Motorsport: BMW Has Pulled Out of Super Touring

["George Achorn" <coolidge@tidalwave.net>]

Hi All,
	I read on the web that BMW has pulled out of supertouring to focus on F1.
What this means for the sport I do not know. From what I understand North
American Super Touring is now defunct anyway since Chrysler has chosen to
remove their teams and race in the BTCC. 
	I wonder if they pulled because the field is being littered with lower
priced models like Accords and Camrys. I guess marketeers might say it is
bad for the brand image, but being an Audi fan I would still like to see
some A4s come in and give Honda and Toyota and Dodge for that matter a can
of whoopass. 
	I was told by VW Sport that Joe Hoppen was asked by Audi what he thought
of their entry to the North American series and he suggested not doing it
for that same reason. 
	Okay, how about this then. Setup a sister premier series of 2.8L
displacement, but otherwise similar rules for setup. From a marketing
standpoint, get the entry level models like Accords to run in the 2.0
series and higher level models in the 2.8 series. Check out this ficticious
lineup.

Touring 2.0 Series	Supertouring 2.8 series
VW Jetta		Audi A4
Toyota Camry		Lexus (the small one)
Saturn SL1		Cadillac Catera / Opel Omega
Volkswagen Jetta	BMW 3 series
Ford Contour/Mondeo	New Baby Jaguar
Nissan Altima		Infiniti (is there a small one?)
Mazda 626		Mazda Millenia
Chevrolet Malibu		Oldsmobile Intrigue/ Buick Regal
Honda Accord		

etc etc, you get the idea. The luxury cars go 2.8, the econo cars go 2.0.
They are both common size engines and help market each other, not hurting
the identity of any. Just a thought-G