Quote:
Originally Posted by WyldStallion
SRO officials reallly made a mess of the 8 hours of Indy didn't they. 11 safety car periods! I can't imagine the Speedway will want them back after that. They want an endurance race not a parade with wrecks in between. Big shame after the Spa 24 went off fairly well. Safety car rules thankfully did not ruin that one.
My non-realistic wish would be for Indy 8 to become a race for IMSA GTD and Michilen Pilot Challene to run in together. But maybe this debacle will teach SRO some lessons? Maybe....errr..probably not :-(
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The majority of the safety car periods were for legitimate issues where a safety car would be needed and would likely be called in an IMSA race as well. There were maybe a couple of instances where the SC took longer than needed but for the most part the issue was related to actual driving standards which were surprisingly bad considering the caliber of the grid. I spent most of the day around the final sector and there were many instances of fairly heavy contact that went unnoticed on the broadcast in addition to all of the contact that was well documented. I was walking around the garage after the race and you would of thought it had been a NASCAR or BTCC race, I'm not used to seeing cars this expensive with tire marks all over them and damage to every corner.
Also, they were talking about the dates for next years race already on the PA system at the track so your dreams of IMSA taking over the event are unlikely it seems at least in 2022. As with most SRO customer driven events I'm pretty sure the majority of the income from the race is derived from driver/manufacturer entry fees and team/hospitality related fees and not by spectator gate admission. If the manufacturers have an issue and stop participating then that is when I'd expect changes to the event promoter. Until that point I'd expect that SRO will maintain control.
Ideally, I'd like to see an IGTC race as well as an IMSA race at Indy each year personally. I know its very popular to hate on SRO here but I appreciate a lot of things they do. They aren't perfect but they stream their races for free, and easily on Youtube which is more than can be said for pretty much anyone else. The production quality is very high as well. They bring in quality entries from all over for the IGTC races as well. SRO have developed, and kept the class in check and it has personally become my favorite type of racing. The BOP that they apply for their series as well as other series around the world seems to be great as well with a big mix of manufacturers always in contention. I can say good things about most promoters in road racing, and bad things as well just like with SRO. Ideally I want them all to be successful in order to grow the sport.