One thing that always shocks me about sports car racing is the up-down-up-down cycles that it always goes through. It’s been that way throughout the last 30 years. The pinnacle of the sport for many was the years of 1970 and 1971, when in Europe the Porsche 917 squared off with the Ferrari 512, and in North America the Porsche 917-30 and its huge 1000+ horsepower flat-12 butted heads with the screaming orange McLaren M8s and their barking big-block Chevrolet V8s. Having seen a 917 and an M8B in action, these machines are awesome.

The oil crisis put paid to a large amount of motorsport in the 1970s, and sportscar racing fell very low on the list for automakers. The emphasis on sportscar racing returned in the 1980s. IMSA’s “Miami Vice” marketing campaign is for my money one of the best marketing campaigns in motorsport ever, and the result spoke for itself – by the late 80s, IMSA’s GTP fields, while dominated by Nissan, had factory efforts from Jaguar, Toyota and Chevrolet, as well as rows and rows of privateer Porsche 962s.

And then it fell again, as the FIA’s decrees along with the massive costs of GTP cars put the series down in the early 90s. It ran on through the 90s with first the WSCs, then IMSA’s collapse led to the formation of the American Le Mans Series in 1999 and Grand American Road Racing in 2000.

The ALMS, despite Audi’s dominace from 2000 forward, was on a high – lots of factory involvement, fast cars all over the place and interest from everywhere.

So why, people asked, did Grand American set up the DPs, which were to start in 2003? Simple – the cycles above. Grand American wanted to avoid it.

My friend Tommy Brolsma wrote in “No More Mister Nice Duck” about the problems with the people who don’t like the Daytona Prototypes. Everyone of course is more than welcome to their opinion of them. But there is a good reason why they were created – and if anyone needs to know what it is, just look at the fields of both series. Grand American has the very real issue of having too many cars and having to split up its races in 2006 – and that’s after they did do that once in 2005.

Now, I’m sure by this point you all are asking me “What does this all have to do with sportscar racing in general? It’s great that Grand-Am has huge fields, but what does that mean for the fans of road racing in general?”

My friend, I am glad you asked that.

Grand-Am’s rules are adjusted slightly all the time, but the cars according to GARRA will be set to be able to run for 10 years – until at least 2013, in other words. A bad idea? I don’t think so.

Most road racing series have had similar rules for a long time. Champ Car has had the same engine formula since 1987, and looks to continue with it for some time yet. This contributes to not only people getting just what is capable of the rules into their race cars, it also lends well to cost controls. Sports car racing could do with that sort of stability, yes?

But on top of that, American road racing may well be on the upswing. Right now, America’s most popular motorsport by a long shot is NASCAR’s Nextel Cup. It’s huge – 36 races, most of which on network television, and its TV deal, signed in 2000, is worth $2.4 Billion a year. A lot of money, eh? Road racing gained a fair ground in the 80s and early 90s, as CART rose to an F1-challenging zenith. But the open wheel split, along with CART’s own mismanagement, eventually drove it to bankruptcy. It’s deadly rival, the Indy Racing League, is looking at the same fate as CART, with a lot of money problems.

But when one series can get 60+ entrants for each round, it makes a powerful statement. And in that regard, Grand American has taken a huge step, and one which most of America’s professional road racing seems certain to follow.

And Champ Car is already doing this – their 2007 formula is estimated to be half the cost of the current one.

Grand American was called by Road and Track as “The best kept secret in American motorsports.” Nice statement, isn’t it? And when the professionals of Grand American – from American guns like Butch Leitzinger, Memo Gidley, Terry Borcheller, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Hurley Haywood, to guys who come from around the world like Britain’s Andy Wallace, Mexico’s Luis Diaz, South Africa’s Wayne Taylor, Germany’s Jorg Bergmeister and Venezuela’s Milka Duno – take that green flag you know that, to use the old metaphor, fur will fly. Cars banging into each other? Contraversial moments? Cars and drivers pushed to their absolute limits to gain an advantage? Close-quarters racing? Spinouts, dodging traffic? All in a day’s work for the guys behind the wheel.

This brings me to the subject of the people who hate Grand American. Names like Daytona Prototurtles, Grand Sham and others really irk me. It just seems wrong. Now I’m not gonna rant, but I’ll say this – the American Le Mans Series could learn from its competitor. And Grand Am would be more than willing to help, I think – any improvement, to either the ALMS or to Grand Am, helps sports car racing as a whole. And that’s good for all of us, no matter your opinion on Grand American.

Got comments on this article? Discuss it on the message board!