Quote:
Originally Posted by Jonerz
I suppose so. Because in that event it would have declined (only two or three consecutive seasons) until it went out of existence. Perhaps not the best choice of words on my part.
Chris
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As Suzanne Vega put it, "when heroes go down, they go down fast".
A parallel might be drawn with the last days of Group C -
1990 Mercedes dominant, but serious Jag challenge, the seeming rise of the Japanese, strong grid of privateers, and the arrival of Peugeot.
1991 A genuinely good year with a good variety of winners, appearance of some privateer growth. Some problems for sure, but in the main a decent spectacle
1992 Implosion
The key difference for me is that the ALMS isn't sitting on its hands in the way the FIA did over the winter of '91. Like them or not, the spec classes are an attempt to do something different, as is going to single LMP and GT classes. This says to me that it doesn't
have to be consistent decline - if the external factors start to help (and let's be honest, it's the economy) then the ALMS will have done some of the things it needs to do to make the current undeniable decline temporary and get it heading in the right direction again.
No guarantees obviously, and maybe one of the additional things that needs to change is more root and branch change in overall management approach, and perhaps the way sportscar racing survives in the US is in something that isn't called "ALMS", because it might transpire that the brand damage done over the past few years is significant, but I think there's grounds for confidence that "European Style" sportscar racing will come back in the US, and probably sooner than we might think.
Returning to the 1990s analogy, I'm struck that it was in the US, with World Sports Cars, that we saw the rebirth of prototype racing, which brought us through the last decade of genuinely good racing to today. I can't see a reason why something akin to that can't happen again.