Quote:
Originally Posted by courageous
British Touring Cars - 0/24 pro drivers (even Plato brings money, albeit not his own)
Formula 1 - 8/24 drivers bringing money
WRC/IRC Rally - maybe 1 or 2 fully paid pro drivers between the 2 series
Having pay drivers is not a factor in a championship being considered 'top draw'
In endurance racing, pay drivers actually provide extra seats for pro drivers, everywhere else they take them.
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The debate isn't about drivers who bring money. It's about drivers who don't make their money through professional Motorsport (whether they are paid by a team, bring sponsors, or market family businesses) and are generally slower than professionals.
Frankly, it's is a conversation I don't care to get hung up on. The way racing has moved over the last few years even the best drivers in the world are no longer draws. When you can shoot holes in most of the Formula 1 grid, when NASCAR grids are full of boring cookie cutter drivers (who match most of the tracks on their schedule) and IndyCar has faded so far into irrelevance that the men who challenge the 500 every year are for the most part nobodies, you better have something else to attract fans.
F1 has name recognition and prestige in the title of F1 World Champion. It is still perceived as being the ultimate form of Motorsport by non-fans worldwide. It is a huge draw amongst car guys and sports fans in Europe and less so in America (because we're large enough to make our own fun and not rely on a championship that may come once a year when the politics are right and races mostly before 9:00am on Sundays). There is no need for lawyers and CEOs to race F1 cars. Plus the cars, though sanitized, are still immensely difficult to drive and insanely expensive to run. If you want to put your name on the side of the car you are better off sharing the financial responsibility with a "pro" driver who brings money.
NASCAR has had 50 years of consistency and that allowed its financial lead to stretch far beyond the rest of American racing, particularly in the last ten to fifteen years. NASCAR's marketing machine is the best funded, most well oiled and has the most defined direction in American racing and so it has risen to the status of top American Motorsport. The hordes of American kids who want auto be pro drivers see NASCAR as the pinnacle or at least the place where it is reasonable to assume they can most easily make money on merit.
The ALMS lacks NASCAR ownership and relies solely on itself for money and marketing. No one will give the ALMS Rolex or Camel Cigarette sponsorship so they better work on bringing in sponsors or (bias upcoming) the most interesting and fan-drawing race cars in the country will remain a strange little niche sport with grumpy fans who claim to know how to run the sport better than management. Gentleman drivers have a long history in the top tier of American racing anyway, and while the ALMS had a golden opportunity to close the door on IndyCar and cement it's place as the (distant) runner up in American racing passed the series by. Still, I can't see an ALMS grid without gentleman drivers, it is just sports car racing's deal.
IndyCar, the sport was ruined by the split and the 500 was very seriously wounded. With innovation, track records, and the household gladiator-names disappearing incoming money has left with the eyeballs. Indianapolis still gets 4 ratings IIRC and is enough to retain sponsors, even for full seasons in some cases. The sponsors aren't there for a Pat Patrick to take a chance on a California kid who was good in sports cars to lead his program, that California kid would have to bring money. Penske and Ganassi are motorsports empires and share sponsors across a number of platforms. There isn't nearly the activation from the names on the side of the cars that there was in the heyday of the sport in the late 80's through the late 90's. The sponsors for the rest of the series are hard to come by and for the most part are brought by the drivers. The IndyCar Gris is the strongest in the IRL's history and it seems the European model of drivers brining money has found its way to North America and someone who brings money is no longer assumed to be an amateur or "gentleman" driver.
Chris