USCC (leave your axe outside)

[Fogelhund]

Which manufacturers are in the pocket of TUSCAR?

By the way, great timing for some PR BS Spin... look, Sebring was great everybody, read all about it.

http://www.imsa.com/articles/nine-pr...sebring-record

[David Land]

I imagine Ford, Porsche, and Chevy are quite happy with the way things have gone in the first few TUSCAR races. I doubt they would bail or even support a break away series.

[Rodger Davies]

But any breakaway wouldn't concern Chevy or Ford, but the manufacturers in GTD. I'm sure Porsche would be happy to sell cars to anyone buying, but they don't have a genuine GT3 spec available at the moment. Either way, talk of that would seem a little premature and wouldn't come to anything until next year at the earliest. Would be nice to have a BES style series in the US, or similar, but I'm not sure it'd be for the best.

[Scooter185]

Originally Posted by David Land

I imagine Ford, Porsche, and Chevy are quite happy with the way things have gone in the first few TUSCAR races. I doubt they would bail or even support a break away series.

Ford maybe. Porsche has involvement in enough series, especially with all their "Cup" series, to not care. Porsches are the most popular sports car for road and racing I believe. Chevy will put its weight behind the factory Vettes and Le Mans, the DP project has never really come across as more than a marketing ploy imo.

[MoMedic9019]

Turner BMW set for PWC...

That is the GTD entry that was planning on leaving after the Sebring issues. I would put Job in the probable to PWC category as well.

Don't be surprised about further GTD departures.

[chernaudi]

And people wanted Audi and Toyota to field LMP1 cars in TUSCC to save that category? Toyota may be playing in NASCAR's sandbox in the actual NASCAR stock car series, but I can't imagine TMG supporting TUSCC. And Audi may be fielding GTD cars, but those are private efforts with limited factory support compared to a LMP program. And there's rumors again (which for various reasons I'm not taking seriously) of Audi being a LMP2 or DP engine supplier again.

It never happened the last time Audi were rumored to be an engine supplier, and after Daytona and Sebring, I highly doubt it now.

Like the ACO and FIA, I think that Audi and Toyota are watching this with a mixture of pity and contempt.

TUSCC will probably be having problems keeping several GTD teams if they don't fix their problems soon. So imagine how hard it will be to attract new teams and sponsors to the series if the ship isn't righted immediately?

[jasonjessica09]

PWC is for real! My worries for them will be keeping FYC"s to a minimum for a one hour race. As far as TUSK goes. I wonder if there hand might be forced and they will need to upgrade GTD to allow full spec GT3 cars with Conti tires still though.

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Pruett's q&a with asserton.....


http://www.racer.com/index.php/imsa/...scott-atherton

[chernaudi]

I don't know about the GT3 cars, but the issue here that's being touched upon my several commentators, namely Graham Goodwin and Marshall Pruett, is that if IMSA can't keep their current teams and such happy, how do they expect to expand the series as far as adding teams and sponsors, since the GTD guys do have PWC as an alternative?

Unfortuneably, there's only the WEC and the LMS for the LMP2 teams, and the WEC have only one North American race and LMS only races in Europe. And the DP's aren't legal to race outside of TUSCC. And if a breakaway series does happen, that'll be a double edged sword. Rules and such might get straightened out, but they won't have NASCAR's media clout, which, granted, hasn't made a huge amount of difference yet for TUSCC.

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

PWC is for real! My worries for them will be keeping FYC"s to a minimum for a one hour race. As far as TUSK goes. I wonder if there hand might be forced and they will need to upgrade GTD to allow full spec GT3 cars with Conti tires still though.

Does it really matter if the go gt3?As long as officials and officiating is crap teams and fans won't give a damn of its full gt3....


That my on issue with TUSCAR at the moment,dumb officials,officiating,constant rule and driver rating changes are screwing over teams and ruining historically good races.

[MoMedic9019]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

but they won't have NASCAR's media clout, which, granted, hasn't made a huge amount of difference yet for TUSCC.

Yet? Not at all...unless you consider MRN to be their number #1 outlet for NASCAR commercials.

[chernaudi]

TV ratings haven't gone up and MRN have been basically crapped on by fans of both ALMS and GA, let alone most TUSCC fans.

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

Pruett's q&a with asserton.....


http://www.racer.com/index.php/imsa/...scott-atherton

Atherton is the master at saying a lot, without really saying anything. From a PR perspective, it really is quite impressive. For someone looking for anything firm to believe in, it is more fluff.

He did touch upon suspensions//probation possibilities.... how could it possibly take this long to review? I figured they would have made announcements on Monday//Tuesday that they were taking this serious. The only thing we here is a week later, and at the prompt from Marshall Pruett, and I do thank him for conducting the interview. Much of this should have been addressed by the series much earlier, without the prompting from the press.

[TheMightyM]

Originally Posted by jasonjessica09

PWC is for real! My worries for them will be keeping FYC"s to a minimum for a one hour race. As far as TUSK goes. I wonder if there hand might be forced and they will need to upgrade GTD to allow full spec GT3 cars with Conti tires still though.

I doubt TUSC is really sweating that — they still have a lot of entries in GTD and PWC can only accommodate so many cars. And doing so would actually be a very bad sign, as it would indicate panic and a lack of confidence in the existing product at a core level.

The GT specs are also likely changing in a very major way in 2016 anyways, so the series in effect is kicking the can down the road in GT (and P) until new regulations kick in.

[Dodge_Swinger]

[QUOTE=Fogelhund;3382793]Which manufacturers are in the pocket of TUSCAR?

By the way, great timing for some PR BS Spin... look, Sebring was great everybody, read all about it.

[url]http://www.imsa.com/articles/nine-prototypes-shatter-sebring-record[/

IMSA's goal is to have every car finish on the lead lap, no matter how they got there.

