s in Grand-Am's premier championship, the
Rolex Sports Car Series The premiere series of Grand-Am was the
Rolex Sports Car Series which originated in 2000 as a successor to the defunct
United States Road Racing Championship. Combining classes of
Sports Racing Prototypes and
Grand Touring-style production-based cars, the series was centered on the
Rolex 24 At Daytona but included a wide variety of American, Canadian, and Mexican tracks. In 2003, the series replaced its Sports Racing Prototypes with new
Daytona Prototypes, a custom-built class built specifically for the Rolex Series. These cost-effective race cars offer a relatively economical racing environment in which technology is carefully controlled to ensure close racing and approximate parity between different chassis and engines. For the 2012 season, the Rolex series rolled out Gen-III prototypes with new bodies, engines and chassis. These new chassis were designed to keep costs low while also creating body shapes with more brand characteristics. The new chassis were headlined by
Corvette and new
Ford prototypes. The GT classes were also simplified over the years, allowing for a variety of American, European, and Japanese manufacturers to participate including
Audi,
Chevrolet,
Ferrari,
BMW,
Porsche, Ford and
Mazda. Rules allowed tuned production cars or custom
tube frame chassis to be used, letting participants save cost if necessary. In 2013 the GX class were introduced running with alternative fuel and new technology that was not already in use in GT cars. The contending manufacturers were Mazda, Porsche, and
Lotus. Daytona Prototypes and GTs usually shared the track although do occasionally race separately, typically at shorter circuits.
Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Series Originally based on a Canadian series before being acquired by Grand-Am, the
Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (originally known as Grand-Am Cup) is a production-based
touring car series. The series is split into two classes known as Grand Sport (GS), intended for large capacity GT-style cars, and Street Tuner (ST), consisting of smaller sedans and coupes, some of which are
front-wheel drive. The Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge until 2013 supported some Rolex Series races but also headlined some of its own dates. This series continues with the
TUDOR United SportsCar Championship The series is somewhat comparable to the old
Trans Am Series.
Ferrari Challenge Grand-Am was the sanctioning body behind the North American arm of the international
Ferrari Challenge series. Using identical race-tuned Ferraris, the series originally ran the F355 then switched to the
360 Modenas before switching to new
F430s in 2006 and the 458 Italia in 2010.
Shell Historic Challenge Tied together with the Ferrari Challenge series, the
Shell Historic Challenge is a series consisting of older Ferrari,
Maserati, and
Scuderia Ferrari-run
Alfa Romeo models. Although a racing series, the competition is more of an exhibition of the classic machinery than a true race.
Grand-Am iRacing.com Online Sports Car Series Grand-Am also sanctioned an online racing series through the
racing simulator iRacing.com. This series raced digital versions of a Riley
Daytona Prototype and the
McLaren MP4-12C, mirroring the Rolex series. ==Series defunct before the merger==