Grand-Am, ALMS, IMSA... Nope!

DirtyBird222 wrote: I'll tell you what made me gear towards the side of Grand-Am: when Mr. Panoz and Co. ran people like Jim Downing out of the series. I'm with Mr. Racerfink, as young as I was that was happening (local folk racing in the 12 and 24 hour) I do remember seeing huge fields at Sebring with people my parents and family knew from around town racing in their cars. I feel like the ALMS was trying to appeal to an elitist crowd the whole time they've been operating and they only wanted the upper echelon to be in their fields and attend their events. 10 years ago the Sebring infield throughout the whole week was an awesome time to be had. As a teenager I witnessed some crazy things. Now it's like going to a retirement home due to the amount of law enforcement Mr. Panoz has brought in and how much they've cracked down on the shenanigans. I understand safety and so on and wanting to make it a family affair but that's like the cities of New Orleans and Key West pulling back the reigns on Mardi Gras and Fantasy Fest. You couple that nonsense with driving out smaller teams like that of which Jim Downing ran and that fans absolutely loved and you end up here where you have to merge with the competition because you know deep down you made some bad mistakes by trying to drive out the heart of your fanbase ('Mericans) and your company is dying. The fact they went to mainly airing on ESPN3 of all things is proof and trying to justify it as "progressing to the technology age" or some PR babble...

There's a lot of truth here. Sorry my quoting it turned it into a wall of text. I guess folks will just actually have to read your post!

Honestly, I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole thing yet. I'm not a Grand Am "hater", I just never warmed up to the cars. They were slower, after all. I really don't think that's entirely elitism, though. If I'd been buying tickets (instead of getting in for free because I was working) and only had enough dough to attend one race, I would have chosen a GTP over the Trans Am back in the 80s. That being said, you still make a good point. Priced a bottle of Patron lately? It ain't exactly MD 20/20. And yeah, some of the stuff I've seen in the crowd lends credence to the elitism charge. In 2008 or so I saw a woman trying walk a dirt infield road at Road Atl in high heels!

I think what a lot of people forget is that pretty soon, the combined series is all we're going to have. For the ALMS fans that aren't rich enough to get on an airplane and go watch the WEC in person, it's time to make their voices heard--but all this insipid fanboi "BERKELY YOU! WE'RE NEVAH COMING TO THE TRACK AGAIN!!1!" won't be much help.

I guess I should add that IMO, the Indycar civil war was different (in the beginning, at least), simply because the faster non-spec series still existed, although the heart had been cut out of it. In that case, there was a legitimate choice to be made. In this one, there's not.

EDIT: Wow..your post re-formatted correctly! Oh well...

A little bit of fun trivia that some people forget: NASCAR helped create IMSA and in the early years owned 75% of it.

I liked them both. I liked the one that didn't have the Daytona Prototypes better. In other words I didn't like the Daytona prototypes as they got too much coverage to the exclusion of the real cars and you couldn't tell them apart.

Now I'm sad that we will only have the one series. Competition keeps both sides on their toes and keeps them striving to be better. That's true in any industry.

I have not been a fan of the Nascar formula so I can't see any long term good coming out of this EXCEPT for the new series that will be starting . . .

DirtyBird222 wrote: I feel like the ALMS was trying to appeal to an elitist crowd the whole time they've been operating and they only wanted the upper echelon to be in their fields and attend their events.

cannot argue that point, I see it too. I would bet one of Atehrtons agenda items was in fact to attempt to attract a higher tax bracket & lifestyle audience, he even said something to that effect in a video interview two or three or so years ago. It doesn't seem to have worked very well, except for attracting Brown and Tucker. But like an abused spouse, I keep finding myself attracted to the alms series racing because of the technical relations imsa has been able to manage.

The GranAm Rolex 24 at Daytona is the only GrandAm I truly enjoy from that series, because it draws a great variety of teams and drivers.

kabel wrote: .... a relaxed enough environment where the drivers can walk outside the paddock freely and where we the fans still have the open access to the paddock at each race. We lose that, we loose another giant chunk of what has make sports car racing in America a great experience.

