that Don Panoz has tried to fund ALMS out of his own pockets for as long as he has amazes me when the problem with that is all too obvious and brings to mind the old saying, the best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large one.

And it's a good time to thank those who agree with me that the series has been in dire need of a series sponsor, something else Panoz has failed to pursue, a sponsor who can bring some marketing and PR to ALMS. I don't like and don't watch GA, but there's a model there. Look at hoe Rolex has pushed the series via the automotive and racing print media, commercials during GA telecasts, and featuring GA on the Daytona chrono segment of their website.

Panoz did not fail to pursue a sponsor, they failed sign a sponsor. Over the years they did have some good marketing people working on that but it never materialized. I have heard many reasons for this failure to sign a sponsor, but all of them are more or less speculation.

Bottom line, Grand Am did do a better job in bringing sponsors to the series, bringing sponsors to race teams, and bringing sponsors to events. Jim France and the NASCAR connection helped this along, but however they got there, they are in the sport.

I'd say part of Grand Am's success might be attributed to it's business connections; I don't doubt it being a NASCAR product opened a lot of doors.

For one thing, sponsors knew that the series would last as long as their contracts, because it has NACAR money behind it.

Grand Am sure didn't attract sponsors with attendance figures.

The ALMS cars are great and all but I don't mind the Grand Am cars. I believe ALMS is not going to survive too much longer. When it happens, I think Grand Am should bump up the DP's hp.

Maelochs - 30 June 2009 11:53 AM

I'd say part of Grand Am's success might be attributed to it's business connections; I don't doubt it being a NASCAR product opened a lot of doors.

For one thing, sponsors knew that the series would last as long as their contracts, because it has NACAR money behind it.

Grand Am sure didn't attract sponsors with attendance figures.

Not so much NASCAR as the France family, who used their connections to gain sponsors for GA, but the hand of NASCAR is all too obvious here: spec racing based on cost containment.

Grand Am sure didn't attract sponsors with attendance figures.


While the ALMS has great attendence at some of it's events - it's fair to say that it didn't exactly bring the sponsors running either...

If ALMS could be maintained as a separate and unique series, it might work. Somebody has to realize how different the fan base is in each series, how there are two different schools of thought here. Allow the DP teams to run their cars, but also give something to the "pure" prototypes. There shouldn't be enough differences in GT make for any difficulty in overcoming the two major variations in each respective series.

If not, I may about to lost one of my favorite series. II will not watch less-than Grand Am and cannot watch it and still think "sports car racing."

Are you talking about Grand Am running ALMS as a separate series, or running one series with distinct LMP1&2;, DP, GT2, and Rolex GT classes? I think GT2 and Rolex GT could coexist as separate classes, just like GT1 and 2 did. But the whole appeal of DPs for the teams is that they can compete for overall wins with the same budget as a GT2. Take away the chance to win, and the DP car count, which is still decent, is going to drop like a rock. I just don't see it working.

Call me a place fan but I hope Sebring continues as a race with cars that will race at LeMans...at the very least.

Just hope it`s a Bears folly

I sure as heck hope that this is not true. I'd rather have the ALMS as is with a shorter schedule and longer races, than have it dumbed down with a merger.