Anybody out there following the Grand Am?

Pontiac joining the roster in 2012? They are sooooo 2009. And if there were a Nissan Z in Grand-Am GT, I can guarantee at least 2 drivers.

Bryan Heitkotter would be one of them.
 
The 2012 Schedule has been announced with two new stops: Indy and Detroit Belle Isle. 2012 will mark the reopening of the Detroit circuit to racing since it was closed in 2001.

The series will also feature a three race North American Endurance Champion which will be the 24 Hours of Daytona, 6 Hours of the Glen and 3 Hours of Indy.

Full Schedule:
GRAND-AM Rolex Series 2012 Schedule of Events
Jan. 28-29 Daytona International Speedway (24 Hours)
Mar 30-April 1 Barber Motorsports Park
April 27-29 Homestead-Miami Speedway
May 11-13 New Jersey Motorsports Park
June 2 Detroit Belle Isle
June 8-10 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
June 22-24 Road America
June 29-July 1 Watkins Glen International (6 Hours)
July 27 Indianapolis Motor Speedway (3 Hours)
Aug 10-12 Watkins Glen International
August 17-19 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Sept. 7-9 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Sept. 28-30 Lime Rock Park

GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge 2012 Schedule of Events
Jan. 27 Daytona International Speedway
Mar 30-April 1 Barber Motorsports Park
April 27-29 Homestead-Miami Speedway
May 11-13 New Jersey Motorsports Park
June 8-10 Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
June 22-24 Road America
June 29-July 1 Watkins Glen International
July 27 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sept. 7-9 Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Sept. 28-30 Lime Rock Park

And the official announcement article:
GRAND-AM has announced its new, thirteen race schedule for the 2012 season which will include its first visits to Detroit on June 2 and to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27, along with the return to many of North America’s premier road racing circuits.
“This is without doubt the strongest schedule in GRAND-AM history,” said GRAND-AM President Tom Bledsoe. “Highlights are everywhere you look … new races, new places – and a new three-race championship. We’re going to make a lot of sports car history in 2012.”
Teams in both the Daytona Prototype and production-based GT classes will also compete in the North American Endurance Championship. The inaugural championship will feature the 50th anniversary running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Jan. 28-29, the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International on June 29-July 1 and the Rolex Series’ three-hour debut race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 27. Point structure and purse for the championship will be announced in the near future. Awards for the championship will be presented at dusk on the Victory Podium at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, following the historic race on the 2.605-mile road course.
The Rolex Series will combine with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series twice – on Indianapolis’ historic tripleheader weekend (July 26-29) and at Watkins Glen International’s second event of the season – and with the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Road America and Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Two Rolex Series events will be in companion with IndyCar, at Detroit and Barber.
Following the season-opening events at Daytona and Barber, the Rolex Series moves to Homestead-Miami Speedway, followed by a visit to New Jersey Motorsports Park. Following the Detroit Belle Isle race, the series returns to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. In addition, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s event shifts to September.
The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will run in conjunction with the Rolex Series at 10 of the 13 weekends, including Indianapolis.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the schedule, though I'm not happy at all that Lime Rock has been dropped from the schedule as it is my home town track.

Memorial Day weekend will not be the same. :(
 
Perhaps. What's even MORE interesting is that the ALMS also as a TBD race sometime before Petit LeMans next year. Two sports car racing series having a TBD race around the same time can't be a coincidence. Perhaps they're going to be running a race together? Or the same weekend? Maybe they're going to return to Infineon.
 
SuperShouden
Sept. 28-30 TBA
Click to expand...

It's going to be Lime Rock.
Email from Lime Rock:
We’ve got three cool things for you today.

1. Grand-Am season finales set for Lime Rock Park... As was announced by Grand-Am today, the Rolex Sports Car Series and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series are coming to Lime Rock Park for Grand-Am’s season finale, September 28-29. Skip Barber said, “We have loyal, very knowledgeable fans that we wanted to reward with the very real possibility that all four championships won’t be decided until the last races get the checker here at Lime Rock. Grand-Am racing is almost always very close and competitive, and to have driver and manufacturer titles decided here – maybe on the last lap – well, that makes the weekend all that more exciting, doesn’t it?”

Tickets for the Grand-Am season finale at Lime Rock are not yet available, but we expect to be able to make them available as soon as the complete 2012 Lime Rock schedule is announced.

