Originally Posted by Maelochs
Let's not get into the Rolex vs. ALMS stuff too much more please.
Muscle Milk was not as quick as Oak—Oak being in the car they had been developing and adapting to Conti tires and MM trying to develop a brand-new car on tires meant for a different car.
Thing is, everyone knows that it isn't simply that Oak is on Contis or MM was in a new car. It really is that DPs still have about 50 bhp too much. Even the announcers at Fox1 mentioned it at Long Beach. The DPs simply have too much power and torque for the P2s to compete.
The fact that a P2 can almost match a DP in qualifying is not important, because this is a racing, not a qualifying, championship. In traffic, exiting slow corners, on straights, the 150 bhp advantage the DPs have is overwhelming.
Yes, Oak Might have finished on the podium ... but did it have a chance to pass a DP? Not at Long Beach, unless a DP driver messed up. In other words, it really couldn't Compete. It could hold its position, but in racing, passing people is how one wins.
Sure, ESM's second car isn't slow because it's down on power, and Muscle Milk was off the pace because it didn't know the car—but those and other teams have the sense and the experience to understand that under current conditions, P2s simply cannot win at most tracks on the schedule—even the best P2. 150 bhp is just too much of an edge.
TUSC management needs to smarten up, because not only is the majority of the fan base annoyed, the teams are also annoyed. Rolex 2.0 won't fare any better than the original, any more than ALMS 2.0 would. Losing all the ALMS fans and the P2 teams would not be positive for the series—no one looking forward instead of backwards could possibly, reasonably think that losing fans and teams would make TUSC stronger.
That's really the best option, no? Making TUSC stronger? If TUSC crashes, how long might we have to wait until someone who has the raft of money, TV connections, trust of the teams, sales ability to sway sponsors—to set up yet another sports car series after sports car racing has basically not worked out financially for almost two decades?
Does anyone think Fox would have signed on for anyone less than NASCAR? NBCSN is already full of racing and has more coming--no room there. What other TV outlet is interested in racing? And if TUSC flops, what TV exec would dare approach the board with a proposal to cover its replacement series—the product is a proven failure.
Besides which, most teams would probably look at other options first, before jumping back in with a sports car series which was even less capitalized and less potent than a NASCAR-backed series.
What might succeed as a successor would be a BES-type series—but A.) I like prototypes and B.) with new GT regs coming, it would be dangerous to try to start such a series until the regs were published—who trusts the FIA to get it right the first time?
Seems to me our best bet is a properly functioning TUSC, and for TUSC to stay healthy until the new regs are published in 2016, DPs and P2s need to be able to compete on a level playing field.
I am sure some folks would be happy if DPs lost 300 hp, but I think most of us are fine with whoever wins so long as the racing is good—which means both types of cars in the top class need to have the same chance at winning.
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