IMSA: State of the PC Union

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After opening our series with a State of the Union on GT Daytona, next on the list is Prototype Challenge, or PC, as it’s commonly referred to by the TUDOR Championship.

RACER selected three members from each of the four classes, and for PC, we went with a veteran team owner whose team competes in PC and DP, an owner whose team won the 2013 ALMS PC Drivers’ title, and a relatively new team owner whose future depends on PC growing in value and interest for gentlemen drivers.

As we found with GTD owners in Part 1, PC owners are on the same page with many of the items they address below, yet bring different perspectives in other areas. They are passionate and as you’ll likely find, all three care deeply about their businesses and where those businesses operate.

1: What are the main items within your class that are working well?

Peter Baron, owner, Starworks Motorsport: In a year of questioning BoP and crazy budgets, the spec PC class works remarkably well. But the largest strength is the budget for speed of the car. The PC budget is roughly $750,000 less than its closest budget competitor in the GTD class, and is the second-fastest class on track. The car gives the best performance for your dollar and all that drive PC cars enjoy the class. The Pro-Am format sits well with all of the funded gentlemen that know they can be competitive against other gentlemen. It’s a fantastic class for value, great cars, and you know you have a fair shot. If the entries were not limited, I think you would have seen perhaps double the cars.

Bobby Oergel, owner, PR1 Motorsports: The PC category has been pretty solid in regards to BoP or changes. Aside from a few mods at Daytona this year I have to say the lack of changes has been good, but the strongest point is the competition is off the charts and better than ever in this class. I believe it’s a tribute to the cost containment along with the structure IMSA has mandated from the beginning.

Brian Alder, owner, BAR1 Motorsports: Continuation of the class being kept as spec, keeping the operating costs low, and increased car counts from 2013.

2: What are the main items within your class that would benefit from changes for 2015, and what solutions would improve or correct those items?

Brian Alder, owner, BAR1 Motorsports: Larger separation between the classes. Giving our cars more power so the silver-rated drivers in PC are not mixed up in the GTLM field during the race. More TV coverage for PC – it is hard to sell sponsorship, or give our funded drivers the exposure their sponsors need when our class is not covered very much on the TV broadcasts (or at all at some tracks).

Peter Baron, owner, Starworks Motorsport: The class is only limited by the series, IMSA. There were going to be 16+ entries this season, until the series capped the entries at 10. This has massively dropped interest in the series from funded drivers.

The only real problem with the class is with the series and the spec format from a “non-passenger auto manufacturer,” ORECA. Long term, the series needs to thrive based on solid financials. The thoughts are that ORECA will not place funds into the series to support the commercial viability long term. When the IMSA/Grand-Am merger was announced, they said set the class structures to include the PC through 2015 – but it could be scratched after that. Already some teams are talking about stopping after 2014, which the series needs to not let happen. In some ALMS races of 2011-'13 seasons, the PC class had more entries than the P1 and P2 IMSA classes combined.

It’s a fantastic car that makes financial sense. Rather than drop the class in 2016, the series needs to build on what made it work and what it can change for 2016. If the class needs manufacturer involvement, let’s take the time now to get it. This would be no different than having a Chevy, Ford, HPD, or BMW engine in a Riley DP car. The PC car is just as unidentifiable as a production car as the DP is. We need to find what the series wants from the class long-term and change it for the future, not say it’s going away in 2016 just because someone in the series thinks it does not make business sense.

Bobby Oergel, owner, PR1 Motorsports: From my perspective, the category would benefit from competing at a few less events and making the ones it does compete at longer than 2h45m. These cars have become such a pleasure for the drivers, sponsors and teams to run that the short events aren’t really that different in costs and usually don’t give back the same intensity for all involved.

 

3: From a series-wide standpoint, what areas are performing well as we look to 2015?

Bobby Oergel, owner, PR1 Motorsports: The area that I feel is what’s keeping all of us motivated is that the series isn’t just hiding behind the concrete curtain and telling all the teams and drivers how it is. The crew of tech personnel, along with the officials and series directors, have been good to take feedback and respond to the needs of the drivers and teams going forward.

