of Thanks & Good Bye ALMS

Thank you thank you thank you. ALMS came along exactly when I needed a new racing series to believe in. I have been to several ALMS races at Road America & Mid-Ohio. The "For The fans" open paddocks and starting grids at Road America are worth the price of admission. The combined ALMS/Grand-Am weekend at Road America was spectacular this year. If the USCC (Is it USCC or USCR?) continues to play nice with the ACO & the FIA's World Championship, driving the technology forward, this is going to be a great series. We are so close to a single inclusive set of rules. This is great.

Suggestions:
1 - continue to keep the big sanctioning bodies talking and playing nice.
2 - @USCC The entire schedule needs to increase the length of the races. The 2:45 format on some of these tracks is not worthy of endurance sports cars. Follow the lead of the World Endurance Championship with 6 hour minimum races.
3 - @USCC re-instate the eligibility of the LMP1 class for your crown jewels. Nothing wrong with inviting the P1 teams from across the pond, even if they win.
4 - @theFans can we stop the sniping at each other? This is a truly merged series now. ALMS & Grand-Am found a way to keep most of the classes and stay in the good graces of the ACO. Why are we fighting about 2 series that no longer exist?

God Speed - Sean

This crash.net article is unclear whether Sean Edwards was killed upon impact or if he died some point after. Either way, this is a horrific reminder of risks involved in motorsports. Rescue crews spent 3 hours trying to remove him from the fiery wreckage.

of the 2014 USCR Schedule

Take a look at the 2013 ALMS & Grand-Am schedules. Look at the duplicate tracks and the marquee events. Most of the 2014 USCR season is already set.
Daytona 24
Sebring 12
Laguna Seca
(Le Mans break)
Lime Rock
Watkins Glen
Road America
Circuit of The Americas
Petit Le Mans/Road Atlanta

That is 8 of the rumored 10 to 12 races. My must haves include 3 more great US Road Courses:
Mid-Ohio
Alabama
VIR

These are beautiful circuits that would be a shame to leave off of the new series' schedule. This only leaves room for 1 more event. So many more have been rumored to be sure things for various reasons: Long Beach, Belle Isle, Kansas...
If it was up to me I'd include the much maligned Indianapolis road course. It is not that bad. It is much better than the hallowed Daytona road course. I would make the race a 10 or 12 hour enduro and hype it as its own event. Adding Grand-Am as a support race for NASCAR will not draw fans. USCR would be better off tying it to IndyCar's proposed second race at The Brickyard, or bring those new (2015) North American DTMs to Indy. I see some sort of Labor Day Weekend road course extravaganza.
The entire schedule needs to increase the length of the races. The 2:45 format on some of these tracks is not worthy of endurance sports cars. Follow the lead of the World Endurance Championship with a 6 hour minimum and leave the street races behind.

of Le Mans 24 Hours 2012

Quick, obvious thoughts before the race:

"Road to Le Mans" The Toyota documentary is very much worth watching.

LMP1 - An Audi diesel will win.  The Audi eTron's flywheel has more racing history than the Toyota hybrid but look for a tough fight.  I think the Toyota will finish, but even if they do not, they have something to be proud of - a brand new car in 9 months and a whole year ahead of schedule.

GT - You know I am rooting for the Corvettes.

Delta Wing - go Go GO!  What a cool story - an engineers doodles to mock up to reality!  It doesn't get better than that.

Let's have a safe race.

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UPDATES:

Spotters Guide
lemanslive.com

We are at 22:25 remaining.  I am VERY surprised by the strength and speed of the 4 hybrids in the top 4 spots.

Check this out Corvettes LIVE.

just under 21:00 to go.  The Hybrids are still up top except of course for the #8.  Unbelievable that no one was hurt.

of Nick Mason, a Hanger, & Cars!

Road & Track Blog: Inside a Hanger at Rendcombe Airfield with Nick Mason http://goo.gl/mag/6azyu
I can't think of a Pink Pun just read.

of The Rolex 24 at Daytona & Two AJs

It was sad to see that AJ Foyt could not make it to this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona. Speed reported that he was too sick to give the call to start the engines. I hope for the best. He is one of the toughest Texans and a racer that should be admired by race fans of every type.

The race was fun. I saw several hours of it. The field was huge! Something like 114 cars in the field. Just nuts. Who didn't have a ride in this race?

The Grand Am Series finally got the DPs right - looks wise at least. It would have been great to see the new Corvette DP win but that Ford looked sweet, too. I'd prefer more than one GT class but who can argue with those numbers? I was really impressed with the restraint of the officials as they kept the race under green for the last 15 minutes. Cars seemed to be sliding off track or stopping everywhere in the final minutes except for the banking at the S/F line. Then Waltrip took his Ferrari into the tires. I was screaming at the TV 'knowing' that the NASCAR fix was in. It wasn't. AJ - The Dinger - Allmendinger won the race under green.

I seem to remember that kid, not too long ago, trying to find some shade under his team's Formula Atlantic tent at The Mile. Am I that old?

ALMS: Sebring

That was fun. I loved the TV/web package. Congratulations to Oreca Matmut for the P1 win. Rahal & BMW you should be proud. Nice clean race.

Sebring gave me the excuse to run hundreds of laps with my slot cars from light into dark. Great fun.

UPDATE: I was disappointed in the ABC Sports TV recap. At 90 minutes it just didn't deliver on offering the stories behind a 12 hour race and the actual race coverage was too choppy. If I hadn't watched several hours on Saturday I would have been completely lost. The live web coverage was done very well though.

of ALMS & Indianapolis

In the past two months the Hulman-George family ousted Tony from 1st being CEO of IMS and then IRL. Mom allowed Tony to stay on the various boards but like all good children he is to be seen and not heard.

Things are changing on Georgetown Road and they might be looking for a sports car race. Now, the American Le Mans Series web site is running a poll. "Would you like to see the Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?" Well, Duh! YES! Please head over to the ALMS and vote yes.

I know it would be too much to ask the ACO to allow a 24° of Indianapolis but a 12° enduro there would be spectacular.

ALMS Going to France?

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.