In 2008, the American Le Mans Series was at it’s hight. It was one of the fastest growing racing series in the US, at the same time Champcar had died, and Indycar was still led by the unholy trinity of George/Barnhardt/Angust. The series had multiple multi car prototype teams, with a new Acura LMP1 team coming the next year, preparing to enter the series and try and beat the famous Audi LMP1 team, with rumors that Peugeot might even join. ALMS looked like it could be the “next big thing” in racing. And then? The economic crisis happened. More than any other still living series in America, the recession has been a disaster for ALMS. Audi pulled out, and with Audi leaving, Acura’s LMP1 team lasted only 1 year. Porsche’s LMP2 team also was gone, taking with it Penske’s sports car program, which attempted Grand Am. Teams such as Fernandez, De Ferran, and Andretti also pulled out. While some replacements have entered the series (Muscle Milk CytoSport, Drayson Racing, and new for 2011 Level 5 Motorsports, for instance) they don’t have the history of the teams that have left. With new rules for the 2011 season, the lineup of LMP1, LMP2, and LMC teams are still in-flux, with Sebring Open Testing starting this week. With a risky TV package in place for the future, and more interest than ever in the 24 Hours of Daytona (though the actual Grand Am series is still very unpopular), the American Le Mans Series is at a serious crossroads.
Despite these issues, the racing has been pretty good. Last season the series had only one true LMP class, outside of the two “Major” races at Sebring and Road Atlanta. The series tried to “balance” the performance between LMP1 and LMP2 cars, and did a very good job. The racing was excellent, as Road America demonstrated, with the LMP1 based cars rockets on the straights, but easily caught by the lighter and more maneuverable LMP2 based cars on the turns. Sebring was pretty weak, with the Audi’s not showing up, allowing Peugeot to slaughter the field, but the Audi’s returned for the Petite Le Mans, although they ended up losing.
While the LMP class has been struggling ,the GT2 class has been thriving. Corvette, Porsche, BMW, and Ferrari all run 2 car factory/semi-factory teams, and this year, Jaguar is stepping up with a 2 car team that will include Bruno Junqueira, Cristo De Matta, and PJ Jones! The Ford GT is also run by a privateer, a new Lamborghini team will debut this year, and the Panoz’s will run a new GT2 car as well. What makes GT2 appealing is that they’re production based cars, and thus, the costs can be justified from both a marketing and a development perspective. The issue right now is that the GT2 class doesn’t get the coverage that LMP, who are running for the overall win, get.
What makes trying to improve the ALMS even harder is it’s relationship with the ACO. It’s called the American Le Mans Series, after all. The 12 Hours of Sebring and Petite Le Mans, the series two biggest races, are run by most of the top teams for the 24 Hours of Le Mans as preparation races, and so the rules stay pretty similar between them. With the International Le Mans Series Challenge (who’s rules follow the 24 Hours of Le Mans) including the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petite Le Mans, that relationship is only going to grow closer. The problem is, what’s good for the ACO, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, may not be good for the ALMS. The most basic example is that the ALMS struggles with a massive gap in it’s schedule to allow teams to fly out to Le Mans. But the real issue is that the rules formated for the 24 Hours work for them, but the situation is completely different over here. Car makers are willing to spend a fair amount of money to run the 24 Hours of Le Mans… but since the ALMS get’s ratings of .4 on TV (and now will have only taped delayed), not nearly as much over here. The re-organization of the LMP1/LMP2 classes are another affect of the ACO, although there will be some differences in the rules (IE: the Aston Martin won’t be restricted except for the ILMC races) . The worst example of the ALMS following the ILMC though, is in the rule requiring a “non professional driver” in the LMP2 category. I’m sorry, but why would you LOWER the level of drivers in the series? Requiring non professional drivers in a category is the opposite of what fans want to see when they go to a race, which is the best drivers around! This really, really screws Hydcroft, who run Simon Pagenound and David Brabbams, both of whom are professional racing drivers, and two of the only “named” drivers in the series!