Brian Alder, owner, BAR1 Motorsports: This season, as we all knew, would be difficult merging two series who are so similar yet so far apart. IMSA has done a great job in all areas. There is always room for improvement but my hat’s off to them for a great job so far.

Peter Baron, owner, Starworks Motorsport: The series has done a great job listening to most criticism (both constructive and not!) and trying to make changes on the fly. The first step is admitting there is a problem and they do, often. All IMSA staff do listen and are all working to make it better. They have responded well to things like adding more practice time and shortening the pre-event tech routines and a fair amount of other items. GTLM, GTD and PC racing has been great as expected. The major events have run smoothly. Some have had an officiating question here or there, but the officiating is the same as it was before the series merged, so I do not believe that is applicable to merger conversation. I’m sure Alex Job is still losing sleep on the Sebring call, but not one part of that came from the merger. All the cars, officials, and events would have been the same if the merger did not take place.

There will always be some errors in officiating, and people have to let it go. People need to see that the series is working their ass off to make it right. Scot Elkins and crew did a solid job getting the lap times competitive between a P2 and DP. Now his team will work on the next part, making them race better. People need to hear this.

People also need to hear things like last night I received a late-night call from IMSA CEO Ed Bennett with him bouncing ideas off me. They are working on it at all hours of the day. I have faith they will work it out, and hopefully get most of the issues sorted for the start 2015 season.

4: What are the main series-wide items that would benefit from changes for 2015, and what solutions would improve or correct those items?

Bobby Oergel, owner, PR1 Motorsports: I believe the lack of track time at the events is the biggest issue at this point. If a proper promoter test day could be had at the events, it would really help in terms of budgeting and the use of manpower that we already have at the track a couple days early for tech purposes. At some events this isn’t possible, but again for this category, maybe those are the events we aren’t involved in anyway (Long Beach, Detroit, etc.).

Peter Baron, owner, Starworks Motorsport: The focus is always on the top class, and we are not upset with that. But the problem is, having all the BoP issues in the P class draws all the attention and makes the series look negative. Take the Glen 6-Hour for example. All people really talked about was how the P2 never had a shot on the last restart. There were fantastic races going on in all the other classes, but no one talks about that. The P2 car and DP might be matched in lap times and the series has done a great job with that, but they still do not race well, and it’s hurting the whole series.

As you look at the top class, in P2 and P1 last year, there were roughly 8 cars, in DP 14 cars, for a combined 22 cars. We are down to 6 DPs and 5 P2s. Of the 6 DPs , perception is only three of those are funded from “conventional methods.” And the P2s are just a few bad BoP races from participating elsewhere. If we talked about car counts that can commit today for 2015, you could be seeing two Mazda P2 cars and two to three DPs. This needs to get fixed, and what is scaring off all the people are the escalating costs and BoP discrepancies.

With the new Prototype car to be introduced in 2017, it will be hard to see new teams materialize until then, so car counts on the horizon in the top class look bleak. If the top class is wounded, then the series looks wounded to the public. Watching the ALMS races last year, there were tremendous last-lap GT battles going on, but the coverage was for the LMP1 class watching the class leader by three laps complete its final lap. Showing a boring top class on TV drops interest, which hurts us all. We need the top class to lift up the series, not create controversy.

Brian Alder, owner, BAR1 Motorsports: Increased track time for all cars. I would suggest bringing back the promoter test day, but separating it into P/GTLM cars for 1.5 hours and PC/GTD cars for 1.5 hours, and this will allow our drivers to get more track time at an affordable price.

5: Looking at the 2014 schedule, which venues would your class, team or business benefit by visiting again in 2015, are there any new venues that would improve your class/team/business, and are there any that would benefit your class/team/business by being replaced or dropped altogether?

Bobby Oergel, owner, PR1 Motorsports: The bigger events are what make the series interesting to most sponsors and drivers (the 24hr, 12hr, Glen 6hr and Petit), and if we could have a couple 7 or even 8-hour events at COTA, Road America and a 4-hour at Laguna, I think the rest aren’t needed at all. Kansas was a disaster from the terms of what the sponsors want; VIR will likely be the same, so get rid of them all together.

My perfect schedule would be the 24, 12hr, 4hrs of Laguna, 6hrs of Glen, 6-8hrs of COTA, 6-8hrs of Road America, and Petit 10hrs.

