GrandAm Future

[Edmonton]

It seems to me that grandam should be like the original IMSA(Which Bill SR helped form) and switch to an all GT format. This way they could bring in more cars to their events and also could set a way for poeople to step up from club racing and into a profesional roadracing series.Have corvettes, porsches,ferarris,mustangs,camaros,nissans,bmws,vipers,lotus's, jags,and many other differnt kinds of car. This would catch a lot more interest from both fans and drivers I believe. What do you think?

[Fogelhund]

Some of their GT teams that competed with them last year left due to poor management of the series (the entrants words, not mine). The only chance they have is create classes that are cheaper then other series AND make them captive so that they cannot race these cars elsewhere.

[vwpilot]

Wouldnt that be pretty much what the Trans Am series already is? Just add a few more models of car and this is what you would have.

I think that it would be nice if the TA could get some more teams and make it a reality.

GA is heading toward the prototype and GT class only soon. GTS and the small protos will be gone.

[Lee Janotta]

Well, I don't want to see Grand-Am succeed. _But_... I think they'd do best if they copied the Japanese GTs.

[gttouring]

well Trans am has opened the door wide now- ne w rules allow for 13.5:1 compression motors with Carbs, and ofcourse the new 4.6 DOHC jaguar motor, so any GT1 SCCA car can race and the new TA cars good stuff should make big fields. Now GrandAm turning into Japan GT they have said they are leaning in that direction- and there was a thread about this somewhere else around here...
There is a GrandAM touring car class and street car division they should just run all these together to showcase a DP and GTS race, and allow any one of the NASCAR series guys to drag their stock car to a race and race the thing as a GTS- big messy field and the DP should come out on top this way

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Edmonton
It seems to me that grandam should be like the original IMSA(Which Bill SR helped form) and switch to an all GT format.

But they absolutely hate the thought of it. I don't know why - it would have been the smartest thing to do, I completely agree with you there. But they are hell-bent on making the DP concept work.

This is consistant with the "racecars shouldn't be pretty" argument I guess.

[JAG]

If G/A has any more major rule changes, it will finish the series completely. I would bet here and now there will be no G/A by 2005.

[skycafe]

I am trying to figure out how they will get to 2004!

I haven't really watched the races since Daytona-which was in person. Commitments have kept me from either traveling to the race or watching them on television.

Anybody get the feeling that some of finishes are scripted? Do some 'close racing and win a prize' type thing?

I hate to say it and imply it, but I know where the money comes from, and I know some of the philosophy of the backers. Does anyone else feel this way?

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by JAG
If G/A has any more major rule changes, it will finish the series completely.

And if it doesn't?.... - a rock a hard place.

[JAG]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
And if it doesn't?.... - a rock a hard place.

Maybe they have to accept theres no demand for the series.

[gttouring]

well Grand Am will get an infussion next year of a team moving up from a touring series. and 2 new ford multimatic DP's!
read from grand am website
LEXINGTON, Ohio (June 28, 2003) -- Sylvain Tremblay, owner of SpeedSource Race Engineering of Sunrise, Florida, announced today that his team is making a transition to the Daytona Prototypes class of the Rolex Sports Car Series. “My two top team owners in the Grand-Am Cup, Paul Mears and Selby Wellman, will be leaving the Cup Series after this weekend's races in Ohio to move up to the Rolex Sports Car Series.”

Mears and Wellman have ordered two new Ford Focus Daytona Prototype cars from the Toronto-based manufacturer Multimatic. “Both Selby and I tested this year's Daytona winner at Mosport Raceway on Tuesday of this week and that was all it took for us to place our orders on the spot," Mears said. "The car was just great!”

"Paul and I had hoped to have the two cars to finish this season," Wellman noted. "But, Multimatic cannot supply the two cars until after the Rolex Series ends in November."

However, Mears and Wellman have had discussions with Larry Holt, Vice-President of Multimatic, about having the Daytona-winning test car available to SpeedSource for the last four races of this year. "We want to run the car this year so Paul and I can get used to driving it and the SpeedSource team can familiarize themselves with running the new car," Wellman added.

"We couldn't be happier with two cars going to such a professional team as SpeedSource with whom we've had a very successful seven-year relationship," Holt remarked.











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Grand American Road Racing Association

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by JAG
Maybe they have to accept theres no demand for the series.

I think they have made it clear they won't go down without a fight.
I, too, think they should have had a good look at what the JGTC has been doing for over a decade with so much success. But, it seems to me that adopting a Japanese model is just as inacceptable for them as adopting a European model. The DPs are, if nothing else, American.

