Opinion: Four Tracks the 2016 Tudor United Sports Car Championship Needs To Visit

As we look towards the 2016 racing season and the release of schedules, I've put together a list of four race tracks where the Tudor United Sports Car Championship should be racing: 

Mid-Ohio

The fast and undulating circuit in Lexington has been a bastion of sports car racing for a long, long time – the track’s full name is the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, after all – and it was a glaring omission from the 2015 schedule. The amalgamation of the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series has obviously put the squeeze on a few venues, but Mid-Ohio deserves a date.

Certainly, the near-constant elevation change makes passing a little difficult under green flag conditions, but the IndyCar Series has hit on the right package to make racing exciting there. In 2014, New Zealander Scott Dixon spun out in qualifying, started dead last and ended up winning the race. So, it can be done.

Besides, it’s easier to pass in sports cars, where a bit of car-on-car contact isn’t going to wreck your day. Who can forget the two Corvette machines bumping on pit road and into turn one a few years ago? It’s a great action track, Mid-Ohio, and it’s a shame that one of the longest-standing circuits in America, one with ‘sports car course’ in it’s name, doesn’t have a scheduled slot on the premiere sports car series in North America.

Road America

Yes, I know the series already visits the best road course in North America, but the current 2hr 40min sprint race doesn’t do the Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin circuit justice. Back in the halcyon American Le Mans Series days – 2007, 2008 and 2009 with Porsche, Audi and Acura/Honda in the prototype ranks showcased racing as good as anywhere else in the world – there used to be a 500-mile event around the circuit, allowing the exotic sports cars to really put on a show. I’d even go one step further and make the Road America event into a 6-hour race, one that starts in the afternoon and ends at night.

The Tudor series has a North American Endurance Cup package, an endurance event that runs inside the main championship, and currently featured the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the season-ending Petit Le Mans race in Georgia. Adding a 6-hour event at Road America further legitimises the endurance component of the season. Fans will love it!

St Petersburg, Florida

As far as I’m concerned, the more IndyCar/sports car double headers that can be arranged the better, as the fan bases are very similar, and there’s a heap of crossover appeal. The street/airport circuit where the IndyCar Series traditionally begins it’s season is a better-than-average temporary racetrack, and was a staple of the ALMS when Honda, under the guise of Acura, ran in LMP2.

The St Pete circuit has some really good passing opportunities, and is always popular with fans. Plus, the weather is nearly always perfect down in Florida in late March. Considering that Honda sponsor the weekend, and that the Extreme Speed Motorsports squad run HPD engines in their LMP2 prototype, it makes sense. The more top-level series running at any given race track is only ever a good thing!

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course

Sports cars raced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as part of the ‘Super Weekend’ concept with NASCAR Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series for a few years, but stopped that practice in recent times. Since then, an IndyCar Series race has become a reality, which led to drastic improvement of a circuit often ridiculed for being boring. That’s not the case now. There’s been plenty of action – and controversy! – in both this year and last year’s running of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Ideally, the Tudor Series could visit IMS on the first weekend in May, and assume the role of curtain raiser to the IndyCar Series event. The more track events that weekend, the better, if the track and the city of Indianapolis are hoping to grow the controversial road course event. The sports cars would definitely put on a good show.

More than anywhere else, including Daytona and Sebring, Indianapolis is the heart and soul of American racing. NASCAR admitted it by sending their top-level series to race at the speedway in the 1990s. All the big North American series race at Indy, and this list should grow to include the Tudor Series. Sports car drivers want to be able to list ‘Indianapolis Motor Speedway race winner’ on their resumes, too!