American Le Mans and Grand-Am Announce Unfied Classes

The American Le Mans Series and Grand-Am Series have officially announced their class structure for the 2014 and 2015 seasons today. The series will be made up of four, or possibly five, classes. 

The first class will be a unified class between the current Daytona Prototype cars from the Grand-Am Series and the LMP2 cars from the American Le Mans Series. The LMP2 cars are significantly faster than the DP cars, and the plan is to increase the performance of the DP cars to equal the LMP2 cars. The reason for this is that the series is still partially being sanctioned by the ACO, and it is possible that the LMP2 cars could be invited to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Their performance has to equal that of LMP2 cars competing in the other ACO-sanctioned LMP2 series. 

The second class will be the LMP Challenge class that currently races in the ALMS. These cars are a spec chassis from OrecaOrecaFrance, 1971 > present5 models
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and a spec engine from ChevroletChevroletUnited States of America, 1911 > present82 models
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The third and fourth classes will be the two GT classes from the respective series with unchanged rules. Grand-Am basically uses GT3-spec cars with some technology modifications. The current GT Challenge cars from the ALMS will be incorporated into the Grand-Am GT cars. The ALMS series uses GTE-spec cars, and these cars will still be eligible for invitations to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

The possible fifth class is the GX Class from the Grand-Am Series. The class is for production-based cars with technology not currently allowed in the Grand-Am GT class, including hybrids, diesels and turbocharging. It debuts in 2013. The new series has not yet decided whether this will be its own class or incorporated into one of the other GT classes. So far the only cars confirmed for the series are a Lotus Evora and a Mazda 6 DieselMazda 6 Gen.3Japan, 2012 > present56 versions
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The exact specifications for all of the cars are still being determined. It appears that the two main GT series are being left untouched, but the GX classes and GTC class might see some modifications to fit into new classes. 

“And this announcement is only a first step in solidifying our class structure. Our organizations’ respective competition departments are working diligently on balance of performance for the top prototype class, plus overall class specifications across the board," said Grand-Am Competition Director Richard Buck.