An Interview with Roger Edmondson, Jim Michaelian and Scott Pruett
ADAM SAAL: Good afternoon, everyone. We appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedules join us for what we think is going to be a very exciting announcement. We are pleased to have with us today Grand American President, Roger Edmondson; our reining co‑champion in the Rolex Sports Car Series Daytona Prototype division, Scott Pruett, as well as our special guest, Jim Michaelian, who is the president of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Jim, we'd like to kick it to you straight off and you can tell everyone why we are on this teleconference today.
JIM MICHAELIAN: Thank you, Adam, and good afternoon to everybody, and good morning to those of you on the West Coast. We are excited to join with our cohorts today in announcing that the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will be hosting a round of the Rolex Sports Car Series highlighting the sleek Daytona Prototype cars here next April 8th. This is going to bring added excitement and interest to a weekend that is already full of events both on track and off track, and we see it as a great addition to what we are going to be presenting here next April.
We've worked with the Grand-Am operating officials, as well as Roger and his staff, to come up with what we think is going to be a unique format and presentation for this particular event. It will be a 90‑minute race, a compressed race; really a dash in the streets of Long Beach. It will feature one mandatory pit stop and driver change, and probably equally important, it will feature just the Daytona Prototypes on the streets, which should lead to some very fast, and I might add, furious racing, which is something I know our patrons are going to be looking forward to.
There were a couple of key reasons why we decided to select Grand-Am to be one of our major event presentations here on race weekend. First, let me just say that we have the utmost respect for Scott Atherton and everybody at ALMS, they run a very professional operation, and we had lengthy discussions with both of these groups before making our final decision.
But it all came down to a couple of key factors that we had to take into consideration. One is, you know, we race in an urban setting, and it's fair to assume that most of our fans don't have a long history with sports car racing. As incongruous as it might sound from someone like me who loves to compete in endurance racing, and the longer, the better; nevertheless we felt that the fans would most enjoy the event if it were quick and it was exciting and it was easy to follow.
Certainly, those are all characteristics that the Rolex Sports Car Series, with the Daytona Prototypes, provides to all of our fans. It's a classic car, it's a 90‑minute race, it's one mandatory pit stop, it's easy to follow who the drivers that are starting and who the ones that are stepping into the cockpit and it's a race to the checkered flag. So that's a formula that we see as being one that provides a great deal of excitement and it will be something that our fans will certainly enjoy.
Secondly, as many of you know, we just announced signing of a five‑year extension of our agreement with Toyota to continue as our entitlement partner for our event. Toyota is involved in sports car racing, through its Lexus division, and we welcome the opportunity to showcase that brand here on the streets of Long Beach. We think it's a great addition to the preview that we give to the Toyota lineup when they come and run here on the race weekend.
So we are very excited. We think it's a great addition to our lineup, and it sort of continues the trend that we have had as a mantra and as a mission statement here for many years, and that is enhancing our weekend from year‑to‑year. We have certainly done that with the inclusion of the Grand Prix, Grand-Am to our Grand Prix schedule for next year.
ADAM SAAL: Thank you very much, Jim. And before we go on to Roger Edmondson, give us an outline of how Saturday will look for race fans and competitors, what's the general outline?
JIM MICHAELIAN: It's going to be turn out to be a tremendous day. It's going to be competing with Sunday in terms of its attractiveness we feel.
In addition to the usual practice and qualifying Saturday morning, around noontime we will kick off the rest of date with the 30th anniversary of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, which is always one of the real features of the Saturday activity. Follow that by Champ Car qualifying, and then we have a two‑hour block set aside for the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series with the Daytona Prototypes, and then we go right into our Rock-N-Roar Concert and we conclude with the Tecate Beauty Pageant. If that's not enough to get people excited, I don't know what more we can pack into a day's worth of activities.
ADAM SAAL: That sounds like a great day on Saturday and we are proud to be part of it at the Rolex Sports Car Series. I'd like to move on now to our president, Roger Edmondson. To say we're proud, I think he's probably personally proud of what we could call a milestone achievement in the short six‑year history of this organization.
Roger, we're going to make some history by taking the Daytona Prototypes to Long Beach next year. Talk about the work you put into making this happen and how you feel as the president of the organization on a pretty positive day.
ROGER EDMONDSON: Thank you, Adam, and thank you, Jim. No doubt this is a milestone event for Grand American Road Racing and our style of road racing. Jim Michaelian and I have known each other for several years and he participates in a GT car several times within the Grand-Am series. We have talked off and on about this potential for quite some time.
