WHERE THE CARS ARE THE STARS; The American Le Mans Series plots its course.

Byline: BILL McGUIRE

This bears watching: While most of the motorsports world has packed up and marched off on one path, the American Le Mans Series has set its course in the opposite direction.

Cost-containment measures, ever more restrictive technical rules, spec cars, spec engines, spec series. There is no mistaking it: Managed competition is the trend in the world of racing, including sports car racing, the domain of the ALMS. Even Formula One is joining in with its own regulations designed to return on investment, equalize on-track competition and boost the entertainment value of The Show. And as we know, it's all about The Show these days.

The purists might not like it, but as auto racing fights to attract a mainstream audience, as it must to compete against traditional stick-and-ball sports, the machines themselves are becoming an ever smaller part of The Show. The general audience doesn't give a hoot about the nuts and bolts; it cares only about the drivers, the human drama of the sport.

Or at least that is the predominant theory among those who guide the sport today. But the logical conclusion is that eventually, the auto will become to car racing what the tennis racket is to tennis: just a tool. A sideshow, not The Show.

Well, not in the ALMS anyway. Scott Atherton, ALMS president and CEO, says what traditional fans are dying to hear. In the ALMS, he says, "The car is the star.

"Our goal in the American Le Mans Series is to celebrate the car's relevance in the sport,'' Atherton says. "Any-thing that detracts from [the cars'] presence and their emotional power is counter to our brand and our beliefs.''