Good Information , Race Followers : Grand Am And ALMS Becoming a member of Forces

Tweet

Grand Am Prototypes operate at the Porsche 250 in July 2006 image : Jeffrey Keeton

If youre a admirer of passe-temps auto and stamina racing in the United States, youve in all probability had to opt for in between subsequent the Grand Am series and the American Le Mans Collection (ALMS). Grand Am, now owned by NASCAR, can trace its roots back to the start of the SCCA- back United States Street Racing Championship in 1962. The ALMS doesnt have really the identical legacy, but it delivers the drama of European endurance racing to America, enabling all those of us on this aspect of the pond to see the similar cars and trucks campaigned at the Circuit de la Sarthe in the course of the 24 Hrs of Le Mans.

For the past 12 years, the two series have battled each other for sponsorship and enthusiast bucks, but thats about to adjust. At a push meeting in Daytona Beach on Wednesday, the two introduced a approach for unification at the commence of the 2014 sequence. Through 2012 and 2013, the Grand Am and ALMS will continue to be as is, but will kick off the 2014 season in January at the 24 Hours of Daytona, extended a initial event on Grand Ams calendar.

Yesterdays push convention lifted additional issues than it answered, and its distinct that the merger is nevertheless in the preparing levels. Theres no official name for the new, unified series still, and the specific classes havent been defined. The new collection will seem to embrace FIA and ACO (Le Mans governing human body ) restrictions, which will permit a lot more overseas groups to compete (and additional U.S. teams to run at Le Mans), but the particulars havent been labored out just nevertheless. A single appealing conversing point was a provision to allow groups to miss a collection race with no penalty, further sign that groups would be permitted (and even encouraged ) to operate at Le Mans.

Although there was obviously a feeling of cooperation and superior will at yesterdays press conference, theres a lot of perform to get completed ahead of the new series kicks off in 2014. Mergers involving the two sequence have been reviewed in the earlier without arrangement, so lets hope that the two sides can continue to get the job done collectively toward the typical goal. For U.S. sports auto racing supporters, items are about to get a whole good deal far more fascinating.

Image credit score : Jeffrey Keeton, CC two.