Most people who make a living in motorsport are satisfied to carve out a niche. Then there are individuals like Tony Dowe. A transplanted Brit, Dowe has been at the forefront of many challenges: Formula One, Daytona, Sebring and the big one-winning at Le Mans with Jaguar for TWR. His roots in the American Le Mans Series run deep, with stints at Panoz, Porsche and now Ferrari. We checked in with Dowe during the test days at Sebring.
ec: You were running Porsche GT3s-both the Cup version for Grand Am and the RSR in GT2 of the ALMS-and have switched to Ferrari. What was behind the decision?
TD: Unfortunately, after two years dealing with Porsche, we felt there wasn't enough effort put into RSR development and the engineers at Weissach were, naturally, more interested in doing Spyder work and winning with Roger Penske than getting down in the trenches with a road car. It must be remembered that Porsche is no longer a small car company and the apportioning of resources is now done by accountants, not racing people. So I guess the finance people look at what returns a profit and what doesn't. I think the comments at the Porsche Christmas party by Dr. Wiedeking tend to confirm this view: "You can go racing as long as it makes a profit, or does not cost money." Or words to that effect.
ec: You have a reputation for constantly modifying and upgrading your racecars. Did you feel there wasn't much that could be done to the 997?
TD: There was a ton that could be done to the RSR, but as a factory development team, Porsche didn't want us doing anything they did not 'invent.' Very frustrating. We suffered quite badly politically, because we did a tremendous amount of development. I've already seen that the 997 development car has a lot of things we did and suggested.
ec: Teams contesting two different series don't tend to do that well. You surprised a lot of people by doing Grand Am and ALMS, but then pulled out of Grand Am. What happened and would you consider going back?
TD: The decision to withdraw from Grand Am was because we didn't think we were doing Grand Am the way we wanted. In 2006, we had a very good year, winning five races and finishing a close second in the championship. The decision to have a young driver with a 'pro' was a conscious decision to bring along both young drivers and sponsors. Unfortunately, the young drivers we used were a long way from the pace of the pro, so the sponsors had a large amount of frustration because they weren't getting the same results as the previous year. A further point was that being involved with Porsche in ALMS meant they kept dragging us into their disagreements with Grand Am-not what we wanted. We would certainly consider going back. I think Scott Spencer is doing a good job of balancing things, so never say never.