Has your opinion on the DPs changed during the year?

[paul-collins]

No, Kurt, but it's clear to any of us IMSAholics that the increase in sales is solely down to the R8 running in North America.

Certainly their press releases about the race program make some inferences. But it's as much about what they do with the program as it is about the program itself. This was a very integrated advertising program.

[billnchristy]

I find a couple things about the GARRA/NASCAR relationship funny.

1) GA teams are hustled out of Daytona and the Glen when competing the same weekend as NASCAR, the crews and teams are not allowed access to NASCAR paddock areas and are generally treated second class

2) GA gets airplay because fox gets 1/2 of the NASCAR season, sort of a kickback, otherwise you wouldnt see it.

3) Edmondson basically alienates the series from road racing fans.

4) Nascar makes very vain attempts at increasing interest in GA.

This relationship isnt a very good one in my eyes, i think GA needs a loving parent with a NASCAR bankroll that doesnt make it stay home and scrub the floor while the other sisters are at the ball!!

[cybersdorf]

My opinion on the cars hasn't changed: I think they are ugly and slow. But, this is just my personal opinion.

I believe that with the backing it has from the mighty NASCAR Axis, GA will ultimately have the upper hand over the ALMS. It's a mentality thing as much as anything else, I guess. - International prototype racing will perhaps continue to happen in North America in the shape of the Sebring 12 and the PLM; other than that, IMSA may well fall back on its Speed World Challenge, and drop the ALMS altogether.

[KA]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
My opinion on the cars hasn't changed: I think they are ugly and slow. But, this is just my personal opinion.

I believe that with the backing it has from the mighty NASCAR Axis, GA will ultimately have the upper hand over the ALMS. It's a mentality thing as much as anything else, I guess. - International prototype racing will perhaps continue to happen in North America in the shape of the Sebring 12 and the PLM; other than that, IMSA may well fall back on its Speed World Challenge, and drop the ALMS altogether.

Although I'm not a fan of the cars- I tend to agree with you on their looks and performance- I do think GA has got enough momentum that the series is going to prosper, irrespective of anything that may or may not happen to ALMS.
Whatever you think of the execution of the concept, then GA's particular brand of reducing costs for the teams seems to be having some success.

If ALMS did fall, then I do wonder about the prospects for Sebring and PLM as international events- with no ALMS, then the US-based teams will be faced with a choice of running limited programmes based around Sebring/PLM, moving over to GA or, at least for those with international/Le Mans aspirations, looking to Europe and the LMES- could we see Sebring and PLM either becoming part of the LMES, or maybe even (Sebring at least) to some extent turning their back on the international scene and going to GA?

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by KA
Although I'm not a fan of the cars- I tend to agree with you on their looks and performance- I do think GA has got enough momentum that the series is going to prosper,

We agree on this.

...irrespective of anything that may or may not happen to ALMS.

I don't think this scene is big enough for two independent, parallel series.

[KA]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
We agree on this.


I don't think this scene is big enough for two independent, parallel series.

You may well be right...

[Kurt Maxwell]

Only Ayse and I are old enough to remember this, but there was a time when the World Championshp for Makes came to America at the beginning and at the end of the racing season. There was no N.American series that ran the "LM cars" in the late sixties/early seventies, that period that so many regard with awe.

Why couldn't the "WLMES" come to Sebring and then PLM if/when the ALMS goes away?

Like them or not the G/A has momentum and people I talk to are nervous about the ALMS future.
This only serves to give G/A even more momentum.

The ALMS won't disappear soley due to the G/A, but it is one of the factors.

I am enthused at what I see going on in Europe. I just hope that the cars make it here a couple times a year.

The neatest racing event I have ever been to, and I have been to many events, was the FIA GT at Laguna Seca in '97. If not the LMES, how about sending the GT Supercars here in '05 when the FIA GT becomes a World Series, Mr Ratel?

KM

[LouisTheShark]

"1) GA teams are hustled out of Daytona and the Glen when competing the same weekend as NASCAR, the crews and teams are not allowed access to NASCAR paddock areas and are generally treated second class"

Busch credentials won't let you into the Winston Cup garage, Truck credentials won't let you into the Busch and Winstop Cup garages. It is the way they do it in NASCAR, has nothing to do specifically with Grand Am. Space and time are at a premium at Winston Cup weekends and all support series are treated the same.