A major area where the ALMS has failed is in marketing itself. They’ve focused on the fact they’re “green” and they’re “relevant”, which is great, but they fail to emphasis how good the racing itself is. They explain how the cars on the track transfer to road cars, but they fail to show just how cool it is to see Corvette’s, Jaguar’s, BMW M3′s, Porsche 911′s and Ferrari F430′s racing each other on track. The racing is great, the car’s look and sound great, but they don’t get that message out their. They also don’t market the drivers well; they lack “star” power more than Indycar or even Grand Am! Market the drivers, racing, and GT2 teams more! Especially with the struggles of the LMP1/2 catagories, GT2′s where the interest can be won. Even in the down times, between the GT and LMP cars, it’s the Best Looking Race Cars in the world, so why isn’t that talked about more?!?!?!?!
I’m not entirely sure how to fix the LMP1/2 categories. How do they not dumb down the series (RE: Grand Sham) but at the same time make it more accessible to the automakers? I personally enjoyed the combing of the LMP1 and LMP2 categories last year, and wish they’d continue it, but with the “new” LMP2 cars with production based engines, not sure if that would have been possible. The idea of a production engine based LMP2 car isn’t a bad idea, honestly, but it’s being implemented to keep factories out, when the opposite is what’s needed (in the US, at least). Maintaining the relationship with the ACO is important, but at the same time, what works for selling a series in Europe doesn’t transfer that well over here. They have to have that relationship, at least for Sebring and Petite, because the 24 Hours of Le Mans teams racing in them is a major part of those races appeal. But the series has got to look for ways to get factory involved prototypes back into the series. And not just one factory, either (like the Audi rumors) because that would just create a massacre. I’ll be honest; I don’t know what the solution is, but something’s got to be done to improve the LMP field.
What’s really worrying is how much buzz was around the 24 Hours of Daytona this year. It felt like a lot more than usual. The field was actually down from the last few years, but it felt like a lot more people were watching and tweeting about it. A lot of this was due to the promotion of the race from a lot of the NASCAR writers, who usually try and ignore everything that isn’t NASCAR. Still, for a lot of people (NASCAR fans) it’s the only time a year they’ll see “sports car” racing. I don’t know what the ratings were, so maybe it wasn’t up from before, but it sure felt like it, and that worries me. In a poll by the SpeedFreaks, the 24 Hours of Daytona tied the combined Sebring/Petite in which race people would want to attend. Of course, if you compare actual attendance, Petite and Sebring are over 100,000, which means they’re basically the bigger than every Indycar race than the 500 and quite a few NASCAR races, and the 24 Hours of Daytona… well, they’re not, to put it nicely. They have people in the infield, but the stands were basically empty. But it worries me that in the Sports Car Split, the ALMS may be losing momentum. That’s scary, because the last thing we need is NASCAR taking control of another form of motorsports, and dumbing it down…
A new TV deal and figuring out how to fix the LMP issue’s are important, but they can’t be done until next year (at the earliest). This year, the biggest thing they can do is push GT2. They’ve got to market the GT2 class, the fact that it’s Corvette’s, Jaguar’s, Porsche’s, BMW’s, Ferrari’s, Ford GT’s, Lamborghini, and Panoz’s. They need to focus on that, and cut back on the “green” thing, because that’s not what excites most race fans. They’ve also got to focus on getting their drivers names out there, so people care about them. They also need to try and find a few more sponsors, because very, very few teams have any outside sponsors. Hard to get sponsors to market and “activate” with the series when you basically have none, outside of Patron!
