Enthusiasm Building For TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Debut
Dec. 4, 2013
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
LAS
VEGAS, Nev. -- As Scott Atherton put it, Brian France's presence at the
2013 NASCAR Motorsports Marketing Forum at the Aria was
lost on no one.
France,
NASCAR chairman and CEO, kicked off the session on the TUDOR United
SportsCar Championship by affirming his unqualified support
of the racing series formed by the merger of the GRAND-AM Road Racing
and American Le Mans Series.
"A
couple of years ago, we looked at sports car racing, which we had our
own position in with Grand-American," France said. "It was
very obvious that two separate sports car racing series would never
achieve what we needed to.
"There
were lots of difficulties in pulling that together, but we did. In
2012, we announced that, and then we went on in 2013 to integrate
those two companies. The results are tremendous, what we're seeing with
our OEM participation getting bigger and better, our sponsorships
getting bigger and better. Interest in the combined schedule for 2014
has never been stronger. You can feel it."
Atherton,
president and chief operating officer of the International Motor Sports
Association (IMSA), the sanctioning body for the new
series, concurred that enthusiasm for the merged series is building
rapidly.
"Sept.
5, 2012, was when we went public with the announcement of the merger,
and since that time, it has been the most incredible process
I've ever been involved with," Atherton said. "There's a large group of
people that deserve a lot of credit for pulling this together…
"Next
we had to define a new brand and a new name -- United SportsCar
Championship, and then the decision to put it all under the umbrella
of IMSA as the sanctioning body of record. So, GRAND-AM as a brand and
as an entity -- gone. American Le Mans Series, brand and entity -- also
gone, replaced by IMSA."
According
to Atherton, the new entity promises more racing for more drivers at
historic venues, starting with the Rolex 24 At Daytona
in late January.
"For
years, we all took a sheet of paper and said, 'OK, write down your
dream schedule,' and frankly, 2014 represents that," Atherton
said. "To open up with the Rolex 24 At Daytona, followed by the Mobil 1
12 Hours of Sebring, followed by the Long Beach Grand Prix…
"You name the track. If it's a historically significant major-market sports car history venue, it's on our calendar."
In
addition to the attractive schedule, the series debuts with a five-year
commitment from TUDOR, a division of Rolex that previously
has marketed the brand primarily in Asia.
"We
have this heritage in motorsports," said Russell Kelly, brand manager
for TUDOR. "Rolex has supported motorsports and had a relationship
with the France family since 1959. It's no secret that we have a love
of motorsports.
"TUDOR
has just come back to the U.S. market in September of this year. It's
important for us because, first of all, the sports car
racing series is defined by time. It's not defined by distance. It's
not defined by the number of laps. It's defined by time.
"More
important, it helped us to reach a demographic where we wouldn't
otherwise have an audience… The TUDOR United SportsCar Championship
really gives us an opportunity to come here, with a great schedule in
two key markets for us, and speak to the local, domestic customer."
Atherton
also revealed a new technology that will facilitate keeping track of
the running positions of all cars in all series, an aspect
of sports car and endurance racing that had the potential for confusion
in the past.
Those
who follow the sport will recall leader lights on the front-running
cars. Now fans will be able to see the positions of every
car on the track.
"Beginning
in 2014 with the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, every car is
going to have a digital panel on it, still color-coded
to each class, but every position, regardless of where the car is, will
be displayed in brilliant color that's visible in the brightest of
sunlight," Atherton said.
"So
you can go away, have a lunch break, do whatever you do, come back, and
within one lap you're going to know every car's position
in every class simply by watching the cars go by in front of you. So
we're tackling some of the Achilles heels in sports car racing."
STRONG SEASON
France
prefaced his introduction of the merged sports car series with a
synopsis of the past season in NASCAR racing, referring notably
to the introduction of the new Gen-6 race car to the NASCAR Sprint Cup
Series.
"We
had a couple of things we had to get right," France said. "One of them
was launching the Gen-6 race car at the Sprint Cup level.
Understand that we didn't have a very good track record. If you go back
to '08 (with the introduction of the Gen-5 as the 'Car of Tomorrow') --
I take a lot of responsibility for this -- we didn't have the
cooperation of the OEMs and the rest of the industry,
and we didn't get the proper launch of our product, which is a key
thing we have to get right…
"So
high expectations from us to get this right, get the OEMs back where
they were positioned better with us, get the drivers and the
teams liking the cars -- how they drive and how they race -- and the
fans ultimately liking what they see on the track. After all, that's the
heart of what we do."
France
referenced the upcoming testing (Dec. 9 at Charlotte) and review as
part of the continuing process in improving the performance
of the Gen-6 car on intermediate speedways.
"I'm
pleased to say that we got all that right, for the most part," France
said. "We're still working on one significant part of that.
And one part of that is our competition review that we've been doing,
knowing that the stated goal of NASCAR is very simple: to have the
closest, most competitive and safest racing in the world."
FANS FIRST
In
one of the early-morning sessions, NASCAR Senior Vice President of
Racing Operations Steve O'Donnell spearheaded a discussion about
creating the ultimate fan experience.
Much
of the focus dealt with the influx of new young talent through NASCAR's
touring series and the concerted effort to make the young
drivers household names to the fan base.
"What
you've seen, by investing in the NASCAR touring series, by investing in
the NASCAR Next program, you've got Ryan Blaney coming
up, you've got Chase Elliott coming up, Kyle Larson, names that people
have now heard of who are winning -- Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Daniel
Suarez out of Mexico," O'Donnell said.
"So I think that we have really taken the initiative to not just look at Cup, but all the way down to the touring series."
During
a panel discussion focused on attracting new fans to motorsports,
NASCAR Vice President of Marketing Kim Brink noted that the
sanctioning body had expanded the scope of its advertising to underline
the drama and danger inherent to the sport.
"Steve
Phelps, our CMO was making a presentation," Brink said. "And he said,
'What our drivers do day-in and day-out; it's dangerous;
it's hard; it's intense.' So I said, 'Steve, we have a body of
(advertising) work, and we're not showing that. Can we have the latitude
to really be able to show that intensity?'
"We're
always really careful not to show anything where a fan is hurt or a
driver's hurt… With those parameters, we showed it to Brian
(France) and to Mike (Helton, NASCAR president) and to Steve, and there
was absolutely no hesitation."
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