Hmmm, that's weird. I have been to both GrandAm and ALMS races and have walked around the paddock at both. I have also had hot pit creditials for both. I was walking in and out of teams pit box areas at GrandAm. At an ALMS race I had creditials for hot pits from working on a team in another series and couldn't get into the hot pits because I didn't have my fire suit on. I can only imagine how tight they would be around their pit boxes.

Jamesc2123 wrote: I guess I just don't get it then. I am a fan of road racing, first, foremost, and last. ALMS, Grand Am, World Challenge, Indycars, NASCAR, Lemons, I don't care. Put cars on a road course (preferrably Watkins Glen ) and put it on TV (or the internet) and I will watch it and love it. Period. I just don't get the "If you do X, Y, Z, or too much of X and Y with not enough of Z, then you've RUINED the series and I won't watch it!!" What are you going to do, just be mad every Sunday? I see the passion and opinions and criticism for both sides and I get it, that's great. Go advocate every day and let the series know what you'd like to see them do. But at the end of the day let's just all go racing and be happy that there's still a series to complain about. We could all be watching golf... :shudder:

I share this exact thoughts. Its about the road racing.

I am excited as hell that NASCAR owns Road Atlanta now out of this deal. I want to see stock car racing at RA on a bigger scale more than you can imagine. Stock cars are my absolute favorite kind of road racing especially after tinkering with Trans Am cars.

As far as comparing speeds between ALMS and Grand Am Rolex series, who cares? Are you telling me you really care what the speeds are instead of it being good racing? If that's the case, go set your DVR to record only F1 and Top Gear and live life in a fanboi box only creeping out to tell people you watch both. Some of my favorite racing I watched last year was the SCCA runoffs live stream production classes. That was some amazing stuff! There was no need for break neck speeds, deep pockets, or the latest technology.

A few of things I think we can all agree on as far as ALMS and Grand Am:

GA prototypes from two years ago and early were hideous
Audi and Peugeot battles were epic
ALMS GT field is some of the best top tier racing ANYWHERE!

NASCAR at Road Atlanta would be awesome. I have been wishing for that for 20+ years--ever since I saw the Busch cars across the street in 1991 or so.

Anti-stance wrote:I want to see stock car racing at RA

[snarky] Well, the GA series will be racing there on April 20 this year. That is essentially a nascar race [/snarky]

David S. Wallens wrote: NASCAR at Road Atlanta would be awesome. I have been wishing for that for 20+ years--ever since I saw the Busch cars across the street in 1991 or so.

Too bad you missed the (original) Grand American event in 1971. Pete Hamilton took pole then spun at T3 on the first lap.

Some ne'er do well named Tiny Lund won the weekend followed by no-names like Gene Felton, Buck Baker and Bobby Allison. Buddy's dad had assistance from an interloper named Tullius.

I got to see the Busch cars (on Saturday) at the 1992 Watkins Glen IMSA event; best damn race of the weekend.

NASCAR at Sebring would be an awesome event! Or at least the Nationwide cars.

^ If we were talking pre mid 1980's nascar, I'd be right there with you man.

David S. Wallens wrote: NASCAR at Road Atlanta would be awesome. I have been wishing for that for 20+ years--ever since I saw the Busch cars across the street in 1991 or so.

Those cars actually ran at RdAtl for a year or two before that race was moved to Lanier. I've still got a Patty Moise press kit somewhere in all my crap.

Even though I would MUCH rather wather watch the ALMS cars I will go see the Natiowide cars up at Mid Ohio this summer.

I get more excited about seeing the nationwide series on road courses. They go to cooler places. I am glad they will be at mid Ohio. I just laugh when some of the complete redneck drivers bitch about having to drive road courses. Austin Dillion, I'm looking at you douchbag!

Mr. Cowboy hat has complained about almost every last thing in his interviews. I want to drop kick that kid strait in the taint. You receive a paycheck for racing a car - something most of us dedicate most of our paychecks to do.

DirtyBird222 wrote: Mr. Cowboy hat

I want to kick him in the taint just for wearing that stupid cowboy hat.