What would you do if you were the president of Le Mans Series?

[f2001]

What would you do ?

Heres what I would do;

Star WLMS (world le mans series) and ALMS will only be a domestic championship, heres the champs i would have:

WLMS - World Le Mans Series
ELMS - European Le Mans Series
ALMS - American Le Mans Series
APLMS - Asia Pacific Le Mans Series
BLMS - British Le Mans Series
JLMS - Japanese Le Mans Series
NALMS - North American Le Mans Series
SALMS - South American Le Mans Series

and I would bring back these classes:

GT1
GT2
GT3
GT

and hopfully all these manufactures would race:

Audi
Panoz
Caddilac
Crysler
MG
Bentley
Mercedes
Toyota
Nissan
BMW
Porcshe
Ferrari

what would u do ????

[paulzinho]

Bring in Group C rules, become WSPC, get ACO to make the Le Mans circuit not have glitches.

[Es Nes]

umm ... pretty much leave the rules alone ... id like to get more tv coverage for all froms of sports cars with alms and fia scc the top series. complete tv coverage ... not highlights. get the 24 hours of daytona to be a alms race not grand am. purhapes a 24 hour race at the old nurburgring set to lemans rules.

btw - can ive mircale that would make lemans and sportscar racing more important than f1?

[GasMan]

First thing would be to gain as much mass market exposure as is possible to keep interest high and gain newer membership to the sportscar formula in terms of talent and fans. There's no real reason for sportscars to not be on as high a ledge as Formula One IMHO. It just needs the controversy and arrogancy of that formula to succeed. Bring in the cocky racers, beef up the egos and let it rip. Sure to bring attention in the media at some point.

[f2001]

rules suck at the mo thats why all the manufactures have left to rival motorsport series !

[SL]

Get it back to the sort of road legal racers like the McLaren and F50. Allow prototypes but rules so that they are about equal. Try to get a few big names involved (ie Alesai).

Le Man's rules and will continue to do so, nothing else comes close, however there is no reason why the other races cannot lead up to it. Make LM like a shoot out following on from f2001's idea.

SL

[Es Nes]

i thought everybody left because they couldnt keep up with audi?

[choked_wasp]

Originally posted by f2001
What would you do ?

The first thing that I would do would be to buy out Grand-Am to get Daytona Back so it can turn back into a prestigous race.

[racer69]

I'd pretty much leave the rules like they are, just get rid of LMP900/675 and have LM-GTP, GTS and GT.

The ALMS would be solely in America. The would be a World Sportscar Series, being the main one, and also maybe set-up a European one to run in conjunction, and also a Japanese Series, as they could probably support it.

All WSC races would be 1000km minimum, and maybe even make Le Mans count towards the series.

Seeing as it would be a World Championship, it would mean the FIA would get involved in some way, meaning unfortunatly that the chicanes would probably have to stay.

[Osella]

I would keep things pretty much as they are, but I would try the following:
Increase the LeMans grid size to say 60
create a category for cars from the Japanese GT series, also allow TransAm cars back in.
Create an invitational class,for privateers, at the organisers' discretion, for vehicles built to past rules that may still prove popular with the fans- GT1 cars like the Toyota, Porsche and Mercedes. This would encourage privateers to enter cars that the factories could no longer use.
Allow automatic entrance to qualifying for any car/driver combo that has won another GT series/Sportracing series outright.
Have an invitational category that changes each year for vehicles like Sports2000 or Australian V8 supercars, to increase the sppectacle and create opportunities for fans of existing series to get involved.
Have a prequalifying race for Porsche GT3Rs to cull their numbers a little

[Aysedasi]

Anything apart from trying to make sportscar racing (in any of its forms) like F1. Don't let Mr. Ecclestone, Mr. Mosely or anyone else of their ilk anywhere near it again (after what happened to Group C and the 3.5 litre formula). I would cry in my beer if sportscar racing ever became as boring as F1 has been for the last 6-7 years.

[Blue2]

Agreed.

I do like the idea of a World Series though. ALMS seems a bit of a weird idea when you actually sit down and think about it.

I like things kept simple. One series, as few classifications as possible, each one with a minimum of three teams running a minimum of two manufacturers. Any class with one manufacturer, ore even worse, one team, becomes stale.

Also, a new series name. American Le Mans Series? That's a stupid name. There's only one Le Mans race, and that one happens to be in FRANCE not America. Just call it the "World Sportscar Series" or something. "WSS". Trouble is, that reads a bit like "wuss".

