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I do think that IMSA and the ACO need to look at LMP900 and LMP1 first gen to see what worked when the big factories either weren't around or there was just one, at most, two of them.
The answer, customer cars. You had the likes of Lola (now Multimatic), Courage (now Oreca), and others offering decent customer cars to non-factory aligned teams. Hell, even Audi Sport offered R8s to semi-works customers after they left as a full factory effort to design what would become the R10. And there's even running R10s and R15s in private hands, something I never imagined when those cars raced as factory efforts. But the ACO (and now increasingly IMSA's) neglect has killed off the customer car market, and factory teams are unable or unwilling to fill that gap for the most part.
What I'm cynical about is that there still seems to be an ideological disconnect between the ACO and IMSA similar to what existed between the ACO/IMSA and Grand Am/NASCAR before the merger. Granted, from a technical standpoint the cars are more equal, but it seems that a schism still exists.
This is an area where if I ran the FIA, I'd ask IMSA and the ACO if they're truly serious about a common global platform. Either I'd come up with regs and force the ACO and IMSA to abide or pound sand, or at least make them fess up about going for their own interests instead of a true common platform.
Me, I'd aim for the middle of what LMH and LMDH are aiming for. IMO, that only makes sense. Much less in terms of expense than LMP1 currently is for factory teams, less "spec" than DPI while not being much more expensive. But that would require compromise. Which would require the ACO and IMSA/NASCAR each giving up something and swallowing a bit of pride. Sometimes, you have to take a bullet to get what you--let alone your customers, be it teams, sponsor, or fans--want. And as much as I harp on NASCAR fans for not knowing what they want or how to ask for it, the sportscar fans generally seem to know what makes sense, or at least usually make a clear, knowledgeable argument for what their views are.
I guess what I'm saying in brief is if the ACO and IMSA want a global/universal platform, make it work by giving up something to get what you want. If not, then stop pretending that's what you want and do your own thing. Either crap or get off the John for someone who really wants or needs to use it.
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