There are rumors flying everywhere since Robin Miller repeated a rumor he heard from "a team principle" that Grand Am and in turn the France Family is looking to eat up the American Le Mans Series.
It would be nice to see sports car racing come together. ALMS car counts are down. LMP1&2 are sorely lacking. Eight cars across the two prototype class causes me to question if I want to buy tickets for this season's Road America race. GT1 has been on life support for the previous 2 seasons and died this year at Long Beach. The ALMS in Utah brought up GT3ish cars from the Challenge series to fill the grid.
Still, Le Mans style racing is the best thing going. The GT2 grid is growing. The fan experience is second to none. Where else can any fan with a general admission ticket walk the pre-race grid among the drivers and their cars? There is hope of Audi coming back with the R15 in 2009 and 2010. Porsche's prototype plans remain to be seen, and we have heard rumors of a Ferrari LMP1. It is true that this is a down year for the ALMS, but the ACO is successfully running the LMS in Europe and kicking off a new Asian Le Mans Series. When FOTA threatened to walk away from F1, we saw F1 team leaders and manufacturers talking to the ACO about running sports cars under ACO rules. Something must be attractive about this form of sports car racing. I had high hopes for 2010.
If a merger is to happen in sports car racing I'd like to see Daytona adopt the ACO's rules rather than ALMS going away. If the ALMS is eaten up by the NASCAR machine this isn't a merger or a coming together at all. It is both sides digging in.
If the France Family gobbles up the American Le Mans Series it is a sad day for the fans. It was fun while it lasted.
I'll be watching this closely.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Mosley: Peace In Our Time
Mosley Announces Peace...
2010 Grid Confirmed...
FOTA stops new series...
FOTA reportedly gets what they demanded. FOTA teams must call off the breakaway series and commit to F1 until 2012. The FIA agreed to accept FOTA's demands and there has been agreement to get back to 1990s spending levels. Details of how that will be done are not yet available. It was these details that caused the rhubarb in the first place, so this will be interesting to see. Despite Max's announced plans to run again for FIA/WMSC president in order to "save" F1; it turns out that the saving move might be his agreement to go quietly into the night at the end of this term.
My take:
Mosley gets to announce that he preserved the peace while the team owners rise in power. The new president, who ever that is, will be beholden to FOTA. The current and future team owners have made it clear that they will race high tech cars against other members of this exclusive club, by their rules, no matter what the series is called.
Whether under the banner of FOTA or not, F1's top teams have threatened this before - as they should - they will do this again. FOTA is stronger. 2012 is not too far away to start laying the groundwork for a series laying in wait.
It looks like 2010's grid with 26 cars is a throwback to early 1990s CART: high car count, several manufactures, a mix of chassis and engine combinations. This could be good.
I had hoped that this threatened split would lead to a true merger of the world's open wheel formulae. With the promise of reduced costs with in two years, is there a chance? Hey. I can dream.
2010 Grid Confirmed...
FOTA stops new series...
FOTA reportedly gets what they demanded. FOTA teams must call off the breakaway series and commit to F1 until 2012. The FIA agreed to accept FOTA's demands and there has been agreement to get back to 1990s spending levels. Details of how that will be done are not yet available. It was these details that caused the rhubarb in the first place, so this will be interesting to see. Despite Max's announced plans to run again for FIA/WMSC president in order to "save" F1; it turns out that the saving move might be his agreement to go quietly into the night at the end of this term.
My take:
Mosley gets to announce that he preserved the peace while the team owners rise in power. The new president, who ever that is, will be beholden to FOTA. The current and future team owners have made it clear that they will race high tech cars against other members of this exclusive club, by their rules, no matter what the series is called.
Whether under the banner of FOTA or not, F1's top teams have threatened this before - as they should - they will do this again. FOTA is stronger. 2012 is not too far away to start laying the groundwork for a series laying in wait.
It looks like 2010's grid with 26 cars is a throwback to early 1990s CART: high car count, several manufactures, a mix of chassis and engine combinations. This could be good.
I had hoped that this threatened split would lead to a true merger of the world's open wheel formulae. With the promise of reduced costs with in two years, is there a chance? Hey. I can dream.
Friday, June 19, 2009
The New Open Wheel Split
| FOTA is announcing that it is setting up a new Formula 1 alternative. They have threatened this before, but the threats were years out and the FIA had given concessions. This time it just might happen. WOW! Tony George needs to call FOTA now and come up with a common formula. 2011 with two series under one formula would be too unbelievable. FOTA teams to launch breakaway series It will never happen. (The Indy/FOTA formula - that is.) |
Thursday, June 18, 2009
GTO Woes
| The Muse seems to have struck some at Slot Car Illustrated as they lament the poor performing 1:32 GTO. SCI Thread: I do not love thee... Below is my submission there and my first attempt at an emailed web log post. grand rouge horse lumbers taunting shouts, "get off the road" - once was three time champ |
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