[AGD]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

For what we know, the WEC is of interest in 2012 only because it will have three manufacturers in LMP1, and otherwise will be undersubscribed and disinteresting in every other class. What it does do, is dilute ACO racing entries into three series, instead of two, and you'll see poor LMS, WEC and ALMS grids now. Of course each series had issues of it's own to begin with, but to make moves to further weaken them wasn't the brightest overall move.

The WEC seems to have gained some LMP2 entries if everyone makes good on their promises. The good news for the LMS is that the WEC gains have not subtracted from their own P2 entry list. At least so far that is the case, we'll have to see what Boutsen and a couple of other teams announce. I can't remember if this has been announced or what the rumor is exactly, but perhaps Pecom/AF Corse will leave LMS P2 for WEC P2. That might be one subtraction, but we'll see about that.

I don't know what is going on exactly with GTE-Pro in the LMS and WEC. I don't know if there will be any defectors from LMS to WEC. IMSA Performance maybe? Of course, I don't know if the LMS will keep all of their teams either. Wasn't there a rumor that JWA might run a car in the WEC? Or is the rumor for an -Am car?

I can't really blame the ACO for wanting to set up a world championship (not by name) if there is some interest to do so, but I can blame them for making love to the FIA. I can blame them for ruining or trying their best (purposely or not) to ruin very well established events in exchange for some dirty money. Things are looking good for the WEC LMP1 grid right now, but we'll see. Stuff like the 30-50 viewers watching the DailyMotion stream of the race indicate to me that the ACO still has a long, long, long way to go in making these developing world races work both in the home country itself and in other markets from a viewership perspective. I think we could very well see a boom and bust so hopefully the ALMS and LMS can survive the bullets being shot at them by the FiaACO and all the other issues holding these series down so that they can pick up the pieces.

As a side note, I thought we had a glorious period of sports car racing in the late 90's without any championship and without some of the cornerstone races even. Porsche, Toyota, Nissan, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, the McLarens, and so forth. Some of those entries competed for championships, but not all. Yeah, that period busted too, but so did the glorious period in the early 1990s with two previously "strong" championships. So, in other words, I don't think this championship guarantees anything, but the potential for success appears to be there. It just seems to me that the FiaACO are building some cracks into the ship they are trying to build here.

Oh, Peter's firing of their ACO "partners" makes a lot of sense when you consider that it is rumored that the ACO did not even let the ALMS know about the Petit date conflict until it was announced. What a partner. It's nice to see that Patrick Peter does not suffer from Battered Wife Syndrome.