Official NACRS driver and team memorandum.
Last week, we, the NACRS organizers, implemented a mid-season adjustment to our rulebook. This change involved the maximum fuel capacity of GTP and GTO cars, which was put in place to force at least one pit stop during the race. It was in our vision that racing is a team sport as much as it is an individual sport; the drivers are pushing their cars as hard as they can, but without a pit crew to put tires on the car, the driver isn't going to go very far. We saw that this rule implementation would help the teams be more involved during the race, heighten drama for the patrons in the stands and at home, and create a brand new focus on strategy for teams to take advantage of. This meant successful teams wouldn't necessarily have the fastest car on track if they made the right strategy calls and their crew made quick work of damage repairs and fuel refills.
However, we lacked foresight on a significant issue: crew training. While we held our ground firmly that this rule would be best for the series, we realize now that the mid-season implementation of this rule was sub-optimal or even harmful to some teams on the grid. Refueling and repairing the car is now completely different in the series in a way we hadn't anticipated, and we apologize for that.
However, every team racing at the NACRS events have had to adapt to the same rule implementation. We still believe this rule change will have a positive effect on the series moving forward, and given that every team had to deal with the same adaptation struggles, we do not believe these changes created an unfair competitive advantage that favored one team over another. As a result, we will continue to enforce the maximum fuel tank capacity rule to ensure at least one pit stop for fuel is required.
Teams found disregarding the current fuel capacity regulations will not be able to pass race and safety inspection, and have until the end of the qualifying session to bring their vehicles within regulation. Failure to do so will result in immediate disqualification from the event. Teams who attempt to store additional fuel on the car that exceeds the maximum fuel capacity rule will receive a two race suspension and a fine of $14,000.
We apologize for the stress this mid-season rule change may have caused, and in the future we will seek guidance from our drivers first before implementing any mid-season or off-season rule changes.
Thank you,
- Maxine Slant
NACRS Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Introducing Maxine Slant, the NACRS founder and CEO. She took over the NACRS two years ago after her father, Adam Slant, passed the business down to her. Her approach to implementing and enforcing rules is, well, a bit looser than her father's. Not in the sense of enforcing them poorly, mind you, but rather she is very willing to make mid-season changes to try and shape the NACRS into a popular American motorsport to rival Champcar and NASCAR. Will she be successful, or is she dragging the series beyond its market and chasing demographics that are already interested in other things? Time will tell, but whether she fails or succeeds, NACRS is going to keep rolling forward.
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