There's no question that the Rolex 24 Hour and Watkins Glen six‑hour are big events on the sports car calendar, but in terms of their impact on the general public, they pale compared to events like the Indy 500, the Daytona 500 and the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach. For us to have an opportunity to bring our style of cars and our teams and their sponsors and all that we represent to that event, and present it to that large crowd in a Los Angeles marketplace is really a huge event in our history. It's a coming‑out party for us, a sign of our maturity and we are gratified to have that opportunity.
I think it's going to be an extremely entertaining race. We have had some incredible races, as many as six hours in length going right down to the last lap or two. I can't imagine at this point that a 90‑minute race isn't just going to be so exciting that people will be standing at the fence the entire time. We are thrilled about it and we consider it a major step forward for this organization, and that's only appropriate. We are not looking back. We are heading down the road.
ADAM SAAL: Roger we are not going to go ahead and recap every event right now, but this is another key piece of the 2006 Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series schedule. What's the time frame for getting the rest of the schedule out?
ROGER EDMONDSON: We plan to make a formal announcement this weekend at Virginia International Raceway to our teams.
A couple of weeks ago, we announced 12 weekends of the 14 that we plan to hold. I mentioned to our teams and the people in the paddock that we are still working on our Southern California date and our date in Mexico, and now that we are able to make this announcement the only remaining question mark on our schedule, other than the details on race lengths and whether we are going to race on Saturday or Sunday at certain facilities, the only remaining question on weekends is whether or not we will race at Mexico City in March with the Busch Series, or whether we will be there at the end of the year as we are this year with Champ Car. That decision will be made in the next few days working with our promoters in Mexico City. The major piece of the puzzle on the domestic front was the inclusion of the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach, and now that question is answered. We are ready to move forward.
ADAM SAAL: Our reigning co‑champion of the Daytona Prototype category, Scott Pruett, has also joined us. Scott is certainly no stranger to Long Beach. He has a huge following in Long Beach and was there as a fan in the ‘70s, a go‑kart racer in the ‘80s, an IndyCar driver and many times as a Trans-Am and GT competitor. We’re delighted to have him here to speak, not only as the leading road racer of our generation, but also a Californian, who is happy to be going back to the beach.
Scott, thanks for joining us. How do you feel about today's announcement?
SCOTT PRUETT: Thanks, ladies and gentlemen for joining us this afternoon and it's exciting news. I know that this has kind of been talked about and the fact that we are going back there now is nothing less than exciting. For me, I have a lot of my racing career, major milestones at Long Beach, both making my transition to going and racing go‑karts and getting noticed and making my way into sports cars and my first opportunity in a Champ Car. Along with that was spending a lot of my own money to go do a race there.
And the other part that we also can't forget to mention is the fact that Grand-Am brings a lot of very familiar names that ALMS doesn't have currently to a lot of the fans at Long Beach. Myself and my teammates, a few names that I think people are very familiar with, Stefan Johansson, Luis Diaz, a lot of names that have been there in a number of different cars, whether it's been IndyCar, Champ Cars, whether it's been Atlantic cars or Indy Lights, whatever the case might have been. So I think there's another familiarity there with who the drivers are.
As we touched on, this year has been nothing less than spectacular with the racing. The wheel‑to‑wheel combat we've had this year, the hard racing, even our last race between myself and Max Angelelli was right down to the checkered flag when we were going at it tooth‑and‑nail. I think that's what Grand-Am racing is about and we continue to make that mark. If we can take a show like that to Long Beach in a 90‑minute format with a driver change, it's going to be nothing less than exciting.
ADAM SAAL: It's going to be great and I'm sure you're going to be in the thick of it. Again, we look forward to having you come back to Long Beach where you've had much success. You've won in Trans-Am competition and made the podium in Champ Car.
I have a few details before we open up to our friends in the media for some questions. Among the other drivers, in addition to Max Angelelli, Stefan Johansson, Luis Diaz, who Scott mentioned, are drivers who currently race with us that have Long Beach experience. Those drivers are Christian Fittipaldi, Max Papis, Roberto Moreno, and Alex Gurney, who raced in Atlantic competition, and his father was one of the race founders back in the ‘70s. There are plenty of good names coming to Long Beach, and it couldn't be a better race.
