Corvette Racing vs Privateer ("Pissing into the Wind")

[G.Irish]

It will be really interesting to see if LG wins the lawsuit. Tire politics have long been a part of professional motorsport and it would be a huge win for the little guy if Michelin lost here. However, an unfortunate side effect should LG win would be that the beancounters at some of these companies may have one more reason to not go racing. "We could get sued by these privateer teams if we don't do this or if we don't do that. Not worth the trouble." I think in this case it is a fairly specific behavior that would get punished but there are a lot of ways the factory can screw over the little guy so if the doors get opened to lawsuits it could be a bad thing. Or maybe a great thing because factories will be forced to be more fair.

Then there's the politics with sanctioning bodies. Could team(s) bring lawsuits if they found that the sanctioning body was acting in concert with a manufacturer to thwart a privateer effort? Or to give a particular make an unfair advantage? On one hand I'd like to see situations where manufacturers are given special treatment to go away but at the same time I'd have to see races won and lost in the courtroom instead of the race track.

This could be very interesting.