>From the Detroit Free Press, reporting on a conference being held in Detroit:
(Matt Murray usually does this bit, but since I am here.... ;-)
MIKE BRUDENELL: Auto racing execs look to cut costs
December 1, 2004
BY MIKE BRUDENELL
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
On a landmark Tuesday in which stock car racing rubbed wheels with
Formula One in Dearborn, leaders of five auto racing sanctioning
bodies agreed that their sport faced some of its biggest challenges in
years.
Their message to a packed room of automotive engineers and racing
industry veterans was clear: There must be a meaningful connection
between race cars and production vehicles, or racing might be seen by
manufacturers as too costly to continue to support.
"We are all facing similar problems," said Max Mosley, head of Formula One.
"For 1,000 people to work to put two cars on the grid is completely insane;
it's the ultimate folly."
Mosley was referring to Ferrari, which fields a two-car factory team
in Formula One and has a massive workforce, dedicated solely to
building, preparing and racing its sleek red machines. Mosley wants to
reduce the cost of competing in F1 in the next few years."
By 2008, we hope to cut costs dramatically," said Mosley, a former racing
driver and barrister in London.
Oxford-educated Mosley, president of Federation Internationale de
l'Automobile in Paris, was in a group that included NASCAR president
Mike Helton, born and raised in Bristol, Va. They talked about such
things as spiraling costs and alternative fuels.
Sitting at the same table during the opening session of the SAE
Motorsports Engineering Conference and Exhibition was Steve Johnson,
president and chief executive officer of the Sports Car Club of
America, which oversees more than 10,000 licensed racers in this
country.
Johnson, who said he thought diesel-powered race cars would soon be
seen in SCCA events, traded information with Indy Racing League
president Tony George, whose family owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway,
and Tom Compton, president of the National Hot Rod Association, which
Compton described as the "fastest, most powerful sport on earth."
In Tuesday's session, themed "Change for Relevance," the high-powered
forum discussed issues of cost containment, safety, technology
transfer, speed and competitiveness of racing at virtually every level
of the sport.
Absent from the group was Champ Car, a rival open-wheel series to the
IRL. A spokesman at the conference said Champ Car was not invited but
was considered to participate in other segments of the three-day SAE
program, which include technology and engineering panels. Champ Car
could not be reached for comment.
Johnson, who has more than 65,000 SCCA paying members, said he jumped at the
chance to join the SAE business panel.
"I'm here to get their autographs," joked Johnson, gesturing to George and
the others. "But, seriously, we are striving to make our sport safer, more
cost-effective and entertaining to our constituents and fans.
"Helton said NASCAR's No. 1 priority was driver safety, but he acknowledged
that his organization had to continue to find ways of making stock car racing
more entertaining but relevant at the same time.
"Parity and stability in racing is key to the future," Helton said. "The role
of manufacturers in NASCAR has never been more important. We have to make
sure auto manufacturers want to be part of racing."
Compton said the escalating cost of the sport was a major concern. He
also admitted the NHRA needed to pay more attention to protecting the
entertainment benefit of the sport.
"Our job is to produce close racing, exciting racing, side-by-side
racing," Compton said. "Technology can add costs at no benefit. We
don't need to be going 400 miles per hour to provide great racing."
Mosley said racing in Europe faced similar problems to that in America
-- such as the cost of building engines and the challenge of
developing alternative fuels.
Contact MIKE BRUDENELL at 313-222-2115 or brudenell@freepress.com.
|