Is Auto racing a dying sport in the US?

Spectator viewing of racing is dropping, but participation is rising. Lemons, Chump, and bracket drag racing shows there is a strong desire for reasonably priced experience.

 

One word

Yes

People are too introverted and into computers and video games. Outdoor sports as a whole will end up dying eventually. All tracks are going the way of Monticello and lime rock soon, private country clubs that 99% of people can't afford.

 

Interesting topic which I'm sure will keep us busy well until the start of the 2015 racing season.

Racing in all of its various forms is not looking towards the future in any positive way. They
must be culling new fans, looking towards the youth market and getting more interest going as
I may imagine each of us were exposed to racing as children.

F-1 is a prime example when Bernie Ecclestone comes out and says that F-1 is not interested in
having young fans as it is 70 year olds who can afford to buy the sorts of watches and other luxury
products that brand themselves in F-1. This, from a guy who came from nothing, emerging from
post-war England selling any spare motorcycle and car parts he could lay his hands on to make
a living.

This must be fairly typical in attitudes from F-1 to Indy Cars to NASCAR, etc.

Looking at what the form of racing which is catching on with kids today, it is Rally Cross as the cars
are cool, outfitted with relevant technology and they like drivers such as Ken Block and Tanner Faust.

Also, we hear stories about how kids aren't interested in getting driver's licenses any longer
and how the schools are no longer teaching driver's ed. While none of this bodes well for the
auto industry, it must be doubly troubling for the racing industry as well.

Those whom hold the keys to racing in the U.S. seem to work with blinders on, only interested in
what they have right in front of them now rather than who will be attending or watching their races
on TV 10-20-30 years down the road.

They'd better start waking up as even Marchionne stated this week that F-1 needs a revolution and
he is absolutely right and they'd better be listening to him in Paris, Daytona, Indianapolis, et.al. if
racing is to survive.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's turgid episode, spec cars, pay drivers and relevance.

Ferrari bosses say F1 needs a revolution to appeal to younger fans - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com

BHW

 

Ill give a ridiculous example. The movie wall e. that's what people will turn into

 

It's time for an entirely new series of racing
One with closely matched cars and No pay drivers

 

One day a WDC will be decided by a video game championship.

In fact when they can model the physics well enough the WCC will be decided via a video game too, with designers loading their cars somehow into the program.

You will become a F1 driver by working your way up the ranks, and you will be a spectator by buying tickets in something like SecondChance (or whatever that sim is called).

Soon too all sexual activity will be computer based and people will only be born by artificial insemination like we do to the animals in the zoo. What a load of wankers we all will have become

Look out Matrix here we come and nobody will have the intelligence to turn the f*cken internet off to save us from ourselves.
Pete

 

Go to any local dirt track. It's called sprint car racing!

 

Agreed, but who would dare to step up and start such a thing when faced with the near
virtual monopoly which NASCAR/ISC currently controls over all of racing in the U.S.?

When Andy Evans took over IMSA/Sports Car, he famously came out and stated that it was
his intention to start a new stock car racing series to compete with NASCAR. This went down
like a led balloon in the hallowed fake wood paneled walls in Daytonner, war erupted and
sports car racing in the U.S. hasn't been the same since.

The point being, when there is one entity controlling all of racing in the U.S. (and an eye
towards spreading their cancer internationally), it's impossible to go up against them as they
hold all the relevant tracks, keep all the sponsors and tie up the TV networks with near endless
news cycles.

Over beers recently, someone asked what racing is doing right? It was hard to come up
with a good answer as each of the top tier U.S. series have devolved to a point now where
they're becoming more irrelevant with each passing year.

The series which seem to be keeping things on the rails currently include the WEC, Pirelli World
Challenge, Blancpain GT and Australian V8 Supercars as the cars and technology are relevant to
their road-going counter parts which racing simply must do.

Hopefully, PWC keeps progressing as the news of further involvements of top tier teams coming
in continues. The problem then becomes NASCAR/ISC see PWC as a threat and they'll do
everything in their power to squash the series.

BHW

 

Good question.

Every time we get the itch to get back in the game (upper series road racing), I come up with a plethora of reasons why we shouldn't.

Our decision to date (no), I think, suggests that things are either in a state of decline or, more likely, flux. The costs only go one way (up), and the sands are constantly shifting (and not necessarily in the competitors favor). Stability is the key to any successful formula.