[Dodge_Swinger]

Originally Posted by Lagunaseca_4life

Pruett's q&a with asserton.....


http://www.racer.com/index.php/imsa/...scott-atherton

Didn't expect anyone to be held accountable. Atherton met my expectations. And besides, there were nine prototypes on the lead lap, shattering the Sebring record! I never thought the previous record could be broken. I'm trying to cope with the magnitude of what we have just seen. I was lucky enough to witness Hank Aaron set the record for most home runs in a season. Now this. I think we live in a magical time for North American sports car racing.

[jasonjessica09]

We are not nascrap fans. We don't care how many cars are on the lead lap. We just want good solid endurance racing that is not botched by full course yellows and bad officiating. In fact I for one miss the days of cars winning the Daytona 24 by 10 to 20 laps.

[Matt]

Ahhh, calling it NASCRAP again, I see the arguments have fallen back into the petulant child category.

[Salamus]

Originally Posted by Dodge_Swinger

Didn't expect anyone to be held accountable. Atherton met my expectations. And besides, there were nine prototypes on the lead lap, shattering the Sebring record! I never thought the previous record could be broken. I'm trying to cope with the magnitude of what we have just seen. I was lucky enough to witness Hank Aaron set the record for most home runs in a season. Now this. I think we live in a magical time for North American sports car racing.

Not sure if being serious or sarcastic.

Originally Posted by Matt

Ahhh, calling it NASCRAP again, I see the arguments have fallen back into the petulant child category.

As is the case in every USCC thread...unfortunate really.

[MoMedic9019]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Atherton is the master at saying a lot, without really saying anything.

So...he's basically a lawyer. Or a figurehead for a corporation who doesn't give a **** about it's fans or teams.

One of the two.

[Louie Loper]

Originally Posted by MoMedic9019

So...he's basically a lawyer. Or a figurehead for a corporation who doesn't give a **** about it's fans or teams.

One of the two.

He keeps bringing up the "you'll be satisfied to know that". He talks like they have it all under control yet there doesn't seem to be any evidence of this. He talks about "not losing sight of the positives".

Moving a stalled car with 51 minutes to go is "another very complicated situation".

He was "was frustrated like everyone else" by the long caution periods.

He talks as if he can't improve on his own rule book.

A thought crossed my mind and was unsure if anyone had brought this up. IMSA wants cars to pit under yellow, so can we maybe pit GTLM and P on same lap? GTD and PC on same lap?

[truebeliever]

Originally Posted by MoMedic9019

So...he's basically a lawyer. Or a figurehead for a corporation who doesn't give a **** about it's fans or teams.

One of the two.

You are 100% correct. He was absolutely incompetant in his role within ALMS, absolutely loves hearing the sound of his own voice and preening as if her were on a par with Bernie Eccelstone! The arrogance of this man is astounding, so did anyone even begin to imagine in this new role he would rise to the challenge of it?

I have not read so many words in an interview before with anyone from a supposed management body of sports, that really said nothing other than send the message that "we" the management will do whatever we like and you the fans/entrants/drivers/workers/sponsors will accept our actions with absolutely no accountability from us whatsoever, because we say so.

The treatment of the Alex Job incident was totally apalling and unbelievably unprofessional to say the least, and Atherton's stance continues on the same vein now. Almost to the point of that it is Alex's fault that the officials are incompetent!

Bottom line in my opinion..................welcome to the circus folks, NOTHING will change. Last fan out please turn off the lights

Such an amazing slap in the face to everybody who has supported both ALMS & Grand Am in the past!

[Simmi]

Disappointing interview to read. You'd have at least hoped he'd have one concrete improvement they'd agreed upon basically a week after the race.

MP's venting lengthy questions gave Atherton too much scope for wiggle-room in each answer. He also hasn't grasped fully the whole Porsche incident - which he should have given he did a whole R&T piece on it.

But he did make some really good points - especially the fact that fans can go away and mow the lawn/walk the dog in between cautions. We even saw forum examples of that during Sebring.

This whole 'putting numbers on onboard cameras' is also a bit disconcerting to me. Seems like putting a band-aid on an axe wound. Can you really penalise a driver just through what you see in that one angle? They clearly need to improve their race centre. They need access to the race TV footage like other sports have.

IMO they have a fundamental problem up in race control if it's coming down to referencing Michelin stickers on cars and that sort of minute detail/detective work to make huge calls.

[LouisTheShark]

I can understand not wanting to discuss specific personnel decisions in an interview. Since the key people the fans, media, and competitors are pointing fingers at are full time employees, there could be work contracts or other HR mandated processes that have to be followed and reviewed by legal.

But instead of saying we are evaluating the entire race operations process from top to bottom, he is repeating the Scot Elkins band aid fixes. No amount of minor rule tweaks or adding car numbers to in-car video is going to fix bad judgment calls. If the original call was made by only looking at in-car camera video, then this is bad judgment because that is a one sided view of the incident. If the call was made using the video footage shown in the R&T piece, then nothing he is suggesting is going to fix the problem that the people in race control do not know the cars they are officiating. Either way IMSA has a problem that can't be fixed with the suggestions made so far.

There is a distinct feeling among many competitors that I have spoken with that this race control crew is trying to put blame on someone for any kind of incident and to assess penalties quickly. Sometimes no call is the best judgment and if additional information becomes available later that can establish definitive fault, there are penalties that can be assessed even after race end.

[Simmi]

I figure they can't have used that exterior footage in the initial process. I got the impression they carted that out to prove a point once Job came up to the office.

If they did use that footage (which I Vine'd off the TV and sent to Marshall) then they have people who either can't (or wouldn't) take the time to read a number on the side of the car.