ALMS 2005 Season Announced

[Tim Northcutt]

The ALMS site has released a 10-race schedule, with 3 events prior to the LM Test Days:

Sebring will be in its usual mid-March spot...

Road Atlanta will host a mid-April event

Mid-Ohio was moved from right after Le Mans in late June to May 20-22

(My month of May will be VERY Busy...Mid-Ohio on that weekend with the Indy 500 the next weekend)

Lime Rock will still be on July 4 weekend

Infineon is two weeks later...and Portland will happen the next week...

Mosport has been moved to the last weekend in August, and will take place one weekend after Road America....thus there is a natural georgaphic travel "bridge" for the teams....Wisconsin is "en route" to the Toronto area...and it never made much sense to me to backtrack like that in the past...

Petit will be the last days of Sept. and Laguna will close the season again...

My Take:


I would have liked to have had a "new" circuit on the schedule, and I had hoped Mid-Ohio would not be so close to the Indy 500, but those issues are "Petty" and "Minor" ones for me....VERY Minor ones....


I like the schedule.....it has good spacing and presence for the Series, it makes sense logistically, and it should be a great year of racing for the ALMS...

I'm not disappointed...not at all....

Far from it.....

Well done, Mr. Atherton!!!!

[jhansen]

I think it's well done indeed. I'm glad they didn't expand past ten races. The schedule makes sense for the series and is now much more friendly prior to Le Mans.

Good stuff!

[billnchristy]

Its better than years past, and pretty much fully guaranteed not to fall through...

Wish there werent repeat tracks, but that seems to be the "in thing" these days in American sportscar racing.

[klb]

Originally posted by billnchristy
Its better than years past, and pretty much fully guaranteed not to fall through...

Wish there werent repeat tracks, but that seems to be the "in thing" these days in American sportscar racing.

I don't mind repeat tracks as long as they are of the Road Atlanta type, i.e. a real road course.

Homestead:confused: twice:confused:

[billnchristy]

agreed, road atlanta is definitely better than a bunch of homesteads, but there are plenty other good race courses in the US and Canada that could be utilized. And a 5 mil strip of concrete in DC that could be paid for...

[Fab]

Ten races in ALMS...

Let's hope for five in LMES...

I'd like the idea of a kind of "final" at PLM, with the best LMES teams too : we've Creation Zytek, but we could have use the Dallara (Pescarolo coulnd't afford it), the official Zytek, and the top GTS teams (Vitaphone and Larbre)... why not a WR and the Belmondo C65... just for PLM !

[pounetbf]

I think it is a good schedule, but there sould be at least one event in the midle, just in-between the 2 coasts. Is there any track around St louis, for example ?

[gttouring]

good to solidify the schedule and keep team budget in check this way when more LMP teams come in with the new chassis they can have a strong list and solidified series- the open wheel schism still is helping ALMS out a bit methinks.

[The Badger]

It just gets better and better !!!

[PRODRIVEALLSTAR]

I am definetly dissapointed w/ next yrs scheduale, but it doesnt really suprise me.

[gttouring]

adding a round or changing the significance would be nice- a longer Road America race, or somewhere else, and why not try a motreal endurance race, there are lots of great tracks out there...one more would be real noice

[tblincoe]

next year's schedule is fantastic for the team and fans... they didnt need to add a new track, i would personally prefer a spring road atlanta race than a race at a track such as barber motorsports park. the travel for the teams has been reduced, esp. with road america preceeding the mosport race. keep racing at the same tracks and you will build bigger and bigger attendances... something that the lmes is focused on doing. i predict the same 4 races for the lmes next year, with maybe a race added on the iberian penninsula (most likely barcelona), but i dont expect that to happen until 2006.

[paul-collins]

From a technical standpoint, the only tracks I would consider adding are Watkins Glen, Mont Tremblant or Montreal (but not both), or VIR. I think that Barber is not fast enough for prototypes (that is to say, it's too much a fiddly motorcycle course).

For the April race, the only one of these four locations that works is VIR, and I doubt the ameneties are strong enough.

Mexico would have been a significant travel, and until the wounds of the last cancellation are healed, I'd suggest staying the hell away.

So, all in all, a decent schedule from a series perspective.

Now, from my perspective, Mosport has lost its network broadcast (which may hurt its sponsorship), has been moved yet again, and is part of the only back-to-back during the season.

This year they had trouble with hotels this year, because the weekend changed and the hotels had conferences booked. I anticipate this to be a problem again.