Q. Roger, you told me once awhile ago that the business model for Grand-Am was to not allow manufacturers to be involved in the decision‑making process. It would appear, at least on the outside, that Toyota being involved in both Long Beach and Grand-Am racing through Lexus may have had some part to play in this decision. Am I wrong in that assumption?
ROGER EDMONDSON: I don't think you're wrong in assumption because Jim made it clear that there was a natural synergy to having the Toyota sponsorship and the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach, as well as having the Lexus division of Toyota running in our series.
But when we had the discussion about manufacturers making decisions within our series, that was in the context of competition. We reserve the right at Grand American to make all of the rules and all of the decisions on competition ourselves, and we will not be abdicating that to any manufacturer or any manufacturer's group.
ADAM SAAL: Jim, it might be appropriate for to you weigh in on that topic, as that's a source of speculation. You touted the show as being a primary ingredient in bringing the Rolex Series to Long Beach, but at the same time you did mention it certainly would interest the Lexus people. What was the split there in the decision, whose call was it?
JIM MICHAELIAN: It was definitely our call. We are constantly looking for ways in which we can increase the entertainment value of the weekend when we look at the alternatives we were selecting from. Obviously to the extent we could showcase a Lexus product on the streets it made a lot of sense, but I can tell you that that decision was left up to us in terms of the ultimate determination of what we wanted to run and what conditions and what format we were going to present that race in. We are delighted that it worked out to the benefit of all of the parties concerned.
Q. This past weekend, Scott Atherton from the other side of the fence had some challenging things to say, about their form of sports car racing and your form of sports car racing. Do you ever see a head‑to‑head battle, or are you adamant about going forward with your business model as you said in the past?
ROGER EDMONDSON: One of great things about this country of ours is the free enterprise system allows to you have a vision and follow it and we are quite clearly doing that. We frankly don't care how they do it over in Europe. We have our own version and vision of what road racing ought to be for the American audience. That doesn't mean we don't have great respect for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, or great respect for the American Le Mans Series. They are presenting sports car racing as it's been presented in this country since 1948. The level of success sports car racing has had in this country since 1948 is out there for everybody to see.
We are doing road racing in a little different way. As Scott Pruett mentioned a little while ago, the Daytona Prototypes provide entertainment that has not been seen on road courses in a long, long time. That's only three years in the making now.
We are quite comfortable that we are on the right path to follow our own vision and our own business plan, and we wish them success, because I frankly believe that anybody who enjoys road racing is a prospect to come and enjoy our racing, and certainly will be tuned in to come and watch the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach.
Q. And there's room for both to co‑exist and put people in the seats to both events?
ROGER EDMONDSON: In a country of 300 million people, I don't think you can consider road racing to be an over solicited or saturated product right now. So, yeah, I would say there's plenty of room.
Q. When did you first start seriously contemplating putting sports cars on the streets of Long Beach, and then specifically, perhaps the Rolex Series Daytona Prototypes?
JIM MICHAELIAN: Actually the initial conversation started literally two years ago. Then they sort of centered a little bit around, quite frankly, around some of the indecisiveness there was in 2004 based on where CART was at that time, and later Champ Car was. As you remember, we were the first race of the season in 2004 and we were, quite frankly, looking at all of our options.
At the time we were looking at what other forms of racing we could put on here. Well, once that issue was resolved in favor of Champ Car, the interest was still there in terms of running some form of sports cars. Everybody got down do to how do we fit it into a weekend that's packed with a variety of other activities, and given that we are limited to being on track from only 8:00 to 6:00 in the evening? We don't have a chance to run later on concluding in the dark or the twilight.
Then it came down to, how do we negotiate a deal whereby we could provide a format that our fans would find interesting; that would fit into our schedule and also that would be entertaining? You know, that's part of what we do here is provide entertainment to people, and we think the Grand-Am formula is easy to follow. All of the cars are in the same class and their racing has been fabulous in terms of the competitiveness. We see a course like ours as being something that will be very demanding, and yet will provide for some great racing.
Q. How many people do you anticipate watching the Saturday show with the Daytona Prototypes on site?
JIM MICHAELIAN: We probably have to up that number now based on the package we put together for Saturday. We would look for somewhere in the neighborhood of about 60,000 to 65,000 people here just for the Saturday show.
Q. Mr. Edmondson, the 90‑minute format is certainly interesting. It is a radical departure from what one has thought of in the way of sports cars and racing before. How did the 90‑minute format evolve?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Well, first off, we also have a 24‑hour race which is also a radical departure from our normal weekend, too. We are not bound by tradition as much as we are by necessity of what it takes to put on a properly entertaining event with our promoters. It varies facility‑to‑facility based on the physical aspects of it. Sometimes it's a governmental curfew that interferes and sometimes it's the amount of time available to us.
