Chrysler quits United Sportscar Championship despite title

[Jordan Wilkins]

A mere 48 hours after winning the inaugural Tudor United Sportscar Championship's highly competitive GTLM class, Chrysler has announced it's withdrawal from the series, citing that it was a "business decision" that is part of a redirection for Dodge's "focus and efforts on the brand's product line-up".

This latest announcement leaves the Riley Technologies run SRT motorsport team in the lurch as they now look to salvage their 2015 plans with the successful SRT Viper model. The timing of the announcement seems strange as it came only 48 hours after their driver Kuno Wittmer sealed the drivers GTLM class title with a 3rd in the Petit Le Mans finale at Road Atlanta sharing with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marc Goossens.

The SRT team has been long time collaborators with Chrysler and they were the one's who reintroduced the Viper brand back to American GT racing with a partial campaign in the American Le Mans Series. A full campaign in 2013 brought some success and a return to the Le Mans 24 Hours. Midway through this year the car's were rebranded as Dodge Viper and the iconic livery of red and white stripes was reintroduced.

Although the 2015 plans for Dodge and SRT were never in place it will still come as a shock to the SRT team, especially considering the success they achieved this year many would have expected them to carry this on into 2015. The Tudor United Sportscar Championship will be poorer for their absence, although hopefully SRT can return with a privateer programmer next year.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

On to the real Le Mans with a Viper I say

 

[Jordan Wilkins]

Yeah it would be good to see them back at the 24 Hours after missing this year's race they would be a lot more competitive now then they were back in 2013, although it will be tough for SRT to raise the budget needed alongside their USC campaign next year

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

Would not make sense to me quitting USCC and therefore only doing Le Mans? And WEC in terms of marketing for the brand? What do you think?

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I have stopped watching the USCC after the Sebring round with those horrific driver standards and ditto accidents. Couldn't take the series seriously anymore after that.

Not sure if Chrysler is only focussing on the US market in terms of branding. If so this decision doesn't make any sense. However if they are looking for a global audience nothing beats the WEC with Le Mans or the Blancpain Endurance Series for a more European exposure.

 

[Jordan Wilkins]

Yeah it seems strange they withdraw from the premier sportscar series in their premier market, if they are changing marketing strategies and trying to gain exposure abroad a works effort in the WEC would make sense especially with the American race at Austin also

 

[Georg Siebert]

Again a great article @Jordan Wilkins

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

I have stopped watching the USCC after the Sebring round with those horrific driver standards and ditto accidents. Couldn't take the series seriously anymore after that.

Not sure if Chrysler is only focussing on the US market in terms of branding. If so this decision doesn't make any sense. However if they are looking for a global audience nothing beats the WEC with Le Mans or the Blancpain Endurance Series for a more European exposure.

I did scroll through the Petit Lemans and they already had 6 cautions in the first 3 hours. After that I stopped counting. It is just sprint racing between cautions and most of the time you have one right before the finish. No wonder they lost most LMP2 cars, which get hurt the most by a caution. That amount is just unacceptable on a level of a so called professional series.

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

You should've watched the last 2 hours like me. I got up at night for it and WOW more than 10 cautions overall and felt like 3 or 4 in the last hour. Really bad...

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

You should've watched the last 2 hours like me. I got up at night for it and WOW more than 10 cautions overall and felt like 3 or 4 in the last hour. Really bad...

As Bram I dont really watch it since Sebring. I am only checking the cautions. It totally ruins the endurance side of things as it is so easy to stay on the lead lap. I would prefer if they do something like a code 60, no pit stops under caution and no relapping etc. With that you wouldnt spend 50% of the race length under caution like it felt in Sebring and other cars dont luck there way to the top with a well placed caution.
And of course the amount of crahes is way to high. Looked more like we had in the VSC2 here at RD and it was wet and we dont risk our health doing it.

 

[Jozsef Veverka]

anyway, vipers are so unique, so beautiful cars, i missed them so much from todays professional series.

 

[Walter Conn]

I am gutted to read this news. I know that racing is expensive, but it is a shock to read that is too expensive for the factory team. On the bright side, there will be two grid spots open for someone else. The size of the grid is limited to the number of boxes in pit lane (too low IMO).
In regard to the cautions, the 24 hrs of Spa race had the same problem as the U.S. sports cars. It is better to watch a replay of the event on youtube so that you can skip the cautions.

 

[johnnymat]

It's too bad they have all of those cautions. However , they made progress this season. There were quite a few races that had no cautions or just a few. They obviously listened to the fans and made an effort to improve things. If enough people keep complaining , then maybe they will continue to try and fix things. Part of the problem is the sheer number of cars at some of the races and the mixture of amateur and pro drivers.
On the plus side, they had their first race (COTA) where they had over 1 million t.v. viewers , which for this type of racing is unheard of. I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic.

 

[JeffL]

This was announced today in "Detroit News". It is now a American and Italian company based in the Netherlands. Something's going on over there.

 

[4 8 15 16 23 42 108]

View attachment 66611
This was announced today in "Detroit News". It is now a American and Italian company based in the Netherlands. Something's going on over there.

Hoax or true? I think I have heard about Chrysler and Fiat, but the Netherlands?

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

Hoax or true? I think I have heard about Chrysler and Fiat, but the Netherlands?

Some weird construction to save taxes.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

well, they have a good logo to start with and will probably sign up bram as expert for everything related to dutch racing

 

[JeffL]

FCA — incorporated in the Netherlands, with its official headquarters in London — will be traded primarily on the NYSE, with a secondary listing in Milan - Detroit News
No, No, No, No tax evasion going on here. LOL