The real difficulty of the weekend is that the teams will now have to get across the border during this short week, and this year iCards were already held up for the weekend. I hope IMSA goes all out to ensure this is smoothed next year.

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally posted by pounetbf
I think it is a good schedule, but there sould be at least one event in the midle, just in-between the 2 coasts. Is there any track around St louis, for example ?

There "was" a road course near St. Louis...Mid-America Raceway...and it was a 2.8 mile, 12 turn course....in Wentzville, just west of St. Louis....the road circuit has not been in use since 1992...but the drag strip that comprised the main straight is still in use...

The only two "middle of the USA" purpose-built road circuits are not suited or equipped to handle this type of racing...

Blackhawk Farms in the Quad Cities area of Illinois (west of Chicago) and another place named "Mid-America Motorplex" that is in western Iowa just south-southeast of Omaha, Nebraska...

From reading about both, there is no way they could handle an event of this nature...

I think a good "Bridge" would be Mid-Ohio, but I believe they host the AMA super Bikes in mid-July...so they couldn't do an ALMS race between Lime Rock and Sears Point....

['70 Mach 1]

Just wondering, is Heartland Park - Topeka no longer operating, or would be unsuitable for ALMS style racing?

[Tim Northcutt]

I'm not certain if Heartland is still in operation or not....

One importnat note:

Kansas is terribly hot and humid in the summer...Kansas Motor Speedway has been trying to work something out with the IRL to move their race to late April, or at least in the spring, due to this problem for the fans and for the race teams.

Topeka is only about 80 miles away from Kansas City...but I have no idea how successful events were at Heartland...or if they drew a crowd from KC to attend races there...

BTW....If they would ever go to race in Topeka...ther is a great steakhouse called the "North Star" on the north end of town....Incredible Kansas City beef...you can practically cut the steaks with a fork....

[Bob Riebe]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
There "was" a road course near St. Louis...Mid-America Raceway...and it was a 2.8 mile, 12 turn course....in Wentzville, just west of St. Louis....the road circuit has not been in use since 1992...but the drag strip that comprised the main straight is still in use...

The only two "middle of the USA" purpose-built road circuits are not suited or equipped to handle this type of racing...

Blackhawk Farms in the Quad Cities area of Illinois (west of Chicago) and another place named "Mid-America Motorplex" that is in western Iowa just south-southeast of Omaha, Nebraska...

From reading about both, there is no way they could handle an event of this nature...

I think a good "Bridge" would be Mid-Ohio, but I believe they host the AMA super Bikes in mid-July...so they couldn't do an ALMS race between Lime Rock and Sears Point....

Other than the two Tim mentioned, here are other tracks in the, more or less, center of the country:

OHIO-Nelson Ledges: The Trans-Am ran there and I would lover to see the current cars run there.

MICHIGAN- Grattan: Another track that should have a IMSA race.
Gingerman
Waterford Hills

INDIANA-Putnam Park

KANSAS-Heartland Park
Lake Afton

and of course up in MINNESOTA-Donnybrooke: but the people who run the track have merd for brains, at best.

Any one of these tracks could hold a IMSA race but the people to convince it is worth while, are those who run the track.
The racers will show up where ever they run a race. If they do not like a track for, what ever reason, tough.
Professional whine, is not a good vintage.

Bob

[Tim Northcutt]

Heartland Park is still in operation...


Here is their site:

www.hpt.com

Putnam Park is really more of a Test Track....thee are virtually no stands or amenities there...

It is my understanding that Grattan is the same way, but could be wrong about that....but I could be mistaking it for another circuit that begins with a "G"

[Bob Riebe]

Tim:
I will agree at some of these tracks, it might end-up a one time experiment, but it is better to try and fail, than to never try at all.

Stands?
I did not know road courses had stands.

The Trans-Am ran at some fairly unique places, the IMSA would get far more attention if it tried this approach.

Bob

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally posted by Bob Riebe
Tim:
I will agree at some of these tracks, it might end-up a one time experiment, but it is better to try and fail, than to never try at all.

Stands?
I did not know road courses had stands.

The Trans-Am ran at some fairly unique places, the IMSA would get far more attention if it tried this approach.

Bob

Most facilities do have at least a few sets of stands along the main straight and an occational one on another part of the course....

But I would agree that stands are limited at road courses...

From what I have been able to gather from items like the 2003 ALMS "State of the Series" announcement, and the Q&A Interivew with Mr. Atherton that was the subject of a recent thread, the following are what I believe to be the criteria by which they choose where they will run, and what they would look at when adding new race courses:

1. The facilities at the track have to be able to handle these types of cars....runoff areas, paddock areas and pit facilites, support buildings for a media center, etc.sufficient parking for the crowds that will attend, etc.