In our discussions with Jim on this project—which, as we said, have been going on for a couple of years now—it was very clear the Saturday afternoon show was going to have to be short and sweet. It became very clear also that our two‑class program that we typically run elsewhere was not going to be the right format for the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach.
As we have gone through this discussion, back and forth, we finally came up with the place where we're at. I think it's going to be everything we do over the long haul and the normal race weekend compressed, and it's going to make it that much more entertaining.
Q. Scott, you're going to be facing some concrete canyons there with a car that doesn't bend easily. What are some of your thoughts on the challenges of racing at Long Beach?
SCOTT PRUETT: Well, the first one that comes out is there will be 25 to 30 Daytona Prototypes there, all the in same class, all racing for the checkered flag at the same time. There's going to be no less than 25 and there to be no more than 30 cars there, so that itself is just going to add to an awesome show.
With concrete barriers, the cream always rises to the top. It cuts out the men from the boys, and those who go racing, go racing, no matter what the set of circumstances. Long Beach has always been an exciting track. It's always been challenging, and certainly one of my favorites.
I'm looking wholeheartedly at the opportunity to go back there between my IndyCar career, which is the closest venture I've had at Long Beach. I also raced Trans-Am there in 2003.
I've had both full‑bodied cars and open‑wheel cars there. Just getting down to the streets of Long Beach is exciting, and I think for us as a series, and for me as a driver specifically, I'm excited about it.
Q. Can you tell the average fan who has not yet been to see a Long Beach Grand Prix race, what's it like?
SCOTT PRUETT: Gosh, it's a carnival atmosphere. It's exciting. There are so many people that you just can't ‑‑ you just can't not be a part of it. It's a party for ‑‑ actually it starts mid‑Wednesday there with the black‑tie ball and all of the fund‑raising and all of the pretty people there that live in the L.A. area that want to come be a part of it and see it.
Then to go put on a great show. That's the biggest thing that I think that we've been doing as a series this year is the fact that a lot of people who don't know who Grand-Am is until they either go and watch a race. Everybody I've talked to comes away from it saying, ‘what a great show!’ This is what road racing used to be in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and certainly something that we hope to take on for many more years.
Q. A toss‑up question, between Jim and Roger, if you will, please, TV comes to mind. Is there going to be a TV package on this thing?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Let me jump in on that one. We are in the last year of our partnership with SPEED in 2006. There will be television. It will be a same-day broadcast and we think it is going to be a great show whether it's live or on tape delay. Quite clearly, if you're in the L.A. area, you have to make plans to be there that afternoon. It's going to be awesome.
Let me toss up one last thing for you. You asked the question about the hairpin, and I think there are some feelings when people look at these Daytona Prototypes that these are big cars because the full body creates that illusion. But, in fact, the width of these cars, it's within a half‑inch of what the Champ Cars are.
These are the same size cars that have been racing there and also be racing there on a Sunday afternoon. The only difference is they are full‑body and they have teams of drivers. So if one series fits on the track, this one will fit on the track, too.
Q. Roger, does it come down to a sense of speaking, a choice between Long Beach and California Speedway?
ROGER EDMONDSON: No, it really wasn't a choice. We've been running at California Speedway now since 2001. And quite clearly, we value our in‑house friends out there at Fontana.
If you look at our entire schedule, we had decided a couple of years ago to cap out at this stage of our development at 14 races and to make room for the event at Long Beach, we were going to have to drop one of the events that we had. We already have two other events in California. So it was only natural, give a choice between moving forward with our friends at Fontana on an event that we are pioneering and moving into one of most famous road races in the world, let alone the North American marketplace, it was kind of a no‑brainer for us.
And by the way, we will ‑‑ I'm confident you'll see Grand-Am cars on the road course at Fontana in the future. So this is not a matter of saying good‑bye; it's just a matter of us having an opportunity and taking advantage of it.
Q. That's sort of the same thing the IRL said; we'll be back, but you don't build races by killing them and starting them up again. I'm not meaning that in an insulting way, but what about the people that have been there for you when you were coming up? Now, you know, obviously this is a big win situation for you, but you're kind of turning your back on the people that helped you get to this point in a sense.
ROGER EDMONDSON: Well, if you're talking about our spectator friends, obviously it's just a trek down the Interstate to get to the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach.
