Okay. Fine. You want factory teams. You tell me what the ACO, IMSA, and the FIA can do to encourage factories to participate.
I said earlier:
Personally, I would like to see a return of manufacturer run teams, instead of just backed priveteers. Of course private teams should still be able to participate. Thing is, the biggest teams (Champion, Penske, Corvette racing) are heavily backed by the manufacturers, so the difference would not be huge, but more manufacturers would probably try their skills on the track in such a series. Many of the carmakers either don´t want to financially commit to F1, or simply never get a chance there, so I think they would spend a lot of money for a more "true car" oriented series.
I can tell you exactly why they don't participate: MONEY Sportscar racing is ungodly expensive. Always has been. With GT1 in particular, you have a narrow spectrum of cars to compete (save for the aberration of the Corvette, it's a class for $250,000+ supercars and GT's), and for those companies a losing record for their cars is a seriously risky proposition.
Fine, but any motorsport is expensive. Most carmanufacturers do want to have a perticipation in motorsports in one way or another, so why not make it allowed for factory teams? In LMS, that is not allowed. Heavy backing from factories, fine, but not a factory team per se. My notion is, that if the manufacturers would be allowed to enter their own teams, they would.
When you're selling the upper nth percentile of performance, you're not only selling the car's capabilities. The image, the persona, the bragging rights, these are the reasons to buy this car. Think about it. Koenigsegg's are prized because they're rare, beautiful, and obscenely fast.....
....until something more rare, more beautiful, and even faster.
When you have such an ego-conscious set of manufacturers, they don't want to do anything that would compromise their market position. Let's face it, it's not good business when your $250,000+ supercar gets beat on track by a $60,000 Corvette.
Exactly. That is the very exact same reason that the manufaturers want to see their cars on the racetrack too. And presumably win over the Vettes
Thing is, this problem doesn´t seem to exist on the same level here in Europe. Only priveteers you know. Of course, the big teams win here too, but the gap down is not huge, and sometimes a small team get a win too. Perhaps ALMS need to go longer races, like over here. 1000km per race, and only 5 or 6 races per season.
Also, wins with several laps margin, is a rarity in LMS somehow, wich indicates that they have a good formula going.
FYI, LMS had 14M TV viewers per race only here in Europe, wich is huge, considering what is.
Winning is the only thing that justifies unloading a car off the trailer. That's Rule #1 of Motorsport. If you aren't there to rip the other bastard's throat out, go home.
Maybe, but there is a marketing value in it too, otherwise noone (at least not any manufacturers) would be racing. And there is also the very basic fact that some people just love racing.
General Motors, Pratt & Miller, and the men of Team Corvette have done just that and won. Ultimately, those who've tried against Corvette have not won, and instead of throwing money away (which is exactly what losing is), they keep the cars on the trailer.
Correct. And IIRC Prodrive accused ALMS of being biased towards Corvette, wich I must say sounds like utter BS. They weren´t fast enough, and that is it.
But on the other hand, if that is how they felt, I can understand why they packed up and left.
Either way, Prodrive would most likely not have been in ALMS this season, as they are to enter F1, and needs to prepare for that.
