On Wednesday, September 5, the future of North American
Sports Car Auto Racing was introduced to the world, the
American Le Mans series merging with Grand Am.
But really, it was hugely bigger than that.
This was a game changing acquisition of assets, from
the Panoz Motor Sports Group.
His selling of IMSA, the sanctioning body, the AMLS,
the Road Atlanta track, and his long term lease on Sebring
track, all purchased, bought like tuna at
a Tokyo fish market.
See that's Don Panoz and Scott Atherton right they're doing
the deal with NASCAR holdings.
They want control of sports car in the US.
They want more fans, more revenues, and more control of
more opportunities to sell more sponsorship, because
that's what they do.
From the moment this deal was leaked, up into and including
parts of the press conference, this thing has been discussed
and portrayed as a merger, but really it is not.
OK, there are merger pieces in the new plan.
The new management structure, the car classes, the schedule
of tracks that will make the racing, and
we'll discuss all that.
And we could also discuss the new name for this series,
because that was not defined in the announcement press
conference.
So, this is the future of North American
Sports Car Auto Racing.
OMFG, I just realized the acronym for North American
Sports Car Auto Racing is NASCAR.
So we got to go gloves off with the new plan right now.
To figure out if that great sports car racer Charles
Dickens was right, is this the best of times?
The worst of times?
And Jesus Christ, he looks just like
NASCAR racer Boris Said.
I may look like I'm dressed for a funeral, but it really
is a big, good day.
Even with NASCAR announcing they are the new rulers of
North American Sports Car Racing.
But theirs a benevolent dictatorship, because ALMS
will be part of what will be retained moving forward with
the merger.
The connection to global racing, however, to be
determined.
But this is all for 2014, so I really should have my own
empty chair just like Clint Eastwood.
But ours would be for the dead man walking called the 2013
ALMS season.
And maybe I really need to chairs the other one for the
2013 Grand Am season.
Because the teams, drivers, series employees, sponsors,
manufacturers, and others, are all out in limbo, waiting on
what to do next as this new merger decides what will
happen next.
Six months down since they started talking 14 months to
go for the Daytona 24 in 2014.
We need to know some answers.
And everyone can feel good about the announcement, but
it's time to make those decisions.
So if we accomplish anything today, it should be to frame
the questions on what needs to happen next.
And to embolden all of you, all the fans, manufacturers,
sponsors, do not wait on the sidelines.
But to be vocal, be active, and fight for some control, or
at least have a say.
Now when this was first announced, I really frankly
didn't care.
Because I cynically said, this is not about the racing.
This is about a bunch of big guys, making big deals for
themselves.
And that still may be true.
But rather than surrender to that cynical thought, let's
look at what's happening with the racing.
And to find the questions that will frame
great racing in 2014.
Let's look at each piece of what it's going to take to
have a racing series, and dissect what we've been told,
what we know, what we think we know.
And what the unknown parts, and the parts not told to us
yet, the questions we should be asking.
Now my recap of what was said and not is pretty logical and
goes something like this.
Daytona Prototypes will continue, they're
not going to go away.
Now whether they're the top class, or merge with an AMLS
class is to be determined.
And the LMP2 Prototypes are that class of whether they'll
stand alone as the fastest cars, or be equal as with
Daytona Prototype.
On the GT front, the press conference mentioned that the
ALMS GT cars GTE will be retained, and they'll be the
headliners in the GT category.
ALMS Porsche GTC category will be folded into Grand Am's GT
class, and they'll serve as kind of the second tier to the
premier GTE cars.
Maybe they'll be called GT3.
Left out will be the ALMS P1 classes, I already mentioned.
Too sophisticated, too much technology, not enough
interest in America.
In the LMPC category of cars, the spec cars, they're
probably gone too.
ALMS and ACO association, and the regulations go with it for
car spec is all TBD.
And the Le Mans 24, they talked about having time on
the new 2014 schedule to allow teams to go to Le Mans, but
the earned entries that the ALMS contract gave them is all
TBD as well.