If you're talking about the facility, keep in mind that a large number of our investors in Grand American are also personnel on the International Speedway Corporation staff, and as a company, they look at what we had an opportunity to do and concurred wholeheartedly in the direction we are taking.
It wasn't essential to have that blessing, but when one of the major vice presidents of International Speedway recommended that we move forward with this initiative, that pretty well told me that there were certainly no feelings on their part that they would be abandoned or we got to the dance with one girl and we're dancing with another one now.
Q. Jim, one thing I did not hear you mention, which I had heard mentioned, is still possibly being foisted upon you is Trans-Am. What's the status of that?
JIM MICHAELIAN: I might defer a little bit with you on the foisted part, but yeah, we are going to attempt to run six events here this year, which will be the first time in our history we've done that.
So there is still one event that we haven't finalized yet, the Trans-Am situation still remains unresolved.
Our position is as follows, if Trans-Am does come back for an '06 season, we have committed to being a round of Trans-Am, probably and in most likelihood the opening round. If it doesn't, for whatever reason, and hopefully that matter will be resolved fairly quickly, we will put on another event that will basically be the going‑away race here on Sunday afternoon.
But yes, we have manipulated our schedule around so we can facilitate conducting both the Grand-Am on Saturday afternoon as well as a going‑away race on Sunday afternoon.
Q. Is the drifting going to be back as well?
JIM MICHAELIAN: Drifting will be back. The weekend will consist of the Champ Car World Series, the Atlantic series now, the drifting, the 30th anniversary of the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, the Daytona Prototypes of the Grand-Am Rolex Series, as well as the sixth event we will name hopefully here in the next couple of weeks.
Q. Did I hear Atlantics in there?
JIM MICHAELIAN: Yes, Atlantics will be here.
Q. How many of your races are going to be companion races in 06?
ROGER EDMONDSON: I haven't added it up. We are going to run with IRL three times, we're going to run with Champ Car once, perhaps twice, depending on what happens in Mexico City and we will run at two of the NASCAR events. So what's that? It looks like six events out of 14.
Q. I'm just trying to understand with the marketing strategy here, to go from a Fontana stand‑alone to Long Beach. I understand the tradition of Long Beach, but what were the factors just to get out of being a stand‑alone event at Fontana to being a companion series, if you will, to the Champ Cars?
ROGER EDMONDSON: I think Jim just gave us about 65,000 of them. As I mentioned before the, the opportunity to present to our teams and our sponsors and their sponsors, the team sponsors, to a crowd that size, the entertainment potential and all of the things that Long Beach offers, as compared to continuing to press forward in a pioneering event at Fontana, it was a very easy decision for us to take.
I've also mentioned the fact that I don't believe our history at Fontana has been fully written yet that. That road course was put there by the International Speedway Corporation with a goal towards turning the Fontana facility into a West Coast version of Daytona. And I believe as the spectator base has grown out there, that we'll be back in that marketplace.
Q. You keep saying that you're in a pioneering role at Fontana, but now it seems that you've decided to after three or four years to kind of give it up, if you will.
ROGER EDMONDSON: Yes, if you want to use that terminology but I don't believe we've had 65,000 total spectators at Fontana since we started running here. And I have an obligation to these teams and their sponsors, as well as my own to present this program in the best possible light. And at this point in time, there's not a sanctioning body on the planet that would not have chosen to take advantage of this time slot at Long Beach.
As a matter of fact, Jim has made it very clear that both the American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am, which are the two sports car road racing series, were both very interested in filling that time slot. Fortunately for us, it was Jim's choice that we fit the bill. We feel it was fortunate for us and fortunate for him, too. So we're looking forward to a great event and we think that we are going to serve that market as well as we possibly can.
I think it's tremendous that we are still in the L.A. market with an event that has such history and tradition.
Q. You said that you're going to cap at 14, but there's a possibility of coming back. So if you're saying that, is there a race that's on the bubble perhaps in the future?
ROGER EDMONDSON: There's always a race that's on the bubble. Many years ago I was involved in motorcycle road racing and I sat on the FIM Road Racing Commission where we would have between 17 and 20 different promoters trying to get a Grand Prix or trying to get a World Superbike race, and we only had 15 to give.
For the first time in our history, Grand American is in the same situation. We have set our goals and our 14‑race schedule, and we want that to be the 14 best races we can possibly hold and with the 14 best promoters. At some point in time, when our program matures a little bit more and there's more sponsor support, then we can look at expanding to 15 races.
