Challenge Initiative

[Kicking-back]

I thought it looked like a Champ Car but with raised front wing and lowered rear wing

[Rob29]

Has anyone ever watched anything live via the internet? I don't think I have the technology to do that Latest info from BT -no chance of broadband here for at least 10 years.

[El_Gibleto]

Didn;t the "invisible Sportscar Championship" try to go down that route?

Can someone remind me hiw that series is going?

Also any news from Round 3 of the "Challenge Inititive", they are at Rockingham today according to the series website!

[Rocktracer]

wasnt there a series to be launched that had both singleseater and a sports car body??!!

[Paul Rayner]

Rocktracer, I think maybe you're thinking of the Van Diemen car, (was it called Formula X?) that had two bodies, a single seater and a sports car, which made it ideal for racing schools. Whether a championship was going to be created with this or not I don't know.

El Gibleto, I think you can drop the thing about this year's calendar now. I don't know why they ever put a 2003 one up, it was clearly never going to happen, and it now appears to have been taken off their web site.

I do agree about the similarity with the ISC - if this technology is so great, then why don't the existing championships, such as Touring Cars or F3, use it? Because it's just not cost effective. If a championship the size of F3 was shown live on the net, it might get a couple of thousand viewers per race. That'd mean that just to produce the TV would probably cost over a tenner for every viewer. The production costs would be the same for Challenge Initiative (more with all the other technical things they promise), and there is simply no way that more people will be interested in the challenge than in F3 when it first starts out.

[El_Gibleto]

If the live broadband was viable I'm sure that the major team sports in american and the FA premiership would be offering a range of a packages to sell the service to the public, as far as I know there aren't any such packages on offer.

There have been some attempts, from an indian company I think, to offer live broadband coverage of test cricket, but the quality has been poor.

[ss_collins]

compare the car to an indy lights Lola...

The web broadcasts do work and the quality is ok with standard broadband.

[El_Gibleto]

Even if the webcast does work, how many people are going to pay to watch an unproven class of racing, with unknown drivers and promoted someone who has been involved with a failed version of the same concept. Remember that digital tv coverage of F1 failed due to lack of viewers.

For most people, watching a webcast of race isn't an attractive option for valuble leisure time.

A "mock up" of the car was at Oulton Park today, for the historic festival, an interesting approach at getting to it's targeted group of drivers!!!!

[steve vince]

this is not what is neede the msa stated it dosnt want another single chassied formula certainly not as costly as this ff/fr is too exspensive zip doesnt offer anything with wings that dont work and treaded tyres i know of a new formula car for next year that offers slicks and wings for 15k for a season you wont get massive motor homes or tv covergage but you will get comp racing over 12/14 rounds at the major circuits and achance to race in europe if you wish.and its a challneg to drivers and engineers to make them work and learn your art
stephenzebra@aol.com

[danielclarke]

From what I can see and what I've been told, this new intiative doesn't intend to follow suit with other championships currently around and falling into the "one-make-championship" category.

This appears to be a completely unique platform of motorsport and entertainment, designed to reach the UK population for more effectively than British motorsport does at the moment.

As far as internet coverage goes, no money is intended to be raised from that as far as I'm aware. For the 50% share in gate receipts and driver earnings to work, only 5000 people are expected to attend to spectate these races.

When you have over 200 days of advertising in surroundings cities and towns, leading up to a race in the 20/30+ calendar, I can see it having the potential to reach and attract much more people than current championships do.

Current championships just seem to attract fans from other classes when there are thousands and millions of people at homes throughout the country who still don't know what "single seater" means.

Daniel

[JR Ewing]

Who is going to pay for this 200 days advertising then in these hundreds of towns?

[danielclarke]

Who pays for the advertising is one of the grey areas.

So who knows what about this "indylantic" and why that failed before?

Daniel

[ss_collins]

Yes whats the indylantic story....

[Paul Rayner]

This championship is to have what, 19 meetings? That'll be pretty expensive for all the teams, won't it?

