with the breakaway group. This group became the USRRC revival, calling their WSC cars Can-Am cars.

Panoz was caught in the middle with his Esperante GT-1s and track ownership. He decided after trying to get the sides back together to start up the ALMS to have top-flight races at his tracks, and PSCR folded up their own series to make way. USRRC eventually became Grand-Am. Panoz had served some time on the board of directors of both series at times in the pre-ALMS period, apparently.

I haven't been able to find a good, definitive source on the split, so I don't know how the Frances were involved at the time of the split - but I know they had been involved in IMSA back in its heyday before Andy Evans bought the series (which became PSCR before the split).

This all happened while I was paying attention to things other than motorsports. I hadn't attended a race between 1984 and 1999.

IanGrohse · 28 Feb 2003, 21:57 (Ref:520858)

Ughh, that lineup is just plain gross, and so are the qualifying times......

Fogelhund · 28 Feb 2003, 22:03 (Ref:520865)

Qualifying is done.. DP's actually out front, although, there are but 4 of them. The Jeanette (Porsche GT1 (sic)), well it is pathetically slow. hmmm

ZXKawboy · 28 Feb 2003, 22:23 (Ref:520893)

So, from what it sounds like, it comes down to a personal squabble between Don Panoz and the France's? (and if that is true, then it looks as if the France's *can* be beat at thir own game!!)

Lee Janotta · 28 Feb 2003, 23:13 (Ref:520930)

Actually, it's a lot deeper than that, it's a long-term fight for control of motorsport in North America. NASCAR/ISC/The France family (And Grand-Am, which they own) have allied themselves with Tony George/IMS/the IRL on one side of the fence, while CART, the SCCA, and IMSA have a very loose confederation on the other side.

Basically, the Frances and Tony George have a greedy and autocratic NASCAR-ish vision, and while there aren't many saints on the other side, they're more interested in road racing, and have a more "European" perspective.

The truth is that neither is really right, and the war has done a lot of damage to North American motorsport.

Gunnar's Porsche is really unfairly handicapped, it's a miserable way to run a racing series to take magnificent race cars and cut their performance potential in half with weight and intake restrictors.

Speeddemon555 · 1 Mar 2003, 02:29 (Ref:521064)

Man, less than 20 cars for this weekend's Grand Am race. I hope they add some Grand Am Cup cars to help them out.

Speeddemon555 · 2 Mar 2003, 02:50 (Ref:522022)

Haywood/France won the overall race at Homestead in the Brumos Porsche today.

IanGrohse · 2 Mar 2003, 03:38 (Ref:522040)

Whoa, a DSP one, barely.
It said the Chevy Doran JE4 keeps having overheating problem. I wonder what the problem is, it seems like it wouldnt be too hard to keep an engine cool with a big front mount radiator.

Fab · 2 Mar 2003, 09:54 (Ref:522189)

I laughed too early... a DP made it at the second race... but regarding who's behind, Dps are not numerous in the top ten...

Speeddemon555 · 2 Mar 2003, 15:07 (Ref:522379)

Only 17 cars were racing and I don't know why we haven't seen much of the GT contingent. Grand-Am should ought to raise the car count to 24 or 30 for that matter.

gttouring · 2 Mar 2003, 19:43 (Ref:522610)

Grand AM! ishould race there maybe I can win all the races.. I'll just steal my nieghbor Porsche and drive really fast so no one see me, run the race, win the money and join the ALMS. C'mon GrndAm is a sad excuse of rich people racing where the stakes are low, the Racer's group are awesome but aren't they running a double schedual?, i believ they are 3 cars strong in Sebring, and GrandAm races are rumored to be testing session for ALMS teams and drivers, haha- its laughable and sad- AS Enzo Ferrari once believed that Sportscar racing and F1 were parallel in their importance as motorracing, until the 80's when the factories turned away and focused more on F1, grnd am should die, and let proper racing go one, withthe ALMS, ACO, and FIA GT, maybe we can merge them into Continental champion ships with the crown winners taking Lemans, Sebring, and Daytona-maybe one more like a new Mille Miglia?

Lee Janotta · 2 Mar 2003, 22:16 (Ref:522799)

Spa 24 Hours would be the other one, it's being run with sportscars and GTs this year, so it'll be a true LeMans-style endura.

Don't forget Petit LeMans, though! And Watkins Glen 6 hours...

H16 · 2 Mar 2003, 22:21 (Ref:522808)

I have always believed that the reason Grand Am is here, is because ALMS is here. I think Grand Am either wants to be the only series out there, or no series at all either way (with one offs for Sebring and Daytona). That may sound weird, but I have felt from the start that Grand Am was there to eliminate ALMS at all costs.

Basically, their new formula was an answer to a question no one was asking to begin with. They really do need to step aside, and if (big if) Brock Yates is correct, it could be soon. 15 cars is a bad sign, but for me, worse was 44 at Daytona. Both show that the series direction is not what team owners want, and both show that the sports car fans don't like being disregarded for Grand Am's supposed "new audience".

I hope it ends, but I won't prounce it dead until there is a PR, but I hope it ends soon.

veeten · 3 Mar 2003, 01:44 (Ref:523042)

the sad part is that they're ending up, after the last two races, with NO audience. This whole sorry exercise needs to end, as R/oval racing was slowly phased out with better contracts with road courses.

The new Barber Motorsports Park is a very nice course, but these "racecars" shouldn't be running there. It's a disgrace to have such a beautiful race course soiled with these... abominations.

Liz · 3 Mar 2003, 02:12 (Ref:523076)

I only saw the "highlights" but it looked like the Canada Cup GT race looked last season (that's a club race, btw). They had 17 cars in the whole field and we've got 31 cars in GT alone for Sebring!

How did TRG do?

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