Chads996

Is it me, or is something lacking from the various US touring car series out there? I am sure the drivers are just as committed to their racing, but it seems that the European racing is run in a more of a "reckless abandon" nature. The various series in the US seem to be much more forgiving.

Does this make sense? I am merely trying to explain what I see. No disrespect intended to those drivers out there. I see a pretty significant difference. Thoughts?
Is it due to factory backed teams versus privateers? Meaning deep pockets vs cheap bastards?


Examples:


Grand-Am Koni Challenge (USA) In car





Speed World Challenge (USA)






BTCC (British Touring Car championship)





FIA WTCC (World Touring Car Championship)

Bryan Watts

You're comparing series that aren't really comparable from a budget standpoint IMO. There's more at stake and a lot more drivers who aren't paying for their own repairs in the Euro series compared to the US series.

Just the still shot for the final video is proof of that. There are people crowding the car and cameras trying to poke in. That's nothing like the winner's circle for a Conti Tire race, which is a rather ho-hum experience. It's just a different level of budgets and competition.

Chads996

That's what I figured. That's a shame. Imagine how awesome Touring Car could be here. I'd love to see the fanatical, dive bombing racing like the Euro's have here in the states. I'd be at every race I could attend.

C.

wanna911

Actually I think the commitment is exactly what the difference is. Not just by the drivers, but by everyone else (fans, media, sponsors). Racing is a passion in Europe, here it is a relative hobby. Half the guys in Koni, Grand-am are paying to race, not getting paid. Look at the crowds for what is only a BTCC or WTCC race and look at a World Challenge or Koni (or even Grand-am) race.

There seems to be clearly more on the line in Europe.

Nordschleife

For US drivers, a more informative comparison might be with Australian V8 racing, where the sponsors are all called Titus Canbe.

WTCC and BTCC can be very expensive to run in. However my favorite is DTM, Carbon Fibre going everywhere - exploding like ma dandelion when you blow on it.

R+C

Chads996

Not sure I agree. Even the V8 Series is chaotic and full of crazy dive bombs for position.

C.

Bryan Watts

DTM is cool...but the subject was Touring Car racing. Hard to compare it to DTM Prototype racing.

Veloce Raptor

Half? More like 95%.









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

Nordschleife

Yes, its fun to watch and very desstructive but for most the budgets are "Tight-as-Can-Be", so more comparable to pay per drive racing where damage is on top of other charges.

From time to time a few racing teams in Europe have been known to 'launder' money on behalf of 'special interests' - this means they are pretty cost insensitive. I am sure there have been a few teams in the US with creative funding arrangements. (and we all know about them)

R+C

J richard

I wish we had a road car based, road racing series here in the states that had major mfgr support, that has the critical mass to draw sposorship and contingency money, that's what it takes. The closest we got was the old trans am series. Thats what you have in DTM and aussy touring. Unfortunately the us racing infrastructure has/is based around ovals, we don't have enough road courses/facilities to make it work here. If you got more popularity of the new round of domestic race cars (mustangs, camaros, corvettes, viper, not tube cars) plus Mazda, BMW, Audi, Porsche etc you could develop a real series. There seems to be too many constraints in ALMS and self service in Grand Am to make something like this work in those series. I think there is more intrest in this these days it would cool to make happen.

Seth Thomas

Marketing. WTCC is the premier event for a race weekend with a sprint race and then a feature race in one weekend. All the US touring car type races you mention are support series for another main event. On top of that the series does a lot better job of marketing the excitement to the fans so the passionate Europeans love the racing.

Tires All the European series run on a true racing slick such as a Yokahama or a Dunlop slick. The US series all run on a DOT-R tire. The construction and the grip of the two types of tires are different enough to change the closeness of the racing. The slick can make up for some of the setup mistakes you can't with a DOT-R.

Chads996

So simply put it is all down to money. Simple as that. Money from the primary organizers all the way to the teams.

Imagine that. Too bad. I'd love to see you guys go ***** out.

BTW - Congrats on the recent win mang.

95m3racer

Also realize the BTCC/WTCC type deals have factory backed development...WTCC BMW's alone cost more than what many Grand Am Koni teams spend in a season....Factory built and developed cars, across all the brands for that matter. If you compare the Grand Am Spec mustang you can order to a BMW 320 WTCC car, not only is it 2x the cost for the BMW, but the BMW is substantially more developed and much quicker than the mustang (relatively speaking). Can't stress enough how different of a world it is overseas for this type of racing. Think the biggest ALMS news coverage, media blasts, fans...times that by 10 and you have an average WTCC weekend

A.Wayne

The audience here is 2 small for an American series to rival it's euro counterparts.

Kein_Ersatz

BTCC and other Touring Car series is what NASCAR could have been if only . . .