Racer.com - WEC's big plans for "Lone Star Le Mans" COTA event

[Grand_Fromage]

WEC's big plans for "Lone Star Le Mans" COTA event.

The FIA's World Endurance Championship shared the bill with the American Le Mans Series on its first visit to Circuit of The Americas in 2013, and plans are under way to expand and improve the event when it returns in September.

Read more here...

http://www.racer.com/wec-le-mans/item/104522-lone-star

[Kristof]

Ridiculous, if they want a crowd in the usa for a sports car race they have to add Sebring of the Petit to the schedule.

[Grand_Fromage]

The problem of Sebring and Road Atlanta is that neither of them is an FIA standard circuit. This excludes them from consideration for the WEC calendar. However much I WOULD like one of them to be part of the WEC, I just can't see it happening.

Ridiculous, if they want a crowd in the usa for a sports car race they have to add Sebring of the Petit to the schedule.

[Boorish Grobian]

They're still going to end up with the same pathetic crowd they had last year.  There's no history of sportscar racing there, nobody cares, and no one is going to spend the time & money to go.  Sportscar fans here would rather go to places like Sebring, Road Atlanta, Road America, the Glen, etc. even if its for the Tudor series, because its about the whole experience, the venue, the atmosphere, the racing.  COTA is a cookie cutter Tilke track, with great facilities for the teams, and media, but its completely devoid of any charisma, like going to anyone of hundred big new stick & ball stadiums.  Never going to draw the sportscar crowd...
We're going to the Petit in Oct, simply because its Road Atlanta.  The Tudor series is a train wreck, but its Road Atlanta.  If I want to go to some big shiny ballpark, I can go downtown to a Reds game.
Fax