2. What’s Chevy Doing in Grand-Am in 2012? On Tuesday, November 15, Chevy is holding a press conference about... well, we’re not sure yet! It involves Grand-Am for 2012. We’ve set up the Lime Rock website so that with one click – here! – you can watch the streaming video of the press conference. We’re going to be watching, too!
Click to expand...
 
575x459.jpg


Really hope the other manufacturers do something similar.
 
Looks great! The only downside is that it probably won't last more than one season due to the fact that GM is currently planning on releasing the C7 in late 2012, if I'm correct.
 
Justin
575x459.jpg


Really hope the other manufacturers do something similar.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see Ford do a GT/GT40 inspired piece. The "Ford GT DP" or something like that.

It's nice to see Chevy taking the Daytona Prototypes in a whole new direction and I would love to see this new identity of sorts play with it instead of the generic looking DP's of the past. Would be interesting to see how a BMW and Porsche DP would play out.

Overall, I'm happy with the support that Gran-Am has been getting with the recent additions of the Ferrari 458 GT and the adaptation of the Audi R8 LMS as well. I hope more companies see Gran-Am as an exciting and affordable means to advertise their brands over more expensive (though more prestigious) series like the Le Mans groups.

Also, let's not forget about the new Corvette DP's inspiration and for-father, the IMSA Corvette GTP

MbaYH.jpg
 
Last edited:
I updated the schedule with the final stop at Lime Rock and added the Endurance race lengths. Just realized they're gonna go from the 6 Hour Race at Watkins Glen to the 3 Hour inaugural race at Indy. With only being separated by 26 days....That Indy race might be exciting...depending on how the Glen race goes.
 
I love what I'm seeing here. I've always felt DPs could look better and this just prove my point. Next thing is to hear that car at speed with that new Small block.

NapoleonMikey
Have to say it came out better looking then i thought it would. Except for the traditional Daytona prototype cockpit, it looks good.
Click to expand...

Thats not the traditional DP cockpit. Recall that the Greenhouse was much wider and taller (reffer to the MKXX)
 
I'm looking forward to the upcoming season! Grand Am has always been one of my favourites and that new Corvette DP looks great! I can't wait to see them in person again, but this time I'm heading to Montreal instead of Watkins Glen. Any word on if Audi is fielding a few R8's this coming season?
 
I actually like this Corvette Daytona Prototype. Part of me wonders if other manufacturers see so much in Daytona Prototypes to make their own offerings. I actually was going to blog about that. Anyhow, I like this Corvette DP.
 
79jaG.jpg


So when I heard that the Audi R8 LMS was going to be tinkered with to be eligible for Rolex Sports Car series Gran Touring duty, I figured that the first time to field one would be the boys from APR... and I was right.

APR Motorsports presents the Audi R8 LMS

With all things considered, I'm impressed at APR's expansion over these last few years. Updating their GTI field from Mk5's to Mk6's, adding the S4 GS program (and having to completely start over after a recent accident, not to mention they also have to add a new car to their stable after their outing at the Pirelli World Challenge race left one of the GTI's in a pile of scrap). They're now adding a Jetta to the program (it'll remain to be seen if this competes in Pirelli World Challenge or CTSCC and if it's replacing the wrecked GTI) and then the Audi R8 LMS GT program. They're gonna have to start selling more turbo kits!

BvAcx.jpg

nPFLv.jpg
 
Last edited:
GRAND-AM has a lot of potential to become a world-class racing series and I hope they use said potential.

I'd love to see more GT3 cars go under the GRAND-AM knife and more manufacturers create DP's similar to the Vette above. It should make it a very exciting series and one I'd consider attending!
 
Snaeper
GRAND-AM has a lot of potential to become a world-class racing series and I hope they use said potential.

I'd love to see more GT3 cars go under the GRAND-AM knife and more manufacturers create DP's similar to the Vette above. It should make it a very exciting series and one I'd consider attending!
Click to expand...

I would love to see a Dodge Viper DP once the 2013 Viper comes out. That'd be cool. :P
 
SuperShouden
I would love to see a Dodge Viper DP once the 2013 Viper comes out. That'd be cool. :P
Click to expand...

