CARS WANTED.(NEWS)

Byline: MAC MORRISON

Recession notwithstanding, the 12 Hours of Sebring was not a doom-and-gloom event, despite a smaller grid (26 cars vs. 33 in 2008) and various concerns leading up to the race. Attendance exceeded 164,000 over four days, second only to the record 170,000-plus last year. Mobil 1 and Fresh from Florida announced that they had extended their Sebring title sponsorship for three years, while the ALMS landed a two-year sponsorship deal with Green Earth Technologies' G-Oil. But now that the 12 Hoursthe crown jewel of the series scheduleis over, the ALMS faces a big battle.

With neither Audi nor Peugeot returning to the series anytime soon and others dropping out or scaling back to part-time schedules, only 16 cars are entered in the next race, in St. Petersburg, Fla., on April 4.

"Clearly, the next couple of races are going to be very challenging for us in terms of car count, and there's no positive spin that I'm prepared to try and put on that, ALMS CEO Scott Atherton said at Sebring.

Atherton noted that neither television nor race-promoter contracts specify a minimum number of cars but said his self-imposed number is 18 entries. Atherton believes more cars will arrive in subsequent races, one of which is Corsa Motorsports' LMP1 Zytec hybrid, set to debut at round four at Miller Motorsports Park in May. He is cautiously confident that the count will be in the mid-20s after Le Mans in June.

In the nearer term, ...