ALMS, like the race from which it draws its name, is (or is supposed to be) traditional sports car racing, which has traditionally been endurance racing. The Mille Miglia, the Targa Floria, the 1000 km at Nurburgring or Spa, Le Mans … sports car racing’s roots lie in long races.
Sport car racing started when people took their fast touring cars—cars designed to make the long miles between cities exciting to drive—and began to race between those cities. This was Grand Touring—literally, Big Touring, long trips, large distances. Real sports car races are endurance races.
For many long-time American fans, the switch back to longer races was a big step in the right direction.
So I was caught a bit off guard when I saw a post on a message board from a person skipping Laguna Seca, because “four hours is more than enough for me.”
Yeah, I know ... what’s with having to endure these long endurance races? Who here wants to start a petition for the Two Hours of Le Mans?
Well, it is an interesting (!) point of view, and worth considering, I guess.
I love longer races. I can find numerous places to watch from, I can watch the start at the Start/Finish line and then move on to some different corners, and still get back to the start for the finish. Also, I can talk to other fans, eat and drink, look at merchandise, watch the crowd, and still see all the racing I could ask for.
Pre-Television, There Was Real Racing
Historically, sports car racing has been all about covering distance, about manufacturers proving that their cars were suited for Grand Touring (traveling long distances at high speeds—no one bought a Ferrari to go to 7-11 for a pack of Marlboro reds.) And historically sports car fans would pack a picnic lunch and camp out, spend all day on a hillside overlooking the track, to watch the cars go by.
Television has distorted racing. It never mattered in the past, if one car drove away from the field, because fans couldn’t see that, and the TV cameras (which weren’t there) didn’t have to try to follow the leader. If the field spread out (as it often does in all forms of racing except sub-mile ovals) the fans didn’t care, because they mostly only saw parades of cars passing by anyway. People would watch a whole race and maybe never see one car overtake another right in front of them. And still, people loved racing so much, it grew to be huge.
Now with TV, producers think they need to have non-stop, door-banging action all the time. This has become the norm in TV race coverage (often due to strategic “debris” yellows and careful editing) so a lot of fans have no appreciation for live racing.
People are no longer stirred by the thrill of seeing exotic, powerful machines thundering past at high speeds, on the edge of control, lap after lap (or so directors seem to think, and maybe they are right.) So racing has become second to entertainment. Who can build the best car is not as important as making sure no one is better than anyone else (but isn’t competition the essence of sport? And winning, the goal of competition?)
It is hard to imagine someone complaining about too much racing. But once imagined, it is not hard to understand. We have grown accustomed to being spoon-fed scripted seven-minute chunks of excitement, always ending on a high note just before the commercial break. We are trained to enjoy in 30-, 60-, and 90-minute segments, and then we expect something fresh and new.
Mass TV Appeal Is Not the Most Important Factor
Real racing, where much of the excitement is the appreciation of all that it takes just to get a car to function at such high limits, and to keep it functioning at those limits lap after lap, is too cerebral for television. The visceral side—the roar of the engines, the squeal of the tires, the sensation of speed generated by certain camera angles—translates well to television. Even the non-fan can appreciate that—for about half an hour. Then it becomes just noise and repetitious video. Real racing involves the mind; Television racing often does not.
Racing is not really about entertaining the fans. Racing is about getting one car to go farther, faster, than another car. Racing is about a team of several or dozens or even hundreds of people working for months to get ready, and then working non-stop all season, to keep the car running and competitive. Racing is about those rare individuals with the vision, reaction time, precision and courage to pilot that machine at its limit, surrounded by others doing the same, lap after lap.
Drag racing is there for those who want quick thrills—and it is pretty exciting on its own merits. But there is a whole school of racing that might be squeezed to death by TV—real endurance racing.
I don’t know. Maybe made-for-TV racing is the way of the future, and maybe that is all for the best. Maybe the trackside experience will be dropped, in favor of an easily packaged TV-oriented event. The British Touring Car championship (BTCC) seems to do pretty well (but even BTCC runs three heats in a day.)
Personally I hope that there are enough fans of real, old-school racing, to keep at least some endurance events on the various series’ schedules. I like endurance races. I like the potential pitfalls of mechanical failure, the vagaries of fate, weather, and fatigue, the heroic battles in the pits to repair damaged machines, and the feeling after a race that everybody gave their all.
And personally, if I am going to adjust my schedule, use vacation time, pay for fuel and food and lodging, and drive the distance to some track, I want the race to be considerably longer than the drive there. I want to see a whole weekend of qualifying, practice, numerous support events, and finally a feature race that is longer than the support race sprints. If I am going to a race, I want to see Racing, and I don’t want to have to huddle in the grandstands, afraid to blink, because the race will be over. I want to be able to see different parts of the track, see the cars through different corners, see the different lines different cars take.
Considering that ALMS stretched Laguna Seca from four to six hours, I have to think maybe I am not alone out there.
Sorry to the guy who won’t be attending Laguna Seca. Might I recommend Long Beach? It will only be one hour and a half. No time to get bored. And the televised version of Laguna Seca will be so short there will hardly be time for race, filler, and commercials (and that is yet another rant ...) so you will still get something good from the race.
It is good to hear from fans who don’t like long races. You are race fans, the same as I am, and your opinions are just as valid. And it is with all due respect that I say: I just can’t support that point of view. Racing was not made for TV, and racing should not be remade for TV. At least, not all of it.
The funniest part of all this? In a decade or two, all of every race will be purchasable as live or saved streaming online video, and we will no longer complain that races are too long or too short, that too many hours of too many races are not being covered, or that too much time is spent on filler, or watching yellow-flag parades, or interviews taped pre-race which add nothing to the contest. We will be able to watch 1000-km LMS events, or arena-racing, or 30-lap BTCC events, or whatever else suits our tastes, whenever we want. Made-for-TV racing will be just a part of the broad spectrum of competitive motorsports available 24-7.
Assuming we can support endurance racing well enough that it is alive in ten or twenty years.
Otherwise, buy your tickets for the Two Hours of Le Mans.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and in no way reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Please send comments to [email protected].
