DC Bring Back the Sports Car Racing Program!

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Two American manufacturers, Cadillac and Panoz, will challenge the German Audi team at Sears Point with a pair of Prototypes each, while several top private teams will also fight for the overall win.

Where are the Chrysler LMP cars, one came in 4th overall [Audi 1 and 2, Bently(re-skinned Audi)] at Le Mans?

I would like DC to bring back the ALMS sports car racing program!

 

[Frank Parise]

I agree and disagree. Dodge is probably getting some good payback from NASCAR racing fans, although it's hard to believe they can fully recover the cost of their investment. NASCAR fans really do support the companies involved in NASCAR racing.

I attended the NASCAR race at Sears Point and, other than the first few laps when all the cars were still bunched, I found it to be extremely boring single-file racing. I felt like a fish out of water surrounded by all the foul-mouthed, heavily tatooed, greasy-haired, bare-chested race fans...and those were the women!

There is no clear fit between Viper owners and NASCAR, that's for sure. I won't be attending another NASCAR race very soon, at least not one that I pay $300 for the crappiest seats in the house.

On the subject of ALMS and Grand-Am racing, the class that the Vipers and Corvettes run in are way too small to be remotely meaningful. I don't believe there has been a race in recent history with more than 5 or 6 cars in the class. The cars are so far away from production cars that the results should be pretty meaningless to consumers anyway.

On the subject of racing prototype cars, DC's accomplishment at the 24 hours of Le Mans was amazing, with a 4th place overall finish. I believe it was totally overshadowed, however, by the continued dominance of Audi. Like BMW in past years, Audi deserves super-credibility with the sportscar crowd. I wish MB had their prototypes back in the races. Remember the MB that took flight in the 1999 Le Mans race? They haven't been back since.

How many of you care that MB continues to battle Ferrari in the F1 races after dominating in 98 and 99? It will take a while before we feel loyalty and allegiance to MB as being part of the same company.

My $.02......Where Dodge could really budget meaningful dollars to assist its production Viper efforts would be Viper Days, SCCA World Challenge, and the Grand-Am Cup(ex Motorola Cup), where real production Vipers race other real production supercars. I suppose you can throw in the SCCA T1 class (ACR) as well.

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Regarding NASCAR, I agree with Frank, I am not likely to attend another NASCAR race!

Grass roots racing gets little TV coverage thus little marketing $$$ value to manufactures.

The ALMS race program has reasonable TV coverage and provides great sports car racing. Winning, with the variety of classes on track at the same time, requires a great effort from all aspects, hardware and software on track as well as in the pit.

The Mercedes were fantastic to watch in 97 and 98. Their braking was hard to comprehend and the relatively low db level vs speed was impressive. Perhaps the flying 99 Mercedes brought back memories of the horror of the 1955 Le Mans race.

NASCAR has done a great job of marketing their product. It would be nice if the ALMS could find a similar marketing formula.

DC bring ORECA to the ALMS in the US

 

[Dion Fisher]

I agree Fred, I think Dodge has some unfinished business with the Corvette and i'd like to see Oreca give a track play friend of mine Chris Bingham (drives the S7) a run for his money

 

[JonB]

Audi, GM (vette, caddy) are spending a ton of money...that Caddy, vette, and Audi ads are everywhere. I sure miss the Vipers!

Dodge has returned to NASCAR, with money almost exclusively for that venue.....racing a Cab-Forward Intrepid that Deiter Zietsch announced last week is being discontinued! (2004?...The cab-forward Intrepid that is...)

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Leave it to me to stick up for the NASCAR gang. NASCAR is just as exciting (if not more so) as any other form of racing. They have a 38 race schedule. They race at the two greatest tracks in the world - Daytona and Indy. At Daytona and Talladega most of the cars are within seconds of each other on the last lap. They race short track, long track and road.

Now, if they would use Vipers...