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20 Jun 2011, 00:35 (Ref:2902160) | #26 | ||
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Quote:
What would really help Australia is if a manufacturer advocated for having a race there. I don't know if Audi or Peugeot would do that. Maybe Toyota would if they joined in, but Australia is one of many strong markets for Toyota so who knows if even that is an option. |
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20 Jun 2011, 02:30 (Ref:2902177) | #27 | ||
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Speed-King, it was more like 20 years, if that. And even then, the old WSC was propped up MASSIVELY by the Italian penchant for racing customer cars from their nation's marque brands. Local support all over Europe helped hold things together from the very start of the WSC, especially since GTs back then were MUCH closer to street cars.
And even without uniform rules, there was plenty of mechanical crossover going on between series. In the US, you had championships under the SCCA, USAC, and IMSA, starting in 1951. In Europe, the was the British Sportscar Championship, German Interserie, the European Sportscar Chamionship, and the DRM, to name a few; the German Sportscar Championship kicked of post-war in 1948. There was the South African Springbok Series as well. During Group C, Japan even had their own championship for those cars. And it wasn't just about the specific cars, but about getting people into the sport locally who would go on to the top ranks, and building local interest in the sport as a whole. And back in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, there were a hell of a lot more non-championship sportscar races that used top-line machinery. Having a regional series is today's answer to how you get that more local support that builds teams and events from each country/continent to the point where you have races, drivers, cars, ans teams at the very top. And before someone tries to cut me off here, I haven't really seen any recent graduates from SCCA or NASA making their way into the ALMS. So, I'm NOT counting on the US "club" racing scene, as such, to provide the next generation of top-level sportscar racers. Finally, at least in the US, I don't think anything less than full LMPs is going to garner the desired level of attention from fans, viewers, media outlets, and sponsors. If it could, wouldn't SCCA DSR, CSR, IMSA Lites, and whatever else be on television regularly by now? And if Continental Tire and World Challenge are any indication, I wouldn't expect anything great from a GT-only series here either. Last edited by Purist; 20 Jun 2011 at 02:36. |
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20 Jun 2011, 21:57 (Ref:2902598) | #28 | |
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Dagys has a new interview with Frederic-Henry Biabaud in which he says that there is interest in starting (restarting I guess) the Asian Le Mans Series. He mainly talks about China and a little about Japan, but maybe Australia can get in on the action. It would be nice to see the interested Australian parties (teams and tracks) work with the Chinese/Japanese to try to cobble together a meaningful Pacific championship. We'll see I guess. I don't know if the Chinese want to race in Australia.
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