Peter Baron, owner, Starworks Motorsport: The series needs to stand alone and compete on IMSA-only events. IndyCar is partnered up with PWC as its GT racing series, and having the P and GTLM teams show up for a 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. practice and 100-minute race on IndyCar weekends shows us in a weak position. Teams spend way too much money to go to some of these races for little time. One of the things people like about the WEC racing is the 6-hour time format.

Less events consisting of longer races that are better promoted and at better locations for IMSA, is what I believe would be best long term. Events like Daytona, Sebring, Petit Le Mans and the Glen 6 Hour are great because it’s the racing people want to see. The series argues that it’s harder to show the races on television if they are longer. Daytona, Le Mans and these long important races have the largest ratings on TV.

With networks showing Billy Bob’s Towing Show and What’s My Car Worth and other useless crap, there is room for these races. Perhaps not the full length, but appropriate, lightly condensed shows. Perhaps live to tape. Broadcast four of the six hours and cut out all the downtime. ALMS did a fantastic job making the Petit Le Mans a cornerstone event. It is well promoted, covered on TV, drivers love it, international teams attend, fan attendance it awesome and there was never one Indy car at that event. We need less Long Beaches and more Petites.

Brian Alder, owner, BAR1 Motorsports: Not having the PC cars race in Canada was a big disappointment for us and some of our sponsors this season. I hope next year we can attend the Mosport event. I would like to see Mid-Ohio back on the schedule in 2015, and possibly PC cars running at Long Beach. 

6: Open Forum:

Peter Baron, owner, Starworks Motorsport: Cost savings going forward is the biggest thing the series could do to ensure stability, and then growth. The top class is basically half the size of where is was last year mainly due to uncertainty and escalating costs. This week teams flew to Mosport on Tuesday for a race this weekend. It’s not out of the question that costs for this are $10,000 per day, per entry, to keep a team on the road, fed, housed, transported and paid. For a two-car team, shaving two days off of 10 race weekends can save HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars. All these dollars are wasted. It does not make the racing better, or enhance the fan experience or make the TV any better. It just throws good racing money away.

Grand-Am had some amazing races that were one-day events like Lime Rock and the Daytona summer race. The TV broadcast is not any better if the teams show up Tuesday or Saturday for a Sunday race. I’m not saying we all need one-day race events, but we can do better than six-day events like we have this weekend.

Laguna Seca had nine races over their weekend. That’s overkill. Great for the fans that were there, but some of the races were at 8 a.m. when no fans were there! It’s a waste. The series needs to take better control of the weekend promoters and make sure the events are condensed and have appropriate track time for the teams. Better accountability has to take place with the promoters. If the series has a contract with Kansas Speedway for an event and the series is forced to go, the promoter has to promote. Kansas was a disaster. I could go on for a day about this one point, but all will lose interest. All you need to know is that it was a terribly scheduled and promoted race. Personally, I like racing at Kansas. Great on-track action, good hotels and restaurants. But it was an embarrassment calling it a spectator weekend.

Additionally, the series needs to move to realistic cost capping. They have a cap on tire allotment per weekend – but the numbers are so overkill, it never comes into play. The series says they are working on it, but I have heard this for years. There were 30+ DPs back when competitive budgets were under $2m. Now they are closer to $4m and it has been disaster. Budgets of $1.5m for a PC program are a fantastic deal, but not when we are racing in Kansas and VIR without TV coverage. The value for the sponsors and customers is going in a bad direction at this time.

PWC is thriving because the cars are FIA-balanced, so the racing is competitive and the value is there. We need to get the value back, both lowering costs and creating a better events and hold promoters accountable. Did I mention the online timing and scoring needs a complete overhaul? I could go on for hours!

Bobby Oergel, owner, PR1 Motorsports: The hope for our team is to get some answers really soon regarding the future. Our planning for 2015 started in June and the real issue we see isn’t 2015, but 2016. The PC class is set to go away at the end of '15 and the new P car isn’t set to be introduced till 2017. I am not saying we could or would make the step up to the P class, but if the spec of that new program are achievable for us to consider we just might look at it for 2016 or even sooner. The worst thing is not knowing right now.