Folks,
We've got some bad news to report...we've heard rumors that the North American Touring Car Championship could be in trouble because of the lack of support from manufacturers and the media.
For those of you who may not be familiar with the NATCC, or more popularly known as 'touring cars' or 'Supertouring', these beasts have been putting on some of the most exciting racing action in a new series in quite awhile.
What are supertouring cars? Well, we've done a complete patch on The Pits to allow you to race them using the NASCAR2 simulator, but really, they are not so far removed from the cars that you are I drive every day on the street. Four doors, 300 horsepower (ok, a little better powered than most), they must retain the stock body work, and must have the stock dash, lights, windshield, doors, roof, trunk, and must have an engine that is currently used in one of the manufacturer's cars (not necessarily the body that's raced). You can see Dodge Stratus, BMWs, Mazda 626, Honda Accord, just to name a few.
And do they put on a show. This year, the championship came all the way down to the wire, with David Donahue in a Dodge Stratus finally taking the honors...but the car didn't. The Honda won the manufactuer's title. Every race came down to the last few laps, with the cars running nose to tail at many of America and Canada's premier racing circuits.
The teams have been fairly sparse, but with more people wanting to see these wolves in sheep's clothing, it promises to be one of the biggest attractions in years. We're not complaining about NASCAR, as most of us here at The Pits are big NASCAR fans as well, but we'd like to see more motorsports, especially one that promises the exciting action of fairly stock street car racing anywhere.
But unfortunately, maybe not for too much longer. As we said, it's possible that even though Dodge has put an enormous effort into providing some exciting racing action, while advertising the Dodge Stratus, they may throw in the towel because they feel that not enough people really want to see it.
Part of the problem is the lack of viewing audience. Most of the NATCC races revolve around the CART racing series, as several of the teams that field touring cars also race CART. ESPN has graciously showed the American public touring car racing this year, but unless you have ESPN2, you don't get to see it. And that's not the whole story either. ESPN has consistenly pushed the touring car racing into the early morning hours, or at the same time as a premier racing event (such as NASCAR), even though the races are tape delayed! They even pushed the Vancouver race back to one oclock AM Eastern, yet showed replays of other sporting events on the previous evening...and not even 'premier' events.
So what can you do? Well, we at The Pits don't ask you all for much, but we'd like to ask you to take the time to email ESPN and the manufacturers, and let them know that we want to see more of the touring cars, not less! Let ESPN know that you want to see touring cars at a decent hour, and not overlapping other premier events. Why, the rest of the world has touring car events, in many countries, that's the biggest racing series, not a side attraction. Why not the US? The other thing to do is email the manufacturers...let them know you'd like to see some more participation from the big names in the NATCC.
So please take the time to let the powers that be know how you feel. Be a respectable racing fan...don't curse or badmouth anyone, just let them know that we are interested, and we DO want to see more.
Here are the email addresses for ESPN, NATCC, and the manufacturers.
Bruce Cambern - Ford
Joe Negri - GM
Bill Tracy - Chrysler
Rich Martin - Volvo
Ken Moriarty - Audi
Rich Brekus - BMW
Erik Wensberg - BMW
David Horncastle - Nissan
Lou Patane - Chrysler
Jim Hossack - Hyundai
John Koenig - Toyota
ESPN
NATCCCheers
The Pit Crew
