American Le Mans and Grand-Am Merging in 2014

The news broke over the weekend that the Grand-Am Rolex Sport Car Series and the American Le Mans Series would merge, but there were few concrete details. Honestly, until the press conference today all of the news that came out was a combination of fear and speculation. It had appeared that this was less than a merger than Grand-Am buying ALMS out of competition. 

In a press conference at 10:00am EST on September 5, the heads of the ALMS and Grand-Am sat down to explain the merger and answer questions about it. The major news about the series is that it will start in 2014. Both series will operate as normal next season. So far, the new series does not have a name. Dr. Don Panoz who owns the ALMS referred to the series at the "American Sports Car Series" once in the press conference, but that name is not confirmed. 

One major surprise to come from the conference was that this merger has been firmly in place for the past six months. According to Scott Atherton who manages the ALMS, it was six months and 14 days between when the merger agreement was signed and when the news broke about the merger last weekend. 

The new organizers have already spoken to the ACO, which is the managing body of the WEC and Le Mans. Some teams will still be able to race at Le Mans, but it was not discussed how this will work. Because Grand-Am uses Daytona Prototypes and GT3 cars, half the cars on the grid would not even be eligible.

In terms of classes, which are probably the most important factor, nothing has been firmly decided yet. The organizers did say that current ALMS GT cars would be accepted into the new series. Nothing was discussed about the future of the prototype classes.  

Right now the series is aiming for a 12-race season. Three races are already set: the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, which will probably get a name change. A race at Watkins Glen, which is owned by the France family, was mentioned but not confirmed. Both series already hold races at Mid-Ohio, Road America, Laguna Seca and Lime Rock Park. None of the four were mentioned, but they are probably the most likely to be carried over into the new series. The total number of races will be tied to the new series' television partnership according to the organizers. 

Right now the Grand-Am series has a television deal with Fox and is broadcast on the Speed Channel. ALMS has its television deal with ABC and is shown on ABC and ESPN. 

Unfortunately, those were all of the hard facts to come out of the press conference. American sports car racing fans will have to wait for more details about the series to come out. The major question now appears to be what will happen with the prototype classes and how the series will integrate with the WEC and Le Mans. 

The Grand-Am series was founded in 2000 and bought by Nascar in 2008. The series runs two classes. The first, Daytona Prototype was wholly created by Grand-Am. The series must use approved chassis and approved engines. The engines must be based on a production block. The other class uses FIA-approved GT3 cars. The series has a 13-race schedule, and its major race is the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The American Le Mans Series was created in 1999. It currently has a 10-race schedule with the 24 Hours of Sebring as the series' major race. Currently it has five classes: LMP1, LMP2, LMP Challenge, GT and GT Challenge. The series uses the same rules as the World Endurance Championship for its cars. 

Both series have their problems. Grand-Am is criticized for using second-class equipment. The Daytona Prototypes are slower than LMP2 cars, and the introduction of FIA GT3 cars is quite recent in the series. Before then, they used tube-framed sports cars that bore a resemblance to production cars but were not based on them. On the other hand, American Le Mans is generally considered to have better competition, but there are fewer competitors. For instance, there are just three LMP1 cars entered in Petit Le Mans, which is one of the series' major races.