|
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.
|