View Full Version : THE REVEAL!
Mergification. Thursday March 14th, 2:30 Eastern...Speed...name and logo presented. Still think the National Association of Sports Car Auto Racing would be catchy.;)
link to the announcement for the REVEAL:
http://www.grand-am.com/News/GA_News/tabid/141/Article/53233/historic-sports-car-announcement.aspx?cid=6383&sid=1
Hope it's better than the Decision was.
I predict it will be a scrubbing bubble circling the bowl. :tony:
Rex Karz
03-08-13, 07:42 PM
Hang on to yer hollyhocks. Or socks. Or something.
Or not.
The Laguna Seca newsletter had a blurb promoting tomorrow's REVEAL.
United Sports Car Series Announcement
On September 5, 2012 history was made with the announcement of a merger between the GRAND-AM Road Racing and The American Le Mans Series. Tune in for the next step in this merger, The Reveal, which takes place Thursday, March 14 at 11:30 PT and will be broadcast live on SPEED Channel and streamed on alms.com, grand-am.com and speed.com. The name, branding and logo for the new unified series will be unveiled as well as the competitive class names for the series.
I wonder if the "United Sports Car Series" name is just a place holder.
Still think the National Association of Sports Car Auto Racing would be catchy.;)
I'm now convinced that this would be a much better name than whatever turd they settled on by relying too heavily on focus groups. I'm reminded of "Leaders" and "Legends" but somehow even more bland.
Also, IMSA as sanction body name or GTFO. Its the only name with historical ties to both groups.
chop456
03-14-13, 02:37 AM
I wonder if the "United Sports Car Series" name is just a place holder.
If they do name it USC, they'll just have to take the winners' trophies away later.
Trevor Longman
03-14-13, 05:27 AM
It's legit. Here's the patent forms and everything. Logo looks like clipart.
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85861224&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
It's legit. Here's the patent forms and everything. Logo looks like clipart.
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85861224&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
When I look at the logo I see a track map of Road America. Is that wrong?
Napoleon
03-14-13, 12:07 PM
When I look at the logo I see a track map of Road America. Is that wrong?
Looks like a helmet to me.
All has been revealed. :gomer:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/grand-am-2014-series-name-branding-revealed/
IMSA :thumbup:
GT Le Mans :thumbup:
GT Daytona :whatever:
22 events at 17 tracks.
You can try www.unitedsportscar.com if you want to. A few short vids. "Help spread the word!" Going to NEED that.
Andrew Longman
03-14-13, 04:13 PM
Feels like they had to name it something and this was it.
Also feels like they thought someone cared that sports car racing was finally "united".
I don't know a single soul who feels that way. Not one. This isn't necesarily worse, but it is not better and is only happening because the motorsport business sucks.
You can try www.unitedsportscar.com if you want to. A few short vids. "Help spread the word!" Going to NEED that.
:shakehead
http://s23.postimage.org/wpyuwepyj/United.jpg
What? You mean...you DIDN'T sign up!?:D My vote of approval will come only if I decide it would be worth my time and $$ to make the trek to RA for the "united" season ...but I must say, I am hopeful, I WANT this thing to work. I am open to the change because neither side was working for me. Like ol' Dad used to say to me when I'd ask the unanswerable ? "We'll see."
Not a comment on the new series, just their promotion.
When I saw "Enter Me To Win" and "The Vision" I just started shaking my head.
Whoa...check out the new D'Wang Coupe at www.deltawingracing.com I hope it's SAFER, 'cause it sure isn't better looking!
:laugh:
That looks mah-va-lass.
Name and logo are pathetic.
Hopefully they have a good product.
Trevor Longman
03-14-13, 11:35 PM
All has been revealed. :gomer:
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/grand-am-2014-series-name-branding-revealed/
IMSA :thumbup:
GT Le Mans :thumbup:
GT Daytona :whatever:
22 events at 17 tracks.
I'm with you on all of that, but that 22 events/17 tracks thing was them saying what is currently run between the 2 series. They've said in the past they will have to cut that down to about 12. Thats what I'm the most bummed about. As someone who watches both series I just lost half of the races I would normally watch or attend.
Oh. I was hoping they spent 5 minutes on the name and logo because they were too busy calling every track and team they could think of to sign them up.
Trevor Longman
03-15-13, 09:57 AM
Oh. I was hoping they spent 5 minutes on the name and logo because they were too busy calling every track and team they could think of to sign them up.
You're forgetting the level of incompetence we're dealing with here.:rolleyes:
opinionated ow
03-15-13, 11:46 AM
Realistically they've got an opportunity to make a mega endurance racing schedule:
Daytona 24 Hours
Sebring 12 Hours
Watkins Glen 6 Hours
Petit Le Mans
Laguna Seca 4 Hour
Road America 500
To say nothing of the standard 2:45 races they've held all over the place...
