American Le Mans Series' New Class Structure: Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Prior to yesterday's great race at Road America, the American Le Mans Series announced a revised class structure for 2010. 

This is a radical change that will either make for a great season, or one great, big "WTF?" moment.

In a nutshell, we'll have a single LMP class consisting of a merged LMP1 and LMP2—though they will continue to be run separately at the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans—one GT class consisting of the current GT2 rulebook, and two "Challenge" classes. The Challenge classes will be spec classes consisting of the current ALMS-Challenge class concept as the GT Challenge, and the implementation of the European Formula Le Mans Cup cars as the LMP Challenge class.

Now, I am cautiously optimistic about this change. Although I believe having one open and one spec class in both LMP and GT will open the ALMS to a wider audience—there are a lot of people out there who prefer spec racing, after all—I worry about what will happen if the problems that beset the ALMS field this year were to suddenly clear up.

We all know the economy played a huge factor in the problem, and it isn't likely to clear up quickly. But think about this: The ALMS has averaged a little over 20 cars since the Challenge class was implemented, and just shy of 10 of these have been LMPs. So let's shuffle those LMPs into one class, and add about the same number of LMP Challenge cars.

If we assume we'll also have about nine or 10 GT Challenge cars, our field will average about 38 cars per race. That'd be quite exciting—until you got to Lime Rock Park, when it'd be downright frightening.

But again, what if the problems keeping teams away were to lift themselves? We could suddenly end up with up to double the amount of normal LMPs, which would suddenly make both Challenge Classes look unnecessary.

Some people don't watch NASCAR, not because of any issues with the cars, tracks, or drivers, but because they feel NASCAR has way too many cars on track. The revamped class structure in ALMS could also alienate people who don't like seeing so many cars on track.

Personally, I consider too many cars to be a good problem to have, but not everyone feels that way.

Other potential problems with the revised structure include questions about the skill levels some Challenge drivers will have, as the Challenge classes are almost certainly guaranteed to be used as entries into the series for newer drivers, to concerns about rolling chicanes.

Yeah you read that last bit correctly. On the speedtv.com forum, one user actually commented, "If they wanted moving chicanes, they could have just brought over the Lavaggi."

Yeah, there are people concerned that the Challenge classes potential to be rolling chicanes.

Allow me to make an important note to you people who are concerned about this: You are talking about a form of racing that is built around the idea of putting slower cars on the track.

Le Mans-style racing is constructed around the idea of rolling chicanes. You're honestly telling me it's a concern now?

I suspect this revised structure will work out well in the short term. But when the economy beigns to recover, and proper LMP teams begin to return, I begin to worry about how the series will adapt.

Currently, there is no system set up for Formula Le Mans in America outside of its impending application as the LMP Challenge. The GT Challenge cars have places is other championships, though.

Would the FLM cars replace a class in IMSA Lites? Would IMSA form a new ladder championship to use them?

It's more what will happen when the Challenge classes become unnecessary that worries me, not anything about their implementation.

When it comes to implementation, I'm more worried about the proper LMPs. They'll have to balance the restrictions and the LMP1s and the restriction removals on the LMP2s rather carefully to make things work.

I suspect 2010 will be a very entertaining year, however. So bring it on, ALMS!