At the moment we are staying with our 14 number. There's no telling what 2006 will hold in terms of the success or lack of success on part of some of our promoters. But quite clearly, we have a product that is in some demand at this point in time and we need to make sure we make the right choices, and there's no question in my mind that Long Beach was the right choice in this case.
Q. Were there any discussions with the Speedway about another date later in the season or somewhere down the line, a companion race with another sanctioning body?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Well, as we talked about our 2006 schedule for quite some time, this has been an ongoing discussion. We've looked at potentially running later in the year in October, I believe, with IRL. We had also talked about the potential to team up with the guys that brought in the Japanese Touring Car Series a couple of years ago. There were several different formats looked at, but at the end of the day, the format that we've just announced was the one that made the most sense to us.
Q. Congratulations on putting together the Long Beach show. Question for Roger, it seems that you're adding more events where you're on the program with another sanctioning body rather than a stand‑alone event, running with the IRL at Infineon Sonoma, Champ Car in Long Beach. Is this a trend that's going to continue as you refine your schedule in the future, or are you going to try and grow stand‑alone events?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Well, I think we need to have a healthy mixture of both. Trans-Am was mentioned a few minutes ago, and I think Trans-Am got into the support role enough so that they became characterized as the secondary event wherever they went.
We are certainly not looking to achieve that same distinction. I mean, our Rolex 24 Hour has been a mainstay in North American motorsports events for over 40 years, and we'd like to see our other events mature the same way.
At the same time, I mentioned earlier that the American Le Mans Series is presenting traditional sports car racing as it's been in this country since the late ‘40s. What we are doing is something new and we feel the best way for us to spread the word on their incredible racing that we have is to let people see it. The best prospect to buy a ticket to a race is a race fan, and by going to events where there's large NASCAR crowds or large IRL crowds or large Champ Car crowds, we have an opportunity to affect those road racing fans and those automobile racing fans with our brand of the sport. We think it's the shortest path to the top, and that's exactly where we feel Grand American is headed.
Q. I think you're on the right track and also the way you run your racing there's less confusion for the spectator. Scott, how would it be to drive a Trans-Am car in Long Beach and the difference between driving one of the Daytona Prototypes, more traffic?
SCOTT PRUETT: More traffic, the depth of the field is certainly going to be a lot deeper. We're going to have a lot more cars going head‑to‑head, a lot more action. What we're seeing is not that we mean to have contact, but—not dirty contact—but we've had contact side‑to‑side in these cars. These cars are pretty robust where, you know, we do have the opportunities to lean on each other and take full advantage on leaning on each other.
I think just kind of make sure—I’m not saying it in a dirty way, but in an aggressive, racing way—something that the fans like that that the drivers are doing, and able to do it without taking another guy off, where in years gone by, you could not hardly lean on a guy side‑to‑side or front‑to‑back without tearing something off your race car.
As Roger was saying, I think that unfortunately, and I'm a huge fan of road racing and would like it to do nothing more than keep growing, but there's been so much confusion on where road racing is going and major automotive companies coming in and spending a lot of money to be competitive and to win. We need to come up with a formula that is going to limit all of that and keep the racing on the race track and keep it close and keep it tight and keep it exciting for the fans, because if the fans leave, the sponsors leave. If the sponsors leave, the series dies, and unfortunately we've seen that time and time again.
Hopefully we are smart enough to learn from our mistakes and do the right thing as we move forward and as we are—being as young as we are as a series—we have to get out and spread ourselves to more and more race fans and the only way to do that in a quick manner or aggressive manner is to not only have our own stand‑alone races, like the 24 Hour, but also do these races there are mainstay premier races that are road racing, like the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Q. Roger, do you consider your race a traditional support race in the sense of the others in Grand Prix?
ROGER EDMONDSON: I don't think there's any doubt that when you're not on Sunday, you're considered a support race. We'd like to consider ourselves a co‑feature, but I'm going to leave that to you guys to decide when it's over.
I think when Sunday night is completed, when you've got a chance to go back and look at all of the action, I don't think you'll be looking at us as a traditional support race.
Q. Jim, you've raced these kinds of cars for many, many years. How excited are you to have these Prototypes out here?
JIM MICHAELIAN: Let me correct you. I'd like to have driven these cars. Don't forget, these are the Prototypes. I drive in the GT class. I'd love the opportunity to do it, but obviously I won't be doing it here.
