GA are not buying the ALMS. Porsche are not running a P1 car anytime soon. Audi may return in 10 but will Penske run the show and will Acura be 100% in the IRL. If any of those scenarios happens, then you may or may not have a series. It will be there, but in a different form than it is now. D DeSpain was on about Jaguar returning or rather joining, as a manufacturer. The last I heard, Jag was not "officially" backing Gentilozzi. I dont think the series will be sold, certainely not to a competing series that is running slower cars. If for some reason it should stutter and stop, there will be a temporary vacuum in the USA for World Class prototype sports car racing. Something Grand Am, with all due respect, cannot lay claim to. IMHO

I think the management of ALMS realize just how much would be lost if they were sold out to GA: no ties to the rest of the world, arrested technological development, no more research in alternative fuels or hybrid technology.

What I would expect to see is less emphasis on prototypes, given the uncertain status of Audi or Acura and no manufacturer currently interested in coming into the series with a prototype, is more time and money being put into GT, which will lose its numeric designation, given the death of GT1. We as fans have always supported production car-based racing as witness the success of NASCAR and the original Trans-Am series.

Look back to 1998. The GT-1 Porsche, the 1987 CLK's. Those were classics. Sure, prototypes, but at least they resembled something that was on the road. Maybe it's time that racing at this level re-invented itself, by combining the new technology in a car that does not look like it came from a new Transformer movie? All manufacturers are looking to save money as their income is being shredded along with everyone else. The economy is in a black hole because their is NO incentive from Washington to CREATE manufacturing jobs here. The tax base is shrinking and will not be saved by "shovel ready jobs". I HATE that expression. It's so redundant. Digging ditches, 50% of which will be done by illegals is hardly going to be the savior of the nation and ultimately our sport, through osmosis.

artracer - 14 July 2009 07:24 AM

Look back to 1998. The GT-1 Porsche, the 1987 CLK's. Those were classics. Sure, prototypes, but at least they resembled something that was on the road. Maybe it's time that racing at this level re-invented itself, by combining the new technology in a car that does not look like it came from a new Transformer movie? All manufacturers are looking to save money as their income is being shredded along with everyone else. The economy is in a black hole because their is NO incentive from Washington to CREATE manufacturing jobs here. The tax base is shrinking and will not be saved by "shovel ready jobs". I HATE that expression. It's so redundant. Digging ditches, 50% of which will be done by illegals is hardly going to be the savior of the nation and ultimately our sport, through osmosis.

You can make a prototype car LOOK like a street car. You can dumb down the aero, but it won't make any difference if the car is constructed of carbon fibre, uses carbon brakes, has exclusive tires, etc...

The problem that some still fail to realize is that sportscar is TOO EXPENSIVE. In these times, even automakers are telling you that. Porsche is not dumping their rumored RS P1 program due to anything except high cost, and low interest.

If there were as many people out there interested in RS' as there are GT Porsches then Wiessach would be turning out carbon units like crazy, but what is Porsche doing? Making steel, tube-framed GT's faster than rabbits can produce bunnies.

Prototype sportscar racing is struggling in Europe, so why does anybody think that it should be thriving in the US... Wishful thinking? When Audi loses LeMans because the R15 is under-developed due to their getting out of the ALMS on a full-time basis, that should be a clue. What it tells me is that the ALMS was a season-long test session for LeMans.

Audi's P1 program is all about them. At least Porsche tried to sell the RS. They got out when there were no takers and stuck with what they knew they could sell in abundance. The common thread in all of this being cost.

You can yell all you wish about alternative fuels, but the construction, and operational costs of P1 prototypes is the issue that makes sportscar relevent. It was before this global recession, and it still is after that recession brought it to light.

Atherton has a difficult job because he must stress that the ALMS is "World Class" while ignoring how expensive that moniker is to justify. To tell the world that the ALMS is cutting edge, is to also tell them that everybody who competes there is also committed to it. That's a hard sell when you go to St. Pete and see the struggle firsthand.

His is the toughest sales job in American motorsports, because the perceeved competition, does not mind telling you that they are about cutting costs, and they put out 30+ car fields and over a dozen prototypes per event.

You can talk about Washington and manufacturer cutbacks, but in the long run, racing is about those people who want to race, and those who can afford to. What is amazing is that there is little love for those who do, and much crying over those multinational auto corporations who race only to sell you your next money pit.