OK time for the details, and let's start with leadership.
And here's where the merger kicks in.
ALMS's Scott Atherton and Dr. Don Panoz have been elected
two the board seats of the six seats that exist in this,
leaving four for NASCAR.
You can do the voting there.
The sanctioning body, well they talked about a blended
process getting the best of the best of both
ALMS and Grand Am.
And the rules, kind of the same thing, but they very
specifically talk about this being an American series, and
more about that a bit.
But they want to have respect for the international value
that is coming with an international connection.
So is this a global solution to sports car racing in
America, or is it not national solution?
And of the ACO, FIA and WEC?
Well the answers are TBD, TBD, and no freaking way, and I'll
talk more about that at the end.
Le Mans 24 entries, as I mentioned, space on the
schedule, to be determined about those guarantees.
And what about the specs of the cars?
Unified spec globally, or we're going to be doing our
own national thing?
Well all they talked about was a combination of equipment for
both Grand Am and American Le Mans.
Let's talk about the cars in particular.
They made no question, in no uncertain terms, P1 is dead in
North America.
So watching the Audi's and the Toyota's?
Well that's just not going to happen, they're WEC cars now,
they're Le Mans cars.
And even the ALMS P1 cars are not going to be included in
the future.
Things like the Lola than we've seen racing this year.
The Daytona Prototypes, well they're the stars of Grand Am,
and they're not going away.
But where they fit in the mix of classes and categories is
to be determined.
But they've got new body work near the Corvettes.
New engines are coming online, including a twin turbo
EcoBoost Ford.
This is Generation 3 of Daytona Prototype, Generation
4 is coming in 2015.
Which gets us to the P2 category, the ALMS cars.
They're going to continue into this new plan, and maybe the
Daytona Prototypes as Gen 4 will be closer in specs.
So we don't have to worry about whether we're the
fastest class running P2 alone, or they'll be equalized
with new DPs.
All the cars going to have roofs by 2014, so the P2s that
are open cockpit, kind of going to be going away.
No hybrids in P2, but remember Grand Am is starting that GTX
class, and Mazda, for example, a big partner in this thing,
have announced their turbo diesel P2 engine.
LMPC, the LMS class, dead to me, they're going away.
I doubt they're going to be Daytona prototype equalized,
but maybe in transition, so a bunch of teams don't have dead
equipment on their hands with no value.
And as I mentioned, open roof is dead, the ACO
FIA rules for 2014.
But what's going to happen in the US?
And these cars, they run Chevy V8s, so maybe there's a NASCAR
momentum in connection to keep them.
But I'm pretty sure their gone.
Let's talk now about the GT cars.
And as I mentioned, the ALMS GTs, the big show, will remain
the top tier.
And Scott Atherton mentioned they're going to be running at
the Daytona 24, so that should be cool to watch.
The Grand Am GT cars are obviously not to be ignored.
That's the LMS Ferrari.
The next picture is a Grand Am Ferrari.
Race car is race car.
That's the Porsche race car.
And there's been a lot of talk about the two cars that run in
Grand Am, Camaro is one of them.
But frankly, I kind of take this BFD attitude.
I know that's controversial, but they're have been a ton of
other race cars over the generations that have been
exotic morphs of production cars.
If they can put them in their own category, if they're
running around the track and it's making for
racing, so be it.
And it sounds like they're not going to slow down the ALMS
GTE cars to match these whatever.
Plus, for all these cars we've got new cars coming.
Mazda has announced that they're going to race their
Mazda6 with that Skyactiv Turbo diesel.
And certainly that engine is going to be P2.
Acura has mentioned that the NSX is being prepared for GTE
or maybe that GTX class, because they want to race it
as a hybrid.
And even Lotus, our beloved Lotus, has created a Grand Am
version, which they were going to roll out.
Maybe now they'll wait to 2014 or whatever.
