CHARLOTTE, N.C.
For some reason there are people who just can’t stand success. Over the years many of those were found at the top levels of European sports-car racing. How else can one explain the fact that every time the folks at the Federation Internationale de L’Automobile and their counterparts at Le Mans seem to have a rules formula that works, they scrap it for something new?
Now, as the current prototype formula on the Eastern shores of the Atlantic finally appears to be bearing fruit, officials of the l’Automobile Club de l’Ouest which not only governs Le Mans but leases its technical regulations to Don Panoz’s American Le Mans Series, want to do away with the open-topped Spyders and their enclosed counterparts in favor of coupes, which more broadly resemble what the major manufacturers produce.
The ACO hierarchy has a short memory.
In 1976, the FIA introduced its so-called “silhouette” prototype formula, which produced Porsche’s 935 turbo, and which, more importantly, “bombed” in the marketplace, as the public stayed away in droves while turning off their television sets.
In the mid 1990s the silhouette formula enjoyed resurgence in modified form, as both Porsche with its 911 GT1 and Mercedes with its CLK entered the fray, only to be overcome by street-legal versions of all-out Group C-based racing designs from Toyota and Nissan.
And, while the racing was generally good, especially at Le Mans, it was largely ignored by ticket buyers and TV watchers alike.
What should the ALMS do if the proposed ACO “street-like” prototype formula goes into effect in 2010?
In earlier times the Americans have managed to cope and, in fact, prosper to a large degree through clever marketing. However, that may not be true this time.
While it is all well and good that the ACO may attract the interest of the Europeans, here in the United States the manufacturers already have an outlet to display their wares. It is called NASCAR, and it does enjoy some moderate success. According to many experts here, it is the third-largest professional sport in the country by itself, without including other motorsports series.
So, why would General Motors, Ford, Chrysler or Toyota gear up and spend the hundreds of millions necessary to develop a car for the new ACO formula (which presumably the FIA will go along with) to reach an audience that on a good day is about a tenth of what the Nextel Cup generates?
The answer is simple: they won’t. And that could leave ALMS officials with some decisions to make that they may not want to make.
The Grand American camp, for all the criticism one can conjure up about the appearance and the performance of its Rolex Series entries, has chosen the path of independence. The vagaries of the Europeans simply don’t figure in their equation. Right or wrong, the Grand Am has determined it will decide its own future, something not necessarily true of the ALMS.
In recent times, the Panoz camp under Scott Atherton and Tim Mayer has shown a willingness to do what it feels is necessary for the success of its championship, the most obvious decision being the one in which the LMP2 were allowed to compete against their LMP1 counterparts on more or less equal terms, thus effectively creating a single prototype division that has brought new interest to the series.
If the World Sports Car-based prototype scriptures are abandoned in 2010 in favor of regulations, that may well reduce the size of the ALMS’s grids.
Right now the ALMS has pulled itself out of the hole it was in last year when the Audi diesel R10s were crushing their opposition in a continuing and boring fashion. Those who have said that the ALMS could ultimately be doomed by its adherence to a high-tech philosophy have had to have a serious rethink.
The ACO and the FIA may want to explore the uncharted, and frequently unrewarding, waters of the future; however, one suspects that the ALMS is a bit more practical when it comes to deciding where it wants to go.
At least let’s hope so.