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Blue2
Just call it the "World Sportscar Series" or something. "WSS". Trouble is, that reads a bit like "wuss".

And a bit like World Sportscar Championship - WSC - now where have I heard of that before?!!

[Liz]

Put the track at Le Mans back the way it was before they started "improving" it to take all the excitement out.

Further to the above: Let spectators stand along the Mulsanne Straight. (Make us sign something if you like. But let us in!)

Hire more people to clean and furbish the loos everywhere on the circuit. Station permanent attendants at the ACO loos for the whole of Le Mans. Pay them handsomely if they do their job to American standards of sanitation.

Do something about the ticket situation. Waiting until one week before departure to get tickets ordered a year in advance, especially general admission or pitwalk tickets which have no seat assignments, is infuriating and stressful and completely unnecessary. Any reasonably competent Maitre d' can do the job better than whoever over there is doing it now.

More food shops near the camp grounds, with prices that are not out of line with local prices. A nimble sixpence is better than a slow shilling, after all.

Shelters for people to get in out of the rain, at every point on the track. Possibly knockdown shelters that could be put up only in case what happened last year happens again!

Force Corvette to take down their screens, barriers and blockades in the pitlane. Fine any crew member who demands money to produce a driver for questioning or an autograph, even if he later says "it was a joke".

==============

As far as the series itself goes, once it's named IMSA, the people who find the word American frightening and intimidating can stand down; however, intensified PR that highlights the international makeup of the teams and drivers would also help. I find it interesting that the same people who consistently harangue Champ Car fans with the soapbox line "It's Run In America It Ought To Employ Only Americans Whose Amcestprs Came Over On The Mayflower" do not apply this to the American Le Mans or other sports car venues. However, more aggressive PR will deter them when they think of it.

Find some way to make the Panoz run longer than 8 hours.

Clone the Chrysler garage crew and team from last year's Le Mans; they were by far the most accessible, friendliest and most helpful of all the teams at Le Mans. Their North American counterparts are Konrad Saleen, Alex Job Racing and Archangel Motorsport, glad-handers one and all.

But first and foremost, do not allow Bernie, Max or Tony George to even attend these races. If they once saw them, they'd want to screw them up.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by Liz
Put the track at Le Mans back the way it was before they started "improving" it to take all the excitement out.

Some good ones in there Liz! Somehow I suspect that, the Dunlop Bridge to the Esses changes aside, nothing much else will have altered (certainly in terms of facilities) by the time we all return in June.

BUT WHAT THE HELL, THERE'S ONLY 5 MONTHS TO GO.....!!!!

(By the way, why does anyone bother to order their enceintes generales in advance?)

[Liz]

I do only because I am already ordering Pitwalk tickets and I might as well get them all at once.

Besides, the ticket office isn't anywhere near our campsite. So once we get camp set up we can just go right up to the track without having to drive out again and find a place to buy a ticket.

[AllonFS]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
Anything apart from trying to make sportscar racing (in any of its forms) like F1. Don't let Mr. Ecclestone, Mr. Mosely or anyone else of their ilk anywhere near it again (after what happened to Group C and the 3.5 litre formula). I would cry in my beer if sportscar racing ever became as boring as F1 has been for the last 6-7 years.

Spot on! I hate what that lot have done to F1, and the way that everyone in F1 is clearly terrified of crossing the poison dwarf. They only care about F1 and would happily screw any other motorsport they perceived as being a threat to the popularity of F1. Part of the charm of Le Mans are its idiosyncrasies, the fact that ACO will let in hopeless French teams, the relative informality of it etc.

And never forget that we can a week of excellent fun for the price of an F1 grandstand ticket - ssh, don't tell Bernie!

[Liz]

AND we humble peasants can, by saving our pennies diligently, buy a Pitwalk ticket and spend large portions of the race in the paddock and pits, watching them work on the cars and watching the pilots sneak out back to smoke, and even sitting in the grandstands atop the pits watching the pit stops! Last year I had the smug experience of seeing some well-dressed people turned away after I had gone in, and hearing the woman expostulating that my friend and I, who were clearly Ordinary Folk, had been let in while she and her companion clearly belonged there more than we did. The fellow on the gate explained to her that it was not a matter of belonging, it was a matter of documents.

In F1 it would have been a matter of belonging.

I love the Pitlane experience and it's great fun to see all the drivers walking around loose, which you'd NEVER see at an F1 race unless your bank balance was over 7 figures or you knew Bernie.