FIA, listen up, dump GT and Declare ALMS No 1

[Niall]

Does anyone here get the feeling that the FIA GT champsionship is winding its way into obscurity.

Since 99 the champsionship has only been fought between GT2 cars. This I think was the single worst move the FIA ever made. They claimed that it was for the good of the sport as Gt1 cars were getting too expensive.

At the same time this was a sure blow for the Le Mans 24 Hour race. Now with no GT1 champsionship, Porche pulled it works project out of all endurance racing.

But now a light has appeared in the shape of the ALMS. God on ya Don Panoz. I really do think that he has possibley saved the Le Mans 24 hours. Think about it. Who in their right mind would acctually build a soul entry for this race. Mercedes did. But look where a lack of racing got them. Now they're gone.

From what I have seen, the FIA should just scrap the GT champsionship and start a fresh by declaring their total support for ALMS. Then maybe Sportscar racing can be saved again.

Anyone else agree ?

Niall

[Speedworx]

I love the GT championship. British GT Championship is same rules as FIA GT and they both have excellent races. Take Zolder for example, Lister won (before exclusion) by 0.119 secs after 3 hours of racing. ALMS is too much about the works Audi squad, it was better last year

Mercedes did GT Championship in 1998 alongside Le Mans. Toyota is prime example of build a car JUST for Le Mans.

[Niall]

Hakkiman: I'm refering to Mercedes entry in 99.

They had no racing series for their car and all they did was test at Hockenheim.

Look what happened to them becasue of a lack of racing.

Remember Dumbreck ?

Niall

[AdrianG]

Originally posted by Niall
Does anyone here get the feeling that the FIA GT champsionship is winding its way into obscurity.

Niall

No not really. If you have a look at the entry list for both series you will find that the FIA GT series is in far better shape than the ALMS, also the FIA GT's have much closer racing. WHen was the last ALMS race that was not either an Audi 1-2 or just a win by Audi?

The FIA GT's have had the Labre Viper and the works lister sharing wins this year, and with the Raffanelli Ferrari showing more pace with each race there should be lots more close racing to come.

[DNQ]

I'm with Niall on this one. FIA should declare ALMS as the official sportscar world championship. It makes no sense that there are more entries in ALMS/ELMS than in FIA GT.

[MaxSport]

The FIA GT and Sportscar Series are drawing more cars than the ALMS.

Panoz saving LeMans? To some degree, I guess that is true as he has given them millions. However,if Panoz had not been around-- maybe the ACO would have gotten back together with the FIA by now and come up with common GT and LMP rules as well as a new World Championship for GTs and sports prototypes.

Take note- most of the field at LeMans are NOT regular LM Series teams. They come from the FIA GT and Sportscar Series, or they are LM one offs.

The current sportscar rules for FIA and the ACO are pretty close at this point. They could be identical soon, given that the FIA and ACO are meeting to discuss such things while at LeMans.

Panoz events have, for the most part, been a failure in terms of entries and crowds. He has spent quite a bit of money and achieved little. Petite LM is a marginal success,and Sebring continues to draw good crowds, despite the thin grid this year. On the whole it has not been a very good showing. Too bad for him and the sport.

Maybe it is the LeMans Series that should go away?


Kurt Maxwell
MaxSport-Motorsports Marketing
Indianapolis,IN.

[Heeltoe6]

ALMS draws decent crowds(biggest in US sportscar racing in a long time) at most of their venues except the stupid rovals. The television ratings are excellent for sportscars and rival cart and irl events.

the only problem i see is the car count. without banning factory teams outright, there is little alms can do to get more privateers in, because they would rather race garra, which, if you think alms is in trouble, is in a disastorous state of affairs. panoz has tried increase purses, points, and now power allowed to privateer teams, but they'd rather "win" over in garra than compete in alms.

another problem is panoz is tryong to overextend himself.. alms and aplms should not exist, and instead of going head to head with fia gt, i think panoz should stick to the states, except for 1-2 races which would be part of alsm and not a sister championship, and let aco and fia hammer out some agreement. Personally i do not care to see a field full of gt cars but it has worked, and i agree that gt1 cars were out of control. but now with more focus on prototypes instead of gt1s, some common ground can be reached.

final analysis. ALMS was desparately needed for the US and is a success for bringin back US sportscar racing from the brink, but its place internationally has only clouded the waters.