The State of Racing in 2005

[mattb]

The NASCAR machine has been blowing the doors off of every other motorsport for more than a decade. And with its crop of hot new drivers (http://www.diecastxmagazine.com/dx/content/features/kinseth_nascar_diecast.asp) the future looks pretty rosy. The racing is primitive and predictable at times, but the series is chock full of personable drivers, fan-to-brand identification, and a good-old-boy charm that seems to resonate.

American open-wheel racing has been floundering during those ten years, with the schism between the IRL/indyCar and CART/Champ Car stretching talent, resources and TV viewer patience to the limit and beyond. With hotshoe (and hot everything else for that matter) Danica Patrick for a covergirl, plus a return to street circuit (St Petersburg) and proper road course racing at Infinion (formerly Sears Point) and historic Watkins Glen, the IRL finally seems positioned to lead an open-wheel comeback. Will anybody care?

F1, the most advanced form of racing on the planet, seems determined to destroy its fan base in the United States—only the world's largest motorsports market—with shameful debacles like this year's U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis. $120 for a bleacher seat to see SIX cars run—are you kidding?!? So far, absurd amounts of money and the fading opulence of yesteryear have managed to keep F1 from drifting off into irrelevance. Is it salvageable?

Drag racing has struggled to redefine itself in recent years. By its nature, drag racing isn't very TV friendly, and the racecars no longer bear the resemblance to streetcars that they did 40 years ago during drag racing's heyday. Charismatic stars like John Force (see the Motorsports Madness feature in the Fall 2005 issue of Die Cast X) put on a good show, but can anything overcome NASCAR's advantages?

[MicroMan]

Nascar is no-doubt a racing superpower, but I believe there are more important racing conundrums at hand.
Grass roots racing, whether it be dirt or asphalt, is getting soo outrageuously expensive that less and less people are being able to afford their beloved sport. Sanctioning bodies such as IMCA, DIRT, and WISSOTA (all dirt because that's what I race) are allowing the constant rising of prices on everything from shocks, tires, chassis, and an exponential rise on race gas prices. Local tracks are seeing less and less cars participating because nobody can afford it, so they have to cut payoff prices to all of the drivers as well as raising prices to get into the gate. In a couple years all we're going to have are Nascar, Busch, Craftsman truck, Hooters pro-cup and such.

BTW sry for hijacking, but I needed a place to vent.

anywho yeah, f1 will get their act together, there's too much money into it not to.

Indy is going to need a lot more than Danica to keep them going, advertising, new faces, action, and maybe it can stay alive

Drag Racing will always be here.

all of this is imo.

I would love to see Dirt Late Model racig gain popularity, such as the lucas oil series, along with the World of Outlaws. :D

[mattb]

Micro,

No problem with hijacking -- I didn't really talk about dirt in my original post. Not that it isn't a worthy subject, but, (like my own personal favorite -- production-based road racing) it is essentially a local/regional sport -- not something that can really feed a national audience. That's not necessarily a bad thing (unless you're a track owner trying to make money), but it creates some serious challenges.

Local dirt tracks thrived back before motorsports got any sort of regular TV coverage -- certainly before cable. Fans pretty much HAD to go to the local track if they wanted to enjoy racing. Nowadays, motorsport fans can punch up half a dozen types of racing on cable any day of the week, and pretty much constantly on the weekend. Attendance at local tracks has been on a steep decline for decades, while expenses keep going up. Track owners take a beating financially, which goes a long way in explaining the shrinking payoffs, and many are getting out of the game altogether.

Then there's the competitor angle that you mentioned. Racing isn't cheap. The way to keep costs down on the grassroots level is to run production-based equipment. But street cars have moved away from the classic formula of yesteryear's stockers. You can count the number of current domestic, rear-drive V8 sedans on one hand and still have enough fingers left to type (at least if you type like me!) That means parts have to be fabricated specifically for racing, which means they will be big bucks. Because the audience is shrinking, the oportunity for sponsorship (even from garages and the other typical local sponsors) is shrinking.

The widening technology gap between dirt racing and street cars creates another problem -- fan relevance. Spectators can't relate to the race cars -- they share no design familiarity with what people drive. Dirt cars are weird, foreign-looking contraptions. Fans feel disconnected. A key element in fan appreciation of local racing is the vicarious thrill of seeing "their" car race, which enables them to fantasize about being behind the wheel themselves -- the "I could do that" response, though of course 99% never will.

Its sad, but truthfully, I don't see any way to reverse it. I know there's a lot of talk right now about unifying the various dirt series under a single sanctioning body, but if they don't address the shrinking fanbase, none of that will matter.

