"Within the next 60 days, we're going to want to have the calendar out," USCR President and COO Scott Atherton tells SPEED.com...
The United SportsCar Racing schedule will likely feature 12 events, according to series President and COO Scott Atherton. With the Rolex 24 at Daytona just over six months away, work continues in the finalization of the United SportsCar Racing calendar for 2014.
According to USCR President and Chief Operating Officer, Scott Atherton, who spoke to SPEED.com on Monday, the schedule remains one of the top priorities among the unification process and is likely to be the next major announcement to be made.
"It's a difficult process," Atherton said. "We've got 17 different tracks and 22 different events and have said consistently that for '14, at least to start with, there would be no less than 10 [races] and no more than 12 [races].
"Right now, I'm thinking the number is going to be 12. We've sliced and diced and looked at how we could optimize the calendar."
Roughly one-third of the schedule is already known, with the twice-around-the-clock enduro at Daytona opening the season on Jan. 25-26, followed by the Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 15.Atherton said it would be a "safe assumption" for Watkins Glen, an ISC-owned property, to be included on the schedule, while also confirming the format of the 1,000-mile/10-hour Petit Le Mans event will remain unchanged.The rest of the schedule has yet to be confirmed, with the series now in the process of finalizing sanctioning agreements with venues.
"There are some pre-existing situations that have to be taken into consideration and that's how we've always done business," Atherton said. "When there is an agreement in place, it does get honored."
While it appears there will be 12 events next year, Atherton hasn't ruled out the possibility of select standalone Prototype and/or GT-only races at some of the smaller venues such as street circuits. However, no final decision has been made.
"We've been looking at creative solutions knowing that the car counts by virtue of merging these two [series] together is going to be substantially larger," Atherton said. "There are some venues where we wouldn't want that to be a reason not to go."
Atherton said consideration has also been given to the possibility of having competitors drop their worst result in the championship, which would allow teams to skip a race, especially for those taking part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A similar procedure was in place in the early years of the ALMS when it was paired with the European Le Mans Series.
While no hard deadline has been set, Atherton is hoping to have a finalized schedule within the next two months, well before the traditional release at Petit Le Mans in October."Within the next 60 days, we're going to want to have the calendar out," he said. "That would be much earlier than we have done it in the past. But this year it needs to be done earlier.
"If we can do it faster than that, we will. But we've got to make sure, like everything we've done through this merger, that we want to get it right the first time.
"We don't want to have to come back after things have been announced and tweak the dates or change the venue or something more dramatic. When we go public, and have it completely confirmed, the schedule we announce is the schedule we fulfill."
