Re: What's With SportsCar / PTG M3?

[Richard Welty <rwelty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 04:31 AM 8/11/98 PDT, Peter Stuhr wrote:
>I thought I heard the SportsCar
..
>Has anyone spoken with Tom Milner recently and asked him what's up? Is 
>SportsCar doomed? I'm gettin' worried that the series is history and 
>I'll have one less opportunity to watch some road racing.

not to be a spoilsport or anything, but keep in mind that as a result of
the out of court settlement between Professional Sports Car Racing (PSCR)
and the Sports Car Club of America, PSCR cannot refer to itself as
"SportsCar".

they were in clear violation of the SCCA's trademark, they knew it, and
they folded before they got to court.

as for what's happening... the "Andy Evans era" did considerable damage.
just before Evans took over, SCCA Pro and IMSA were on the verge of merging
the two bodies to create a revival of the USRRC (this was all some two
years ago now.) Evans screwed up the deal, bought IMSA, changed the name,
started infringing on longstanding SCCA trademarks, and made lots of public
statements about forcing SCCA Pro into a situation where he bought them or
they went out of business.

When Roger Penske, Bill France, Rob Dyson & company banded together to
support the SCCA in creating the USRRC, this basically put us where we are
today. Evans has sold out to the more sensible Panoz; now it remains to put
the pieces of US Road Racing back together.

i suspect that it is in everyone's best interests if some sort of
accomodation is reached, which would let PSCR and the USRRC work together.
best would be if a way were to perform the merger that was originally
planned. there really isn't the fan base in the US to support two parallel,
competing bodies that are so similar. now that Evans is out of the picture,
this may actually be possible.

richard

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