CW

 

given the number of teams, drivers, manufacturers and sponsors moving to PWC this winter you can bet your funnel cake the France family is working on a plan to destroy not just PWC, but SCCA pro racing as a whole.

Indycar could get good in the next few years, competition has been great, aerokits are coming this year to make the cars less ugly, and the new chassis for Indy Lights will see a renaissance in that series which has been all but dead the last few years.

 

You and I are violent agreement on the France plan.

 

There was a time when the only way to see the Indianapolis 500 was to see it in person or watch it on ABC Wild World of Sports. If you didn't see it either way you had to wait a whole year to get another opportunity. That created great interest.

Today, you can experience the Indy 500 live or watch it on TV or the internet. Read all about it and watch replays on a multitude of websites. You can record it and watch it at your connivence. There are so many ways to watch the Indy 500 now with amazing camera work and coverage it is understandable why it is very hard to to put bodies in the seats at the track or why the TV network that carried it doesn't have the numbers it used to.

There are so many different things going on in the world today vying for people's attention with cell phones and computers sapping a large portion of that. Now people can't be bothered to talk to the person sitting next to them at a dinner party because their cell phone is more interesting to them. That generation of people are far less likely to put in a day at the track more than once if ever.

I think there will always be racing. Whether its hermit crabs or pods on another planet mankind will always find a way to race and compete. However, those glory days from the 60s 70s and 80s that you guys yearn for are now racing history.


Will auto racing in the US die off? No, but it will certainly have to downsize to be able to sustain itself. The geniuses in the marble floored offices in Daytona have already recognized this and have downsized their seating capacity but upgraded the amenities. They know they will be selling less tickets but are looking for ways to extract more money from the fewer ticket holders. That's how you stay in business.

The 2015 season gets underway in just a few weeks with the Roar before the 24 and you know where I'll be

 

I believe the word is "Machiavellian"

 

Dying may be too strong, but certainly a huge decline. The sport is too much fun to die completely.

Some areas have big participation Lemons, ChumpCar and some of the club series like PCA and BMWCCA and even the Ferrari CCA. The thing all of these series have in common is efforts to control costs and to focus on camaraderie rather than competition.

My thought is that a big reason for the decline of road racing is just consumer disinterest. I personally remember attending Trans Am, IMSA, and support races in the 80s, and a big part of my interest is that I was (and am) a gearhead. I just don't think that is as true for a lot of people as it used to be.

Example: Look at the rise of the SUV. There was practically no such thing in 1980, but now, everyone has or wants one, or so it seems. The least important thing about an SUV is handling and performance. On the other hand, sports cars have declined. Supra. dead. NSX. Dead. Lexus LFA. Dead. 911. Tiny numbers subsidized by Cayenne and Macan. Viper. Life support. If no one is excited about owning and driving a performance vehicle, why would they care about racing?

On the other hand, DE events have proliferated, and the small number of folks who love performance participate, rather than spectate, with their time and dollars. I have a friend who has raced at a very high level and he has a saying that for him, "racing is not a spectator sport."

For my part, I race a lot, but I rarely go to races to spectate. Part of it is limited time and money and I'll spend both doing rather than watching. Another part is that I know enough about racing from the inside to know that modern sports car racing has almost no relevance to the cars and brands that interest me. Powerhouses like Viper and Corvette are throttled with restrictor plates and ballast so Ferrari and 911 can keep up. It's all about the show and drama, and admittedly has to be or big displacement cars would run away and marques like Porsche would not participate at all.

Finally, perhaps the hardest part of pro racing sucks the joy out of it for me. A successful racer has to spend lots of time courting and keeping sponsors. I'll bet most pro racers spend 90% of their time on sponsorship-related activities and 10% practicing and racing. That is why I club race at a level I can afford to simply write a check for and if I get any sponsorship dollars, it's something that is sort of natural and a byproduct of the people I meet racing, rather than vice-versa.

I wish I had a fix, but I think the world is just different today than it was in the golden 60s and 70s. That said, racers live long enough to retire these days, so I am not sure anyone really wants to go back to the more jungle-rules racing (and that too could be a lack of interest, since if no one dies, there is less drama).

