http://auto-racing.speedtv.com ... lan-to-acquire-grand-am1/

Interesting news

I was under the impression that the sanctioning body behind Grand-Am was a subsidiary of NASCAR?

It is now.

I can't understand what it said with my silly englisg.......

can anyone explain it simply?

Quote from scania :

I can't understand what it said with my silly englisg.......

can anyone explain it simply?

Nascar and Grand_AM are going to join together to work on things like marketing, PR, research......... to help promote both groups and grow..

Thank You~~~

There really shouldn't be much of a change. Grand Am is currently owned by ISC. The controlling ownership of ISC stock is held by the France family. Ipso facto, presto chango, owned by Nascar.

Quote from Jim Hunter, NASCAR vice president of corporate communications :

"It's confusing somewhat when you've got a race where you've got three drivers [taking turns in the same car]. We're going to work with Grand-Am to figure out how we can simplify this so everybody can understand it."

http://www.nascar.com/2008/new ... ascar.grand.am/index.html

Quote from deggis :

ya....not NASCAR's best moment.....

Aside from the 24 hours of Daytona I've never really been interested in the Grand Am Series, so maybe this will help them out some. It seems to me like the ALMS is the premier road racing series in the US.

Quote from UncleBenny :

It seems to me like the ALMS is the premier road racing series in the US.

Really? Considering how many cars they get in their prototype classes, I would not come to the same conclusion. Grand Am also has the Koni challange series as well. I would agree, however, that ALMS has more money being dumped into it per car. Whether that is good or bad for the racing can be debated.

Grand Am/ Koni Challange is really a continuation of Motorolla Cup, which was born out of the death of the old Firestone Firehawk series in the early 90's. The involvement with Nascar is what brought the Daytona Prototype cars into existance.

Quote from PAracer :

Really? Considering how many cars they get in their prototype classes, I would not come to the same conclusion.

Quality over quantity.

Quote from deggis :

Quality over quantity.

At the last race, in Detroit, ALMS had 28 cars spread across four classes. I don't care if the cars were hand built be Jesus Christ himself. Endurance racing ought to be a little busier than that. Only five cars finished on the lead lap after 2.75 hrs of racing.

In contrast. Grand Am had 42 cars (in two classes) start the race at New Jersey Motorsports Park (brand new track, just paved this summer). 10 cars finished on the lead lap after 250 miles of racing. Grand Am had its Koni Challange race the day before with 64 cars taking the green flag. Thirty cars completed 72 laps, the same as the race winner.

Which race weekend would you have rather watched from the side of the track? Granted, there were multiple events going on at either track over their respective weekends.

Quote from PAracer :

At the last race, in Detroit, ALMS had 28 cars spread across four classes. I don't care if the cars were hand built be Jesus Christ himself. Endurance racing ought to be a little busier than that. Only five cars finished on the lead lap after 2.75 hrs of racing.

There were 12 protos (doesn't matter which class, in Detroit they were competitive), 1 DNF'd and 1 was disqualified... so 5 is exactly half of the grid. Obviously you can't expect GT2 cars to finish on the same lap than protos do?

I agree though that P1 has been lacking (not to mention GT1 which has been a joke for years, excluding the years when Prodrive came with Ferrari and then with Aston) but on many tracks P2 cars are competitive, not so much than last year though because of changed weight rules. Often there is practically only one proto class on the track. Porsche and Acura has forced the privateers out of P2 and it isn't supposed to be manufacturer's playground and fortunately Acura is going P1 next year.

Comparing to LMS (the European series), every race has 50 car grids but besides Peugeot and Audi there's no manufacturer backing. That I mostly meant with my "quality over quantity" comment. I rather watch (on tv) few worldclass teams and cars than 10 amateurish (gentleman) private teams.

Quote :

In contrast. Grand Am had 42 cars (in two classes) start the race at New Jersey Motorsports Park (brand new track, just paved this summer). 10 cars finished on the lead lap after 250 miles of racing. Grand Am had its Koni Challange race the day before with 64 cars taking the green flag. Thirty cars completed 72 laps, the same as the race winner.

If you look at any spec series in the world (debatable, but DPs are not far from it), they usually have huge grids because cars are cheap and since they're technically so close, racing is also close.

How about spectators? I have understood that Grand-Am is a bit lacking in that area. Size of the grid is not the only criteria, or otherwise F1 would be regarded as not healthy series since there are only 20 cars on the grid...

Quote :

Which race weekend would you have rather watched from the side of the track? Granted, there were multiple events going on at either track over their respective weekends.

Too hypothetic question. I have never attented a race from neither series and probably never will, if you see my country flag, purely for geographical reasons.

The way I see it, the ALMS is the premiere class because of the cars themselves, not the quantity. Less cars, but infinitely more interesting in the aerodynamic and technical side of things. Not to mention they look a billion times better than those god-awful Daytona Prototypes.

The Rolex series has more cars, but I wouldn't necessarily say "better" racing. Both series provide some very close, and exciting, racing.

For me the choice is easy. I'd take Grand-Am over ALMS, LMS, FIA-GT and Super GT any day. Grand-Am has come to life in a way I didn't thought possible. And with the two new chassis entering the playing ground, things can only get better.

I'm a fan of Grand Am over ALMS. Technology matters much less to me than a competitive playing field.

I did just about choke when I read that Jim Hunter quote though. I hope they don't try to dumb it down.