Is the "Elan Motorsports Technologies" engine in this new Deltawing the Mazda MZR-based twin-turbo I heard about earlier or did I miss a change?? Maybe Mazda wants to help but is afraid to have their name on it in case the thing is a failure? If it becomes a winner does a Mazda badge suddenly appear? Any Japanese techie-types hanging around the car at Sebring?
Yes, those 6 are no-brainers...I was thinking more about which 5 SHOULD be dropped? Whaddaya think?:)
cameraman
03-15-13, 12:22 PM
Yes, those 6 are no-brainers...I was thinking more about which 5 SHOULD be dropped? Whaddaya think?:)
The inner city street courses starting with Baltimore, Detroit & Long Beach.
...aaaand, whatEVER power plant is in the D'Wang...it just puked. :irked:
The inner city street courses starting with Baltimore, Detroit & Long Beach.
Should and will of course are two different things. :eek:
If the manufacturers want Detroit, it will stay. It's the price we'll have to pay to have the manufacturers support the series. And a lot do right now (Corvette, BMW, Mazda, Porsche, Viper), so let's not mess with them.
Long Beach will come down to whether it's worth it from a sponsor's point of view. Baltimore may be the same way, but I suspect it won't survive the scheduling process, not to mention the event itself.
As for other tracks, Mosport will probably stay as the only Canadian connection. Lime Rock will stay being the closest to NYC, and the sponsors like that (BMW puts a LOT into that event for this reason).
So, that conceivably gets us up to 10 (assuming Detroit and Long Beach stay, and we keep those six no brainers mentioned earlier).
From an historical and location and track standpoint, I'm ruling out Barber and Kansas. Would love to rule out Indy, but I fear sponsors will want it.
So, that leaves Indy (potentially), Austin, Mid-Ohio, and VIR.
My gut tells me the final two are Mid-Ohio (Honda will probably push for it as I expect them to get back into sports car racing now that it is united) and Austin (the series will feel compelled to be at the best racing facility in North America).
But to pick two out of that final four is tough. My friend and I came to the conclusion they should just make it a 14-race series....
I am curious if Nascar will allow USC to run shared events with Indycar. There's no reason to exclude them, but ISC isn't big on working with others.
Also, I wonder if tracks with a Nascar date, like Watkins Glen and Sonoma, will get priority over those without, like Lime Rock and Laguna Seca.
I am curious if Nascar will allow USC to run shared events with Indycar. There's no reason to exclude them, but ISC isn't big on working with others.
Also, I wonder if tracks with a Nascar date, like Watkins Glen and Sonoma, will get priority over those without, like Lime Rock and Laguna Seca.
Good questions, but I don't think any will be an issue.
Has Grand Am ever been at Sears Point? I don't know, but they are not now, and I don't see them picking a new track over one of the exising ones. And Grand Am has been at Laguna Seca and Lime Rock for a long time. If it wasn't an issue for years, why would it be an issue now?
Grand Am ran with ISC at Detroit and Barber. Again, if not an issue before, why start now? Unless, that is one way they will weed down the schedule. Atherton did seem to indicate in one interview they would prefer to be the headline event, though they are willing to work with other series if necessary.
GOTTA have the Oak Tree Turn! Detroit is likely necessary. Barber is a great facility. Long Beach is...well, it's LONG Beach! Couldn't care less about Baltimore.
I know this isn't popular, but...Lime Rock is TOO SHORT! Too tight. I know all about the history, heck I remember when Roger Ward blew away all those high priced Euro sports car guys with his midget! Pretty sure that was the year Shelby won Le Mans in that pretty Aston (DBR2?) and George Constantine was running one at Lime Rock. Didn't stand a chance! A Verrrry interesting race in US "sportscar" racing history.:D I'm happy I got to see Ward run that (Curtis?) midget in the Formula Libre race in Sept. of '59 at Meadowdale. An incredible sight! He just THREW that thing through the corners and ran WAY high on the "MONZA" banking. That's what broke his suspension! One of Reventlow's Scarabs, then being run by Nickey Chevrolet as "The Purple Eater" won with Jim Jeffords driving. Meadowdale's long straightaway was much more friendly to the big cars than Lime Rock had been. Ward had a TWO speed midget and he just maxed that thing out! (The track announcer said 160, downhill:D, and if true that was just scary, sitting straight up and all exposed to the elements like that!) BUT...USCR needs more room.:(
FCYTravis
03-20-13, 11:52 PM
Grand-Am has run many races in conjunction with IndyCar in the past and present and I don't see why that would change now.
