DTM USA; Looks like its happening in 2013!

[Jacques Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Mystery

He starred at the Glen (I think) in 2010. Top 10 till getting caught in an accident or something. Impressed a lot of people I thought.

Pretty close.

Ekström ran at Infineon (Sonoma/Sears Point) and again at Richmond. His run at Infineon wasn't too shabby; he ran top ten and even led almost entirely due to fuel strategy, before getting involved in some messes (one with Brad Keselowski, who completely dumped him) and finishing 21st. He was fairly impressive, though nothing too special (the Red Bull cars have never been very good, though, either). He returned to run the oval race at Richmond and his impressive run was forgotten; he was flat-out embarrassing, having never been on an oval before and jumping right up to the highest level of oval racing conceivable, qualifying forty-second and plugging around to thirty-first, four laps down.

Regardless, I don't think his two races in NASCAR make him very "mainstream." The name would ring a bell with the hardcore NASCAR fans who happen to already watch a lot of other racing, including the DTM re-airs on SPEED in the winter (though V8 Supercars and BTCC are both more popular in the U.S. than DTM and WTCC; V8SC is a large margin ahead of the rest, but even if you combined the viewership of all four, which isn't very precise since there's a lot of overlap, it wouldn't register as very much).

I guess on a general note, the U.S. racing market is so over-saturated that bringing in more series is a bit of a waste. There's a small niche for the consumption of auto racing, and it already has every series below NASCAR Sprint Cup competing for it (Nationwide, NHRA, Camping World Truck, Formula One, IndyCar, American Le Mans, and Grand-Am for major series alone...then you get into all the lower tiers of NASCAR, USAC, Indy Lights, all the things IMSA and SCCA sanction, the Grand-Am Challenge, a WTCC round, a pending V8SC round at a track that will never get built, etc, etc, etc).

[joeb]

The lack of news on this topic does not bode well for a planned 2013 launch. Anybody have any news, or is this dead in the water?

[TrueBlueFlyer]

Originally Posted by Bramzel

*Dreams about Martini and Jägermeister Alfa's*

Jägerbeemer!

[DS"]

Originally Posted by joeb

The lack of news on this topic does not bode well for a planned 2013 launch. Anybody have any news, or is this dead in the water?

Well, you can poke the corpse with a stick.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by MJones94

If chrysler chose to join the DTM USA championship then they might be inclined to run a Lancia in the 'European' DTM because I'm pretty sure Chrysler own Lancia. It would be an incredibly costly operation and which car would they use?

Or just use the Chrysler 300/Lancia Thema and the only part of the car that would be different is the grille.

[FAS33]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

Pretty close.

Ekström ran at Infineon (Sonoma/Sears Point) and again at Richmond. His run at Infineon wasn't too shabby; he ran top ten and even led almost entirely due to fuel strategy, before getting involved in some messes (one with Brad Keselowski, who completely dumped him) and finishing 21st. He was fairly impressive, though nothing too special (the Red Bull cars have never been very good, though, either). He returned to run the oval race at Richmond and his impressive run was forgotten; he was flat-out embarrassing, having never been on an oval before and jumping right up to the highest level of oval racing conceivable, qualifying forty-second and plugging around to thirty-first, four laps down.

Regardless, I don't think his two races in NASCAR make him very "mainstream." The name would ring a bell with the hardcore NASCAR fans who happen to already watch a lot of other racing, including the DTM re-airs on SPEED in the winter (though V8 Supercars and BTCC are both more popular in the U.S. than DTM and WTCC; V8SC is a large margin ahead of the rest, but even if you combined the viewership of all four, which isn't very precise since there's a lot of overlap, it wouldn't register as very much).

I guess on a general note, the U.S. racing market is so over-saturated that bringing in more series is a bit of a waste. There's a small niche for the consumption of auto racing, and it already has every series below NASCAR Sprint Cup competing for it (Nationwide, NHRA, Camping World Truck, Formula One, IndyCar, American Le Mans, and Grand-Am for major series alone...then you get into all the lower tiers of NASCAR, USAC, Indy Lights, all the things IMSA and SCCA sanction, the Grand-Am Challenge, a WTCC round, a pending V8SC round at a track that will never get built, etc, etc, etc).

The Circuit of America Track is on schedule, An announcement will be made on the DTM soon..

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by joeb

The lack of news on this topic does not bode well for a planned 2013 launch. Anybody have any news, or is this dead in the water?

Right. But it still would be pretty awesome! Keep your hopes up.

[kmchow]

Considering it's Oct and still no official announcement, can we assume the '13 USA DTM is a no go? 'Cause I need to book my '13 company vacation in Nov! I was so excited last year about planning a vacation to see the DTM without having to fly all the way across the world.

Or will they hobble together a series together by just shipping the ex-'12 DTM cars and German series gets all new '13 cars?

[DS"]

Originally Posted by kmchow

Considering it's Oct and still no official announcement, can we assume the '13 USA DTM is a no go? 'Cause I need to book my '13 company vacation in Nov! I was so excited last year about planning a vacation to see the DTM without having to fly all the way across the world.

Or will they hobble together a series together by just shipping the ex-'12 DTM cars and German series gets all new '13 cars?

There could be a race at Montreal in 2013, but only as part as the regular DTM.

[Jacques Rabbit]

John Dagys confirmed back in September that the planned DTM USA died sometime in June this year. It's been taken off the table, the man who was responsible for it has left Grand-Am, and the new acquisition of ALMS to form PSCR/ISCAR has been a suitable distraction (as well as creating the bizarre GX class).

SparkNotes: DTM USA has been killed. It is not happening.

[Scooter185]

Found some conflicting reports about it when the GT500/DTM merger was announced:


"While ITR had been in negotiations with GRAND-AM on prospects of launching a U.S.-based DTM series, it's believed those talks have subsided."
from the speed article announcing the DTM/SuperGT rules merge: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...t-join-forces/

"The USA has a key part to play in the deal between the Japanese and German firms with a Grand Am tie up still on the cards. “Grand-Am has said that it will run stand alone races for us if we can find a way to get the cars there and make it work, so with six car makers now it becomes much easier, and with a common chassis maybe an american firm could join in and make a car as well” Ulrich enthused."
from RCE: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/n...e-regulations/

[MagVanisher]

Well, that's kinda sucks now that DTM won't be coming to the USA. Maybe in the next few years, the ITR would be supporting Trans-Am instead by shoving their ruleset to that series!

[Ncrdbl1]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

John Dagys confirmed back in September that the planned DTM USA died sometime in June this year. It's been taken off the table, the man who was responsible for it has left Grand-Am, and the new acquisition of ALMS to form PSCR/ISCAR has been a suitable distraction (as well as creating the bizarre GX class).

SparkNotes: DTM USA has been killed. It is not happening.

The falling out between Super GT and DTM over where the chassis will be built more or less did in the US series. It would require manufactures from both series to make it work in the US. When it looked as if the deal had fallen through then the US deal more or less died because of it.

[kmchow]

Originally Posted by Ncrdbl1

The falling out between Super GT and DTM over where the chassis will be built more or less did in the US series. It would require manufactures from both series to make it work in the US. When it looked as if the deal had fallen through then the US deal more or less died because of it.

What did they mean by "where the chassis will be built"? Is it b/c the JGTC rules favours "asian" manufacturers, DTM "European" and US "American" manufacturers?

[MJones94]

There was an interesting discussion about the topic and unification in silhouette racing on the latest shakedown from the drive network.

I would post the link, but I cannot.