Breaking-news-chrysler-kills-factory-backed-road-race program
From allpar.com
More News from the press wire. This from Steven Cole Smith from Motorsport.com
Please note the sections in bold.
Why Dodge killed the SRT Viper racing program
By: Steven Cole Smith, Editor in Chief, Motorsport.com
Posted: Yesterday at 8:55pm
Yes, of course, it's money. But there's more to it than that.
Tell me, readers, if you have ever heard of a better indication of how quickly things can change in the corporate world of motorsports.
At 1 p.m. today, I did a telephone interview with Kuno Wittmer, who on Saturday drove a Dodge SRT Viper GTS-R to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT-Le Mans season drivers title and team title. We spoke of how the momentum from this past season would carry over into 2015, and how Wittmers driving this past season would undoubtedly keep him employed at Chrysler.
At 1:30 p.m., Kuno Wittmer was out of work.
Thats when he got the call with the news the rest of us became aware of when the press release hit the wires 15 minutes later: Dodge was pulling the plug on its sports car racing program for 2015 and beyond.
Our company has made a business decision to discontinue the SRT Motorsports Dodge Viper GTS-R racing program, said Ralph Gilles, Senior Vice President of Product Design, Chrysler Group LLC. We are very proud of the amazing achievements our fantastic teams, drivers and partners have achieved on track the last few seasons.
Sound familiar? It should. In August of 2012, in a conference call with reporters, Gilles told us that with a heavy heart, the company would not return to NASCAR in 2013 not in Sprint Cup, the Nationwide series or the Camping World truck series. Then the only full-time Dodge boys, Team Penske, promptly went out and won the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship with driver Brad Keselowski.
With most manufacturers, the old adage went, Win on Sunday, sell on Monday. With Dodge it seems to be, Win the championship on Saturday, cancel the program on Monday.
So the Dodge Viper SRT GTS-R 2014 racing season concluded Saturday with the two-car SRT Motorsports team winning the team and driver titles. SRT Motorsports won two of three championships contested in the class and finished second in the GTLM manufacturer championship in just its second full year of the program, said todays press release.
It did not say, "Now, please clean out your desk and the guard will escort you out," but it could have.
Did SRT racing die so Vettel could live (at Ferrari)?
So where does this leave Chryslers racing program?
If you really want to stretch the branches of the companys family tree, theres Ferrari in Formula One is it possible that SRTs racing program had to die to finance Sebastien Vettels salary at Ferrari next year? No, but its fun to think about.
Dodge has not made a decision on whether they will continue to back the rejuvenated Trans-Am series with the Dodge Challenger, but that investment has to be peanuts compared to the TUDOR Championship which was peanuts compared to NASCAR.
Nor have they made a call on if, and to what extent, they will support privateer Ben Keating, whose lone Riley-built number 33 Viper team in the TUDOR GT-Daytona series has performed well above expectations, even after his only car burned to the ground at Sebring.
Keating and his team won the next-to-last race at Circuit of the Americas, a feather in the cowboy hat for Keating, since that is his home track. Id like to be back in the series with a Viper next year, Keating told Motorsport.com, but he needs to see if the numbers add up.
Unbalance of performance
Thats two sets of numbers:
One is money, the other is the series' Balance of Performance, which penalizes fast cars with weight, aero or engine restrictions so slow cars can win, too.
With the only Viper out there and Keating has heard of no other teams looking to run a Viper in GT-Daytona, especially now he is afraid, and rightfully so, that he wont have the lobbying power the Audi, BMW, Porsche, Aston Martin and Ferrari teams have when it comes to whining about BoP. (This could be one reason SRT Motorsports & Dodge left the series)
With Dodge at least in the GT-Le Mans class with a factory effort, IMSA had to pay attention to the brand.
Will they if its just Ben Keating? I feel sort of like I might have a target on my back, he said.
Money-wise, there was an economy of scale, Keating said, in having two other SRT Vipers at the track, with the attendant engineers and parts availability. Plus, he said, they were trying to figure out the same track I was, and the three teams could share information.
Now, Keating would be a lone wolf. Or lamb. And frankly, with Dodge not racing, and consequently perhaps not publicizing the Viper, Keating the worlds largest Viper dealer cant be pleased with that.
Viper sales have been slow anyway, hence the $15,000 price cut the company announced a few weeks ago.
Bottom line: Keating said he feels as though he has a chance to win, he will probably be back. If he cant, he wont.
Get this!
Straight line lucks out!
So the only racing Chrysler will do for sure is in a straight line, as it supports some Dodge NHRA Pro Stock and Funny Car teams, including Matt Hagan, whose Funny Car won last weekend at Maple Grove in Pennsylvania, giving him the points lead.
Pat Caporali, who handles MOPAR racing publicity, said the company will support its teams for sure next year and probably beyond, and also just signed a multi-year deal to keep sponsoring the Mile-high Nationals in Denver.
MOPAR, she said, is separate from Dodge and SRT racing programs, and drag racing reaches MOPAR customers directly, she said.
Its a sad situation for Dodge and Chrysler race fans, and likely no one is more miserable about it than Ralph Gilles, a very fast racer himself, and the man most responsible for the current Viper which is a splendid car, on and off the track. And Ive been lucky enough to test-drive plenty of Vipers on the street and track since 1991, and to race in the Viper Challenge series. (Where I once beat Ben Keating! After his car overheated and blew up. He fixed the car and almost lapped me in the next race.) The Viper may well be my favorite car, and Ive tested thousands of cars since 1984.
So what really happened?
Several sources suggest that Tim Kuniskis, president of Dodge and SRT, just isnt much interested in racing, and thats what happened to the Viper program. (Tim made the call & killed the program! - The production Viper could be in trouble?)
What will happen to the Viper itself? I hate to speculate. But if I did, Id expect some sort of replacement that could be a re-badged Alfa-Romeo at best, a re-bodied Charger/Challenger at worst.
So what happened to the NASCAR program?
(NASCAR fans are going to cringe at this! Point the finger to exclusively at Marchionne)
That came all the way from the Italians at Fiat, including Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne, who reportedly found the Americans arrogant about NASCAR, even though Roger Penske was ready to sign for more seasons.
(That's right folks - the truth is finally out! Sergio is anti-American & is against everything of what he calls American arrogance!!!!!! Now do you want to be a fan of a company that has leaders like this??)
Penske went to Ford not because he insisted on moving to Ford, but because Chrysler (Marchionne) insisted on not being in NASCAR any longer. Although right now, that move to Ford is looking pretty good.
Viper didnt go to the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year because they weren't able to come up with enough sponsorship to cover the expenses, so the Italians at parent company Fiat stamped cancelled on the Vipers passport.
So the cool Chevrolet Corvette vs. Dodge Viper battle is, once again, history.
As Kuno Wittmer might say, and did: It sucks.
Very informative article.
