Following up on the Sept. 5 announcement of the merger of North America’s major sports car racing organizers, officials from the American Le Mans Series and Grand Am Road Racing met with representatives from a dozen auto manufacturers in New York City Monday to iron out the regulations for the new combined series and the degree of manufacturer involvement.
ALMS CEO and president Scott Atherton Series founder Dr. Don Panoz, Grand Am founder Jim France, and Grand Am CEO and president Ed Bennett and other officials from both series met with representatives from Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Dodge SRT, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Lotus, Mazda, Porsche and Toyota.
“We had a lot of healthy dialogue and commitment to follow-up,” said Bennett in a Grand Am press release. “We formed a list of subcommittees, which will be working groups to cover all aspects of our sport.”
“It was a very productive meeting, and a significant first step,” agreed Atherton. “We’ve come a long way. Having Jim France and Don Panoz and their key people standing shoulder to shoulder in open discussion with 12 manufacturers was a remarkable situation—and it really set the stage for our collective future together.”
ALMS and Grand Am are both in financial difficulties because the two series are splitting a single pool of fans, teams and sponsors. The new, yet-to-be-named combined series hopes to take the strengths of each to create a stable, profitable racing series.
The new combined series will start racing in 2014; rules and class structure need to be determined as soon as possible to give teams and manufacturers time to start planning and building.
