FUMES

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Nov072011

Monday, November 7, 2011 at 12:43PM

November 9, 2011

"Run what you brung" GTX racing? A concept whose time is now.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 11/7, 1:00 p.m.) Detroit. My last "Fumes" column about the need for a unified, major league U.S. Road Racing Championship has generated a lot of buzz within the racing industry and particularly at the manufacturers. Not all of it positive, to be sure, which is no big surprise, especially when it comes to rattling the status quo. This just in: People with more than a little skin in the game don't like change. Especially when it might affect their little "fiefdoms." I'd say "incomes" but if anyone says they're making money running a professional road racing series these days they're probably being more than a little disingenuous. Oh, there is money involved alright, but much of it is going in the wrong direction, as in out the door to prop up a given series.

No, major league road racing in this country isn't exactly major league, now is it? Not when it's an afterthought in the mainstream & stick-and-ball media. And when it comes right down to it who can blame them for having that attitude about the sport of road racing? The nonexistent television ratings generated tell outsiders all they need to know about the sport, don't they?

Which is why I believe there's an urgent need to rectify this situation as soon as possible, and why a new United States Road Racing Championship as described in my previous column could be just what the sport so desperately needs.

One thing that I wrote last week that generated the most interest was the description of the cars proposed for this new-think "USRRC." Here's what I said:

And what about the cars? If I were USRRC czar I would have three classes: Prototype, GT Experimental (GTX) and GT. The prototype class would accommodate all forms of prototypes currently running or on the drawing board, but there would be no sub-classes. For instance, if you want to run a DeltaWing car against the bigger machines, then you'll win because of power-to-weight ratio, handling, aerodynamics and fuel-efficiency. GTX would be an unlimited class left to the manufacturers desires. Somewhat production-based and part run-what-you-brung, cars would have to retain production shapes (more or less) but everything else would be open to interpretation. Wide open. And finally, GT would adhere to the current and future ALMS GT specifications. (The current Grand-Am Cup would compete on the same weekend in their own race.)

People endorsed the need to keep the prototype class but simplifying it by letting all comers run against each other. And keeping the current ALMS GT is the right formula, while letting Grand-Am Cup run in their own separate races on the USRRC weekends. But the most intriguing class, judging by the responses I received, was the GT Experimental, or "GTX" class.

Older road racing enthusiasts know exactly what "GTX" means, while newer enthusiasts might naturally say, "You mean like the next-gen DTM cars that are due to race next year?" But no, GTX would not be like the DTM cars, which are rigidly designed to a set of specs agreed upon by the German manufacturers.

The German manufacturers, bless 'em, love to have an agreed-upon set of specifications that they can all race against while spending boatloads - and I mean boatloads - of cash. It makes them happy to build thinly-disguised racers that kinda-sorta look like their street machines but in fact bristle with F1 & Le Mans prototype technology. They pat themselves on each others' backs while they project the fact that they're being "responsible" with their racing budgets, even though the enterprise of designing, building and racing "DTM" cars is outrageously expensive. It works for them and I'm glad, but it's not GTX racing.

A new GTX class could prove to be wildly popular in major league U.S. road racing and here's why: The concept retains more than a little of the "blue sky" thinking, backyard creativity and flat-out ingenuity that powered all forms of American racing in its formative years. A lot of people point to the creative years at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where everyone from visionary mechanical geniuses to backyard dreamers could show up and run, well, what they brung, in the parlance of the day.

Without this wide-open attitude there would have been no diesel-powered racers at Indianapolis, or six-wheeled experimental flyers, or the screaming "Novi" specials, or, of course, Andy Granatelli's foray into turbine-powered dominance. And once technology overwhelmed The Speedway, the days of wild-eyed experimentation gave way to controlled spec racing.

The last time major league road racing in the U.S. had that kind of "unlimited" and "run what you brung" drawing card was the fabled Can-Am series, which was so long ago now that it's almost criminal that nothing has approached it since for that kind of "OMG did you see that" visceral appeal.

That's why a GTX class, within the new USRRC rules package, would be spectacular.

Let's say you were director of a major automaker's racing department and you were sitting down to contemplate how your company would approach racing in the new USRRC. You could: 1. Build a new car to the prototype rules or partner with an existing chassis manufacturer like Lola, 2. You could decide to race in the GT class for the direct connection to your street machines that you could promote and advertise, or 3. You could decide to go into the GTX class, where you could go for the overall win and directly connect your racing endeavors to what you're selling to customers.

Let's say that GM Racing, instead of building a Corvette Prototype from scratch, decides to attack the GTX class instead with a Corvette-based machine that begins where the current C6.R machines leave off. Now you have to understand, the GTX class would dispense with a lot of the GT rules in favor of basically letting the manufacturers have at it, so imagine a factory-entered, Pratt&Miller Engineering-prepared, 8-liter Twin Turbo V8-powered Corvette C7-ZR1.R with 1000HP+.

Or, to take this further, imagine a factory-entered next-generation BMW M3 with a Twin-Turbo 6 with the same approximate horsepower rating. Or a special edition Ferrari for the class, or a 911-based Porsche that would leave its current GT RSR car in the dust, or a Dodge Challenger with a 1000HP Hemi, or a next-generation Ford Mustang designed to the same unlimited rules, or a Hyundai Genesis Coupe from Hell, or some guy from nowhere who decides to build a GTX Camaro from scratch to show the factory a thing or two. You get the idea.

Costly? Sure. But the manufacturers would choose to compete in GTX at their discretion. The idea being that this "run what you brung" class would spur a new era of ingenuity and creativity with cars that would be exciting to watch (and hear), that would be extremely difficult to drive (bringing back the whole idea of drivers having to actually get out of the throttle once in a while just to keep these machines on the track). All while proving to be wildly popular among racing fans of all stripes.

I say the time for a new USRRC featuring a "run what you brung" GTX class is right now.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Watkins Glen, New York, July 1973. The No. 2 Gulf Research Racing Mirage M6 Ford Cosworth driven by Mike Hailwood/John Watson sits in the pits during practice at Watkins Glen. The duo qualified the car in the 6th position behind two Matra-Simcas and three Ferrari 312 PBs for the Watkins Glen 6 Hour race. The Hailwood/Watson car would finish fifth behind winners Gerard Larrousse/Henri Pescarolo (No. 33 Equipe Matra Matra-Simca MS670B), Jackie Ickx/Brian Redman (No. 10 Ferrari SEFAC SPA 312PB), Arturo Merzario/Carlos Pace (No. 11 Ferrari SEFAC SPA 312PB) and the No. 1 Gulf Research Racing Co. Mirage M6 Ford driven by Derek Bell/Howden Ganley. The Mark Donohue/George Follmer No. 6 Penske Racing Porsche Carrera RSR led a strong GT contingent, finishing 6th overall.

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.