American Le Mans Series to Chile?

[NaBUru38]

Eliseo Salazar is close to announce a US$ 30 million FIA Grade 2 motorsport complex 30km north of Santiago de Chile. According to him, it would open in late 2013 (i.e. early 2014) and has contacted the Brazilian Fórmula Truck semis, Argentine Top Race silhouettes (N Fontana and JM López race there) and the American Le Mans Series.

Do you think the American Le Mans Series should do races in South America?

They have many other options. Brazil has Interlagos and the São Paulo Indy, and in a few years the Porto Alegre Indy street race and a major permanent circuit in Beto Carrero World. Argentina is building a few international circuits too, like Termas de RÃ*o Hondo (MotoGP 2013) and Velociudad de Zárate (F1!?).

[The Badger]

Yes , I do think the ALMS should do races South America , as they have some great tracks , are on the same Continent and would add to the show . May even bring in some interest from there too .

Havana street race would be nice ..... need to fix the roads first though !!!

[tlongman]

NO.

[Bentley03]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Havana street race would be nice ..... need to fix the roads first though !!!

Love that idea......talk about 'left field'!

[Fogelhund]

Yes, I do think the ALMS should do races in South America. Now all that has to be done is for Salazar to come up with the money to cover the sanction fee, and complete travel expenses.

[Coach Ep]

Originally Posted by The Badger

Havana street race would be nice

And call it the ´Clinton 250´ then!

[The Badger]

Originally Posted by Coach Ep

And call it the ´Clinton 250´ then!

The 1000KMS of Lewenski !!!

[deggis]

Sponsored by Oldsmobile.

[AndrewF31]

LOL you guys.

How about latin? Sempre Fidelis 250?

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by tlongman

NO.

I'd love you to explain.

The best way to do that is to race after Petit Le Mans in November / December (January?), during the northern winter and after all European motorsport season endings. It's hot north of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, and all Brazilian and Argentine championships finish their seasons in this time of the year, so adding a major championship to the bill would attract even more fans.

[Carsandmotorracing]

Sounds good to me.

[NaBUru38]

The TC2000 will have its last round on November 25, so it will join the GT World Championship again.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I'd love you to explain.

The best way to do that is to race after Petit Le Mans in November / December (January?), during the northern winter and after all European motorsport season endings. It's hot north of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, and all Brazilian and Argentine championships finish their seasons in this time of the year, so adding a major championship to the bill would attract even more fans.

The problem I see with that is that the ALMS would probably want to have their season finale on home turf rather than as a fly away round with a potentially underwhelming grid...

[Deleted]

I would rather see ALMS racing at Potrero de los Funes, FIA BoP World GT3 Series or whatever it'll be called could visit this instead.

But yeah, South American round would be neat - thou not in expense of another NA race. And definitely not as season finale.

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I'd love you to explain.

The best way to do that is to race after Petit Le Mans in November / December (January?), during the northern winter and after all European motorsport season endings. It's hot north of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile, and all Brazilian and Argentine championships finish their seasons in this time of the year, so adding a major championship to the bill would attract even more fans.

That just isn't going to happen, unless a VERY LARGE sanction fee is paid.

My opinion is you do a South American swing after Long Beach, with Laguna in the fall.... poor Laguna fans, but the race really should have stayed in the fall. You've basically got two months, from mid-April, through to LM itself in June to run events.

[Jacques Rabbit]

I love American Le Mans, and if there were more races, wonderful.

However, it's not realistic.

We're barely able to get entrants to commit to a nine-race, North American schedule, which has to have the least amount of logistics expenses of any top series in the U.S. given the fact the calendar is so short. How are you going to get teams that can afford to race in South America?

We need to do things that help keep the sport competitive and maintain the right image for ALMS. Sending an abbreviated field to South America, or anywhere else, is not going to do that. It hurts the racing, and it hurts the championship battles if not all the teams can afford to go.

American Le Mans should stick to North America, simply because that's all it can (barely) afford to do right now. I'm sure WEC is more than welcome in South America.

[Fogelhund]

Jacques, as I've mentioned previously, the only way this works is if the promoter covers the travel expenditures for the teams, which has been standard practice for when FIA GT visited South America.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Jacques, as I've mentioned previously, the only way this works is if the promoter covers the travel expenditures for the teams, which has been standard practice for when FIA GT visited South America.

Yeah. The Alms would never do a deal for something like that unless the promoter covers travel costs and organizing logistics.

[Asa]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Yeah. The Alms would never do a deal for something like that unless the promoter covers travel costs and organizing logistics.

Alternatively if Scott Atherton finds himself a big sponsor to cover the costs of this South American race then it will also happen. Anyway someone has to pay for it.