It’s been a rather mixed weekend at the Circuit of the Americas for the opening round of what COULD be a breakthrough year for the Pirelli World Challenge.

The organisers were very smart to adopt GT3 rules for their premium GT and GTA classes and it has paid off in 2015, a near 50 car grid (including 10 GT Cup Porsches) presented a very pretty picture with a sprinkling of factory talent, new cars and new teams adding up to a very tasty cocktail.

The racing was pretty darn good too, the talent at the front of the field has definitely ramped up in depth this year. The likes of Messrs Dalziel, Beretta, Catsburg and Estre together with home grown talent including Johnny O’Connell and Mike Skeen means that close, hard racing, all things being equal, is assured. There’s a large band of talented and well motivated gentlemen and up and coming youngsters in GT A too.

It all adds up to a crowded race track, and a short race, frenetic action up and down the field then is a near certainty and there’s NOTHING wrong with that!

The PWC race format retains one of THE selling points of sportscar racing (the coolest cars on the planet) and blends it with a race length that sits far more easily with mainstream broadcast media than the longer races that most DSC readers hold dear. It’s fast and furious stuff and it makes for great TV and great trackside viewing.

Like every paddock anywhere in the world there are issues being discussed, fat being chewed and pet peeves being aired.

Unsurprisingly this weekend there was a fair amount of discussion and comparison of and with the IMSA paddock with drivers and teams that have, until recently, been racing in what almost everyone seems to see and refer to as ‘the rival series’.

Perhaps surprisingly though it was not a simple matter of “Oh this is much better than that.” Indeed most were in agreement that by the latter part of 2014 IMSA had cleaned up what had been a remarkably poor act on their customer management.

“It was much better there by the end of last season, and it was almost unrecognisable from the awful atmosphere at Daytona and Sebring in 2014 at the Rolex this year. In fact they could teach some people in this series a lesson or two in communication now.” said one prominent ex ALMS and TUSC player.

“There’s a massive opportunity here for World Challenge, but there is now a threat too of course. IMSA is taking GT3 cars and they have some very attractive races in profile, length and geographical location – I’d like to have the choice to do both if possible,” said one team owner. “There is though a slight air of complacency here, even arrogance amongst some. There is definitely an air of “We’ve made it to the top rung. Job done!” That needs to stop, because they are dead wrong.”

It isn’t a universally held opinion: “Anyone complaining has clearly not experienced the other series,” said one entrant who most certainly had, the odd thing here though is that there do appear to be two, very distinct, levels of opinion about PWC series management.

Some see the approach as collaborative and positive, others are highly critical of some individuals, universally positive about others.

Some of the new intake are seen to have made a good start but the management structure is apparently not always reflected in some dealings with the teams:

“I’m not sure why we have guys appointed to make the decisions if the top guy feels it necessary to get involved in just about everything, and sometimes does it in ways that are just inappropriate,” said an experienced gentleman owner/ driver.

One persons’ ‘refreshing bluntness’ it should be remembered is another’s ‘just plain rude’.

The muddying of the post race waters on Saturday with rash statements about potential imminent driver reclassifications (after one race and a whole 50 minutes of racing!) was just plain unnecessary and seemed to some observers to be knee jerk at best. Those involved should know better – Olivier Beretta’s win was almost forgotten as the paddock and media room was awash with rumours that failed to become reality.

It left an impression of an emotion-driven approach from senior management, in particular when a decision or opinion was questioned.

That’s an impression that needs to be addressed in what is a hugely important year for the Series with less than a year before their entire GT and GTA class will have options elsewhere in North America with their current machinery.

Another gripe appears to be the lack of polish in parts of the package.

Staff shortage amongst the organising team is a definite concern and lack of impactful pre event publicity and event promotion was an almost universally mentioned point. Poor ticket sales at COTA is hardly a fair barometer, the spectacular facility appears to continue to struggle to attract a significant local fan base. Hiding behind clearly ridiculous post event crowd numbers issued by COTA couldn’t disguise a turn out that was certainly less than impressive.

COTA’s post race press release didn’t add much polish either, Titled: “From Ferraris, Lamborghinis to Chevrolet Corvettes, the Pirelli World Challenge takes over Circuit of The Americas” it managed to pull off the remarkable trick of both ignoring the Sunday race winning marque McLaren completely, and headlining a brand that weren’t present. That must have impressed Cadillac no end, Really very poor.

Back to paddock opinion of the World Challenge though:

“We keep hearing pleas of lack of available finance to add value, that seems odd bearing in mind the 100+ entry here,” said a car owner/ driver. “It’s not that we want the moon and the stars, but there’s not a whole lot of thought apparent about adding value or showing what we have here.” More than once, in fact very considerably more than once, the subject of a 2015 ‘family portrait’ came up.

“We’ve been here for days, the place is spectacular, but apparently nobody thinks a shot of the whole paddock, 100+ cars and their drivers would have been a cool thing to do?”

It most certainly would have been cool, and it would have gone around the world via social media for sure. And its a fair point.

DSC has it on good authority too that experienced players, very familiar with the challenges of PR and marketing in the niche market of sportscar racing made a very low cost offer to pre-publicise this event. It was rejected.

Nobody has a god given right to such business, but the reality was that it seemed to be nobody’s job to pro-actively attract a crowd, this an opinion reinforced by a number of conversations with locals away from the track, none of whom were aware that COTA was hosting racing over the weekend

That, Pirelli World Challenge, was a mistake you should not repeat for your standalone events and is another marker that the job in hand is not yet done.

Even if your efforts to build up a following and a live audience don’t succeed entirely you should always give yourself the opportunity to say you tried. The fact that you apparently didn’t merely gives your critics a stick to beat you with!

Selling 3000 tickets to an event of this sort is some kind of result, but if you measure success by comparing with the IMSA ‘opposition’ then on this particular front there is a huge gap that you need to at least attempt to fill.

The weather, of course, threw a wrench in the works on Sunday and whilst it served us up a masterclass in wet weather driving from Kevin Estre, a drive that was, hands down, one of the most impressive GT drives this writer has ever seen, it also ensured that any gamble on ‘walk-up’ fans fell very flat.

The decision to move up the headlining GT race on Sunday due to the incoming weather was a sensible one from a safety perspective but caught out many web watchers (and not a few teams!)

In truth, overall, the racing saved a disappointing weekend. My expectation of an upbeat and positive paddock was far from the universal reality, despite the readily apparent numerical success in terms of race and season entries, and in particular some ambitious new programmes that are looking for a stage to perform upon.

2015 is a ‘moment’. But it’s a moment of opportunity, fundamentally NOT one of victory and a completing of ‘the task’.

The opportunity is clear. To build a happy, fulfilled and loyal paddock, pushing the envelope to make this Series a ‘must have’ on a team and drivers’ cv so that, when the 2016 season does arrive, more stay for the season and/ or see it as a key part of their racing plans.

That needs a degree more investment, a degree more humility and a degree less self congratulation. The really bad news for all concerned is that the REALLY hard work has just begun.

GG