Grand Am and ALMS merging.

[Dino Scuderia]

Ugh, bleh, meh, wtf.

EXCLUSIVE: ALMS, GRAND-AM Finalizing Merger (http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/sportscar-alms-grand-am-finalizing-merger)

[Kitdy]

Grand Am stuck it out for the win.

I have only seen 2 Grand Am races in person, and very little bits on TV. I was not as impressed with their product as the ALMS. That being said, the ALMS prototype classes have been garbage without Acura, Audi, and Porsche. The one thing that needed saving and nourishing was the ALMS's GT class.

It is going to be interesting to see how the nuts and bolts of this work out, but with the NASCAR mentality of governing, things look grim.

[Dino Scuderia]

Couldn't agree more. Could see something like this coming the day they announced no more live TV races for ALMS.

Wasn't planning to go to PLM this year but now thinking I should.

[RacingManiac]

Nah, road trip to Sebring next year...

[Kitdy]

Nah, road trip to Sebring next year...

Via Toronto? Pick me up on the way, hahah?

[Dino Scuderia]

Well it's not so much of a merger....more like GA is buying ALMS completely including Road Atlanta and Sebring.

Fumes - Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high octane truth... (http://www.autoextremist.com/fumes1/)

[NSXType-R]

Supposedly LMP1 is going away, so no more Audi and Toyota or Peugeot if they decided to come back.

So is it really all that great? It seems like ALMS is losing a lot and Grand Am has much to gain.

And from what I can see this was made through NASCAR so that they can plaster the cars with more stickers?

From what little I followed of racing, I enjoyed ALMS the most. Grand Am cars looked too much the same from car to car to me.

I'm not really liking it too much.

[RacingManiac]

P1 right now only really exists in WEC. ALMS is the only other series where P1 can race outside of Le Mans. And there are like 3 cars in ALMS in P1. So P1 is effectively dead one way or another. P2 potentially can be balanced with DPs. The current DPs aren't that slow, and really they are more artificially limited to be slow-ish. Between the DPs and P2 they have have a more or less healthy-ish prototype class. Plus they always have LMPC to throw around. They would be stupid to not keep the GTE class in ALMS. manufacturer involvement, good car counts, close racing. The question is if they want to merge the closer to GT3 spec GA GT with the GTE. Or keep as a separate class. And will they keep the tube frame cars. Even ACO is relenting and letting GT300 car race in the Asian Le Mans series, which are similar if not more extreme in concept.

Ultimately though ACO/FIA screwed ALMS out of more WEC round, and that effectively killed the draw of the series outside of Sebring this year in US. It would be interesting to see if Sebring will even be on WEC schedule next year when they still have the ACO license. In 2014 its anyone's guess if ACO will continue to tie in with the new entity.

Le Mans will survive regardless if its the only race. I don't even think WEC is that successful right now. the pre-Le Mans race are well attended and well-fielded. The Silverstone race had the protagonists, but lacking car count, and I think I saw all of 2 people in the grand stand...And that's in freaking UK. In Bahrain no one will be there on the same weekend as the PLM. Audi and Toyota will be racing for no body...

[RacingManiac]

BTW for all the hubbub about the tubeframe GT in Grand Am, Grand Am is the one that brought Audi R8 GT to US, which otherwise would have been the most successful GT car in the last 2 years that American have never seen...And they did have to slow it down. Letting it run with proper GTE car and build up the GA GT will mean more cars running on the same performance envelope. And hopefully FINALLY that someone will bring the rest of the GT3 cars....

[kingofthering]

BTW for all the hubbub about the tubeframe GT in Grand Am, Grand Am is the one that brought Audi R8 GT to US, which otherwise would have been the most successful GT car in the last 2 years that American have never seen...And they did have to slow it down. Letting it run with proper GTE car and build up the GA GT will mean more cars running on the same performance envelope. And hopefully FINALLY that someone will bring the rest of the GT3 cars....

They also run a slightly longer LWB R8 if I'm not mistaken than the other series, making it an even bigger clusterf*ck.

[Dino Scuderia]

Yeah, the Audi program has been an embarrassing disaster.

[NSXType-R]

P1 right now only really exists in WEC. ALMS is the only other series where P1 can race outside of Le Mans. And there are like 3 cars in ALMS in P1. So P1 is effectively dead one way or another. P2 potentially can be balanced with DPs. The current DPs aren't that slow, and really they are more artificially limited to be slow-ish. Between the DPs and P2 they have have a more or less healthy-ish prototype class. Plus they always have LMPC to throw around. They would be stupid to not keep the GTE class in ALMS. manufacturer involvement, good car counts, close racing. The question is if they want to merge the closer to GT3 spec GA GT with the GTE. Or keep as a separate class. And will they keep the tube frame cars. Even ACO is relenting and letting GT300 car race in the Asian Le Mans series, which are similar if not more extreme in concept.

Ultimately though ACO/FIA screwed ALMS out of more WEC round, and that effectively killed the draw of the series outside of Sebring this year in US. It would be interesting to see if Sebring will even be on WEC schedule next year when they still have the ACO license. In 2014 its anyone's guess if ACO will continue to tie in with the new entity.

Le Mans will survive regardless if its the only race. I don't even think WEC is that successful right now. the pre-Le Mans race are well attended and well-fielded. The Silverstone race had the protagonists, but lacking car count, and I think I saw all of 2 people in the grand stand...And that's in freaking UK. In Bahrain no one will be there on the same weekend as the PLM. Audi and Toyota will be racing for no body...

Which 3 are in LMP1 right now? Audi, Toyota and Aston I think?

Isn't Porsche supposed to enter LMP1 in 2014? Darn, that seems like an expensive mistake now.

Maybe they'll put that technology into another road car like the Carrera GT. :D

[faksta]

Isn't Porsche supposed to enter LMP1 in 2014? Darn, that seems like an expensive mistake now.

Why a mistake? All these series are around 24 hour race. Audi won at Le Mans in 2010 in 2011, but lost to Peugeot in a general ILMC classification both times. The thing is, Le Mans victory tops ILMC classification.

[RacingManiac]

Which 3 are in LMP1 right now? Audi, Toyota and Aston I think?

Isn't Porsche supposed to enter LMP1 in 2014? Darn, that seems like an expensive mistake now.

Maybe they'll put that technology into another road car like the Carrera GT. :D

In ALMS? A Muscle Milk HPD and 2 Dyson Lolas...

Le Mans itself is fine, its all the satellite series...

[NSXType-R]

Why a mistake? All these series are around 24 hour race. Audi won at Le Mans in 2010 in 2011, but lost to Peugeot in a general ILMC classification both times. The thing is, Le Mans victory tops ILMC classification.

Maybe not a mistake, but perhaps expensive in the sense that they won't also be able to "get their money's worth" out of racing in ALMS as well in terms of cost.

But perhaps I guess racing isn't supposed to start off as a profitable business?


In ALMS? A Muscle Milk HPD and 2 Dyson Lolas...

Le Mans itself is fine, its all the satellite series...

Thanks for the count.