Bryan Watts

1) Grand-Am spends a lot of time making the cars as equal as possible. 3 motors, 3 chassis and multiple teams won races last year. Compare that to the GT1/2 results in ALMS.

2) The Mazda's had weight ADDED this year. They make less power, less torque, and run smaller tires than the Porsche.

3) Didn't Porsche finish 2-3-4? It appears a Porsche also had fast lap of the race for GT class. Take a look at the freakin' laptimes for all of the top 10 GT cars and tell me they aren't on equal footing:
http://www.grandamerican.com/rolex/schedule/results.cfm

4) Finally, the rules are there for EVERYONE to read. If Porsche teams think they are at a disadvantage running under Prep1, they are free to switch to Prep2.

500

I agree with everyting you said, but I just don't care for the whole format of trying to equate tube-frame cars and more "production-derived" cars. Grand Am essentailly reverse-engineers the rules so everyone can be "equal". That appeals to some fans, but not to me. I am just not that interested, and I was not any more interested when Porsche was dominating GT either. That's all.

Bryan Watts

Agreed that it makes the cars less interesting. But the teams and drivers sure don't seem to mind...it's extremely appealing to know you've got a shot at winning no matter what chassis/engine combination you are racing. Close racing interests me as both of a driver and a fan. The engineer in me prefers ALMS.

Circuit Motorsports

Not much equal about ALMS.

Here are the race results for 2008

P1 Audi
P2 Porsche
GT1 Corvette
GT2 Ferrari/Porsche


I bet I am right on at least 75% of the races.

Grand-am is all about equal footing amongst class competitors. Look at the race laptimes of DP at Daytona. The top 17 times were within 1 second of eachother. Outside of NASCAR there isn't a series in the US that runs as tight of a field as Grandam.

srf506

Its Porsche's decision to run factory-based tub cars instead of using tube-frames which they could do. Similar to what we faced in the late eighties and early 90's in IMSA. They were shilloutte racers. Our cars were Fabcar tube frames even though they used Porsche suspensions and motors, the cars were never considered "Porsches by the factory, until one would win its class, then it was "Porsche" that won Sebring! Just like DP today, only they're not even shillouttes. Funny how things go around in cycles.

500

Well, there are two ways to look at equality:

1) Define a set of rules and let the manufacturers/teams that are interested develop the cars and race them. (Sort of ALMS, but in fairness they do dabble in "performance adjustments", which are a controversial topic amongst the fans).

2) Define a set of rules and then continuously tweak and adjust parameters such as minimum weight to "equalize" the cars. This is of course the Grand Am approach. There is nothing wrong with that, for what it is. It just is not something I care much for as a fan. I agree, as a driver it may be different.

I do not think that having a field full of equal cars is necessarily more exciting. Two or three cars battling at the front can be as enthralling as 20 near-equal cars. ALMS did have a lot of terrific racing last year in GT2 and P2 (remember, the Acuras were usually very close). If Acura beats Porsche this year, a definite possibility, than it will be down to a good job done by Acura, NOT Acura benefiting from from some equalization penalties. Different courses for different horses.

insite

i really don't get this push for equality amongst the cars. pick a set of rules. if everyone is using the same rules, everyone has the same opportunity to build a winning car. if your car doesn't win, BUILD A FASTER CAR; don't sandback the success stories.

wlittleman

It's not surprising that a $32k Mazda 'RX8' street car needs to be modified to the hilt (or recreated from ground up) to compete with a GT3 cup. I don't have any problems with Mazda winning the GT class. I enjoy seeing different marques compete in a series. What I don't like is the fact that they still call that purpose built race car a RX8. It's a bit misleading, which causes one to ask how an RX8 can beat a GT3 on a circuit, when in fact, it's not the case.

Another thing to note is that the SpeedSource car is ~500lbs lighter than the 997GT3 cup. A lighter car stresses its components much less, so reliability may be an advantage.

38D

It is very difficult to define a set of rules that accounts for everything. How does a rotary engine compare to a flat 6 or a V8?

I personally far prefer the racing in Grand Am, and the cars of ALMS. ALMS, other than Porsche vs. Audi for the overall win, is basically a bunch of parade laps.

4 Kurves

Same here - ALMS is more fun in the pits (looking at the cars) and GA more fun on teh track (watching the actual racing). Neither one is perfect and I wish the DP were more attractive but....

Hoosier_Daddy

Hey Colin ....

I agree about defining rules, however, I seem to remember one heck of a last lap at ALMS's Sebring last year. Couple of .10ths after 12 hours if not mistaken. I thought Ferrari and Porsche pretty much pounded each other all year.

H_D

Jarez Mifkin

I would feel better about the RX-8 if they would've painted it...

paradisenb

Some seem to have short memories. Dirk Werner won the championship last year in a Porsche!

The Mazda was dominating early in the year before having weight added. 400lbs IIRC. There are sooo many factors involved in a 24 hr race, luck being a BIG one. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Speedsource did not earn this victory. Clearly they were the better team in this race.

Lets see what happens in the 2hr sprints.

Also, Porsche builds race cars that can be put on the street. Historically that is the roots of the 911. They never needed a tube frame to compete in the classes they ran in and probably don't now to beat the Mazdas. The 911's capabilities will be better assessed in the ALMS series. That is their top dog car.

srf506

The weight penalty is for two factors: 1) they're prep 2 cars. Since they're purpose built for racing vice the prep 1 production cars they carry more weight to "equalize performance". Then, if they're really running away in the actual races and outperforming everything else on track they get an extra 50 lbs or so, again for "competitive" purposes. Back in the "good old days" I remember Porsches getting 50 to 75 lbs levied on them after almost every race, but they still managed to beat everything else in class.

Velocissimo87

Exactly, as I said in my previous post, until around 7am Sunday morning, the 66 and 67 TRG Porsches were competing for the win, and in terms of performance, I believe they had every measure of that miserable little car, especially considering all the spins and offs that little car had during the race. BUT, the Porsches just could not keep the radiators clean, which the reason as to why that occurred baffled me. TRG and Porsche are not exactly knew to this game, why didn't they expect or were they able to not cure the problem?

They went from the 66 and 67 being on the lead lap, to 5 laps down because of that overheating. Thats absurd IMO. Porsche, TRG dropped the ball, they lost the race by themselves IMO.