📰 Auto News ALMS Reportedly Merging With Grand Am

[Typhoon]

ALMS Reportedly Merging With Grand Am To Create One Crazy Fucking Awesome Racing Series

We enjoy the sports car racing and famous battles in Grand Am but tend to prefer the field and races of the American Le Mans Series and never watch enough of either because of unfortunate scheduling, thus it is with pure joy and an extreme erection that we greet the exclusive news from SPEED that the two are merging into some sort of Voltron-esque super series. This is exactly what American sports car racing needs. There aren't enough fans, honestly, for two separate series that share similar cars and fight for eyeballs and manufactures and entries. They run on similar courses and then diverge. Each year the prototype racing gets less interesting.
Fewer, better races are exactly what they need and hopefully it'll allow them to negotiate a better television deal (but keep ESPN3 please).
At the moment there are still denials and non-denial denials and no-comments, but SPEED seems to have this one locked down.

Full details on the merger are still unclear, and offers extended to both series for comment were declined, but it's believed GRAND-AM will serve as the sanctioning body for the new-look championship, which could feature a mix of existing classes from both the ALMS and Rolex Series.
The announcement is expected to come on Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Fla.
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What do you want to see out of the new series? Daytona prototypes or P2? Will they crowd out the gentleman racers? What do you think?

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[Lead Pipe]

This is kind of cool because I believe the Prototypes are better in Grand Am but the GT class is better in ALMS. The only down side if more cars on the track at the same time so the GT2 guys will be slowed down even more.

 

[Bru]

Done deal. Excited for the outcome and hopefully more prominently televised races.

ALMS and Grand-Am make merger official, first joint race named

Earlier reports of a merger between the American Le Mans Series and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series have proven to be well founded today, as representatives from both series have confirmed that the merger is indeed taking place.

Grand-Am founder Jim France and ALMS founder Don Panoz stated jointly this afternoon that the new sports car racing series, as yet unnamed, will kick off with its first joint race at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2014. The new series is likely to present a schedule of some 12 races per year, though each series will continue on independently for the 2013 season.

While no confirmation of the exact racing-class structure has been given yet, a continuation of the popular Prototype and GT classes seems likely. Evidence for this came in the form of some Grand-Am and ALMS cars on display for the announcement: a Corvette Daytona Prototype, SRT Viper GTS-R and a Lola B12/80 Judd, amongst others.

France (the son of legendary NASCAR founder, Bill France Sr.) will take on the role of Chairman for the new series, with Panoz serving as Vice Chairman.
Some larger support from NASCAR is seemingly in evidence, too, with three members of that series' executive structure serving as board members for the new sports car racing tie-up.

For their part, early response to the announcement on the part of participating automakers seems bullish. Jamie Allison, Director of Ford Racing, called the event an "epic moment for sports car racing in America." Echoing those sentiments, Ralph Gilles, President and CEO of SRT, said in a press release, "Congratulations to both leadership teams for unifying their efforts to create what will certainly be an amazing new series featuring outstanding sports car competition at some of the most legendary race courses."

 

[Primalzer]

This is kind of cool because I believe the Prototypes are better in Grand Am but the GT class is better in ALMS. The only down side if more cars on the track at the same time so the GT2 guys will be slowed down even more.

You like the DP's more than the LMP's? I always found the DP's a little boring, where the LMP cars had cool factory support and innovations.

 

[Lead Pipe]

I think lately the DP's are a little ahead of the LMP in terms of exploring new technologies. The power trains are more production based and I find that interesting. The manufacturers have stepped up there involvement in DPs' as of late with the Corvette DP being an example.

I do like that the LMP run different fuels like diesel and ethanol.

Either way I'm excited at this merger, it will be nice to see Corvette Racing return to Daytona.