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      04-03-2012, 05:26 PM   #109
mapezzul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Levi View Post
I know nothing about this so I have to believe Mapezzul. But if this is really true, then I can say to race only DTM is very weak. DTM is not known world wide, only in Germany and BMW's largest market is in America.
US DTM announcement coming as soon as negotiations end....

Backed by NASCAR, covered live on Speed. Offering endurance races and city races. Cheaper to run and more competitive than even ALMS.

2013 was the planned year for US but there is some rumblings that US based brands want in (Corvette/Mustang) and that is delaying things a bit. I'll find out more in two weeks...

ALMS continues to shoot themselves in the foot- I covered the series for two years and the politics is unbelievable. They make decisions then change them and leave the teams left to pick up the pieces. The reason why Speed dropped them and they are now being covered by ESPN ABC in parts and mostly online is because SPEED was loosing money on the production end and asked ALMS to pick up some of the tab- they said no. Hard series for people to follow when you can't watch it live or in its entirety.

Tell me how the racing series founder- PANOZ can ask for a rewrite of the rules to accommodate his cars and it be granted but other brands can't. How can a series that claims to be "Green" not allow turbo charging or direct injection in this day in age? Corvette for years raced itself in GT1, BMW built their cars for a class that never even came to fruition then had to change the entire setup for LeMans right before the race as they ACO changed its mind as well. Corvette can't run DI... the only brand making out is Ferrari and of course Porsche which has its own class (BMW builds GT3 and GT4 cars but ALMS says NO).

BMW will still race at the 24 hours of the 'Ring and other VLN races in Europe as well as privateers campaign in the Z4 GT3 throughout the world but unless something changes in terms of rules and cost structure BMW is done with ALMS/ACO. There is no market gain- MB is not selling any less cars without ALMS and not any more cars now with an F1 team... they bought into F1 to make a profit on the IPO.
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