Quote:
Originally Posted by Akrapovic
Not sure how VAG was responsible for that (VAG includes Porsche too remember). P2 car counts were pretty low. Going Pro-Am was an attempt to raise the car count, which worked a treat in Europe.
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Audi/Porsche/VAG weren't responsible for anything in and of itself (aside from the RS Spyder being insanely expensive for a LMP2 car, costing more than an Audi R8 LMP900 did at the same time). No factory teams outside of Audi Sport were willing to run full time in the ALMS' LMP1 class, Porsche and HPD were entering factory developed cars in LMP2, and Porsche did so with a full factory team.
That lead to the contrived LMP1 vs LMP2 battles in the ALMS. It made for good racing, but it was artificially created due to factory involvement in LMP2. That lead to things like weight increases for LMP2s, a gentleman's agreement in the LMS and LM that LMP2 teams had to have a gentleman driver (which ultimately became an official ACO mandate), and the 2011-present cost cap based formulas in LMP2.
Also, there was a deal it seems at Volkswagen Group that at the time, Audi and Porsche couldn't directly compete against each other in the same class.
But ultimately what killed the Penske ALMS program was Porsche ending the RS Spyder as a factory deal and it became a customer car deal, and then it was totally ended when the cost capped rules for LMP2 came in and Porsche were working on what would become the 919.
It should be noted that like the Acura ARX-01 (which HPD replaced with a new car based on it), the RS Spyder could've in theory been run as a LMP1 car from 2011-2013.