LTC believes its
not an accident Micheal Waltrip and Eddie Cheever were at Spa 24 this past weekend. There is an intention he believes to add GT3 or something very close to GT3 as general replacement for its current Prep 1/2 setup for GT cars in Grand Am's main series.
Call it a
scouting mission, as was mention by somebody here Zak Brown has connections to Grand Am. I already believed Zak has every intention to run his R8's or another pair of R8's in the United States at some point.
Is it too late for ALMS to go for the move and solidify GTC into GT3?
At worst it would put Grand Am in competition with ALMS for GT3 entries, likely limited to 10-12 in ALMS and a replacement for an entire GT class (forcing Mazda RX-8 teams and Mazdaspeed to either build a GT3 spec RX8 or RX7) by 2012.
At best ALMS can beat them to the punch by adopting GT3 regulations without any expensive changes (and before the State of The Series announcement). I think there's some false or misplaced concern on Ten-Tenths that current GTC teams would be upset by turning the regulations upside-down after a partial schedule in 2009 and a full schedule in 2010.
I don't think so. If anybody watched Spa 24 this past weekend, the GT3 cars are much quicker than Cup cars and very close to GT2 cars in overall pace. At longer tracks like Road America and Mosport its possible well driven GT3 will remain on the lead lap with the GT2 cars and possible finish in the Top 5. This will be less of a concern at shorter, twister tracks and street circuits as the GT3's power advantage is muted in those cases.
All racers want to go faster, so I don't think they'll be much concern over changing.
I believe ALMS should make this move and announce something maybe as soon as Road America like they did two years ago when they announced GTC to bolster its car count.
Opinions, Thoughts?