Didn't get to hear them but the Indy Lights cars sound sweet, nice F1 style whine but not that revved up of course.

 

eh, its not all ALMS fault. The economy has quite a bit to do with it as well. Audi was supposed to run the whole season, which is why they designed the new R15. But cutbacks in the company forced them to withdraw from all but Sebring and LeMans. Peugot had originally planned to run this whole season which would have added another manufacturer to LMP1. And don't forget about Porsche withdrawing factory backing to the spyders because of cutbacks

that would have made the manufacturer count:
LMP1- 4 (Audi (4), Peugot (2), Acura(2), Lola(1))
LMP2- 3 (Porsche (4), Acura (2), Mazda (2))
GT2- 6 (Ferrari (4), Porsche (4), Ford (1), Chevy (2), Dodge (1), Aston Martin (2))

obviously GT1 is basically dead, its been that way for years so I don't even consider it. So if you look past that, it is still a pretty good series. With that breakdown there would have been a 31 car field which is actually pretty decent.

 

The issue is that the factory backed teams can get ALMS to ensure the non-factory teams are not competitive without the non-factory teams spending extraordinary amounts of money on a factory car. This discourages privateer teams from joining the series; look how competitive the Viper, Corvette and Ford were vs the factory team cars? No comparison, which makes for boring racing since we're not watching just to see factory drivers "pass" (aka get held up) privateer teams at will.

 

I have respect for John Fields & team because of that. They have been in the ALMS since day one. He hasnt backed down yet. I just wish his was more competitive.

 

On a 3.7 mile track for a 12-hour race? 31 cars is pathetic. 50 cars would be acceptable. 80 cars would be a return to the glory years but ALMS has their heads too far up their ass to figure out how to get back to that.

 

GT1 didn't even run at St Pete. That's where the Viper and privateers should move up to but if they did, GM would come back and stink up the class like they always do.

 

84 cars started the 12 hour in 1983.

I heard they were thinking of adding a GT3 class to get more participants in ALMS but the speed differential would be too great from GT3 to P1 and it would be dangerous.

They probably should adopt some budget constraints like F1 tossed around before being stupid about it; make the manufacturer teams play fairly and then see what the teams can come up with using their ingenuity and drivers instead of check books. It's easy to get an edge when you can get the latest Michellin tire technology that the other teams don't have because you have a big name team.

 

I went to a lot of them in those days. Never an empty turn or stretch on the track. Pits were rockin' for the whole 12 hours. Nowadays you sit and wonder "where the fuck are the cars?"

They need to make some serious changes.

 

This is what the field in the Euro Lemans series looks like this year.....

 

Europeans are just more into motorsports than we are unfortunately. That's the reason there isn't an F1 race in North America and why all of the race times have also been changed to best suit the European market.