ALMS 2005 Season Announced

[Tim Northcutt]

And as you can see from the response I got from the track owner above...

He says they don't ahve the infrastructure, etc., to host such an event....

[Purist]

Jhansen, the markets you mentioned would be good, but there are significant issues with each.

Texas has nothing besides rovals, unless Rattlesnake Raceway is still around. Boundless Motorplex now is to be built in California, if at all.

Southern Calfornia has nothing up to code at this point. Riverside is long gone. The new one is to be some two hours east of San Francisco from what I understand; so it won't exactly be southern California.

New York now just has Watkins Glen since the demise of Bridgehampton. The Glen already has two GA races. Lime Rock is relatively close. The other possibility would be Thunderbolt Raceway, but that will not be operational until 2006.

ALMS was burned once with Mexico; so don't expect a very speedy return. Fundidora and Mexico are the only currently acceptable venues there. The former is a tad on the short side (2.104-miles), and is more stop and go like Barber Motorsports Park. The latter had the race deal fall through last year.

I did some looking in regards to Midwest tracks to serve as a "bridge." Without the benefit of Tim's reviews, here is what I came up with.

1. Blackhawk Farms
2. Putnam Park
3. Heartland Park
3. Gingerman Raceway
4. Grattan
5. Waterford Hills
6. Nelson Ledges
7. Hallet
8. Brainerd

Blackhawk, Gingerman, and Hallet seemed the tightest of the bunch in regards to configuration (lap length coupled with conrner types).

Putnam, and particularly Waterford, are short, but have more of a flow to them and so wold be quicker and less prone to congestion.

Heartland doesn't stand out particularly in any one area, but has a decent layout overall.

The circuits with the most open feeling layouts (relatively fast and flowing) are Grattan, Nelson Ledges, and Brainerd. The first two are a bit short, but the corner combinations would make a major race more feasable. Brainerd has no shortage in length and is quite fast overall. Nelson Ledges and Brainerd have both had repaving work done fairly recently, or are considering it.

Putnam, Heartland, Grattan, and Brainerd would appear to have the best facilities. Grattan runs several SCCA events; so it can't be completely devoid of several elements. Putnam has seen LMP and Champcar tests. Heartland has run NASCAR second tier events recently. Brainerd has pit and paddock facilities. the drag strip at least has been repaved within the last two years. Also, the AMA seems to think the road course is acceptable for their purposes.

In the end:
1. Putnam may have a market advantage.
2. Nelson Ledges could be a "bridge," and is in an area already exposed to the sport.
3. Grattan could have a good market, and serve as a "bridge."
4. Brainerd is sort of out there, but it is an established venue. It also probably has some of the best facilities out the eight originally listed.

These four I just went over I think are the best bets for a Midwestern market filler and coast to coast "bridge."

[pmccormick]

Check out Autobahn Country Club in Joliet IL, currently under construction. I believe this place wants to remain a club track, but for the right $, maybe they could be convinced to build the necessary infrastructure now to host a ALMS race in the future. Long track is around 3.5 miles around. Could be a bridge event, may take away attendance from RA in Wisconsin, but the 'average' race fan is already coming to the Route 66 facility (Drag racing, IRL, Nascar) a few miles down the road.

http://www.autobahncountryclub.net/

['70 Mach 1]

Originally posted by Purist
Texas has nothing besides rovals, unless Rattlesnake Raceway is still around. Boundless Motorplex now is to be built in California, if at all.

http://www.etracksonline.co.uk/NAmer...ttlesnake.html

Rattlesnake is no longer in use according to this, I'd imagine there's no infrastructure there anyway...

Though on another note, I read somewhere on a message board recently that you could make an appointment, pay $100 and get a ride-along in a replica Chaparral with Jim Hall around Rattlesnake Raceway...

[Bob Riebe]

I am writing this also without rereading all the posts, but what is wrong with Mid-America in Iowa?

Having looked at Blackhawk farms, and some others, I find it amazing that up to the mid-seventies, they ran SCCA Nationals at some of these, "not safe" tracks, which included the A sports racers-Can-Am cars, and if you ever saw Jack Hinkle or Jerry Hansen, and some others, drive these they were not playing games. I.e. they went very, very fast on tracks that seem to give some irrythmic heart beats just looking at them.

Racing has lost something, and maybe it is truly fast cars in the amateur ranks, which meant going very, very fast just for the hell of it.
Bob

[Bob Riebe]

Originally posted by pmccormick
Check out Autobahn Country Club in Joliet IL, currently under construction. I believe this place wants to remain a club track, but for the right $, maybe they could be convinced to build the necessary infrastructure now to host a ALMS race in the future. Long track is around 3.5 miles around. Could be a bridge event, may take away attendance from RA in Wisconsin, but the 'average' race fan is already coming to the Route 66 facility (Drag racing, IRL, Nascar) a few miles down the road.

http://www.autobahncountryclub.net/

It would be, to use a dorky phrase, AWESOME to have this track added.
As to taking away from Road America, if the series is good one does not worry about such things.
If one has to worry about such things, the problem lies withing the series rules and promoters. If that is not fixed the series will die anyway.
When the Trans-Am and Camel GT were running, no one EVER heard anyone say " But that track is too close to mine!"
The TA drew well up at Donnybrooke and went all the way up to Edmonton, Alberta.