The Rolex Series ran Sears Point for a couple of years in conjunction with IndyCar, but it wasn't a really huge draw and I wouldn't call it a have-to-have track by any stretch of the imagination. Remember, Sears Point is owned by SMI and SMI isn't exactly bosom buddies with NASCAR - they directly compete against ISC. Can't see the Laguna Seca race going away - SCRAMP needs a sports-car date and it's GrandALMS or nothing now.
WGI is owned by ISC and it's a very traditional stop anyway. The Six Hours is not going anywhere, nor should it.
FCYTravis
03-21-13, 12:11 AM
My guess on the schedule is that right now they're trying to hash out the balance of the number of races and the number of endurance races. If they keep all the endurance races, they pretty much have to cut the overall number of races.
Remember that every endurance race is a pretty significant cost multiplier. Spare engines, parts, more tires, fuel, substantial additional wear and tear on the chassis, oftentimes additional crew... in Grand-Am, after the Rolex 24 you basically go back to the shop and strip the car down and rebuild it. I'm guessing pretty much the same is the case for the 12 Hours.
If you go with...
Daytona 24 Hours
Sebring 12 Hours
Watkins Glen 6 Hours
Petit Le Mans (9 Hours)
Laguna Seca 4 Hours
Road America 4 Hours
All that together is a *ton* of mileage, and a lot more than what teams have been running since the split.
Just adding the 24 Hours of Daytona to what the ALMS has been running is tantamount to another 10 2h45m sprint races. Add the 12 Hours of Sebring to what the Rolex Series has been running and that's like 5 more sprint races.
Something has to give in the calendar somewhere. Either the endurance races get shortened, or sprint races get cut out. By the looks of what we're hearing about a 12-race calendar, it appears to be the latter. Which is fine by me - I'd rather have more longer races at great tracks like Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta, rather than running around the Kansas roval or a concrete canyon in Detroit.
It's nice to have a schedule speculation thread again.
Ansan-mania! :p
Rogue Leader
03-21-13, 08:48 AM
My guess on the schedule is that right now they're trying to hash out the balance of the number of races and the number of endurance races. If they keep all the endurance races, they pretty much have to cut the overall number of races.
Remember that every endurance race is a pretty significant cost multiplier. Spare engines, parts, more tires, fuel, substantial additional wear and tear on the chassis, oftentimes additional crew... in Grand-Am, after the Rolex 24 you basically go back to the shop and strip the car down and rebuild it. I'm guessing pretty much the same is the case for the 12 Hours.
If you go with...
Daytona 24 Hours
Sebring 12 Hours
Watkins Glen 6 Hours
Petit Le Mans (9 Hours)
Laguna Seca 4 Hours
Road America 4 Hours
All that together is a *ton* of mileage, and a lot more than what teams have been running since the split.
Just adding the 24 Hours of Daytona to what the ALMS has been running is tantamount to another 10 2h45m sprint races. Add the 12 Hours of Sebring to what the Rolex Series has been running and that's like 5 more sprint races.
Something has to give in the calendar somewhere. Either the endurance races get shortened, or sprint races get cut out. By the looks of what we're hearing about a 12-race calendar, it appears to be the latter. Which is fine by me - I'd rather have more longer races at great tracks like Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta, rather than running around the Kansas roval or a concrete canyon in Detroit.
You make a good paint. While the first couple years will probably be healthy, that kind of intense schedule will start pricing people out. Especially the more fragile cars like the P2's and PC's.
Not that anybody cares:D...I suppose I should be in the Historic forum...but "upon further review" I checked my memory and that earlier post about Lime Rock and Meadowdale...Ward drove to victory in a Kurtis/offy midget at Lime Rock but in that Sept. race I saw at Meadowdale AUGIE won! (Jeffords won there earlier in May and July.) Pabst won the USAC sports car championship that season. Those are the 3 races that hooked me as a fan ever since!:) OK, sorry, back to the new schedule.
I think they'll have to scale everything besides Daytona, Sebring, the Glen and Petit to 2.75 hours, which is fine, four enduros is plenty.
It shouldn't be that hard to cull the schedule to something manageable. They share a few tracks already and a couple more will simply not have the infrastructure to handle a unified series.
Daytona 24
Sebring 12
COTA
Barber
Laguna Seca or Sears Point
Mid-Ohio
Glen 6 Hours
Mosport
Indy Road Course
Road America
VIR
Petit Le Mans
and add in a street course or two to be named later
Trevor Longman
03-22-13, 03:29 PM
Swap out VIR for Lime Rock and add Detroit and I think thats your schedule. GM likes the Detroit race and sponsors like the NYC market.
Andrew Longman
03-22-13, 05:47 PM
Trevor, you seriously want to keep the Indy road course?
