You as a series owner...the challenge!

[Ferrarist]

In my opinion such a thread is missing. A thread, where everyone can share their vision of a proper racing series. But I decided to make a little competition out of it, similar to the tracks design competition. I'm gonna introduce a scenario (can be both fictional and from real life), and you have two weeks time to make the best out of it. Are you ready? Good, here's your first challenge:

It is 2003 and you are in charge of the ChampCar World Series. The last two years were pretty disastrous for your championship. First you lost some of the most popular teams on the grid (Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and so on), then you lost two engine suppliers (Honda and Toyota) and on top of that, you lost FedEx as the series sponsor. So not only is the rechristened IndyCar Series (Which is just the Indy Racing League with a new name) on the top of American Open-Wheel Racing, since CCWS is a company on the stock exchange, the share prices have reached new lows, too.
But it's not like everything is bad with the series. There are still some "stars" left in the series, such as Paul Tracy or Jimmy Vasser. New promising talent is also coming in such as Sébastien Bourdais or Tiago Monteiro. Your remaining engine supplier Ford is also a staunch ally of the series. Plus, your road races are well attented, putting you behind NASCAR, but in front of the IRL in terms of track attendance.

Your main target is:
Formulate how you want to develop the series for the better over the next years. How you want to do it is up to you.

Deadline for your suggestions is July 2nd, 12pm middle european time.

[Aerospeed]

Hmm, I like this idea!

I have no ideas yet but I will be thinking of this!

[Phoenix]

My ideal racing series?

Some series run with wide, low machines with ground effects and turbo engines of up to 1.000 HP with KERS systems that don't consist in gaining a power boost but rather feed part of the electronics and engine of the cars.

All big, historic teams would be in, with pre-qualifyings, grids of 30 cars, collective test sessions mid-season and financial help from the governing body for the smaller teams so they wouldn't struggle so much.

A liberal technical rulebook that would only ban things that are detrimental to the spectacle and the competition, so we would see ingenuity and no lookalike cars.

Encouragement from manufacturers to compete and supply engines to smaller teams too.

A fan-friendly formula that would let fans see the sport as close as possible.

Real, challenging circuits, preferrably on countries with tradition and not ruled by dictators (I was even thinking of making some Gran Turismo saga circuits be constructed so they could host races, like Cape Ring, El Capitán, SSR11 or Grand Valley, to name a few).

Shame this is all too utopical

[Ferrarist]

@Phoenix: Is that your entry for the challenge, or just a genuine post about your "perfect" racing championship? I mean, you could modify it a bit, so it fits the challenge.

Of course, someone can open a similar thread like that in the Eric van de Poele forum, like we have two threads for track design here.

[pasta_maldonado]

For the CCWS challenge, I would:

Mandate turbo or supercharging.

Introduce rules that make sure the cars are similar in appearances to the Brabham BT55 or the Mclaren MP4 4. Also allow ground effects.

KERS units allowed to give a boost of 100hp for 8 seconds on ovals and 10 seconds on road courses.

Expand the calendar to 20-30 races. Keep the series American-based but introduce more races abroad.

Make sure there are races at ovals, oval road courses, street courses and road courses.

Allow greater technical freedom.

Have a 'flagship' race (i.e. and Indy 500) but make sure it's not a Michigan. Probably at Pocono, after it has been repaved.

Get deals with ITV and abc to broadcast the series. Also get Eurosport on board for European coverage. Stipulate that no adverts must be run during the course of the race.

Encourage manufacturers to compete in series. Have a stock Ford engine that is competitive to offer to smaller teams.

Have a 'one-move' rule, but apply liberally. Allow team orders, but there must be no team orders within the last 10% of the race. Punish strictly offenders to avoid repeat of FerrariAustria-gate.

At every race, on a Sunday morning, have a fan-based event where all the teams line up their cars for fans to get up close and personal with. Make sure all drivers are there to sign autographs, and fine anyone who isn't. Also fine anyone who isn't friendly to the fans. Hold a press conference in public. Also sell Champ-car related memorabilia, shirts, caps, etc, but also front wings, endplates etc. Donate some money to charity to appeal to the public.

Hold concerts after every race. When youi buy a ticket for the race, you also get a ticket for the after-race concert too.

only have cautions on ovals for crashes. It is a farce when a caution is held for a little spin.

Proposed Races

Michigan speedway
Pocono speedway
Fontana speedway
Daytona road course
Surfers paradise
Albert park
Monza
Suzuka
Road America
Long Beach
Mont-Tremblant
Brands Hatch
Eurospeedway
Spa
Watkins Glen
Paul Ricard
Homestead
Nazereth
Mid-Ohio
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Philip Island
Silverstone
California Speedway

[dr-baker]

As per the last post, but, taking the example of 2011/12 Indycar having sub-championships for road courses and ovals, 2003 ChampCar ought (to) have (had) sub-championships for the European leg and the American leg. This (the number of races, plus a sub-championship coming from it) would aid the European fanbase, thereby potentially widening its sponsorship base to cover a second continent.

[TomWazzleshaw]

only have cautions on ovals for crashes. It is a farce when a caution is held for a little spin.