 

I suggest the VLN/N24. This is a wildly popular series and 24. This year there will be 250,000 spectators at the N24. The top teams run GT3 or Experimental versions thereof but there are many classes covering many levels of cars and you can buy a seat at the 24 in a competitive car for 5K euro. For the VLN you fly over Thursday night and are Home on Sunday.

The Major Manufactures are all there but there are also MANY small teams that have a blast.

We'll be there with our Two Car Team modestly going for first over all.

Check it out.

 

Yeah But That's s**tty cars and everything else that goes along with it is mediocre - IMO
Want nice tracks in exotic locals - Maybe if Indy car upped it's game it could get there

 

The car as we know it is dying, giving way to something else. Not sure anything can be done about that.

 

This is a good thread. I had dinner with a close employee of the France family. I asked some of the same questions in this thread.
Basically, NASCAR attendance is down but world wide TV ratings are up. NASCAR is focused on expanding worldwide operations. Nascar is not concerned at all and they are focusing on expanding into Europe, South America and Asia. To make the races look crowded on TV they are painting the stadium seats different colors.

The Tudor series is just a token series the France family has always wanted and finally got. They are not concerned if it makes money or not.

In summary NASCAR is doing just fine and making a ton of money.

The future of racing is TV. Nascar recognizes the audience is changing. They are thinking about how to capitalize on this change.

 

Hi Jim:

Nice that you've chimed in on this.

The question is, how does an event like VLN/N24 translate to the U.S.? If it wasn't
for the Internet, we'd barely know about it here as it receives zero TV attention here.

You're right, of course, the N24 this is a wildly successful event but so are other blue ribband
events such as Le Mans and the Indy 500. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that it
translates into other countries, especially the U.S. and this has always been an issue.

In the mid-90s, SRO's FIA GT events in Europe and around the world were hugely successful
but when they came to the U.S. and raced at Sebring (for example) promoters were thrilled
to get 40,000 spectators (which was their target). The Sebring FIA GT is a race that people
still point to as being the coolest they've ever seen, but they only came back once or twice
more playing to a virtual empty house at Homestead.

Likewise, we know for example that Mercedes-Benz very much wants to have a DTM race or
two in the U.S. But, for some reason, no one seems to be able (or willing) to pull this off.
NASCAR was talking about running their own brand of DTM in the U.S. a couple of years ago
but we sure haven't heard anything about that lately.

One thing we may all agree on is that COTA has put together an impressive facility and have
thrown down the gauntlet for other U.S. tracks to follow. If more tracks stepped up to meet
the challenge of COTA, it is possible road racing in the U.S. could get a higher profile but who
is willing to put up the money to do it?

BHW

 

The perfect storm: Boring cars, boring drivers, boring tracks. It isn't just dying, it's committing suicide.

In the space of seven Goodwood Revivals I've attended since 2002, I've been to exactly no major series races in the US. And I used to go to ALL the IMSA and IndyCar races in the south and on the east coast.

As each sanctioning body attempts to make the racing "more exciting" by essentially creating spec car series, they dilute interest that much more. It seems everyone has forgotten what made the original CanAm and TransAm so successful: Loose rules, aggressive drivers and factory involvement creating truly exciting cars that the average spectator could understand, or at least identify with.

 

Good point. But isn't it remarkable that you, a US citizen, elects to devote your effort in roadracing overseas? I agree that road racing in Europe is in a much different animal than in the US. Heck, the most recent track car I bought came from England, because sports prototype racing cars are almost nonexistent in the US.

But what is the secret to reviving Road racing in the United States?

 

Well said. Plus unaffordability. In the old days people could race on the weekends against their heroes.

I honestly wish I was a billionaire so I could start a racing series that was affordable and still exciting.

Formula US

 

Spec Miata?

 

Funny thing that the racing car didn't become more affordable since inception like the DVD player! LOL The Hipsters are all into vintage looking diy cafe racers. Hopefully the next trend, the Racers takes to grassroots motorsports. In time the flock will do as the "trendsetters" do. Then corporate will follow and then as soon as you know it! Ducati is selling a line of flannel shirts to go with their new Scrambler bike. Dunno how else to sell an expensive sport to the masses when most of them would rather spend their money on tablets rather than racing school. Cars have to be cool with the public again. I just wish it was that easy.