Our North American Editor Gary Horrocks arrived at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, one of his favourite circuits, determined to sweep aside the negativity of the start of the new for 2014 TUSCC. Did it work?

Leaving Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca just a few weeks ago after the TUSCC event, gave me a bit of an ice cream headache. There were so many mixed emotions that I felt from that weekend.

Let me say, first of all, the racing was quite good. In fact it was very good – both events. As a fan of the sport, I was quite happy to have witnessed the action on track. Both races had action galore, large grids and thankfully both races were much cleaner than expected. Many in the sport had expected to see less than 50% green flag action during the short two hour races, but that was thankfully not the case this time. The new regulations and new perspectives on running the race appeared to make a positive influence on the track action.

Heading into the weekend, the goal was to keep it all positive – have a positive mind set going in and keep the reports positive. After walking through the paddock, I knew that was going to be a huge task – one which I truly wasn’t looking forward to.

The biggest talking point of the weekend was track time. Or maybe it should be lack of track time. The week’s schedule was set up so that teams were expected to arrive at the track on Wednesday, which was set up day for what was going to be a very crowded paddock. Unfortunately for those TUSCC teams that abided by that request, the Wednesday set up day was followed by a further 2 days of no on track activity. In a fast paced sport such as sportscar racing, this was idle time that no one is accustomed to and simply was not accepted well at all.

First off, fans were disappointed and some were upset. I’m guessing the fans that came out to the track came to see the TUSCC cars. Maybe some were satisfied with seeing the Continental Tire cars, and maybe some were even satisfied seeing the Lamborghini Cup cars on track, but these are not the cars that sell the tickets. The cars that bring in the fans are those in the TUSCC series. And on Friday, it was only possible to see those cars in the paddock, if at all.

During the autograph session, the fans were letting their opinions be heard – they expected to see the cars on track more, but all they got on Saturday was two 1-hour sessions, with the last session followed up by qualifying. Each session itself should have been 2 hours long.

Also, come Sunday, the short races weren’t much longer that the super short race at Long Beach. Remember, it wasn’t all that long ago that the ALMS was running 6 and 4 hour races here at Laguna. To drop to 2 hours was really sad to see.

One of the arguments presented concerning the lack of run time was that it was a way to keep the cost to compete down. Many teams did not see it that way at all. They saw right through that, instead opting to look at the full paddock, seeing each team and entry as money to be earned by IMSA. Pure and simple – the more cars that emerge on track, the more money coming into IMSA bank accounts via entry fees.

This is dangerous. First off, it can drive fans away. I know of some fans that live well within a day trip of Laguna that opted to skip the event, stating there simply wasn’t enough track time available to see what they wanted.

Also, it can drive the teams away. All of the teams competing are competing because there is someone writing a check. Some are because a well off individual wants to go racing, so they build a team to do so. Some teams are built on the premise of attracting gentleman drivers to compete, while some teams are there to showcase what a manufacturer or sponsor is capable of. When the track time is limited, all of the above are frustrated and in this case they were very frustrated.

One of the keys to building a successful business is to keep those involved in the show happy. That was pretty much non-existent at Laguna. One well known team representative, when asked if the atmosphere was any better after the near fiasco of Sebring replied, “no way. If anything, it’s worse.” This was borne out by the team managers meeting that typically last around 15 minutes. This time, the meeting became an hour long shouting match, which dissolved into various sub-meetings afterwards – none of them pleasant at all.

Then there was a drivers meeting, in which they were “forced” to sit through a presentation from TUDOR, in which they were explained how TUDOR was going to activate their brand in the series. The general consensus was one of frustration – TUDOR was not paying the drivers. It is a series deal – the drivers don’t feel it is their responsibility to sit through something like that. They had other activities which needed their attention and their time could be better spent than sitting through a “rather boring” presentation.

In a nutshell, on the surface, things look pretty good. The racing was, as previously stated quite good. But the undercurrent was one of potential danger. Like any other business, IMSA has competitors. The Pirelli World Challenge has worked its way into being a competitor of the series, just by the ability of offering an alternative place to race. Sure, it is a different style of racing, but racers simply want to compete and they’ll look for alternatives if they’re not happy. For some, like Dyson Racing, racing in the World Challenge fills some of their needs while others, like Gainsco and Pickett Racing simply decided to stop altogether.

But the World Challenge may not be the only racing alternative. FIA/WEC was mentioned by some as somewhere else to go, while for others, competing in the suddenly healthy ELMS is also an alternative. And that’s without any immediate North American mixed class alternative.

There’s a message here not just to the TUSCC management, but to all Series worldwide – Listen to your customers, yes the fans, but first the teams – Because let’s face it, without them there is no Series!