Grand American Road Racing Association
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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.
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[edit] 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 sports car racing on road racing circuits and speedways throughout North America.
Grand-Am currently sanctions three separate series. The premier Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve featuring Daytona Prototype and GT endurance events, the Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series 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.
[edit] Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve
In the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve, two classes compete for victories - Daytona Prototypes and Grand Touring. The crown jewel of the Rolex Series season is the Rolex 24 at Daytona, which is the first race of the year.
[edit] Daytona Prototype
- See Also: 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, all of which are steel-tube spaceframe designs, are built by Riley Technologies, Fabcar, Crawford, Doran, Picchio, Multimatic and Chase. Every approved Daytona Prototype engine generates approximately 500 horsepower. The class has less powerful motors and less aerodynamic designs than Le Mans Prototypes built to ACO specifications. Teams are also more restricted in the amount of development work they may perform, limiting the scope of modifications to the stock factory-built chassis. The rule limitations imposed by the series are a result of the desire to maintain safe speeds at the series' fastest track, Daytona International Speedway, and maintain close competition.
When first introduced, the Daytona Prototype was controversial - the looks and steel-tube construction of the chassis designs were criticized by many fans. Just six DPs took to the track in the formula's inaugural race in 2003. However, the series has grown rapidly, particularly in the last two years, and upwards of 25 DPs regularly competed in the 2006 championship.
In particular, growth has been sparked by the availability of highly-competitive and relatively-affordable customer chassis, particularly the Riley and Crawford designs. These off-the-shelf, turn-key race cars allowed new teams to quickly become front-runners. The cost disparities between factory teams and privateer teams have also played a role in making Grand-Am an attractive option. In a November, 2006 interview with Sport Auto Magazine, Jorg Bergmeister reported that Krohn Racing spent $6 million in 2006 to campaign its two-Riley, championship-winning Daytona Prototype team.[1]
[edit] 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 and 3-Rotor Mazda RX-8s campaigned by Speedsource.
[edit] Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series
The Grand-Am KONI Challenge Series (formerly known as Grand-Am Cup) is a production-based racing series, separated into two classes. Grand Sport (GS) includes sports cars, such as Porsche 997, BMW M3 and Mustang FR500C. Street Tuner (ST) consists of four-door sedans and sport coupes, like BMW 330i and Mazda RX-8. Events are usually support events for Rolex Sports Car events. The league is sponsored by KONI shock absorbers.
[edit] 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series season
See 2007 Rolex Sports Car Series season
[edit] Series Champions
| Year | SR/SRP/DP | SRII/SRPII | GTO/GTS | GT/GTU | AGT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 |  James Weaver |
 Larry Oberto |
Terry Borcheller |
Mike Fitzgerald |
Doug Mills |
| 2001 | James Weaver |
Andy Lally |
Chris Bingham |
Darren Law |
Craig Conway |
| 2002 |  Didier Theys |
Terry Borcheller |
Chris Bingham |
Bill Auberlen Cort Wagner |
Kerry Hitt |
| 2003 | Terry Borcheller |
Steve Marshall |
Tommy Riggins Dave Machavern |
Cort Wagner Brent Martini |
None |
| 2004 |  Max Papis Scott Pruett |
None | Andy Lally Marc Bunting |
Bill Auberlen Boris Said |
None |
| 2005 | Max Angelelli Wayne Taylor |
None | None | Craig Stanton |
None |
| 2006 |  Jorg Bergmeister |
None | None | Andy Lally Marc Bunting |
None |
| 2007 § | Scott Pruett |
None | None |  Sylvain Tremblay Nick Ham |
None |
- AGT was discontinued after 2002
- SRII was discontinued after 2003
- GTS was renamed SGS (Super Grand Sport) in 2004, however the class was discontinued after the end of the season
§-Note: Drivers listed as 2007 champions are current points leaders
