For Your Pleasure We are lucky enough to have secured a new contributor to our Starship Enterprise, David Addison. This is something of a departure for him as his natural beat is trying with unending enthusiasm to describe to the folks in the grandstands and terraces the progress and excitement of such varied fare as British GT or seven car Mini extravaganzas.........his ability to talk and think is legendary, at least in his own lunchtime. In the first of two pieces he gives a fresh perspective to the eternal conundrum of sportscar racing, Manufacturers or Not? |
John Brooks |
But you blew my mind............. Two corners from home, the lead changed: the Porsche dived up the inside of the Ferrari to score a second win of the year. Name the era. 1970s? No. 1990s? Nope. Try August 2005 and Silverstone. Forgive this being a bit parochial, for it is of British GT of which I type, but visits to international races are infrequent and so sitting here in Bahrain for the FIA GT final round offers a chance for reflection - and to look closer at a world seen but occasionally. That Silverstone tale was how a two-hour race was resolved in August and although the cars were in private hands, few in the grandstands gave a rat’s ass. They know it is a Porsche, they know it is a Ferrari and they can dream of owning them. Whether they are run by a factory or by Team Oilyspanner doesn’t matter, does it? Michael Cotton recently talked here about the stunning FIA GT race in Dubai, but bemoaned the championship in its current form, devoid of manufacturers. Well, granted the hospitality structures are less, the number of media people in press rooms are fewer but the racing is still damned good. Do we really need manufacturers? On the track, no. A Maserati is a Maserati no matter how it is run, and from my perch in the Bahrain commentary box this weekend they will be referred to as such, the teams secondarily. GPC Sport? Erm, what? When Pedro Lamy grabbed the lead a lap from home in Dubai last week, the guy in the Ferrari shirt in the grandstand in front of me went into overdrive with enthusiasm. It was a Ferrari leading: Larbre never entered the equation to him. Another fine edition of you................. Talk to Stephane Ratel and he will tell you that his concept for FIA GT is working. The cars are plentiful and they aren’t dependent upon manufacturers. Or more to the point, their whims. Look through the history of motor sport and you will find championships created by car firms, normally one-make, that are invariably dead, buried and forgotten within five years, or series that have welcomed the big guns with open arms, only to have the championship destroyed by the manufacturers. Car companies want to win. They spend money. They have more money to spend. They drive out the privateer. Then there is a boardroom change and the motorsport-mad director is replaced by one who prefers polo. At that point, you’re in trouble. So, Sheikh Ratel rolls on with dream-car names, but without the incumbent problems of their boardroom politics. Instead he has a seven-way fight for the championship that should produce a great race on Friday. You can understand why he was non-plussed by KSO’s efforts to force his championship to be subordinate to the WTCC. Take me on a roller coaster.................... Where manufacturers would be welcome, though, is through their marketing spend, and a more intelligent use of it than just running cars. Take Porsche’s role of supplying cars to private teams and then providing assistance to run them. If that route was taken by more firms, we could be onto something. Or instead of spending, say, $1 million on building a shit-hot car that will dominate sports car racing, why not put that money into marketing a championship? Take that money and work with regional distributors and help them take thousands of VIPs to a race and make it look busy. Build an atmosphere. Empty grandstands bad, full grandstands good. And don’t think that free tickets are a bad thing, necessarily. yes, circuits often moan about the potential loss of revenue from thousands that don’t pay to get in, but these are people unlikely to be there under normal circumstances, so in real terms the circuit is gaining, especially when it adds hospitality and merchandising income on as well. And it works: John Guest, a UK company took over 20,000 people to Donington two years ago to watch its GT2 Porsche. They loved it and they made it look busy. Job done. So, imagine Maserati world-wide doing a similar thing and putting bums on seats. It may do, too, with the Trofeo Maserati due to support an increasing number of FIA GT events. Then imagine Ferrari did it, too, to help promote its F430. The Aston Martin, then Lamborghini (rumoured to be looking at an increased programme with Reiter for 2006). You still with me? Encourage people in, make it look busy, help promote the off-track bits, but leave the teams to run their cars. This time is the best time we all know................. Is the GT world looking good? Yes, seems to be the answer from M Ratel. He is confident of bigger GT1 and GT2 grids for 2006 and the new GT3 Championship should be a success. But where do all these teams come from? There is a finite number of teams in the world and for all those who want to move up to an international arena from a domestic championship, you need another wave to take their place back home. Can this world-wide expansion continue without domestic series’ suffering? Time will tell, but there must be a concern. We have GT internationally, we have French and British under SRO’s control. Oh, and LMES, of course, with its mix of recognisable GT cars and pug-ugly unpromotable prototypes.....(personal opinion...ED) Something has to give, surely. Maybe it will take a few years before we notice any decline, but the number of GT teams willing and financially-able to fill these grids will either dwindle, or come at the expense of other categories. We shall see. Just as long as those manufacturer cheque books and pin-stripe suits don’t get involved... |
David Addison |
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