2004 and the American Le Mans Series was not overburdened with an abundance of full-season entries in either LMP1 or LMP2.
It was Champion Racing vs Dyson Racing in the premier class and Intersport vs Miracle in P2 (with B-K Motorsports Mazda rotary-powered Courage C65 arriving in 2005.
So the search for additional entries was very much alive.
An announcement of “a minimum 2-4” new prototypes for the Sebring season opener for 2005 and a build programme of 36 cars (a mix of LMP1, LMP2 and club racing versions) might, therefore, have been seen as the saviour of the series?
Errr no! A ‘press conference’ at Road Atlanta during the 2004 Petit Le Mans saw the man behind the bold new venture, Corey Shaw, appear before the assembled media, perhaps tellingly with no senior representation from the ALMS present!
Infamously appearing in Hawaiian shirt and jeans, Shaw described his plans to market a prototype in both LMP1 and LMP2 form, the LMP2 powered by a 3.4 litre V8, also designed by Shaw. A ‘ready to go’ LMP2, complete with the engine was priced at a literally unbelievable $185,000 with a full season programme available “for as little as $280,000”.
A package was to be available under sister company Valkyrie Racing’s “Team Six” banner whereby prospective runners could, apparently, draw huge cost efficiencies by pooling resources to manage marketing and infrastructure such as spares, under a single umbrella shared by member teams.
The manufacture of thirty-six chassis was underway, claimed Shaw with “several contracts in hand, some from teams, or drivers currently competing in ALMS, for cars to be delivered to be raced at Sebring in 2005.”
No paddock sources whatsoever confirmed that they were interested.
The thirty-six chassis include “some” that were being built for SCCA’s A Sports Racer class (ASR).
The opportunity to display the first chassis at Road Atlanta had just been missed, Shaw said but this was promised for the following race meeting, the season finale at Laguna Seca.
To the surprise of literally nobody that did not appear either!
And suffice it to say that no SCT 100 appeared!
Corey Shaw was still active in marketing sports prototypes of his own design until at least 2012, he passed away in 2014 at the age of 52.
It’s good to have a dream – but this one was more of a pipedream.
