WTCC to go to Morocco in 2009 - Page 2

kmchow · 26 Jan 2009, 07:07 (Ref:2379374)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt

The ignorance in that post is astounding.

As for a Track, from my PoV, I'd love for them to hit up Lime Rock Park, as it's the closest, and would actually allow roughly a 20 lap race.

While negative and cruel sounding, it's the truth. If ST, S2000 or any other touring car series serioulsy mattered, there would be more open and supportive manufacturer involvement. The Speed Touring car series is about as good as it gets, but only Mazda really supports it via marketing/ads/money. Acura/BMW give sponsorship money.

Jimmy Magnusson · 26 Jan 2009, 08:41 (Ref:2379427)

There's no shortage of tracks in the US, but hardly a living sole would show up.

Matt · 26 Jan 2009, 16:41 (Ref:2379703)

To be honest, this is what the US needs now. Back when we had the NATCC, no one cared about small displacement cars. People now look towards them, and slag on NASCAR for not being close to 'production-spec.' The manufactures want a racecar that borrows heavily from the production version. So here is a MASSIVE opportunity to do that.

I wish I could find pictures that showed the crowd at Lime Rock this past summer for the ALMS. I'm being completely truthful here, there had to be at least 25k people there. The place was packed to the rafters for that race.
Edit: I found a picture, this is at turn 2 at lime rock, and a VERY small portion of the crowd.

What I would suggest, for the NATCC side of things, would to start it as a support catagory at ALMS, and Indycar rounds, to get a fanbase. Then a few years on, branch off into it's own standalone series. Trust me, if the manufactures could do that, they'd have something BIG on their hands.

duke_toaster · 26 Jan 2009, 16:59 (Ref:2379713)

What about getting WTCC and - possibly the Craftsman Trucks (do they still race on road courses) to coheadline there? Would it be permissable under FIA and NASCAR rules?

One option would be a temporary track somewhere, they could rig up a track at The Meadowlands bearing in mind the NYC area doesn't have a major motorsport event since it lost the ChampCar race. Again, it would need to coheadline with something local. Until USTCC comes along.

Matt · 26 Jan 2009, 17:04 (Ref:2379717)

The trucks don't race at any road courses, iirc. BuschNorth(Camping World East now, maybe?) has their finale at Lime Rock every year, but that's like, 4th teir stuff. If they really wanted to get an audience, run it on the same weekend that Sprint Cup goes to either Watkins Glen, or Sonoma. At The Glen, they have the Sprint Cup, Nationwide series, and a Grand Am DP race, I'm sure you could fit some WTCC races in there as well.

However, I think the WTCC needs to have those stupid garages right on the pit lane.

notguilty · 26 Jan 2009, 19:33 (Ref:2379866)

wait we have Speed World Challenge Touring Car Championship how does that figure into these plans?

Dead-Eye · 26 Jan 2009, 21:02 (Ref:2379934)

If we're talking about co-headlining with a local series for a US round, why not ALMS? Probably more realistic than cup.
Or with the IRL - the fact that Zanardi is in the WTCC now could generate a bit of interest...

notguilty · 27 Jan 2009, 00:45 (Ref:2380090)

no I meant more as we have something similair to the S2000 style of touring cars in this championship. It's not overly popular but it actually gets to support NASCAR at Sonoma. So why bring WTCC here? It's like when the FIA GT came to the US it be a niche event.

Dead-Eye · 27 Jan 2009, 20:53 (Ref:2380956)

I wasn't referring to your post in particular...now I am:

We have DTM and an S2000 series in Germany, yet we also have a round of the WTCC. It's not the same thing, but I don't think the existence of a local series is a reason not to go.

Matt · 27 Jan 2009, 23:44 (Ref:2381057)

Quote:

Originally Posted by notguilty

no I meant more as we have something similair to the S2000 style of touring cars in this championship. It's not overly popular but it actually gets to support NASCAR at Sonoma. So why bring WTCC here? It's like when the FIA GT came to the US it be a niche event.

SWC is NOTHING like Super2000.

notguilty · 28 Jan 2009, 05:36 (Ref:2381171)

just look at they interest in SWC and that will give you an idea of how much this style of racing is appreciated here in the states. Besides marketing this event here would be difficult since they dont sell SEAT's or Lada's here. BMW and Acura have ALMS projects to fund. Chevy puts its money in NASCAR and Corvettes.
*isnt it time this topic got moved to its own thread MOD HELP*

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