Sennads
9th February 2008, 18:51
As the discussion of merger between IRL and CCWS continues, spare a thought for some of the smaller fish in the pond. Out of the four open wheel series directly effected by all this, the one that is the healthiest, most competitive and stands on it's own two feet better than any other is the Atlantic series. Pretty ironic that it's the one in the most danger of being screwed for 2008. IRL and CCWS come together with a bundle of incentives and hand outs to the CCWS teams to make the transition happen and with some hard work on the teams part we have finally achieved what should have taken place a long time ago, it had to happen, it's finally happening and globally that's a great thing.
The IPS series has it's schedule intact which will be protected by the IRL and then we're left with Atlantic. What happens with the 2 million dollar prize? What happens to the Mazda corporate sponsorship? What happens to all the teams that are now in possession of worthless contracts with drivers and sponsors as the fundamental element of the series and therefore the contracts have changed?
There's talk they'll be running with Grand Am or ALMS or possibly both. Two great series but what about Atlantics at Long Beach, Toronto and Cleveland in front of big crowds who expect to see the young stars of tomorrow fighting it out?
We can only hope that after the big issues are resolved and attentions turn to the smaller fish that the powers that be will provide a proper schedule, like the one we had, and an equivalent incentive prize, like the one that brought the youngsters to the series, so they don't put a bunch of hard working, committed race teams out of business and kill the most successful series they own.
If we can survive 2008, we can prepare for a revamped Atlantic/IPS (the smart person would go with the history and success of the Atlantic name) series for 2009 with a fresh chassis/engine combination to take us through the next five years.
The IPS series has it's schedule intact which will be protected by the IRL and then we're left with Atlantic. What happens with the 2 million dollar prize? What happens to the Mazda corporate sponsorship? What happens to all the teams that are now in possession of worthless contracts with drivers and sponsors as the fundamental element of the series and therefore the contracts have changed?
There's talk they'll be running with Grand Am or ALMS or possibly both. Two great series but what about Atlantics at Long Beach, Toronto and Cleveland in front of big crowds who expect to see the young stars of tomorrow fighting it out?
We can only hope that after the big issues are resolved and attentions turn to the smaller fish that the powers that be will provide a proper schedule, like the one we had, and an equivalent incentive prize, like the one that brought the youngsters to the series, so they don't put a bunch of hard working, committed race teams out of business and kill the most successful series they own.
If we can survive 2008, we can prepare for a revamped Atlantic/IPS (the smart person would go with the history and success of the Atlantic name) series for 2009 with a fresh chassis/engine combination to take us through the next five years.