In answering your question about being the feature event or non‑feature event, each of our events stands alone in terms of its merits, and that's one of the reasons why we select the variety of activities we have here.
What we want to do is have fans and non‑race fans come to our event and experience a whole plethora of different items that all will have some appeal to them. And we see this as just another unique sensation. The sounds of those cars, the cacophony that's going to emanate when those things go tearing down Shoreline Drive side‑by‑side is going to be a whole different sound than any other sound we have during the weekend.
From a visceral and visual sense, it has its own characteristics to it. That's what we want to be able to provide for our fans. They are going to go away saying, ‘Wow, you know what? That event was really great,’ as well as the Toyota Pro Celebrity Race or the Champ Car race or any of the other activities here. Each one of these sort of stands on its own merits in terms of its attractiveness, and I think this is going to hold a candle to nobody in terms of its ability to provide that kind of sensation.
Q. Last year you were talking about the prospect of this race coming here and there was some thought that it might run into some twilight times because you guys can use the headlights on the cars, is there any chance that might happen in the future is this?
JIM MICHAELIAN: That was a wish on our part. As it currently stands because of the contract with the city, we are prohibited from running our event after 6:00 p.m. I sort of doubt whether that will change in the near future, primarily because of all the development that's taking place and the commercial interest that we have downtown. I think it's tantamount for us to get our show on the track and off by six o'clock and then let our fans go out and enjoy all of the other attributes that the city has to offer.
I doubt very much whether we'll have the opportunity to conclude our events later on in the evening, although the idea of being able to race down Shoreline Drive in a twilight setting or into the dusk would be fabulous. I think it would be great.
Q. Roger, talking to some people affiliated with the Toyota/Lexus side of it, and they are starting to see that the costs are starting to escalate a lot in this series, and they kind of question how long their future might be in the actual Grand-Am. Are you guys letting things getting out of control or are you trying to keep the costs under control like the premise of the series was? Are you worried Toyota's future might be limited?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Yes, to all of those things. Yes, we are certainly trying to keep things under control. And yes, there are probably some things that have gotten away from us, but that just means we haven't gotten to them. Quite clearly when you have a partner like Toyota as a supplier of engines even though they are branded as the Lexus TRD engines, an integral part of our future.
We've just had some good discussions with them and allowed them to make some changes that I think are going to make sure that there's a long life and a large market for the TRD power plant.
So, yes, we are aware of all those issues, but no I'm not overly concerned about any of it.
Q. Roger, adding up the number of races that you're doing in conjunction with NASCAR, IRL and Champ Car, and I suppose I know the answer to this already, but do you have any particular preferences as to which sanctioning body you're dancing with at these doubleheader weekends, or is it just simply a kind of pragmatic decision that basically what is best for Grand-Am?
ROGER EDMONDSON: The fact is we are an equal opportunity sanctioning body. My only obligation is to Grand American and to our promoters, and I have no obligation to IRL or to Champ Car or to NASCAR other than to be a good neighbor when we share the weekend. You know, the 65,000 number that Jim gave us for Saturday at Long Beach, it speaks for itself. As people sometimes wonder why we run with NASCAR on a Friday night at Watkins Glen and the answer is very simple. The crowd at Watkins Glen on Friday night is the third largest crowd in the State of New York on any given 12 months, and the only two larger are Saturday and Sunday.
Again it is a pragmatic decision. We think we've got an incredibly exciting product, and it's a whole lot more cost effective for us to go and take this product to a crowd that's already there. I don't care what their motivation was for getting there. They are already in place, they are there to see an event and they are there to experience an event and when we're done, we know they have seen one.
Q. I don't have a NEXTEL Cup schedule sitting in front of me but I know certainly this year at Daytona there was quite a buzz about the race because a number of the NEXTEL Cup drivers were there. Any chance on bringing in—and as I said, I don't off the top of my head know if this race conflicts with the NEXTEL Cup schedule next year—but do you see this year or perhaps in the future bringing in a couple of ringers, if you will, to the Toyota Grand Prix race?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Well, I think first off, as far as bringing in ringers for the 2006 event, there is a conflict with the NEXTEL Cup at Texas. But if you look at what we had at the 24 Hour, we had 54 Champions drivers representing 109 different championships in that one event. As the year has gone on we've had some of those same people coming back when it was a clear date on their schedule to run with us.