How many races will spectators get to see at each meeting? I've yet to see how this will really tempt die-hard motorsport fans to travel and pay for this, never mind casual fans.

[ukracing]

Paul if you read the web site its one days events with the championship only on that day. Its structured with heats and finals, and the budget planners are talking 140,000 max to run season, testing. If spectators only have to go for one day its better than the traditional at the moment were u have to to go to days to see ur formula in action and then (in your case renault) 20min qual one day and a 20 min race the next! Ur telling me thats not expensive?

[ghinzani]

whats indylantic? dunno but Autosport used to pan it! from what I've read it involved unscrupulous organisers not paying monies due to competitors. Wardle and a man called Pat Deuffler who had been invoved with Marlboro in f1 and been run outta town by Bernie were the names I recall as being involved in the original series.

[Paul Rayner]

ukracing, apologies for missing the race format in the 10-point plan.

One-day events are better for spectators, I agree, because most don't really care about qualifying. The problem I see for this series is how it's going to create the hype it needs to attract large numbers of spectators through the gates. That only really comes with TV and press coverage. If it succeeds, like SCV8s, it should provide some good racing. But in today's entertainment market, good racing just isn't enough.

[bella]

one day events are really hard work for the teams. even if the driver doesn't have an off, there's a lot of preparation work (and, er, polishing) to be done between qualifying and the race. say, 4 hours, you lose an hour of that after qualifying and before the race for appropriate scrutineering. down to 3 hours, and depending on how many people you have working on the car and whether you have the same guy looking at the data as you do working on the car... it's running it close.

just another thought to throw into the one day arguement.

[paulzinho]

They manage 2 (3 if you include last Chance) at the Formula Ford Festival, surely they can manage it elsewhere? If they're forced to do something they'll quickly figure out a way of doing it.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by paulzinho
They manage 2 (3 if you include last Chance) at the Formula Ford Festival, surely they can manage it elsewhere? If they're forced to do something they'll quickly figure out a way of doing it.

Used to be 4 at one time.heat,semi-final,quarter-final & final! Around 1972 there were 4 national FF series,and those that could afford it raced every weekend February to December.Sometimes Oulton Sat Mallory Sun!

[danielclarke]

Good point Rob29, 1-day events are not too difficult for teams.

I know of guys who ran themselves in FFord in the 70's. And it's true there were so many championships and races going on at a weekend that say, if you didn't qualify at Silverstone, you'd throw your gear in the back of the van or trailer and you'd head down to the race at Brands Hatch or somewhere else.

Daniel

[Rob29]

Originally posted by ghinzani
whats indylantic? dunno but Autosport used to pan it! from what I've read it involved unscrupulous organisers not paying monies due to competitors. Wardle and a man called Pat Deuffler who had been invoved with Marlboro in f1 and been run outta town by Bernie were the names I recall as being involved in the original series.

Just dug out the results,guess this belongs in the historic forum but the following drivers took part and may be able to advise on what went wrong;
Tony Trimmer (still around I think in historics)
Cyd Williams
Steve Carvill
Jeremy Rossiter
Tony Rouff (USA) only person who did all 11 rounds!
Jim Crawford (deceased)
Alo Lawler
Phil Dowsett
Richard Scott
Ken Bailey
Steve Prior
Dave Saunders
Ted Wentz (USA)
Norman Dickson
Adrian Russell
Dave Winstanley
Howard Rose
Mike Wilds
John Bicht
Terry Perkins
Mike King
Martine Birrane
Phil Sharp
John Scannell
Bob Brown
Patrick Neve (B)
Jeremy Summer
Derek Cook
Alan Crocker
Nick May
Rob Moffat

[ss_collins]

seeing as the challenge initiative seems to have died quietly in a corner...

...I wonder what became of the car.. and where it will go in the future?

[cos]

Well big teams like Promactecme and Motaworld have signed up, I guess it's just down to drivers having the budget, as usual. If there's enough money around it will happen.

[ss_collins]

cos read the stuff again - they have not signed up but 'expressed interest', I was at the launch of the series and there didn't seem to be enough teams or drivers to make a series