[billnchristy]

I guess a stepchild is a stepchild

[Tim Northcutt]

Note To Kurt Maxwell:

I agree that there was no "LM Car" series in the late 1960s and early 1970s....

However, what we did have was an incredibly innovative sportscar prototype series that attracted many independent builders as well as manufacturers....

CAN-AM

They had a broad spectrum of diversity in terms of chassis, engines and racing talent, and their fields were often between 25 and 35 cars...

I know that we will never see those "Glory Days" again due to the high-tech nature of racing today and the higher cost to develop and test a prototype.....

and I certainly don't see the DPs and GA in general gaining the popularity that the CAN-AM series enjoyed back in those days, because the cars just aren't innovative, and the sportscar purists don't seem interested in the concept or the direction that the DPs and the GA are taking....

That's my opinion....for whateever it is worth...

[veeten]

Originally posted by Kurt Maxwell
Only Ayse and I are old enough to remember this, but there was a time when the World Championshp for Makes came to America at the beginning and at the end of the racing season. There was no N.American series that ran the "LM cars" in the late sixties/early seventies, that period that so many regard with awe.

but during that time there was such a series called CAN-AM, running designs closely related to the prototypes & sports cars being run at that time. The only difference was that these used primarily american manufactured engines, from 5 to 7.2L. Lola, McLaren, Chapparal and other chassis makers were running cars on both sides of the atlantic, and participated in many races of the day, as well as the drivers themselves.

Why couldn't the "WLMES" come to Sebring and then PLM if/when the ALMS goes away?

but what if they do come, and the ALMS STILL exists? What then?...

Like them or not the G/A has momentum and people I talk to are nervous about the ALMS future.
This only serves to give G/A even more momentum.

... strange that hasn't translated into an increase in fan support, then again it hasn't been there the last 3 years anyway, so what's the diff...

The ALMS won't disappear soley due to the G/A, but it is one of the factors.

hmmmm...G/A sounds a lot like the IRL; Major N/A race, backing from the biggest racing family, several engine/chassis suppliers, Television contract and sponsors... and yet when you actually watch the race there is fewer butts in the seats than at a High School football game.

oh, I'm sorry... Roger E likes it that way.

I am enthused at what I see going on in Europe. I just hope that the cars make it here a couple times a year.

they just might, it's just that the competition rules recently drawn up by G/A precludes them from racing in any of their events.

And who does that leave...

The neatest racing event I have ever been to, and I have been to many events, was the FIA GT at Laguna Seca in '97. If not the LMES, how about sending the GT Supercars here in '05 when the FIA GT becomes a World Series, Mr Ratel?

KM

That's what I love about you, KM.

[LouisTheShark]

If innovative designs is all that is needed to bring the purist fans out, then why is it that the FIA GT races run at Homestead and Watkins Glen featuring some of the most exotic FIA GT cars (works Porsche and Mercedes) of the day were such a bust with spectators? It was the only time to see these cars on this continent, but less than a few thousand showed up. Actually there are more spectators at Grand Am events at those tracks today then when the FIA boys were here.

[Kurt Maxwell]

The '98 FIA GT events did not get good crowds. I guess the large field from the year before spoiled them.

There was a solid crowd at Laguna in '97. Hardcore purists that were not there to party but were there to see the cars.

[Bob Riebe]

The former World Championshiop of Makes, one of several names used over the years, as has been said or at least implied often stayed around in later years and played grid filler in many Can-Am races. At times they even had special engines to me more competitve in the Can-Am (Scooter Patrick's 4+ liter Alfa Romeo for one)
After the Can-Am died( I will not call F-A cars with fenders Can-Am cars) at Mosport and manybe Watkins Glen also, the big bore cars were allowed to run in the FIA series.(I forget how the arrangement was worked out)

It was track and organization management that screwed things up, not a lack of spectators.(The oil shortage farce was also a major snafu)
Mosport and Watkins Glen went to pot, as did the SCCA, FIA(FIA actually went in the pot and locked the door), and even IMSA.(This is just a gross abstract)

Kurt you say the GA has momentum, in whose eyes? Money speaks in NASCAR and they run the show. fortunately money does not buy road racing fans, at least so far, the cars are still the stars and GA has none.
You probably read the one quip by people behind the Corvette racing program about tube frame racing, as long as you alienate the still no.1 make, in the US, those who cater to it will not go away, but those who buck it could.
Bob