ALMS and The Rolex sports car series: An example of having one too many. #blogpost

The American Le Mans Series or ALMS and the Rolex sports car championship are two examples of trying to bring a European sport to a tough American market. The two where multi class endurance series like what we now know as the WEC. The two series focused on two different aspects of multi class racing, Le Mans spec and cheaper alternatives. Both failed to stay relevant causing them to merge into IMSA

ALMS

The American Le Mans series was created as a second series that would hold endurance racing events alongside the 24 hours of Le Mans. The series officially started in 1999 with the 10 hour Petit Le Mans. Teams participated where given automatic entries at the time as they where using the ACO rule book. The teams who would finish 1st and 2nd in a season would get a invitation to the 24 hours of Le Mans. The season started with the 12 hours of Sebring and end at the las vegas motor speedway road course. Soon ALMS strayed away from oval road courses or rovals, and focused more on street courses like St. Petersburg and Long Beach. They also visited mazada raceway laguna seca and road Atlanta.

The classes

The classes of the ALMS included

• The prototype class: This class follows the same rules as the 24 hours of Le Mans prototype regulations. Manufacturers like Audi, Peugeot, and rebellion where the major contenders of this series.
• the P2 class
  The P2 class cars where open cockpit cars that followed the 24 hours of Le Mans P2 class regulations.
• the PC class
  The PC class was a totally spec class. Every car in the class is exactly the same as the next. The class was made for rookie drivers to jumpstart their career in sports car racing.
• The GT class
  The GT class followed the 24 hours of Le Mans GT regulations. Major contenders like corvette, Ferrari, Porsche, and BMW participated in this class.
• GTC
  This class used only the Porsche 911 GT3 as the car driven. This class was also made for rookies as an entire level GT class

Final years

ALMS introduced the Michelin green X challenge where the most efficient cars win a invitation to the 24 hours of Le Mans. In their final years teams like Audi with their R18 and Peugeot with their 908 tested their cars at Sebring before the 24 hours of Le Mans. The series got it’s first title sponsor in 2010, and in 2013 they officially announced the merge with the Rolex sports car series

The Rolex sports car series

This series was made as a replacement for the United States road racing championship. The series was created in 2000 to be focused around the 24 hours of Daytona. The series focused on being my economical instead trying to recreate Le Mans. They accomplished this by introducing the Daytona prototypes which where made to cut costs while having high performance cars. This aided in making large fields of cars on track at once. The Rolex sports car series was another American multi class endurance series very similar to every other series. The major highlights are the 24 hours of Daytona and 6 hours at the glen.

The classes

• Daytona prototype (MK3)
  The Daytona prototypes where the leaders of the field. They came in two flavores Chevy and Ford. Each are very similar in performance. The Daytona prototypes where cheaper than regular Le Mans prototypes making the prototypes class bigger than a normal prototype field.
• GT class
  This class was made up of high performance street cars and is not too different than any other class

Final years

Not much really happened until they announced they would be merging with ALMS to create……

IMSA

In 2014 the merge finally happened and created IMSA weathertech sports car championship. Now why did they merge into IMSA? Well, American is a tough market to reach especially with the likes of NASCAR and Indycar dominating the Motorsports channels. The 24 hours of Daytona, to be honest, is not as relivent as the Daytona 500 and Indy 500. So with two different racing series trying to accomplish the same thing people would have to pick and choose what they want to watch. Viewership was at a low for both series so they merged to create America’s leading endurance series. I’m happy with today’s product, but I do miss the days when Le Man spec prototypes like the R18 raced here on American soil