COMMENTARY: More Lean, Mean Machines

On a landmark Tuesday in which stock car racing rubbed wheels with Formula One in Dearborn, Mich., leaders of five auto racing sanctioning bodies agreed 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.

From Grand Forks Herald

DEARBORN, MI — On a landmark Tuesday in which stock car racing rubbed wheels with Formula One in Dearborn, Mich., leaders of five auto racing sanctioning bodies agreed 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 CEO 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 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.

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