Quote:
Originally Posted by Dyson Mazda
While gentleman entries have been the backbone of the LM24 for decades; Pro/Am classes have not been. Someone correct me if I am wrong on this, but I believe the first mandated Pro/Am class did not appear in the LM24 until 2011. I'm fine with rich guys that want to race at the LM24. I just don't see why they should be getting participation trophies.
Also, if they want to race in a Pro/Am class, a very strong P2 is still an option.
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The reason for it was to encourage wealthy am drivers to bring money to the series so teams could run. If you get rid of the Am class, you'll lose a lot of money, and therefore teams. There's good reason LMP racing came out of the back of the financial collapse better than what it could have been. That's why we see Indy struggling to fill a 33 car grid, and F1 struggling to get new teams in.
And yeah, P2 is great. Not all drivers have the ability to run that. If you want to exclude people based on that, then that's fine and completely understandable. But with that comes a lower car count.
Indy 500 only needs 33 drivers and a maximum of 33 teams. F1 only needs 20 drivers and 10 teams. Le Mans needs around 40-50 teams and 200+ drivers. You need allowances for this. You could say "race with the pros", but if you're also expecting someone to race with the pros
and spend a couple of million a year, you'll get less interest.