[gttouring]

yes and perhaps they should bolster it by making the series GT, Touring cars (the GA Gs class) and DP's to be a feeder to something larger, or they can submit a DP for 750 consideration if they can get the weight down...

[gttouring]

whay keep the DP's?
I believe that it is one of the only fresh and new concepts in racing and as fugly as they are does it mean that they can't develop and be useful- after seeing the few races and rewinding the tape and watching DP battles they are pretty good. just no lemans prototype level

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by gttouring
whay keep the DP's?

If you ditch them now, a lot of people will walk away from GA in anger. The teams that have bought such machines, the constructors that have designed and built them. You've got to give these people at least a chance to get some kind of return on their investment. But I must admit I find nothing fresh about this category. Let them run for a season or two, and then forget about them, and perhaps come up with something really innovative.

[Tim Northcutt]

Until they can run faster on longer straights and on the higher-banked speedway portions of the "Rovals" than the Mustanges and Moslers of the Series (without slowing down or dumbing down the latter to make the DPs look faster) I won't ever think that Grand Am is on the right track

[cybersdorf]

Exactly. When you have two categories, and they are equally fast, why even have two categories - esp. since one is significantly more expensive than the other.

[Dauntless]

There is nothing wrong with the DPs competitiveness that another 100 hp won't fix...

[veeten]

But that's just it, the other types of chassis in the series right now (Mustang & Corvette T/A chassis, Mosler M900, Porsche 911 GT3, BMW M3) will be no longer considered part of the series. It will be just the Daytona Prototypes and the improved version of the GA Cup GT cars.

This will force teams into an either/or situation when it comes to participation in Grand Am's top level series. By doing this, you don't have to increase the overall performance of the DPs, as the other end won't have the performance to match, muchaless surpass, them.

This is the direction they want to go, rules & racing wise. The real trick is comming up with a Public Relations package that will deliver this series to the public, and presently this is where they have stumbled. By limiting themselves to a cable/satellite network for the broadcast of their racing season, there's less of a chance to build a following outside of their present fanbase. If a national newtwork broadcasting contract isn't established by '05, they will be dead in the water. Connectivity is KEY, to teams, drivers, and cars. And if the public can't see the races without a cable box or a satellite dish, then you're in trouble, as there still is a good number of folks who still don't have these.

Companies also know this, as team, race, and series sponsors follow where the fans and viewers go, as their habits translate how sales will go before, during, and after the event. Major series know that the fan/patron is pentultimate to their very survival. To do any less is suicide.

[SL]

I think that the JGTC has waorked as well as it has done is because they have kept all 3 majors involved. They want to be involved because people see "their" cars winning/racing and buy them. The makers keep it even as they all know that they all have a chance.

OK the actual cars are not road legal, but they do look like the car in the showroom.

The DP cars look like nothing in any showroom, they are therefore not associated with any maker in the general public's view. I really cannot see this working in the current format, people want to watch and hear about Porsche's/Ferrari's/Corvette's/Cobra's racing.

Simon

[Chevyguy]

GA, though I'm not putting faith in anything they say, are now promising announcements of more DPs coming into the fray. This will make the races even more exciting. They need to get rid of the TA legal cars soon, because they are kicking the DPs ass in outright speed.

I don't want to see this class die, as I beleive the racing the be first class, highly competitive, and unpredictable. They don't go as fast as LMPs, but neither do TA cars, would you want to scrap them too?

[H16]

I'm not sure if thats a good question to ask because a lot of folks would love to see the Trans Am cars go bye bye too.

Rules stability is a joke in G/A, and that is exactly what they are supposed to be doing. First SRP was going to stay, then it was going to go, then they were adopting the world wide formula for GT and now they are doing something wierd with their cup cars.

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Chevyguy
They need to get rid of the TA legal cars soon, because they are kicking the DPs ass in outright speed.

Makes sense - when you have an "iffy" product, you can try to improve it, or protect it to artificially keep it alive. So, why improve it?

[Fogelhund]

Despite the cars being ugly, uniteresting or slow the class will end up being fairly successful in its own way.

Not that many here will like it.

[Ken May]

In speaking with several GARRA officials at Mid Ohio this week, as well as team owners and David Klym, the talk is abound 15 of the DP's by the finale....Seems to be some credibility with these numbers as 3 Ford Focus DP's have been sold (announced this week)....Could make the series very interesting and the predicitions of GARRA awaiting the death blow are premature.......

Ken