I’m worried for the ALMS. Their future was looking pretty good through the fall, but since the Audi deal’s fallen through, things aren’t feeling that good. While Indycar is adding sponsors and adding drivers, ALMS is going to opposite way. Last year’s champions, Hydcroft, haven’t announced their plans yet. It was originally said they’d run a full ALMS schedule plus a few Indycar races, Indycar’s looking less and less likely, and there are some rumors they’ll not even run a full season, though personally, I believe they’ll find a way, they’re just too good not to. For a while, it looked like the ALMS would challange Indycar, but at this point, their goal needs to be staying ahead of the Grand Sham. I like the ALMS series a lot, it’s the best car road racing around, but they just seem to be unable to catch a break. What they need most is to have the economy improve, sponsors and automakers more willing to spend money, and maybe things will start to improve. The current TV deal is bad… I know the theory on why it might work, but there’s a huge difference between reality and theory… I think the series is safe, in the sense that I don’t believe it’s in risk of going away. In the end, Sebring and Petite support the series, and there is enough GT2 involvement to keep it going on the races in between. But… the series needs to find a way to grab attention and recapture it’s momentum. What’s it going to take? I don’t completely know. For this season, they’ve just got to focus on GT2, and on how good the racing is (and hopefully still will be) in the diminished LMP categories. For the future, what they need to most is factory backed LMP teams. How to get them, that’s the million dollar question.
Source: Triple League Racing http://tripleleagueracing.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/american-le-mans-series-a-series-at-a-crossroads/
February 2, 2011
Remember the "good old days?" Like 2008?
GT2 Class is still strong
What makes trying to improve the ALMS even harder is it’s relationship with the ACO. It’s called the American Le Mans Series, after all. The 12 Hours of Sebring and Petite Le Mans, the series two biggest races, are run by most of the top teams for the 24 Hours of Le Mans as preparation races, and so the rules stay pretty similar between them. With the International Le Mans Series Challenge (who’s rules follow the 24 Hours of Le Mans) including the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petite Le Mans, that relationship is only going to grow closer. The problem is, what’s good for the ACO, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, may not be good for the ALMS. The most basic example is that the ALMS struggles with a massive gap in it’s schedule to allow teams to fly out to Le Mans. But the real issue is that the rules formated for the 24 Hours work for them, but the situation is completely different over here. Car makers are willing to spend a fair amount of money to run the 24 Hours of Le Mans… but since the ALMS get’s ratings of .4 on TV (and now will have only taped delayed), not nearly as much over here. The re-organization of the LMP1/LMP2 classes are another affect of the ACO, although there will be some differences in the rules (IE: the Aston Martin won’t be restricted except for the ILMC races) . The worst example of the ALMS following the ILMC though, is in the rule requiring a “non professional driver” in the LMP2 category. I’m sorry, but why would you LOWER the level of drivers in the series? Requiring non professional drivers in a category is the opposite of what fans want to see when they go to a race, which is the best drivers around! This really, really screws Hydcroft, who run Simon Pagenound and David Brabbams, both of whom are professional racing drivers, and two of the only “named” drivers in the series!
Focus on the "Best Looking Race Cars In the World"
I’m not entirely sure how to fix the LMP1/2 categories. How do they not dumb down the series (RE: Grand Sham) but at the same time make it more accessible to the automakers? I personally enjoyed the combing of the LMP1 and LMP2 categories last year, and wish they’d continue it, but with the “new” LMP2 cars with production based engines, not sure if that would have been possible. The idea of a production engine based LMP2 car isn’t a bad idea, honestly, but it’s being implemented to keep factories out, when the opposite is what’s needed (in the US, at least). Maintaining the relationship with the ACO is important, but at the same time, what works for selling a series in Europe doesn’t transfer that well over here. They have to have that relationship, at least for Sebring and Petite, because the 24 Hours of Le Mans teams racing in them is a major part of those races appeal. But the series has got to look for ways to get factory involved prototypes back into the series. And not just one factory, either (like the Audi rumors) because that would just create a massacre. I’ll be honest; I don’t know what the solution is, but something’s got to be done to improve the LMP field.
Ugly, Slow, Dumbed Down, overturned Bathtubs, this CANNOT be the future for American Sports Car Racing!
At this point, the ALMS has got to market the GT2 Class.
It's the best thing they've got right now
This is what we need more of, Prototypes!
Source: Triple League Racing http://tripleleagueracing.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/american-le-mans-series-a-series-at-a-crossroads/
February 2, 2011
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