Grand-Am
The Grand American Road Racing Association or Grand-Am is an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize endurance road racing competitions in North America.
Overview
The Grand American Road Racing Association was established in 1999 and is located in Daytona Beach, Florida, on the same corporate campus that is also home to NASCAR, ISC (International Speedway Corporation) and Daytona International Speedway, but operates as its own stand-alone corporation with a group of independent investors and its own board of advisors. Among the corporation’s investors are several of the key people behind NASCAR’s success, but Grand American offers an entirely different product that features world-class sports car racing on historic road racing circuits and in major market speedways throughout North America.
Grand American currently sanctions three separate series. The premier Rolex Sports Car Series featuring Daytona Prototype and GT endurance events, the Grand-Am Cup featuring street-stock production cars, and the Ferrari Challenge featuring race versions of the Ferrari 360, the new Ferrari 430, and historic Ferrari race cars.
Rolex Sports Car Series
In the Rolex Sports Car Series, two classes compete for victories - Daytona Prototypes and Grand Touring. The crown jewel of the Rolex Sports Car Series season is the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, which is the first race of the year.
Daytona Prototype
The Daytona Prototypes are purpose- built chassis powered by stock-block production engines from Lexus, Pontiac, Porsche, BMW, Infiniti and Ford, in the interest of keeping operating costs low and attempting to ensure equality through the field. Approved chassis are built by Riley Technologies, Fabcar, Crawford, Doran, Picchio, Multimatic and Chase. The class has less powerful motors and less aerodynamic designs than Le Mans Prototypes built to ACO rules. The rule limitations are a result of the desire to maintain safe speeds at the series' fastest track, Daytona International Speedway, and maintain close competition. Daytona International Speedway hosts two premier events in the series, the Rolex 24 At Daytona and a 250-mile sprint on the same weekend as NASCAR's Pepsi 400.
Another important benefit of the Daytona Prototype class is that the chassis feature cost efficient construction using steel tube chassis instead of a carbon fiber tub. Not only does this reduce initial acquisition costs - bare rolling chassis cost in the neighborhood of $375,000 with ready-to-race examples costing around $600,000 - but operational costs are also much lower than those for ACO-spec Le Mans Prototypes. This relative affordability has sparked tremendous growth in field size, and as of 2006 upwards of 25 Daytona Prototypes regularly campaign in the series.
Grand Touring
For 2005, the Grand Touring (GT) and Super Grand Sport (SGS) classes were consolidated into a single GT class, which features high-tech sports car models approved by Grand-Am like the Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Ferrari 360 Modena, and BMW M3. However, new rules introduced in 2005, commonly referred to as Prep2, allow for the introduction of tube-frame, purpose-built cars into the class. The first examples of these are Pontiac GTOs campaigned by Horizon Motorsports and The Racer's Group.
Grand-Am Cup
The Grand-Am Cup is a production-based racing series, separated into two classes. Grand Sport (GS) includes sports cars, and Street Tuner (ST) consists of four-door sedans and sport coupes. Grand-Am Cup events are usually support events for Rolex Sports Car events.
2006 Daytona Prototype teams and drivers
2006 Race Schedule
- Rolex Cup
- Test Days at Daytona, Jan. 4-7, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
- Rolex 24 At Daytona, Jan. 26-29, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
- Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, March 2-4, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico
- Linder Industrial Komatsu Grand Prix of Miami, March 23-25, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Florida
- Crown Royal Grand American Challenge of Long Beach, April 7-8, Streets of Long Beach, Long Beach, California
- Virginia International Raceway 400, April 21-23, Virginia International Raceway, Alton, Virginia
- U.S. Sports Car Invitational, May 5-7, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, California
- The GAINSCO Grand Prix, May 11-13, Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, Arizona
- Lime Rock Park, May 26-29, Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Connecticut
- Sahlen's Six Hours of the Glen, June 2-3, Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York
- EMCO Gears Classic, June 23-25, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio
- Brumos Porsche 250, June 29, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
- Barber Motorsports Park, July 28-30, Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama
- Crown Royal 200 at the Glen, August 10-11, Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York
- Infineon Raceway, August 24-26, Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, California
- Discount Tire Sunchaser, August 31 - Sept 2, Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, Utah
- Grand-Am Cup
- Test Days at Daytona, Jan. 4-7, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
- Rolex 24 At Daytona, Jan. 26-29, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
- Virginia International Raceway 400, April 21-23, Virginia International Raceway, Alton, Virginia
- U.S. Sports Car Invitational, May 5-7, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, California
- Avondale Mazda Twin 200s, May 11-13, Phoenix International Raceway, Phoenix, Arizona
- Lime Rock Park, May 26-29, Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Connecticut
- Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, June 23-25, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio
- Barber Motorsports Park, July 28-30, Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Alabama
- Grand Prix of Trois Rivieres, August 4-6, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Trois-Rivieres, Quebec
- Miller Motorsports Park, August 31-Sept 2, Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, Utah
- Virginia International Raceway, October 6-8, Virginia International Raceway, Alton, Virginia