I like this track.
Bob

[Purist]

Bob, Mid America I do not believe has hosted a road race since 1992. I'm sure the barriers and particularly the pavement are not in the best of condition or up to handling very high performance sportscars. This course is actually on the Missouri side of St. Louis I'm pretty sure.

I just don't know about Autobahn Country Club. If they have the cash to put it up in the first place, and it's just meant for club meets, I don't know what you can offer them anythng that the don't already want and therefore have.

Bob, you are familiar with Brainerd's former name? It used to be called Donnybrooke, at least back when it was a Can-Am fixture.

[Bob Riebe]

Originally posted by Purist
Bob, Mid America I do not believe has hosted a road race since 1992. I'm sure the barriers and particularly the pavement are not in the best of condition or up to handling very high performance sportscars. This course is actually on the Missouri side of St. Louis I'm pretty sure.

I just don't know about Autobahn Country Club. If they have the cash to put it up in the first place, and it's just meant for club meets, I don't know what you can offer them anythng that the don't already want and therefore have.

Hot shot drivers and teams from the Fatherland?

Bob,you are familiar with Brainerd's former name? It used to be called Donnybrooke, at least back when it was a Can-Am fixture.

It was called Donnybrooke, after several well known local drivers, Don Skogmo and --------(I apologize to the late gent for forgetting his name), until Jerry Hansen bought it and changed the name to appease the powers that be in Brainerd.
(You would have to be from this region but within 200 mile radius of Brainerd, if you asked many an opinion of the Brainerd area power brokers, you would get a far less from favourable response.)
Jerry Hansen changed names to not have to deal with the elitist spite that infests the area.

The people who bought after the late Jerry Hansen sold it are of, questionalbe character. One of their first moves was to fire the manager who had, under Hansen, made it into a very successful attribute to sports car racing, and racing as a whole.
It ran Trans-Am, IMSA, AMA Super Bike and World Super Bike.
Now all that is left is the NHRA.

There is another Mid-America Motorplex in Iowa, different from the original Mid America:http://www.midamericamotorplex.com

But looking at it again, it has corners where they serve no purpose but to make it a slower track. For its area, it could have been set-up as a much faster track.
Even though it is longer than some of the tracks in Mich., being as new as it is, I don't like the spurt and squirt set-up of this one.
Bob

[Fab]

FYI : Xavier Pompidou is back in France after his Petit Le Mans race, and he posted a comment on the french forum MotorLegend : "the driver's skill level are much higher in ALMS than in LMES" (remember : it's his own comment) in GT class ; "with 5 tenths lost in a qualifying lap due to trafic, he lost 5 places on the grid"...

He says that the track is nice, and that the battles are very clean... he had great fun in a four cars dogfight during one whole hour (L.Luhr, P.Long, the #45 Flying Lizzard and one of the AJR cars).

The track seems very much appreciated by Franck Lagorce (former Pescarolo driver), who did the live comments on MotorsTV.

[Purist]

Well, the good news is I don't think Road Atlanta will be disappearing from the schedule any time soon.

[mwphoto]

There's a track for sale on e-bay so lets all chip in a few $$s each,
make a few improvements, than we could promote our own ALMS race!!

[Tim Northcutt]

The layout on their 1.65 mi. road course is kinda boring-looking

Question:

What (if anything) does anyone know about Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, Colorado???

All I know is that it does host SCCA events, and I believe that it has a 2.5 mi. circuit as part of its set-up at the facility....

Whether or not it is still used (their long course), I do not know...


Another place that has the paddock and infrastructure facilities, and is centrally located, is Indianapolis Raceway Park, which has a 2.5 mi. road course that incorporates the drag strip....

It is not a Roval...

However, I live here, and I cannot recall ANY road races of any significance here in recent years....

Their own website barely even refers to it, which tells me that they are either phasing it our or that it is not in race-able shape....

I do know from attending USAC races on their oval that the land there is as flat as a pancake....

and for well-attended events, most of the grounds surrounding the oval and drag strip are used for parking....my bet is that there would not be enough parking for an event there....

Finally...their schedule is a very full one....and even if there were some gaps, I don't see a date window there that wouldn't interfere with bigger racing events happening (their own, or at the IMS)....

May here is focused on the 500, and June has the USGP at teh Brickyard....no june dates with the new Le Mans Schedule would work anyway....

and and ALMS window in July or early August will be too close to the Busch Series race they host right before the Brickyard, and anything in Late August or September pre-Petit will be too close the NHRA U.S. Nationals there....

But at least it has the paddock facilities, the media center, lots of hotels nearby, and the experience as a promoter to host a major racing series event....

This would be a tough one for them to solve...the "Bridge" events...

Because I'm not seeing many options that would work, and would be held in markets where the Series seems to want to expand...

[billnchristy]

about that track for sale...

1) Im happy to see it IS selling.
2) happier to see how much interest is in it.
3) Yeah, its kinda a sucky layout, but its something...

[Fab]

As I posted it in the LM 2005 thread, Creation intends to enter the Zytek in ALMS next year, if they've the sponsors...