If they raced at Homestead, and no one heard it, did the cars make a sound?

[Tim Northcutt]

Last weekend at Homestead was noteworthy for two reasons:

1. The stands looked literally empty for a 3 hr race, and

[Tim Northcutt]

2. The fireld was empty as wel, with a miserable 16 cars total inthe race...

So...a spin-off from a question a famed philosopher once asked:

asked:

"If there was no one there (or to race for that matter) at Homestead, did the cars actually make a sound????

They sure didn't in the sports world....

[Liz]

We in Canada won't find out until next Saturday. As usual, sports cars run a week late on weekends only.

[Tim Northcutt]

Maybe Rolex Grand Am can begin doing the "Seminar" Circuit:

How to Make Yourself Irrelevant, Obsolete, and a "Must Miss" Racing Series in One Year....

or

"How to Run Yourself out of Business Without Really Trying"

They would draw as many people to those seminars as they drew at Homestead on Saturday...

The race was an after-thought on "Speed News" last night (SpeedCahnnel in the U.S.) with about 45 seconds of "highlight" film from the race...

My Sunday sports section had more column inches on anticipation for Sebring in two weeks (with Audi, Bentley, Lister, etc. coming this year) that it did for the Grand Am race at Homestead that took place the day before....

Grand Am is in deep trouble....and all they have to do is look in the mirror to see why...

[RobweenerPI]

The race was an after-thought on "Speed News" last night (SpeedCahnnel in the U.S.) with about 45 seconds of "highlight" film from the race...

Haha are you serious. I got more time than that on the news sunday night. My chapter of the SCCA is doing our first autox in a few years and in trying to premote our event we had a media day. I was the quick driver on our test/demo course so I took the lone reporter who showed up on a ride in my car. He came out beaming(jumping up and down yelling how awesome that it was) and was so impressed by what I can do with my Cavalier he interviewed me. We had a full segment and a portion of my interview on the nightly news. My point being you have to excite people to get them interested. GA isn't doing that and won't with cars like that as the premiere.

[Brant]

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"If there was no one there (or to race for that matter) at Homestead, did the cars actually make a sound????
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I thought I heard a chorus of rasberries?

[Liz]

Possibly a deep sigh ...

[Toyoter]

No one attended Grand-Am races last year either, and the fields often had around 20 entries split between 5 different classes. There were only 2 SRP1's entered at Fontana in 2002. Nothing has changed except the fact that ALMS die-hards who paid no attention to the series last season now spend 24 hours a day bad-mouthing it and calculating how much air-time it gets down to the second. Strange.

[Tim Northcutt]

I'm not an ALMS die-hard...just a racing fan...

They have turned their product into a bucket of slow-running **** for God only knows what reason....

Maybe you can share with all of us why???

[Fogelhund]

Originally posted by Liz
We in Canada won't find out until next Saturday. As usual, sports cars run a week late on weekends only.

Of course, real sportscar are live!!!!

GARRA is shown taped delay in all markets.

[Chevyguy]

Certainly Mr. Snodgrass (just can't get over that name) and company must have seen the SRP/LMP fan backlash coming, were prepared to deal with it. What they weren't ready for, was how crappy the DPs turned out. I really thought that the intentions were there, but just took WAY too much away. Toyoter, I get your point, but man, don't they deserve it? They took a series that had bigger and more competitive grids than the ALMS a couple years ago, and just wrecked it.

I can't tell yet (tape delay), but I'm thinking the DPs might need a bigger fuel cell. I'm gonna find out Saturday just how bad they got smeared on gas mileage. Looking at the results, the ACO rule GTs are much higher performance than the GA's feature class. Give the DPs some more slack and let 'em try to shine please, Bob!

And Tim, I'll answer your question the same way I do the tree version: Why does it matter, and who cares?

[dretceterini]

I heard a loud OY!!

[Tim Northcutt]

That's why I asked it, ChevyGuy....

As a race fan, I'm really disappointed that Grand Am has gone in the direction it has, but if they choose to turn a product with great potential into what it now has become, fans, teams, and drivers will answer Grand Am with the same words...

Why does it (the Series) matter, and who cares?

Thate is the Real tragedy here....

[Chevyguy]

I was gonna wait 'til the Glen to start trashing 'em, but I just can't seem to wait. What I thought most sickening was the grid turnout falling. Where the heck are the other DPs? On the GA constructor tracking chart (now apparently abandoned), it shows somewhere ten of those things at least in the works. Not makes, actual cars being built. The factory FABCAR was built right along side of the Brumos cars. Where is it now? I thought Multimatic had two or three in the works, now we see none. I know there were three Picchios. Where are the other two? Where is the Pegasis Doran? Not that I want these guys to rush, but these other cars have been being built for as long as the others had before the first track test. Not only do they suck, they're also MIA.