Crazyquik

One of our respected sponsers and contributor of some great engine and suspension related tech info, Lou Giglotti, wrote this on the Trans-Am website. It was later deleted:
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Some of the things that you are all talking about are long term strategies. There is NO "long term" in Trans Am. [Don] Panoz has a contract, that he will not renew after it is over, but I fear that the TA will not exist that long.

Panoz will not be happy until there are only 6 cars running, and they are all Panoz cars. then he will have matched his accomplishments in ALMS.
He will have a series where no one knows what the cars are, or who the drivers are, and the management will strut around claiming to be on the leading edge. (Of what, I do not know).

They have chased Leighton away, and now they have chased me away, and soon, they may even chase Paul Gentilozzi away. They have made it impossible to run a Mustang, because the Mustang body, and Aero are controlled by a Chevrolet team (Derhaag). And there is no incentive to make it better, because then it might be competitive. It would be like Nascar forcing all Ford tems to buy their bodies from a Chevy team...Right.

There are more Jaguars on the race track than in the parking lot! and there are more Panoz on the race track than there are in a 5 state area. They have to put the car on "America's Most Wanted" and get tips on where to find a Panoz.

Then you have the "Obtuse" bodied Corvette C5. On the street, The C5 is one of the most graceful, and beautiful cars in America. But on the track, It looks like a C5 with "Jeep" screw on fender flares, and mud flaps! Plus the Derhaag body fits so poorly, the seams are all big gaps, that look like the fenders have large cracks. But then you cannot buy the Corvette body from anyone else but Derhaag, so he builds them heavy, and sloppy.

I am sure that this will get deleted, so Please copy this, and post it on other sites. will do Lou <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="gr_images/icons/cool.gif" />

I am leaving the Trans Am series Because after Derhaag refused to sell me a Corvette body the same as the other competitors, I purchased the body from another supplier who was not approved to sell THIS body. I was allowed to run the new body for Mosport and Lime Rock, until Derhaag changed his mind. Then the Management said that I must now buy another body, but this time from Derhaag at 150% of the cost of the one I have. There must be some overwhelming good for the series that will come from this decision, or the management would not have done it.

So as you could predict, I will not give in to this kind of foul play, to line the pockets of one of the most selfserving people involved in the series.

I am going to go and liven up the Grand Am series, and leave this "POP Stand".

I will be back for 1 or 2 races, with the "Old Style" but graceful, and muscular body.

At lime Rock the world challenge competitors that I know came over and noticed that the Trans Am paddock was "Empty". While the WC had 42 cars in the Touring, and 23 cars in GT? They must have figured out that the needs of the competitors, and the needs of Managment are NOT mutually exclusive.

Then you have "ALL GREEN" races, with 16 cars in the field but they do not cover more than 3 or 4 of the pit stops. So the TV audience looses the flavor of the pit stops, and the crowd in the stands, cannot figure who is in what place. They were glad when the race ended, because it was too hard to keep tract. It was not what people watch races for.

The Trans Am Management constantly gets in front of the teams, and says, "This is entertainment"!!!! WHO'S!!! The Management must be entertained , but no one else is.

And lastly, 4.2 miles per gallon. NOT possible. Some people are saying that the only reason they passed tech was somehow due to the fact that they have a sponsor who advertises on the TV shows????????????

In conclusion, A racing series cannot Charge me $2000 entry fee to come to a race, then Force Me to buy an inferior product from one of my competitors, then make it hard for me to compete, Plus ignore most of the cars in the series who are starving for TV coverage, and expect anyone to stay and put on a show that they can sell to a sponsor or race track. They sell our show as "Product" but charge us to be there. Then they abuse most of the competitors with decisions that would make one's head spin.

The cost/ benefit equation has just tilted out of reach.

But at any rate, the "G" in "G man" now means, I'm GONE.

Lou Gigliotti LG Motorsports # 28 Corvette C5.
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the source:
http://www.theracesite.com/community...2.cfm&fti=1354

since then his name has mysteriously and quickly disappeared from the driver's list too:
http://www.trans-amseries.com/cgi-bin/driver/driver.cgi

and his homepage:
http://www.lgmotorsports.com/

So, what class are you going to be racing in Grand Am? Perhaps AGT? Do you plan on racing any Grand Am races this season? Any other comments on the issue?

J.

<small>[ June 13, 2002, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: Crazyquik ]</small>

TAMUz06

Yowsa! Good luck to you, Lou - if that's all accurate in your post I can't say that I blame ya, sounds like a crock to me!

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

Want to extract change? Send CBS Sports a note expressing your outrage at the political dirty dealings and extortion Trans AM is guilty of.

Feel like writing a letter or making a call?

Trans AM series officials ...

Dennis Huth - President (ext. 223)

Bill Kentling - Executive Vice President (ext. 241)
Bkentling@trans-amseries.com

John Clagett - Executive Director
jclagett@trans-amseries.com

T.E. McHale - Vice President-Media Relations (ext. 235)
Tmchale@trans-amseries.com

Patrick Schartz - Director of Marketing (ext.247)
Pschartz@trans-amseries.com

Natalie Mandeville - Series Administrator (ext. 222)
Nmandeville@trans-amseries.com

Chuck Romeo - Technical Director
Cromeo@trans-amseries.com

Shipping Address

Trans-Am Series
14175 Icot Blvd Suite 300
Clearwater, Fl 33760
727.533.0503

<small>[ June 12, 2002, 09:39 PM: Message edited by: mitchntx ]</small>

Glenn98ZM6

trust me, its all true. i heard weekly updates as it happend from the horses mouth. Lou got screwed by SCCA and the good old boy's club!

1LEThumper

Give'em hell Lou!! <img border="0" alt="[guns]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_guns.gif" />

Good luck in the GrandAm series this year. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

<img border="0" alt="[Z06 Corvette]" title="" src="graemlins/z06.gif" />

LG Motorsports

Hi and thanks guys. For now we will race with the "Outlaw" body in the Grand Am series at Daytona with the Firecracker 400 as a support race, at night on the speedway road course.

I talked with some one today who was going to start a grass roots campaign to lobby Chevy to get this ruling reversed. There is more to the story, but it is worse than what you already know.

You all use the internet to accomplish many things, maybe you can work an internet miracle and get this ruling reversed to end this monopoly.

Thanks,

Lou Gigliotti

See y ou on Speed channel July 6th at 7:00 cst

LG

kent

Lou, it seems it is a hard world out there. I hope you find a way to undo what has been done to you. Hang in there. Good luck.

mitchntx

iTrader: (14)

My God ... they've removed Lou from the Driver's listings

http://www.trans-amseries.com/cgi-bin/driver/driver.cgi

and stripped him of his 6th place in points.

http://www.trans-amseries.com/cgi-bi.../standings.cgi

Jesus ... unbelievable!

How can they do that? Is this not his earnings? Is he still not a member of the SCCA?

AllZWay

iTrader: (1)

Best of Luck to you Lou... and for what it is worth. I did e-mail them a very pointed e-mail about where I felt the Trans Am series was headed.

I can not beleive that they removed you from their site already. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="gr_images/icons/mad.gif" />

James

TomBusby

Well this is sadly not surprising. Relentless poor thinking is the norm at SCCA. It's apparently some kind of dumbass corporate plan for niche-marketing and highlighting european marques. They just don't want fast, high-quality U.S. cars on the track. As a result the participants and the audience have been drifting away for a long time.