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The ALMS drew a strong crowd for its Saturday race, and it clearly didn't hurt the IndyCar gate the following day. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
They’re an intoxicating blend of colors, power and precision – and just as quick as Indy cars around a place like Mid-Ohio. They’ve put on some great races this season, with David Brabham providing the the highlight reel.
But the American Le Mans Series also remains a stranger to the national media and general public, so that’s why it’s imperative the sexiest series in this country continues to do doubleheaders with IndyCar.
Last weekend’s show at Mid-Ohio was a perfect example of why this partnership is good for both sides and needs to be expanded in 2009.
The Friday turnout was better than some IRL and most ALMS races this year, while Saturday could easily have been in the 30,000 neighborhood and Sunday probably topped 40,000. Those are just guesses based on years of watching the good old days of CART at the track Jim Trueman saved in the early 1980s.
Regardless of the actual numbers, it was a big-time racing crowd and atmosphere for the whole weekend, and it’s also been a winning marriage at St. Pete and Long Beach. Hard-core road racing fans have embraced the ALMS and appear to be warming back up to a unified open wheel series.
The only discouraging aspect of last weekend was the attitude of both sides. Ambivalent is the best word. A couple IRL officials said the ALMS was difficult to
First off, just because ALMS was on Saturday and pitted on top of the paddock instead of in the pit-side garages does not mean it played second fiddle. Last year at Elkhart Lake there was a larger gathering on Saturday to watch ALMS than turned out for Sunday’s Champ Car show.
Maybe ALMS deserves more track time than it received but that can surely be ironed out.
The bottom line is that there was a helluva crowd on Saturday and the drivers, mechanics and sponsors had to love it. The press contingent that follows Indy car, while not very big, still dwarfs ALMS coverage, so the sports cars were exposed to a bunch of people like myself who liked what they saw so. they wrote about it.
On the flip side, the folks who showed up and camped out for three days also stuck around for the Indy car race.
This isn’t like mixing ARCA with CART or USAC with ALMS – this is the same fan base being treated to the best of both worlds.
That’s what the IRL brass and Atherton need to understand: now is not the time for arrogance or kidding themselves into thinking how strong they are on their own. They need each other, because it’s a great ticket.
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