And definitely Laguna over Sears.
I would swap Portland over Indy to add another Western race while also dumping a dog of a circuit.
Trevor Longman
03-22-13, 06:26 PM
Trevor, you seriously want to keep the Indy road course?
And definitely Laguna over Sears.
I would swap Portland over Indy to add another Western race while also dumping a dog of a circuit.
Its not the schedule I was hoping for, if it was it would be 16 rounds and covering all the great circuits of America with each race a minimum of 4 hours. Thats just the schedule I expect to see. Grand Am likes to brag about the fact that they race at Indy to sponsors so thats not going anywhere. Same reason NASCAR wont leave there even though the fans left that race years ago. Realistically speaking I think thats the schedule we'll end up with minus one or two rounds to keep costs down.
FCYTravis
03-23-13, 12:58 AM
Unfortunately, Portland hasn't drawn flies for a sports car race in years, and I don't see Grand-Am giving it a whirl anytime soon. Is there even a promoter left there to do anything?
Really sad what's happened to PIR :(
That schedule is not my dream schedule, its just what I think they'll go with based on shared tracks, corporate relationships, etc.. There are a dozen tracks I can think of immediately I'd prefer over the Indy road course which is terrible but they'll keep it for another couple years.
Trevor, I agree on Detroit being the likely street circuit. Belle Isle can paddock all those teams and GM will make a big deal of potentially sweeping the weekend in Indy, DP and LMGT.
TMB: the Portland situation is sad and kind of maddening. Street circuits can make for boring racing and some pretty uninspiring layouts but they are in the population center. PIR is a proper circuit in the population center. It should be a smashing success. Maybe the car culture is no longer big enough in Portland. /blog/ My sister lives across the river in Vancouver, WA and I used to plan my visits around the CART then ALMS races at PIR. Now I actually go when its convenient for her instead of hijacking half my visit.
Swap out VIR for Lime Rock and add Detroit and I think thats your schedule. GM likes the Detroit race and sponsors like the NYC market.
Exactly.
I can guarantee everyone, Lime Rock, like it (and I do!) or not, will be on the schedule.
I would swap Portland over Indy to add another Western race while also dumping a dog of a circuit.
Let's stay realistic.
With 17 current venues vying for potentially 12 events, no non-current venue is even going to be in the discussion.
Exactly.
I can guarantee everyone, Lime Rock, like it (and I do!) or not, will be on the schedule.
My only doubt on Lime Rock is can they pit the potential 40 some cars? I haven't been since 2003 and I think there was a bit of an overhaul of the facilities since then so I really don't know.
...and I love LRP. Beautiful place, nice area, 2nd best local dining scene I ever experienced over a race weekend (Sears Point).
My only doubt on Lime Rock is can they pit the potential 40 some cars? I haven't been since 2003 and I think there was a bit of an overhaul of the facilities since then so I really don't know.
On the track or off the track?
The paddocks have been greatly expanded with the addition of a whole new one inside the Downhill Turn and some renovation in the original paddock. I think they can handle 40 cars. (This year, the World Challenge, which always brings a lot of entries, is supporting ALMS, so there will be a lot of support vehicles.)
On the track, is a different story. For now, that won't be a problem. Down the road, they could always do what they did during the IMSA heydays -- split the event up between the Prototypes and GTs.
Trevor Longman
03-27-13, 04:14 PM
On the track or off the track?
The paddocks have been greatly expanded with the addition of a whole new one inside the Downhill Turn and some renovation in the original paddock. I think they can handle 40 cars. (This year, the World Challenge, which always brings a lot of entries, is supporting ALMS, so there will be a lot of support vehicles.)
On the track, is a different story. For now, that won't be a problem. Down the road, they could always do what they did during the IMSA heydays -- split the event up between the Prototypes and GTs.
I think Atherton made a mention saying they wouldn't be opposed to splitting the races that way at tracks like LRP and Long Beach. I'd like it personally. Theres 5 classes vying for screen time on TV and they're going to waste half the broadcast watching DP's. I'd love a whole 3 hours dedicated to the GT battle. Thats what everyone wants to see anyway right?
I support this. :thumbup:
FCYTravis
03-27-13, 07:41 PM
Grand-Am ran split-class races at several events in 2007, when the DP grid hovered around the 17-20 mark. I think you'd have to get about that many in the prototype classes to make it worth running separate races, otherwise it just looks bad.
Trevor Longman
03-27-13, 10:59 PM
Keep in mind the last Grand Am race in Austin had 16 DP's on track. Add that to the LMPC's and whatever LMP2's show up and you have a decent grid.
FCYTravis
03-29-13, 12:39 AM
True enough. The DP grids are back up from their nadir (10ish) a couple years ago.
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