[chernaudi]

We do have to remember that it seems like Tomlinson isn't the easiest person to work with (ask Bill Gibson) and he's ticked off plenty of his own customers. Maybe that's one reason a lot of people don't have faith in him or his products. In someways he's been the Uwe Boll of the motorsport industry, and even Boll eventually found success in the restaurant business when he gave up directing and writing films.

You can bash Oreca and Ligier all you want, and I'm not a fan of Oreca's near monopoly of LMP2 and that maybe some French nationalism played a hand there on the part of the ACO, but at least Oreca and Ligier sell good products that people are willing to buy and even pay a premium for (how LMP2 has worked out has allowed Oreca to charge just about the max they can get away with under the cost cap without incurring the "wrath"--if any--from the ACO), and do provide support for them.

It seems that LNT/Ginetta tried with both LMP3 and LMP1 to skimp by with as little investment as possible and hoped it would work--which it didn't. Yeah, the ACO shafted the privateers big time, but that's been the story since the whole diesel deal to keep Audi around and get Peugeot to join in. The ACO (and now IMSA, it seems) have been greedy for OEM money, and if Audi and Porsche jumping ship hasn't changed that attitude, I don't know what will short of the LM24 imploding.