ALMS-is the racing over ?
 

I love the ALMS series of racing. The cars are the best in any series around. But the winds are changing for next year with the stories about many cars not coming back. First, Corvette. Maybe gone or going to a easier route. Porsche Penske going away in LMP2. Accura possibly pulling the plug. Aston Marton gone. Bently only racing now and then. Audi still going, but against who? What's left?. I hate to see real road racing go the way of NASCAR. I'm afraid that the Petit LeMans race on Oct 4 might be the last big event. Any thoughts on this from the learned or informed. :(

Here is an update on the Corvette:
http://www.autoextremist.com/the-line1/

Corvette Racing. BREAKING NEWS (1:30pm, 9/9/08): Big changes are in store for one of the most successful GT racing teams of all time. Corvette Racing will compete in the 2009 ALMS season in the GT1 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Long Beach, and of course the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in June (its tenth appearance at the world's most prestigious endurance race). BUT, the big news is that when the team returns to the U.S. after Le Mans, it will compete in select ALMS races in the GT2 class with all-new cars constructed by Pratt & Miller Engineering in preparation for a full-season program under new international GT class regulations in 2010.

Given this announcement it would seem that ALMS is healthy.

The question has to be: Who will they race against? They have nobody now, and they might have nobody in 2010. Its the quality and quantity that matters to most race fans.

Just look at the GT2 class. Porsche, Ferrari, Viper, Corvette, BMW, Panoz, Audi, and more either already running or making plans to do so. Real differences in real cars; not the NASCAR formula of the same car with different headlight and tail light stickers.

Corvette Racing. BREAKING NEWS (1:30pm, 9/9/08): Big changes are in store for one of the most successful GT racing teams of all time. Corvette Racing will compete in the 2009 ALMS season in the GT1 class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, Long Beach, and of course the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in June (its tenth appearance at the world's most prestigious endurance race). BUT, the big news is that when the team returns to the U.S. after Le Mans, it will compete in select ALMS races in the GT2 class with all-new cars constructed by Pratt & Miller Engineering in preparation for a full-season program under new international GT class regulations in 2010. "Corvette Racing will be well positioned for the future of production-based sports car racing worldwide with the plans we are announcing today," said Steve Wesoloski, GM Racing Road Racing Group manager. "The international regulations are converging around a single, global GT class, and we intend to continue Corvette's motorsports heritage by racing against manufacturers and marques that Corvette competes with in the marketplace. The GT1 class has been a platform for GM Racing and our partners to develop the most technically sophisticated race cars in our history. We intend to apply the tremendous success we have had in the GT1 category to make the next-generation Corvette C6.R a strong contender in the new GT class." The new GT Corvette C6.R race car will be based on the production Corvette's chassis and body design. A 6.0-liter version of the LS7.R small-block V-8 will power the Corvette GT2 entry in the transitional 2009 season. A new naturally aspirated 5.5-liter version of the production GM small-block V-8 will be developed to meet the new GT regulations that will take effect in 2010. The chassis and powertrain specifications of the new Corvette GT entry will be submitted to the ACO and FIA for homologation approval. "Competing in GT2 will be a true test of our team's determination, talent and technology," said Doug Fehan, Corvette Racing program manager. "The level of competition in the category is already fierce, and that promises to become more intense with more manufacturers and top-tier teams. We've explored alternative paths, and we believe that competing in GT is the right road for Corvette Racing to take in the future. We will continue our commitment to cellulosic E85R ethanol racing fuel in the current GT1 Corvette C6.R and the next-generation Corvette C6.R that will compete in the new GT class " Fehan said. "Corvette Racing's green racing initiative is proof of our commitment to using alternative fuels at the highest levels of motorsports." Manufacturers currently represented in the ALMS GT2 class or confirmed for future participation include Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, BMW, Ford, Dodge and Panoz. Other manufacturers produce high-performance cars that could compete in the new GT category. Corvette Racing is America's premier production sports car team, with 72 wins in 100 races. The most successful team in ALMS history, Corvette Racing has won seven consecutive ALMS GT1 manufacturers and team championships and six straight drivers championships. Corvette Racing has five GT1 victories since 2001 in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans. Corvette Racing’s next event is Petit Le Mans, the 10th round of the 2008 American Le Mans Series, at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga. The 1,000-mile/10-hour race is scheduled to start at 11:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday, October 4. SPEED will televise the race live starting at 11 a.m. EDT.