Plus we know McLaren, Audi, Aston, BMW with the Z4, and
even the Japanese brands like Nissan are waiting in line
with their GT3 versions that they're either developing,
planning, or bringing.
And that GTR looks mega cool.
And you know me, for the last couple shows I've been ranting
on about Mustang racing in this category.
So Jamie Allison, the Ford Motor Sport guy was part of
the teleconference, so maybe.
Let's talk about venues.
Obviously everyone's figured out that we're going to take
the combined schedules, put them together, and have the
best of the best.
Daytona Sebring, kicking off the season.
Road Atlanta, now a NASCAR property, and even Austin has
been rumored to be picking up one of these races.
And how about the media?
Well I thought it was real telling that Speed was hosting
the teleconference, and they're a big
partner with NASCAR.
But we'll see what happens with the digital platform that
ALMS has been running versus Speed versus whatever.
And then of course sponsors.
And this is where NASCAR holdings shines.
We all know in NASCAR, every car has a sponsor well
most of them do.
And NASCAR has always been matriculating those sponsors
into their Grand Am Road Racing, so maybe they'll bring
things together.
But the real thing I want to see, and they can televise
this, is maybe the timed drinking contest between the
CEOs of Patron and Rolex, to see who's going to be the
title sponsor of this 2014 program.
And everyone's asking about the support series.
Well they're not going to go away as well, because in this
merger in this acquisition of assets, all this comes
together as well.
Continental Challenge, a big show, big
manufactures support.
New fans love it, it's going to stay.
Porsche Cup, the same way, it ain't going anywhere.
Ferrari Challenge, which is Grand Am
sponsored, will also stay.
IMSA Lites, what happens that category with this merger?
To be determined.
May continue, or it may get replaced by the Riley Mark
XXII track car, that was actually built not just as a
track car, but a Daytona Lites category of racing.
Never came together, maybe this is the time.
So what's the summary here?
Well I hate to say it, but this whole merger thing
started in France.
No, not the France family from NASCAR, the French ACO
organizers.
Because six months ago, when everyone talked about how this
merger discussion started, six months ago was
the Sebring 12 Hour.
And that was the combined WEC and ALMS race.
And trust me, behind the scenes, there was
a ton of bad blood.
Whatever promises, whatever commitments, were made to work
together fell apart rapidly behind doors, and a
little bit in public.
And maybe that bad blood, combined with the fact that
the WEC dropped Petit Le Mans, added it up to this decision
by Dr. Don Panoz to move ahead and look for an option for his
series for the future of American racing.
Which gets us to today's press conference, which seemed more
like an agreement that was reached after golfing, and
only an agreement.
ALMS and Grand Am leadership in effect announced today we
have noble intentions, but we really don't have a plan.
We know we don't have a plan, and that's a good thing, we
admit that, but we know enough to know that we need to talk
to the racing experts.
The racing teams, the manufacturers that build the
race cars, and the racing equipment providers like the
tire guys, to figure out the best plan.
So I could snark and say Road Racing in America is left to a
12-step program.
But actually, it's good news that the leaders know enough
to go to the right people to make the right decisions.
And, oh, true, the closest way we may be to Le Mans 24 is the
France family name, the NASCAR family, but
that may not be forever.
Again it was all TBD.
Grand Am is going to be in Laguna this weekend.
It's going to live on Speed, and I'm sure we're going to
hear a lot of reaction from those teams and drivers.
And we're going to be in American Le Mans race, the
next one, at VIR in about two weeks.
We're definitely going to get their reaction and comments.
And if you want to you what the diehards of each series
are saying right now, get their point of view, go to
americanlemansfans.com, or [INAUDIBLE].
I'll have the links in your description, and check out
what they're saying to each other.
And of course, you can sound off here in the comments on
this video, and I definitely want to
hear what you're thinking.
So that's pretty much it, that's the big news.
Maybe I'll dress in brighter colors for 2014.