Matters of moment, April 1992

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Sort it out

As this issue closed for press, the Sportscar World Championship was still alive.

Just.

The cancellation of Jarama (teams wanted more time to prepare for their annual showpiece, the Le Mans 24 Hours) leaves eight events. Whether there will be more entries than there are races is presently a moot point.

Elsewhere in this issue, Mike Cotton puts a strong case for the introduction of a formula based around grand touring cars. There are alternatives, although FISA would have to come up with spectacular longterm stability guarantees. If the present Group C regulations are to be kept.

At present, the millions committed by the likes of Peugeot, Toyota, Mazda, Lola, Allard and BRM appears to be money unwisely spent. While the present uncertainty over Sportscar World Championship racing exists, you can be sure that there will be no further investment on a grand scale, be it from sponsors or manufacturers. (Contemporary Group C racers from Mercedes, Jaguar and Brun are all there to be used, but there is neither the finance nor, in a couple of cases, the inclination to run them . . . )

Whichever formula it adopts, FISA needs to take swift action to restore the industry’s faith in the future of sportscar racing.

If it hangs around waiting for the 1992 SWC to limp into action, FISA won’t need to go to the trouble of hiring a Heathrow conference room to announce the death of Group C come December. The series will have disappeared up its own exhaust pipe long before.