A Helpful Suggestion For Grand-Am

To an extent, I still feel shame to call myself a Grand-Am fan. Not due to embarrassment over admitting to liking racing that involves predominantly ugly cars (after all, we all know my feelings regarding how important a racecar's looks are), but because of the vitriolic criticism I used to spew toward it before I realized how good the racing can often be. It shames me that I was, just over a year ago, so narrow-minded that I could not look past the ugliness of the cars.

But as I look back over what I missed during my hateful days, I can't help but think Grand-Am has lost something. Something rather important.

The Rolex 24 field this year has a meager 14 entrants. That's not much better than the combined LMP numbers that the ALMS pulled in last year, but that's not what I'm trying to get at here. Look at the chassis that are present: A crapload of Rileys, a Lola, two Dallaras, and a Coyote. What do these have in common? Not counting minor detail differences, the Coyote is the only one that looks significantly different from the others.

Here's a great website for you to visit: http://racingsportscars.com They have tons of images of greats sports racers and GT from throughout the history of racing. Even Daytona Prototypes. Look up the stuff from before 2008 - the Doran JE4, Fabcar FDSC/03, Picchio DP2, Multimatic MDP1... What strikes you about them?

Well, the first thing you might notice is that they look significantly better than today's DPs. But even then, only the Multimatic and the Doran truly climb above the rating of "ugly." And only just in the Doran's case(incidentally, am I only one who sees a strong resemblance between the front ends of the Doran JE4 and the Ferrari 333SP?).

But that's not what I want you to notice. Take a second looks. And a third if need be. That's right—NONE of them look anything like each other. Not one. Grand-Am has lost a significant portion of it's diversity.

I think they can restore some of it, though. Simply by correcting one of the few flaws of the DP concept.

My shame over my past mistake frequently results in me thinking up ideas in how to make minor alterations to reduce the number of idiots. Such as demonstrating how minor a tweak would be needed to make ALL DPs look a lot better. This time, I'm going to tackle another of the DP's problems: The franchise-style chassis system.

To keep the costs down, Grand-Am only allows certain approved constructors to build cars, for a five-year period between major redesigns. No privately-built vehicles, even though the DP formula is the PERFECT formula for privateer entries.

Grand-Am needs to tweak this rule. I believe the series has reached the point where it hurts more than helps. The Riley chassis domination shows a glaring flaw with the system that needs to be addressed. Chassis makers simply aren't allowed to do enough frequently enough to take on the Riley consistently. Cost control is a good thing, but not when it's results are against your desired goal: As many chassis/engine combinations in victory lane as possible.

So, here's my suggestion: As far as providing cars to multiple teams, keep the franchise system in effect, but cut the time down to three years. Open up the allowable modifications between seasons a bit more and...Allow private entries to build their own DPs. Have one of the current chassis makers(for the sake of fairness, DON'T make it Riley Technologies) produce a standard DP frame around which a team can build their own DP within the rulebook. We'd get the diversity back for sure, the Rolex 24 would gain a lot more entries, and by cutting down the franchise times to three years, if one of those privateers found they'd made a good car and wanted to sell it to other teams they'd be able to get in the action sooner!

It can only benefit the series. Would it raise the costs? Certainly. But racing is not a cheap game, and a good sanctioning body needs to know when to take a risk like this. Some would say that in this economy it's a bad idea to let the costs rise up a bit, but if you look at USF1 and NASCAR, we see that this is actually a very good time to take risks. When the economy is bad, there are plenty of workers available to you, and several of the materials you need get cheaper.

Now is EXACTLY the time for Grand-Am to loosen up.

And on that note, if anyone can link me to any good footage(complete races or just clips) of Grand-Am races from 2003-2005, PLEASE get in touch with me! I am a desperate man...I must have more! Please help me!