It would! It's just a shame that Dodge gives out pittance when it comes to funding motorsport endeavors. I mean they only have 2 NASCAR teams and one of them only races part time (Robby Gordon). Other than that Penske is the only team to represent Dodge in all three levels of NASCAR (I may be wrong about Nationwide though, but I'm pretty sure it's only Penske cars). So I'm just not going to cross my fingers, no matter how awesome it would be if it happened.

I'd love to see Ford revive the GT/GT-40 spirit and style with a Daytona Prototype. Keep the car alive as a racer, since that's what it originally was anyways. It'd be interesting to see what BMW would do since they're powering the most dominant car in the field, same with the Porsche's.
 
You know, a Ford GT DP (does that sound right?) would make sense unless Ford would want to market the Mustang as a Daytona Prototype. That probably won't happen unless we see what the next-gen Ford GT will be like. Only weird things would be an RX-8 DP or if someone convinced Ferrari to take on the DP ranks.

But again- I still like this Corvette DP, and I wouldn't be surprised if more teams want to campaign with these, especially if the Corvette Daytona Prototypes become successful. I'd like their chances since the Suntrust and GAINSCO teams are among some of the best teams in the DP ranks besides Ganassi and Michael Shank and others.
 
JohnBM01
You know, a Ford GT DP (does that sound right?) would make sense unless Ford would want to market the Mustang as a Daytona Prototype. That probably won't happen unless we see what the next-gen Ford GT will be like. Only weird things would be an RX-8 DP or if someone convinced Ferrari to take on the DP ranks.

But again- I still like this Corvette DP, and I wouldn't be surprised if more teams want to campaign with these, especially if the Corvette Daytona Prototypes become successful. I'd like their chances since the Suntrust and GAINSCO teams are among some of the best teams in the DP ranks besides Ganassi and Michael Shank and others.
Click to expand...

Well the point of the GT/Daytona (I think that sounds better) would be to simply market the Ford brand and their racing heritage. Would probably use GT design cues but with a more modern Ford design finish. I would hope to hell they don't try to rearrange the Mustang to fit as a Prototype, that could end up looking awkward as all hell. I think the Mazda RX-8 and Ferrari 458 design themes could be pretty nicely adapted to a DP imo.
 
I have always loved the Audi R8 Road Car (to differentiate from the dominating Audi R8 LMP) and its GT variants. That is one gorgeous car that will surely be competitive in the Rolex Sportscar Series. How much so remains to be seen. Welcome to Grand-Am, Audi.
 
It is interesting, though. When I first say the livery, I thought Stevenson was switching to the Audi R8, but, that is not the case.

Also, according to the 2012 Number's list, Racers Edge Motorsports have entered a pair of Vipers. (They're also entering a pair of 2012 Challengers in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series) So...Vipers, Audi R8s, Camaros, Mustangs, 458s...should be an interesting season.

Taking a peak at the CTSCC approved vehicle list is always interesting. This year the Aston Martin Vantage has been approved for GS class racing and the V6 Altima, Scion TC and the Ford Focus ST have been approved for ST class racing.
 
Last edited:
I'm very confused here. How come the old DP cars are back? I thought the new regulations required all teams to redesign the cars to the same specs as the new Corvette DPs follow?

Aside from that, the new Ferrari 458s and Audi R8s are a lovely addition to the GT field. :D

5972236879_19e8f0ac8a.jpg


Now that's what I call a race car
 
Sam48
I'm very confused here. How come the old DP cars are back? I thought the new regulations required all teams to redesign the cars to the same specs as the new Corvette DPs follow?
Click to expand...

The last gen Daytona Prototypes are being grandfathered in for 2012.
 

Similar threads

Jimlaad43
Formula 1 Qatar Airways Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2024
3 4 5
Replies
132
Views
8K
kiseca
kiseca
Jimlaad43
Formula 1 Gran Premio de la Cuidad De México 2024
4 5 6
Replies
157
Views
9K
sillybilly
S
Jimlaad43
Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2023
3 4 5
Replies
141
Views
9K
Rossell2
Rossell2
MrT17
The Most Realistic CAR COLLECTION in GTA Online is now OPEN for tours!
Replies
3
Views
6K
DeathSmiles
DeathSmiles
Jimlaad43
Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2022
9 10 11
Replies
303
Views
20K
Magog
Magog

Latest Posts

Back