I think the future looks great. GT2 will be awesome with BMW, Corvette, and maybe Audi (2010) joining and already ultra-competitive class. LMP2 will still be good, Penske hasn't confirmed or denied participation and there will still be 2 Acuras, Dyson Spyders, BK Mazda, etc. LMP1 will finally have some real Audi competition with Acura fielding 2 teams and everyone else returning. Other than GT1 things look great, word is that there will only be one GT class in 2010.

I have been involved in pro level sports car racing since the early 80's and SCCA prior to that, so over 30 years.

There has always been a tension between the competitors - factories - sanctioning body. With the bifurcation of Grand Am and ALMS the sanctioning bodies went either to the factory camp ALMS or the competitor side Grand Am.

IMSA was always pulled between the two and for many years was able to maintain some sort of equilibrium.

FIA and ACO were another matter - Europe vs N. America.

The market for sports car racing is not large enough for two series in N. America and both have suffered as did open wheel.

Who loses, the fans, the competitors. The factories come and go as they have for the last 30 or 40 years as it suites their marketing departments, or as a function of their lobbying of the sanctioning bodies for rules favorable to them.

As a fan and a competitor I long for the days of IMSA and John Bishop when there was one series for N America focused on the fans and the ability to balance the needs of all concerned to the betterment of the sport.

I feel like both sanctioning bodies are trying to do this but both are not able to pull it off.

Until there is one series that balances the needs of the factories and the independent competitors sports car racing in this country will be the worse off.

Excuse this rant but I care about road racing.

I tend to watch more Rolex races than ALMS. Would hate to see either series go away.

Keys to good viewer numbers (in my un-expert opinion) are top notch commentators and quality camera angles that give the sensation of speed and focus on the passing action.

Oh, and an ability to feel a kinship with the brand/driver. Hard to do that in large #'s when the brands are Ferrari, Porsche and even more esoteric brands.

Penske is leaving ALMS? I hadn’t heard that. If (and that's a big if) it's true, that’s bad news, for sure.

Anyways, there were really only two classes of interest this year. In P1, there were the Audi’s and some back runners. In GT1, there were the Corvettes. Boring.

In P2, it was Porsche versus Acura.
In GT2, it was Porsche versus Ferrari.

There were a bunch of other teams, sure, but the only real contests, amongst the four classes, were Porsche versus Acura in P2 and Porsche versus Ferrari in GT2.

If Penske leaves P2, then it will look like GT2 this year, with just Acura. Perhaps next year the only contests will be Audi versus Acura in P1 and Porsche versys Ferrari in GT2.

To dumb for opera to smart for nascar
 

ALMS is alive and well. Corvette has not been racing anyone but themselves for a couple of years. GT-2 is the future hot class in this series.I attend Sebring and the Petite along with the Rolex 24. ALMS rules

AFAIC, they can take the big guns off the track in both GT and LMP. The "2" cars are fabulous. Just look at the RS Spyder, et al.

One more comment: If Porsche leaves LMP2, that will look really bad. It will look like they got beat by Acura and are running away, with their tail tucked between their rear tires.

I agree... too many classes just fractures the field unnecessarily

The issue that ALMS face is that they are dependent on the factory teams. You can see this in GT2 and P1, dominant team and few challengers. The car counts are low in these classes as it is very expensive to compete even for the manufactures.

If Penske leaves it is because the factory no longer wants to fund, the plan was to start the program with a factory team and then sell customer cars with all teams getting support but paying for it. Racing is a profit center for Porsche. Penske was the seeding of the patch, now the home office will be looking at the numbers.

As the manufactures come and go so will go ALMS. Look back to the later years in IMSA as the factories came in and drove the sport for their interests and then left when it no longer served their purpose.

Porsche has had a long standing customer program which is why so many cars all the time, they stay with a customer team model and continue to support the competitors.

Other manufactures leave orphan teams when they pull out. How many times do the competitors get burned when the funding gets pulled and parts and engineering are no longer available.

Porsche/Penske are hacked that the LMP2 has been penalized to the point where they no longer have the ability to take overall winner away from LMP1. We all know that F1, Indy, LeMans and ALMS are all about politics between brands. That's why Porsche pulled the plug on Indy cars years ago. A.J. pulled some strings with his buddys concerning Porsche's engine limitations to the point where they didn't have a prayer so Porsche said see-ya.