Good observations indeed. Yes, the P cars are really out of their time right now. Back in the 50's and 60's, at least the earlier 60's, the cars that won Le Mans were TRUE sportscars. Maybe the ACO needs to sit down and get itself in tune with what we are living with today. Sure run a diesel, but stick it in an R8 or a 911. You can torque the jello out of a small displacement unit. It will be very very quick. Encourage alternatives to petrol. But put this into REAL everyday sportscars, not some engineers wet dream of a fantasy car, which is pretty much what we see now. As sexy as they are, ilike F1, they have priced themselves into virtual extinction, the way the rules are set up now. Forget P1 and P2. Just have a fast class and a really fast class and be done with it. Simple is better. It ought to help bring down the cost as well. Racing has NEVER been cheap and never will be. But it CAN make itself more realistic instead of the uncontrolled spending that is in P1 now. Florida and Georgia could run their States with the budget Audi spent on hospitality alone at Le Mans.... Phew !

Okay, but why do Peugeot and Audi run those insanely expensive programs?

Why have there been sports-racing (as opposed to sports car) series since forever? Even during the fifties, Jaguar wasn't building C- and D-types to sell to the public for street use. Those were single-seat, purpose-built cars designed just to race.

Starting in 1956, in fact, the rules changed so that sports cars didn't have to be based on street cars.

I agree prototypes are expensive. And, just like F1, they have a worldwide fan following.

Porsche ran out of money because it tried to muscle out VW. had nothing to do with the financial crisis, though that didn't help.

From what i hear, Audi did the same testing program with the R15 it did with the R10 - introduced it at Sebring and tested it until Le Mans.

In fact, as far as I can tell, the R10 only ran Sebring, Le Mans, and Petit Le Mans in 2006, and only entered ALMS regularly in 2007.

I too used to claim that Audi screwed up by not racing the R15 in other Le mans-series races. But they did tens of thousands of kilometers of testing, just as they did with the R10 when it was new. And they didn't race the R10 either.

The thing people who don't like sports-racers fail to grasp, is that a lot of fans like those engineers' wet dreams. That's why there has been a prototype series since ... 1956, i guess.

As with the many road-racing series (all the various IMSA series (IMSA Dekon Monzas, Porsche 934s and 935s, GTP, C Class), Trans Am in a big way (I realize it still exists, but during two periods I can remember it was The Premier sports car series in North America (late sixties and again in the ...early 80's I think, when Willy T. Ribb and Scott Pruett used to battle it out.) Can-Am came and went, and almost came back. World sports car challenge ... all kinds of road-racing series have died in America, and returned.

It's a tough business. And it is still a business a lot of people want to be in.

F1 goes through hard times. should we scrap it>

IRL is really suffering right now ... has been for many years. Should we can American open-wheel racing and make everything NASCAR?

Or should we realize that sports car racing is a tough business, and it will change with changing times, as it always has.

Different formulae will be tried; some will fail, some succeed to well, (first and second can-Am series show this divide.) In time, economics, manufacturer involvement, team interest will wax and wane.

But in all likelihood, the people who like to build sports-racers will find the people who want to drive them and the people who want to watch them race, and somehow, somewhere, they will.

Maelochs - 15 July 2009 02:59 PM

It's a tough business. And it is still a business a lot of people want to be in.

F1 goes through hard times. should we scrap it>

F1 does go through hard times like everyone, but unlike sports car racing, they have not gotten to the point where the basic fundamentals of the series has been completely scrapped and had to be reborn as something significantly different. Sports car racing absolutely has to get out of the roller coaster series of events that forces them to reinvent itself every 10-15 years in order to be any kind of major player in the motorsports world.

All the constant rule changes from the ACO dont help, and the lack of working with the FIA for rules equality does not help either. Most of sportscar racings ill's seem to be self inflicted. Go back to the early 70's 3L formula, or again in the 80's. Every decade it's something. After a while it's hard to relate back to events because the changes were so dramatic. In F1 today, I dont think I've ever seen such ugly cars. They may work, and the computers say that this is the best way forward. But a Lotus 79, or a McLaren M23, a Maserati 250F, they just brought the magic alive. These mini winged wonders that corner at Mach 2 are technically amazing, yes. But they have no spirit. They are devoid of human input. It's ALL science, and I think it's a shame, but I understand progress. Sportscars again must improve and change, yes, otherwise the grid at Lime Rock this week end would consist of 312P Ferrari's and 917's. After 40 years, we'd be getting a little bored with old technology,(NASCAR?) So yes, we must mone forward, but how far and in which direction. Too complicated for me, but there needs to be something better, something more affordable ( is that possible?) and something more consistant. The pole at LM in 08 was made redundant by rules changes again. The technology is getting closer and closer to F1. How long until it almost blends into a super series?? Maybe if they ran on lemon juice, the only sour notes would be from the cars and not the sanctioning bodies , teams and manufacturers arguing!

I'd love to see a grid full of 312Ps & 917s...

It's alive !!!!!!