One last shot at Lou Patane

[JBenko]

Well Lou, there you are. Standing there watching the Corvette team on the podium I wonder if it occurs to you the magnitude of the stupidity of dropping funding of the Vipers in favor of a pointless and fruitless effort in the Prototype class.

Yes, Audi looks like engineering geniuses again with the quick change rear of the car. Marketing dollars well spent. Yes, Johnny O'Connell was right when he said that it was a proud moment for C5 owners as the Corvettes took 1st and 2nd. Again, marketing dollars well spent.

So Lou, exactly who was your target audience for a failed effort ? Was it Mopar customers ? Hope they saw the sticker on the side of the car. Was it Chrysler customers ? Sorry, the Dallara chassis didn't look like any Chrysler I've ever seen in a dealership. Was it Viper owners or Oreca fans ? Sorry, we don't want to associate with a losing effort and may never forgive you for pulling the plug on the Vipers. Maybe it was Sony Playstation, yeah they got to be real fired up with all of the exposure they got - as the car sat dead in the garage. Maybe if it had caught on fire more...

We had a team and the cars to have won Daytona, Sebring and LeMans. We could have run for one last year until the end of the current GTS as we know it. Marketing could have thrown together a sticker package to commemmorate the team and we would have proudly driven around as moving advertising dollars. Now THAT would have been well spent marketing !!!

Shame on you Lou. Hope your happy in retirement bud...


**Lou Patane is the former head of Mopar and all Chrysler Motorsports.

 

[Tom Welch]

JBenko,

TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL!

It is a shame how just when chrysler gets the upper hand in a motorsports catagory they fall apart. Remember the legendary hemi's in NHRA Super Stock, Pro stock? NASCAR up until the early 70's?, if you didn't have a chrysler hemi powered car you settled for 2nd place or lower. History is again repeating itself, with the vipers withdrawl from factory backed competition.

I just can't wait to see the next poster from DC......"vettes take the lead, Mercedes...excuse me, Dodge brings up the rear"

The good news is that chrysler has the only full size truck on the market WITHOUT a crew(full size rear)cab! I will just have to keep pulling my trailer with a Ford!

Nice job guys, You make us all proud.

Tom

 

[Steve Ferguson]

Jim, you are missing some facts.

1) Lou was told that all the racing funds would be dedicated to NASCAR. The reason that the LMP car ran was because they had gotten that funding the year prior.

2) People way higher up than Lou had decided that funding and "old" viper racing program makes little sense at this point. This allowed for Team Viper to tap into those "developmental" funds for some R&D $$ for the VGX Viper.

3) Viper had nothing to gain and everything to loose. Why would we fight a newer fighter plain with an outdated version?

What Viper Racing achieved was spectacular. Lou had a lot to do with that. If you feel so sighted, get the funding together and campaign a Viper racing team?

(I can't believe I am defending Lou? We have never seen eye to eye)

 

[JBenko]

Steve,

Thanks for the note, and maybe I owe Lou an apology if the decision was made above his head. That being said I still am dissapointed (but not as grumpy as I was when I wrote the original post - after staying up all night watching the Vettes win LeMans...)

However, I have to disagree regarding your third point - "Viper had nothing to gain and everything to loose". This rivalry was just getting good. Pratt & Miller finally has their cars dialed in. What a year of racing it would have been.

** What is a "VGX" ???

 

[BWoodbury]

I beleive VGX is the DC internal name for the butt-ugly Gen 3 Viper.

Pround to be driving a Gen 2!