I think you're going to see more and more name drivers for whatever reason, whether it be because they retired full‑time or whether because they want to started a team of their own and experience team ownership or whatever their motivation may be. You'll see more and more name‑brand drivers joining our own names, guys like Scott and Max and Wayne (Taylor) and Luis Diaz. I think that's probably one of the things I'm proudest of. Even though we have some of these hot shots come in, our guys are still undefeated.
Q. Jim, I have a follow‑up question for you, you said a couple of times that the ALMS for whatever reason refused to come, and it kind of sounded like maybe they didn't want to split out their headlining cars to have a simplified race. Is that an accurate assessment that helped to make the decision of one over the other?
JIM MICHAELIAN: No. It was never suggested they refused to come. We had discussions with both groups and we made a decision to go with Grand-Am for the reasons that I stated before. But never was there a situation where the ALMS had indicated they refused to come here.
What I suggested was that to the uninitiated, it's much easier to follow an event when all of the cars are running in the same class. Currently Grand-Am offers the opportunity to provide an event that would feature one‑class racing, and as of now, the ALMS isn't in a position to do that.
That's one of the factors that was taken into consideration when you're trying to make a determination as to which series to run but it's one of many factors so that wasn't the sole factor. But as far as we were concerned, that was an important one in terms of what Grand-Am had to cover, not only in terms of the organization of the event, but also in terms of the appeal to our fans.
Q. Roger, the Daytona Prototypes running alone, it seems to be a logical progression as the fields get larger. This is maybe the second time that that's happened, is this going to be an example of things to come, that the Daytona Prototypes may become separated in the Rolex Series from the GT cars?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Well, it is the second time and we have plans to do it twice next year. We are going to run Daytona Prototypes only at the Toyota Grand Prix at Long Beach, and also the Friday night show on the short course at Watkins Glen when we run with NEXTEL Cup.
To make up for that a little bit and try to balance out the schedule we are going to give the GT guys their own weekend at Lime Rock. That is not what I would call our immediate plan for the future. I feel that there's a certain value to also running the two classes that we run. It creates a unique atmosphere and unique experience on the track that's compared to other single‑class races and we think it has virtues of its own.
So it's a matter of the right place at the right time and at Long Beach, the single category is the right time and that's the right place.
Q. I remind that success has a thousand fathers and defeat is but an orphan. I suppose there are going to be a few people jumping in on this one. Rolex Series points, will they be apportioned in this race as they normally would be, Roger?
ROGER EDMONDSON: Do you mean are they going to be awarded as they always would be? Yes, they are.
Q. Yeah, you're right. Awarded, as opposed to apportioned.
ROGER EDMONDSON: We don't pay any more points for the 24 Hour than we do for a typical 200‑mile race. So we are not going to pay any less for a 90‑minute race.
Q. I've got a question for Jim, and this might be a rather wild one to process, but let's see what we can do with it. In privileged conversations I've had, it would indicate that Chip Ganassi is contemplating forming or has already suggested outside that an owner's championship be put together for open‑wheel cars and that they would there for cherry‑pick some of the finer races around on the schedule every year that are conducive to running within the country. Do you see any potential hazard with them perhaps running Long Beach Grand Prix next year?
JIM MICHAELIAN: In the first place, I've heard conflicting reports in that regard. I'm not sure how accurate—at least from our perspective—that is, quite frankly.
I can only speak as one of the promoters on the Champ Car schedule, but I would think that if they can bring equipment that meets the regulations in terms of the competition, and then they want to come and run, they would welcome somebody to come and do that. We certainly would.
We think that more competition is better. The opportunity to come and showcase their team sponsors and their drivers and their teams in front of our audience is something we would look forward to. As long as they met the appropriate conditions, I think that something would be a welcome addition to the program.
Q. Interesting to hear your comments on that. A quick comment on my own about Toyota's involvement. In the conversations I've had with the upper ranks of Toyota, TRD people, they are developing an entirely new engine for Grand American and I certainly don't see them sinking a lot of money into it if they did not think they would be around for a while. That's it, gentleman. Thanks a lot, I'll look forward to seeing you out there, Jim. Reserve a suite for me, will you?
JIM MICHAELIAN: As long as you're paying for it, I'll reserve it for you.
ADAM SAAL: That was a full hour - plus here, so we appreciate all of the time everybody gave us. Scott, you drive carefully both on your way to Virginia and on track at the VIR 400 this weekend, thanks for joining us. Roger, thank you very much and of course Jim as well.
Now we have some work to do. We'll promote this race and look forward to seeing a lot of our media friends out there next April. Thank you very much everybody and we do appreciate it.