2. The owner or promoter of the facility must have some sort of proven track record or experience in hosting a major racing series,

3. The promoter also must have the experience and the resources to effectively market the event, and to make a commitment to doing so to build an audience for it if the event is a multi-year agreement.

4. The new venue should (may not have to be, but should) be in a market or in a location that makes good business sense for the Series
to expand its presence or to attract new fans to the sport....

5. The surrounding area must also have a sufficient amount of hotels, restaurants, etc., to also serve the needs of those who will attend the race as fans or as competitors....

The ALMS is no longer in the "Self-promoted" or "Co-Promoted" events...and their problems in 2002 and 2003 were with promoters who did not have this experience with major racing events....

Personally, I know very little about the venues that you listed, so I can't really comment on them, other than from looking at their layouts....

But I would have to ask the following:

1. Do the venues and the people who operate them meet the above criteria?

2. Are there other fairly large metro areas within 90 min. - 2 hrs of these venues that could be tapped or marketed to in order to sell tickets?

Examples: Mid-Ohio is fairly close to Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo and Dayton, and they do draw a good, solid amount of support from those areas, with additional fans that travel in from Detroit, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis...

Lime Rock sits in the heart of New England, and is not far from New York City and other major metro areas....

Road America is not far from Chicago and Milwaukee...but you know that area better than I do....

3. Is the "bridge" benefit of running one of the Kansas venues you listed greater than the benefit of hosting an event in an area that has only on fairly large metroplex near it (Kansas City)....

4. Are the Michigan or Ohio venues you listed near enough to metro areas that the Series doesn't already serve, and is it feasible for the Series to run three events within what I call the "Midwest"....the region that includes Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin & Michigan???

I'm sure that Mr. Atherton and his people look at and weigh all of these factors as part of their decision-making process....

The question raised about St. Louis seemed to have some interest to me, because KC, Chicago, Indy, and Memphis are all about equidistant, or at least within a 3-4 hour circle from there, that might make some sense....

I don't know the answers to these questions....

But they are worth discussing....

Your thoughts would be appreciated....

[Bob Riebe]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
Most facilities do have at least a few sets of stands along the main straight and an occational one on another part of the course....

But I would agree that stands are limited at road courses...

From what I have been able to gather from items like the 2003 ALMS "State of the Series" announcement, and the Q&A Interivew with Mr. Atherton that was the subject of a recent thread, the following are what I believe to be the criteria by which they choose where they will run, and what they would look at when adding new race courses:

1. The facilities at the track have to be able to handle these types of cars....runoff areas, paddock areas and pit facilites, support buildings for a media center, etc.sufficient parking for the crowds that will attend, etc.

2. The owner or promoter of the facility must have some sort of proven track record or experience in hosting a major racing series,

3. The promoter also must have the experience and the resources to effectively market the event, and to make a commitment to doing so to build an audience for it if the event is a multi-year agreement.

4. The new venue should (may not have to be, but should) be in a market or in a location that makes good business sense for the Series
to expand its presence or to attract new fans to the sport....

5. The surrounding area must also have a sufficient amount of hotels, restaurants, etc., to also serve the needs of those who will attend the race as fans or as competitors....

The ALMS is no longer in the "Self-promoted" or "Co-Promoted" events...and their problems in 2002 and 2003 were with promoters who did not have this experience with major racing events....

Personally, I know very little about the venues that you listed, so I can't really comment on them, other than from looking at their layouts....

But I would have to ask the following:

1. Do the venues and the people who operate them meet the above criteria?

2. Are there other fairly large metro areas within 90 min. - 2 hrs of these venues that could be tapped or marketed to in order to sell tickets?

Examples: Mid-Ohio is fairly close to Columbus, Cleveland, Toledo and Dayton, and they do draw a good, solid amount of support from those areas, with additional fans that travel in from Detroit, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis...

Lime Rock sits in the heart of New England, and is not far from New York City and other major metro areas....

Road America is not far from Chicago and Milwaukee...but you know that area better than I do....

3. Is the "bridge" benefit of running one of the Kansas venues you listed greater than the benefit of hosting an event in an area that has only on fairly large metroplex near it (Kansas City)....

4. Are the Michigan or Ohio venues you listed near enough to metro areas that the Series doesn't already serve, and is it feasible for the Series to run three events within what I call the "Midwest"....the region that includes Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin & Michigan???

I'm sure that Mr. Atherton and his people look at and weigh all of these factors as part of their decision-making process....

