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"Death Of ALMS is predicated on your usual hostility towards the LMP classes, which I don't see going away regardless of the financial outlook. Guys who want to race, will race. And if they want cars that look like race cars first and foremost, prototypes will survive. It's been going on for 50 years now..."
Either you are too young to remember or simply don't know your sportscar racing history,Paul.
I don't hate prototypes. In fact it is just the opposite. However, I have seen them ruin the sport 3 times in my 46 years and think they have been the reason for sportscar racing to have to regroup and start over too often.
50 years of prototypes? Maybe at LeMans.
How about 1993 through 1998? Where was the prototype racing in Europe? BPR was doing fine until they let it become a series for GTP cars. It had one really glorious year -1997, but it was clear that it was already was doomed because the costs were over the top. If only they had said " Wait Ferrari- you are right. Build all of those customer F50 GTs and we will stop the madness" Ferrari F-50 vs McLaren BMW would have been outstanding and sustainable. About 1 million USD for a season that included LM. That didn't happen though and here we are today. Watching the might of VAG.
IMSA had prototypes and they were about as popular and quick as DP cars are now. The WSC years were pretty boring. (Although I liked the Ferrari 333sp)
The only place one found prototypes at an international level in the mid to late seventies was LM. The Group 5 DRM races in Germany were about the only hot thing in sportscar racing then.
Prior to that, in the early sixties, the FIA had a period where there was a GT championship,but not a prototype series. Only LeMans had a class that allowed those cars.
Check the record and see if I am wrong.
If supercars aren't allowed to morph into prototypes again I think that they can be the answer to giving stability to the sport while retaining excitment for the sport.
Seeing the 17 or 18 GT 500 class JGTC cars and a similar number in GT 300 that will be competing in this weekends race at the Aida Circuit shows that even in a bad economy GT racing is a more viable alternative. Does Panoz get 45,000 a race?
Don't tell me about Sebring. They could get half those people if they just had music playing.
When 5 LMP cars,4 LMP675, 7 GTS and 12 or 14 GT cars show up at Road Atlanta in June lets see how exciting that is.
G/A is building one a block at a time. I like most what they are doing. It is real instead of built on sand like the ALMS.
Instead of just thinking they can throw money at a series,use smoke and mirrors and say "build it and they will come" the G/A people know what they have to do to create something of substance. These people are the old IMSA.
Panoz isn't a fan. He just likes the attention. It is a ***** to have a net worth in the B's and no one knows who you are. He created and marketed the transdermal patch at a time when stock values were unrealistic and sometimes the creative accounting also helped those stock prices even higher.
Not only is Panoz net worth not nearly what is was, (look up Elan's stock price-it is about 5% of what it was when Panoz started the ALMS) it is clear he won't waste any more money just to please you-"The Fans".
Sorry if reality sucks, Paul.
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