BlueDevil, I appreciate your comments and here's my response...
The OSS Car counts last year fluctuated from race to race as the Car Count went from a weak low of around 12 cars to a high car count of 24, and yes it did look a little unstable, but keep in mind we didn't announce the building of the OSS till late April as a go for 2007. Any new series always starts out slow unless you can plan and make announcements to Race Teams with lots of notice,
and that is what we are doing now.
If you take a look at the NASCAR CTS program, it had an average of around 21 cars per event, even though the Teams (all past CASCAR Super Series Teams) did not have to start from scratch, just continue on from CASCAR to NASCAR.
Allot of people speculated 34 or so cars for the CTS deal, but that number was down because Teams did not have enough time to secure sponsorships to move forward, thus a lessor car count then expected. Could the NASCAR CTS deal be called a new series ? In some eyes yes, in others it was called a continuation of the Super Series.
I think NASCAR numbers will be up this year, as they did offer some very good racing and a decent following of fans, and keep in mind this will be the 2nd year for them.
Just like NASCAR, the OSS had smaller car counts because of a late start to setting up the series. Most Teams had figured there would be no more Sportsman Series as NASCAR did not take on that part of CASCAR when they purchased it from Tony Novotiny.
It took all summer to get the series to a high of 24 cars, which was expected from everyone.
In 2008 the OSS plans on bigger car counts, as we have now firmly planted our feet and proved the Series could run under its own identity. Several more Cars will come back to life as Teams now have had enough time to prepare, secure funding, and plan their summer around race events. By no means do we think we will get 50 cars, but a realistic number would be around 26 to 28.
Keep in mind that the OSS cars are of the same construction as the NASCAR CTS cars, so we could even have a number of teams coming to the OSS instead of the NASCAR program, based on their funding to run in 2008.
Another good point is the OSS is the feeder series to the NASCAR CTS program, and we could see teams using the OSS this year as Driver Development and even Team Development program's.
As for Tracks, we have had a huge interest in the OSS from tracks across Canada, but we are staying focused on Ontario Race Tracks right now. Saying that, it's not to say we do not have the potential to go across Canada as the Sportsman Car count out West is around 40 cars, and there is about another 15 cars in the East.
Combine the Country and you will come up with around 80 Sportsman Cars, all running under the same rules basically, and that is a big car count, but the chances of us taking the series to a travelling (CANADA) series is premature at this time... but does have the potential.
Our Program cost to Race Tracks is considered a good deal by the Track Promoters, and I am confident we will have a total of 7 or 8 events this year, which are all Twin 50 and Triple 50 lap events, which will break down to around 16 Race's in total. I think that is a descent number to work towards, and hopefully the fans will agree and make the OSS a Series of choice, as far as entertainment goes.
The biggest factor right now for racing in Canada is the economy which is at a very slow pace right now, and the economy does effect racing enormousally. Its a game of sit and wait for most sponsors as they are watching their bottom lines right now, and that makes finding the funding to go racing very hard to say the least.
Putting the Cart before the Horse with regards to Car counts and Race Tracks is considered speculation at this time, but all of us at the OSS are staying on course with the building of the series and hope's to continue to grow its presence in Motorsports here in Canada.
Thanks for the response and I hope this answers you questions....
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=6889.msg35964#msg35964