Proposed Races

Michigan speedway
Pocono speedway
Fontana speedway
Daytona road course
Surfers paradise
Albert park
Monza
Suzuka
Road America
Long Beach
Mont-Tremblant
Brands Hatch
Eurospeedway
Spa
Watkins Glen
Paul Ricard
Homestead
Nazereth
Mid-Ohio
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Philip Island
Silverstone
California Speedway

1. Little spins can easily lead to enormous accidents. Besides, cautions on ovals tend to throw the races wide open and is a bread and butter quirk of American Open Wheelers. Why reduce the chances of it?
2. A calendar with Mid Ohio yet no Toronto or Cleveland? The hell are you on?

[FantometteBR]

Well, my rules are somehow more 'pragmatic', but let's go with it:

-Open the series to the main car builders in the world (meaning Lola/Reynard/Panoz/Dallara/G-Force) or create a 'class' where custom kit-car makers can try the CCWS to develop their products

-Give the chassis makers a main guideline for doing the cars but allow them to make tweaks in it, regarding that they can't do changes that put too much of a disadvantage over the others (i.e: if Lola does an aerodynamic update to a big team, that update has to be available to all the other teams that use their cars, but not needed to be used by them)

- Some parts of car development will have to be the same and follow standards given by CCWS ruling authority, but car parts can be modified by the team as long it doesn't involve illegal technical stuff

- 'One-year old' spec engines has to be available at affordable price to the minor and privateer teams

- Call other engine makers (Renault the in mind right now) to compete.

- Every car manufacturer at least has to supply two or three teams

- Keep the most important road and street courses (US and Canadian) of old CART calendar (plus the Euro races at Brands/Rockingham and Lausitz) and guarantee a good number of ovals (Pocono, Michigan, Fontana, Nazareth, Kansas, Bristol, Martinsville, Loudon) and venture with races in Suzuka, Brasília and Mexico. Later, expansion to other European, South American, Asian and Oceania venues.

- Thursdays become 'Fan Days' where fans has total access to most of the racing environment and teams and drivers can freely do whatever kind of promotions they can. Every driver has to attend at least one session of press interviews per weekend and at least once per weekend have a time to be with their fans

- A 'Throwback' weekend where team cars can use liveries that remind of old teams from CART or even F1/other racing series ones

- Encourage the development of cars and circuits allowing time and space for overtaking. Create a mix of KERS/DRS

- Promote 'greener solutions' for some of the car electronic systems

- Create a 'Production Series', where smaller teams can fight for points on a separate series (pretty much like Production Cup in WRC). The car makers can indicate at least two teams per weekend as their 'manufacturer points', as they will have also another series for them (The Kurtis Kraft series). Also a 'privateers' cup for drivers that run their own team operations

- Make deals with foreigner racing series to make eventual weekends of joint events when CCWS Indy runs on a venue at a weekend where both series will run.

- Every car/team/circuit/staff will have to pass mandatory security tests to check if they obey the CCWS rules. Cars has to pass mandatory crash tests and update evaluations every race (circuits will have tests each 3-6 months). Drivers has to comply with a tight antidrug control and also has to pass mandatory courses on security rules and first aids

[Phoenix]

@Phoenix: Is that your entry for the challenge, or just a genuine post about your "perfect" racing championship? I mean, you could modify it a bit, so it fits the challenge.

Of course, someone can open a similar thread like that in the Eric van de Poele forum, like we have two threads for track design here.

Well... it's the latter, I have to read more carefully. But it could well be let unmodified.

[Aerospeed]

OK, I got a plan.
*First things first, remove CCWS from the stock exchange. It's a meddling piece of feces anyways.
*Then, get as many engine manufacturers as possible to get to supply Champ Car teams. Since Honda and Toyota left, it'll likely be Mazda, Cosworth, Chevrolet, or anyone else interested. This will cause an engine war, increasing fan awareness. All the engines are V8s, for now.
*Get Dallara, Lola and Reynard to develop customer chassis for the teams, or have the teams develop their own. (Unlikely, given the situation of most teams.)
*Replace the Fundidora Park circuit with Watkins Glen, Portland with Indianapolis, Vancouver with Richmond, Mid-Ohio with Kentucky, Denver with Phoenix, and remove the Miami circuit alltogether. (All the tracks but Watkins ovals, of course.) Have the Indianapolis event be 500 miles, like the Indy 500, only put up a whole whack of advertising.
*Strengthen safety regulations to ensure that the cars are extremely safe, and regulate HANS devices on all courses and SAFER barriers on all ovals.
*Get a major network (FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc.) to broadcast the races, and tell them don't put it on the secondary channels!!!
*Don't plan a race where it conflicts with a major event (Olympics, World Cup, Le Mans, etc.) so that people can easily go to your event.
*Have "open-air" days at every race so the fans can see the paddocks, see the cars and maybe meet the drivers.
*Beg the Californian government to ease off on engine regulations, so that Champ Car can still race at Laguna Seca.
*Beg Goodyear to supply at least a couple of teams to start a tyre war with Bridgestone.
*Get a title sponsor (Western Union?) to sponsor the series. Be sure it isn't motorsport related to avoid any bias with engine manufacturers, tyre manufacturers, etc.
*Bring back the nations' cup and engine manufacturers' cup.
*Points system should be the same as CART, being 20-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.
*Realize "Champ Car World Series" is a ridiculously stupid name and rename the series "International Racing League," obviously keying in on the fact that IndyCar just changed their name to the "IndyCar Series," so the acronym "IRL" is now free to use.
*Pray there aren't any unforeseen events (i.e. large wildfires) that causes a cancellation of a race.
*Have the cars be fueled by ethanol to make the environmentalists shut up.

I think that's about it.