Why ALMS teaming with Champ Car/IRL

UPDATE A reader responds, I have to take exception to your comments about ALMS' motivation to run races with ChampCar/IRL. Having been associated with and having attended almost every race since the series’ inception, ALMS has made strong progress in attendance over the years. You mention Sebring and LeMans. How about Petit this year? Huge crowds. Also, have your source check with track management at Laguna to see how they felt about the crowd this year…it was up significantly and the front straight grandstands were also virtually full at times.

Crowds at Mid-Ohio and Road America were also as big as they've ever been and not in the "small" category as they definitely were in the early days at roval venues such as Charlotte and Las Vegas. Houston for a Friday night at a new venue also did well.

While ALMS is certainly not at NASCAR level crowds and never will be, the attendance growth is very significant. (Please take into consideration the stadium style seating at NASCAR oval events as opposed to road course seating. Thus your analysis of the Laguna crowd is very misleading).

Finally, whatever you do, please don't lump GrandAm attendance in with ALMS…not even close to being in the same league…..ask around. Name Withheld

10/28/06 Next year the ALMS will run half of its schedule as a Saturday event in conjunction with Champ Car and the IRL, mostly at street circuit events, because, Sebring and LeMans not withstanding, the series is tired of holding races and hardly anyone shows up. The same can be said of Grand-Am. The split in sportscar racing is a bad thing. By teaming up with Champ Car and the IRL, ALMS avoids the bad rap it gets when hardly anyone is in attendance. The following excerpt from AutoWeek paints the picture at last weekend's Laguna Seca ALMS event.

I hate to say that the ALMS is the best-kept secret in motorsports, but it’s got to be close. Granted, Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca is a big place with big hills, and small people can pick out a vantage point just about anywhere around the 2.2-mile track to take in action. On the two days leading up to the four-hour Saturday afternoon-evening race, there was no one at the track. I’d bet crew and team members outnumbered spectators.

On race day, the crowd was a bit larger, but at no time was anyone feeling crowded. Driving into the event on race morning, always a telltale sign of crowd health, we raced to our parking spot. The lots were open.

For the past couple of years, sports car racing has faced the same problem as open-wheel racing, namely a split in the ranks. The results of the Champ Car-IRL divorce have been well documented, and the ALMS-Grand Am battle for closed-wheel road-racing supremacy—while perhaps not as well publicized—has seen the same results: Fans’ allegiances have been tested and divided. While the NASCAR marketing machine keeps rolling, great racing is happening across the country with few people taking note. AutoWeek [Editor's Note: One of our photos from the event shows people sitting in one of two grandstands, but that was the most we spotted.]