The question raised about St. Louis seemed to have some interest to me, because KC, Chicago, Indy, and Memphis are all about equidistant, or at least within a 3-4 hour circle from there, that might make some sense....

I don't know the answers to these questions....

But they are worth discussing....
Your thoughts would be appreciated....

Tim:
The Michigan tracks are all between Chicago and Detroit, with two between Grand Rapids and Detroit.
I can see no reason that any of the three would not consider hosting an IMSA race, although Grattan has something almost every week.
Gingerman, said in the future it wants to host venues with up to 40,000 people.

Nelson Ledges can draw from the same crown as Mid-Ohio

Lake Afton is in a park and set-up time plus the safety nazis have eliminated car racing there.

All the tracks have have to administer to public events and the IMSA is just another pulic event, that said, it seems Mr.Atherton's elite attitude is one reasont that the IMSA and ALMS is an also ran event to all but mainly gear-head race fans, and those in the areas where it still runs.

The SCCA and IMSA brought the "big-show" to many varied areas of the country, few if any had to worry abouta "you don't meet our standards" attitude .
They did not sniff their noses at anyone, Atherton's attitude is a sure fire formula for failure.
IF and when the IMSA and ALMS becomes as well known, as the old IMSA and SCCA series, then and only then can they take their elitest attitude, but even then it would be asinine, as it was when the IMSA and SCCA stopped being the road racing equivalent of a Saturday Sprint Car show, that that, plus some other factors, put their series in the toilet.

IMSA had better go back to "self-promotion".
Racing up to the eightes was usually run and promoted by people who were ex-racers or who had been around racing all their lives.
It seem nowadays they are taking some snot faced punk with a "business" degree who knows squat about racing or the fans that helped make what it was, until it fell apart by too much "professional" help in the nineties.

The tracks are there, the fans are there, unfortunately the infrastructure in sanctioning bodie has crashed and burned.

Bob

[Tim Northcutt]

I don't think that the issue is one of "elitism"...

It is one of making sense and meeting a set of where you want the Series to go in the future....

They tried working "Co-Promoted" events with CART...and they didn't work...Miami and Denver were not good events for the Series...

They tried a deal with a promoter who did put on a great race in Washington DC, but because he didn't take care of issues and objections among the locals, the event went away after one year....

Setting a standard to work with promoters and venues that have done major events (not SCCA weekends, either) will help the ALMS to deliver good racing events that WILL take place as scheduled...

Having said that, Heartland hosts two major NHRA drag events each year...and it is my understanding that they do have a good paddock and garage area....

These guys would have the experience to know who they were after, and how to reach them....

The question I would ask is:

Does the need for another "East to West Bridge" in the schedule warrant holding an event at a place that has only Kansas City as a substantial metropolitan area nearby, and when that event IS held, it'll be 95 degrees in the shade with equal humidity...and thus "fans" may prefer to watch it on TV as opposed to sitting in the heat???

and the actiual location of the facility would tell me that they should be able to sell NHRA tickets...Topeka is that kind of town...it is not a sportscar town...and it would be a tougher sell...not to mention, it is a city of about 150,000 people...

I don't know if the reward would be worth the risk, Bob...

You make good points about the Michigan venues and the Ohio venue....but do three events that draw from the same markets that will be held in Late May, mid-July and mid-August make sense from a business perspective, and will the canibalize their audiences for the three by doing so???

That question is the exact reason why OWRS chose not to run at Mid-Ohio....they felt it was hurting their audience for the Cleveland race...

Finally, "Self-Promoted" events are not cheap, they are very labor intensive, and they run big risks if you don't pick the correct venue to race at....it makes better sense to work a contract with a promoter at a venue who knows his market, has the money to reach customers, and has experience in making race weekends happen in their venue...

I agree with you that there are tracks that "Could" possibly host events....

But do you take a flyer on the "coulds" when the prudent business move would be to work with the "I've done it, and done it well" types???

[gttouring]

add mt. tremblant 4 hours race!

[Tim Northcutt]

To '70 Mach 1:

Check your PMs...

Thanks!

[Hauptmann6]

Originally posted by Bob Riebe
MICHIGAN- Grattan: Another track that should have a IMSA race.
Gingerman
Waterford Hills

Bob

Gingerman would be good, but it is in the middle of nowhere. An hour from Kalamazoo and Grand rapids, 3+ from Detroit and Chicago.

Waterford hills on the other hand is on;y 20 or so miles from downtown detroit. Would be a GREAT spot if the track can handle it...