Take a billionare who makes a lot of money on other forms of motorsport but decides to put the family infleuence and concentrate it on sportscar racing. Add a former motorcycle racing president, a man who's known for orchestrating miracles. Get a guy who help organize the technical direction of a sportscar revolution in the 70's and 80's. Mix this together with sound thinking, radical, non-traditional ideas and in a few short years, a revolution happens. A revolution that infuriates some but inspires others to see that sportscar racing in the United States can generate interest from guys who got out of the genre and guys who never thought of it. A revolution that in a handfull of years has the full attention of major automakers worldwide and major marketing interests.

This is Grand-Am.

Some would have you believe that what Grand-Am is, is some kind of power grab. A plot by one family to dominate the world of road racing in the US. Of course this is a preposterous thought. NASCAR alone generates income that rivals the GNP of some third world nations. NASCAR is an industry in and of itself. Its rivals are the NFL and MLB and the NBA. Why should Jim France care about what happens to road racing in America? He cares because sportscars are his passion. A passion that grew from his running the 24 Hours of Daytona, the SunBank 24 and now the Rolex 24 At Daytona. He nurtured it, he built it and he ultimately cared enough about the race to build a series around it.

How do you start a series? Well, if you are the France family, you go out and hire the best people you can find. Look at the people who run NASCAR, who run ISC, they are a who's who in the American racing industry. People who could go to any other motorsports company and make a difference. One of France's first moves was an unconventional one though. He decided to make a guy with no auto racing experience the spearhead of a sportscar revolution. A bold, smart move. Roger Edmonson took a struggling amateur motorcycle series and made it the second most successful two wheel racing series in America. The Championship Cup Series and Formula USA a decade after his leaving, is still on solid ground, producing the talent that provide excitement in many of the worlds best motorcycle series.

Mark Raffauf was one of the main cogs in the heyday of the original IMSA. He not only soaked up technical and steward expertise but also gained the insight of pholosophy. IMSA was a concept thought of by Bill France Sr., a man who believed that America should be a leader in world motorsport. That it could infleuence the way that not only America did business but Europe and Asia as well. Through his years with IMSA, Raffauf was involved in the ground level of rules that brought together manufacturers like Nissan, Mazda, Porsche, BMW, Jaguar, Chevrolet and Ford. In short order this very young man move up the ladder to enforce the rules that produced great race after great race.

We cannot quantify what Grand-Am is now becoming. This unpresented growth would not be possible without one decision. The 2002 racing season was a struggle for Grand-Am. Sharing a few prototypes with the American LeMans Series, Grand-Am found that they were at a loss for acceptance and credibility. This was due to a lack of identity. Nothing about the series really stood out. To stay the course would mean certain extinction and the possible demise of privateer racing in the United States.

Enter the Daytona Prototype.

In the history of American Sportscar, the sport has been defined by those who have and those who have not. Tom Volk is a name that comes to mind for me. His Riley and Scott MK IV prototype is one that I saw campaign thru most of the World Sportscar Era. Volk was a "gentleman racer." A man who was rich enough to buy and maintain a prototype racer but not rich enough to advance his technology. Representative of many who supported both series, they were basically field fillers, guys who were guarenteed to make the show but also target practice for the faster, better funded prototypes from factory competition and high-powered, well finananced privateers. Fans just three years ago took these guys for granted. ALMS fans bragged of large fields of basically uncompetitive cars, cars who could not win against the likes of Audi, BMW, Panoz and Dyson. Shoot, Dyson wasn't winning either and neither was GM's new prototype effort in Team Cadillac. Grand-Am saw none of these teams. Their basic rules structure prevented the factories from participation. The exclusivity, the cost of these cars did not make them elegible for competition in Grand-Am. Because of this, the ALMS thrived and Grand-Am was reduced to a few prototype teams. Teams that produced great races but because they were only the few, they could not get the attention of the many.

Suddenly, a class that was going nowhere was eliminated, able to perform only on the ALMS side. A line in the sand was drawn. Grand-Am was really out there now. A new kind of car had to be brought to the forefront. A car with less power, non exotic engines and engineering, a car with a closed, roomy cockpit, no-nonsense tube-framed construction, skinnier spec tires, no turbos, or excessive downforce. The outcry was palpable. Many sportscar purists, fans and media thought Grand-Am was nuts, heck, even present Grand-Am loyalists like the renouned Brent Jackson decried the nerve of Jim France and company to come up with this concept. Predictions on message boards and Internet racing news sites were that Grand-Am was committing what was the equivilent of motorsports supuku with this car. Those of us who spoke for the concept were castigated, and even banned from some sportscar boards and called everything from KoolAid junkies to mindless cheerleaders to a wonderful Italian word that means "expert". COGNOSCENTI. The adoption of that word rivals the steadfast devotion that France, Edmonson, Raffauf and the rest of Grand-Am has shown for what is now the fastest growing racing series in the world.

At the end of our second season with the Daytona Prototype, we now look to a future that is very bright. There are some who still have no idea why this phenonomon is happening. We realized it all along. We knew that the guys who were most neglected were the guys who could turn it around. They were the ones who could field competitive teams if given a set of parameters that would not be exploited. No exclusive technology, no radical spending. A more level field where the upset was really possible. Today we look forward to an unheard of 30 or more prototype racecars in the Rolex24. As many as twenty of these cars will have the chance at the overall win. Nissan, Toyota, BMW, GM, Ford and Porsche add diversity to prototypes mostly made in the US. They give a platform to American know how to have an impact on world sportscar. Because of this vision, German television will televise the Rolex 24 and an army of International media will be following names like Fittipaldi, Magnussen, Maassen and Theys.

The positives are numerous. Daily, some new revelation comes across the Grand-Am website. Rumors more often than not come true in Grand-Am. When a party is a good one, people want to join and so do companies! CITGO, RedBull and SunTrust lead a group of new sponsors that will debut in 2005. Grand-Am has become dynamic, progressive and promising due to the vision of a simplicity. If you invest in those who've proven that the sport is their passion, you cannot go wrong. To the Cognoscenti, you are a part of this revolution. You are the guys that took the jeers and fought for this concept. Today you get to say "I told you so."

It's nice to one of you. Enjoy the fruits of your loyality.

GO GRAND-AM!
X of the C O G

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