Matt

[microrcdude]

We had a top-of-the-line track (Portland Speedway) and the truck series came to it for several years. When the trucks moved over there, we had to re-build a car to become a road race car(We race Nascar Northwest tour.....or we did i guess you could say) and the track owner came up with the idea of tearing up the asphalt and bringing in clay.

I raced there in a kart for 2 years. Once the world of outlaws didnt come, the track was shut down. My parents have been playing the lottery as often as possible, trying to win those big bucks so they could buy the track back.

You know how hard it is to say bye to the track? We lost 2 cars (One due to a fire) and the other one was into the "Biffle Bushes"(Because when biffle raced there he kept going off in 3) and we still loved that place.

Last year was my last year as a crew chief for Bruce(The guy who smeared biffle every race) and it was hard as i watched him make his last lap. I really hate how lack of support leads to so many drivers not being able to race. We'll be back next year in full force, 2 car team(possibly 3) all are gonna go for it, so we'll see what happens

Sorry i kinda hijacked, but it feels good to bring up some older stories

[microrcdude]

SO as we enter 2006, alot of changes have been made.

First off, NO MORE TRANS-AM SERIES!!!! BOOOOOO!

second off: WRC rally? should be called manufacturer testing, since only 3 teans will be factory this year.

Third: Nascar is gonna be bigger

fourth: IRL is gonna be huge, with marco and other new rookies

fifth: Champ Car: much more interesting now that the Formula Atlantic cars will join the series

Drag racing: Should be huge too

Lemans: dont think theres gonna be much support, Audi has a new car by the way

SCCA series: Even more drivers and cars, going to be real fun to watch

[mattb]

Yeah, 2006 is gonna be interesting.

Trans Am -- this moribund series has been staggering along on the name and the glory of yesteryear for a decade. I'm sorry it has finally been euthanized, but it was time. The things that made T/A great way back when were consumer relevance (ie cars that were fairly close to stock), factory support and close, action-packed competition -- none of which the series has had in recent years. Ironically, the SCCA does have a series with all of that: the Speed World Challenge. In most ways that count, this is the modern Trans Am, and I'm sure it contributed to the demise of the officially named T/A series. Given that the SCCA owns both, it would be a simple thing to transfer the T/A label to the SWC series, but I hope they don't -- a decade's worth of crappy racing has tainted the T/A name, and hanging it on the younger, more vital series could end up being an albatross.

WRC - never a hit in the states, it seems a number of other markets have lost interest as well, and the mfrs are shifting their $$ elsewhere. Hard to say why -- I suspect it has a lot to do with the TV-unfriendly format. That, and how successful is a series likely to be when all of the stars are from Finland?

NASCAR -- Mostly, its the same $#!@, different year. Much ado about nothing will be made of the Ford Fusion-stickered genericar, and more than a few good ole' boys will react to the impending arrival of Toyota in '07 much like they would have if they'd gotten a season's notice of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It'll be funny to watch the networks try and reconcile the un-PC sentiment of those fans (and a few commentators I suspect) with the marketing machine that is NASCAR. But the racing will likely continue to be uninspired, except for a few young hard chargers like Carl Edwards (who, I can say from personal experience, is every bit as nice a guy in person as he seems on TV.)

IRL -- huge? I hope so, but I'm not sold yet. If smokin' Danica couldn't do it last year, who can this year?

Champ Car -- its been going down the path of Trans Am lately. What it needs -- badly -- is less gimmicks (like the dopey and contrived Cosworth "Push-to-Pass") and -- please! -- a decent TV contract so that what few fans are left can actually find the races to watch them! The Atlantic teams should help bolster the shrinking grids, but to my mind, combining two sets of teams that could not fill their respective series onto a single grid is kind of like lashing two sinking boats together to try and stay afloat.

Drag Racing -- still stinks on TV, and still features cars with even less consumer-relevance than Trans Am. I wish them well, but I doubt I'll be watching.

LeMans -- supposedly there is increased factory support for the GT classes. Audi should still own the top prototype class, at least until it gets bored and quits. Porsche has a new prototype lite (P2, LMP2, LMP675...whatever they call it this season) which may make things interesting.

Anyway, I guess these issues will start sorting themselves out in the next few weeks. Can't wait...

[chow592]

It is not car racing, but you should check out ama supercross. It is one of the most exciting seasons in a long time and a handfull of the races are being aired on cbs.

[mattb]

It is not car racing, but you should check out ama supercross. It is one of the most exciting seasons in a long time and a handfull of the races are being aired on cbs.

Agreed -- Ricky Carmichael and James Stewart keep trading wins, and now Chad Reed is right in the mix too. Its good, competitive stuff, but the presentation can be a bit abrasive in my opinion. If they ease up on the hype and concentrate on the racing they'd be better off.