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The Daytona Prototypes roll into their pit stalls and prepare for Grand-Am's inaugural practice at Rusty Wallace's Iowa Speedway. Race control radios to an official at the end of pit lane at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning, and he waves cars out to begin the session.
The prototypes rocket onto the apron of the 7/8-mile oval, running just below the actual line they will take in oval-turns 1 and 2. They enter the racing surface and accelerate onto the back straight, headed straight for oval-turns 3 and 4. But just before they arrive, the cars steer left to follow a 0.4-mile speck of infield section.
Grand-Am racing has filled the "roval" niche that the ALMS willingly vacated, but could - or should - it take the next logical step? Opinions differ. (LAT photo) » More Photos
"It wouldn't be that farfetched to just keep going [straight] right now, today," Mike Shank, team owner of two prototypes, muses. "If we rolled out and just started wicking around [the oval]…I wouldn't have any problem with it. I'd absolutely welcome an [oval race]."
Why interrupt one of the most state-of-the-art ovals with such a small infield? With the track's progressive banking, most passes were completed – in both the prototype and GT class – on the oval. If you cannot pass much on the infield section anyway, why not bypass it? Grand-Am president Roger Edmondson is not ruling that possibility out.
"At the moment, there are no plans on the part of Grand-Am to run oval racing," Edmondson says. "I'm not sure that that's the direction we want to go, but I'd certainly be willing to talk to our teams if that was proposed…. I'm not foreclosing anything, but I don't want to speculate on things I really don't know anything about."
We set out to learn about the details that Edmondson would want spelled out, and to ponder if interrupting the road course schedule with an occasional oval would be feasible. After all, the IndyCar Series
The image issue
The most common objection to the idea of the Rolex Series going oval racing concerned Grand-Am's image and brand. Adding an oval to the schedule would force many traditionalists to rethink the goal of the series.
"Road racing is part of our name," Edmondson says. "We are the Grand American Road Racing Association. [It's] what we know best."
Stay on top of the ever-changing face of sports car racing each month in RACER. Peter Brock relates how Audi and Peugeot's diesel duel at Le Mans is changing the technical landscape in our September issue, on sale now.
Scott Pruett knows both road and oval racing, and agrees that they should stay separate. The 2004 prototype co-champion, who ran a majority of the 2000 Nextel Cup season and eight seasons of IROC oval races, in addition to being a Michigan 500 winner in CART, feels there is a place for each formula.
"I think that NASCAR has got ovals covered," Pruett says. "I think if it's a road-course series, then it's a road-course series."
Sylvain Tremblay, owner of two Mazda RX8 GT cars, feels it's more a question of tradition.
"We understand the value of the rovals (road course and oval combinations)," Tremblay says. "It gets the fans closer to the racing; it's easier for newbies to really understand. But the purity of road racing – what really got us all involved – is the really flowing natural road courses: Road Atlanta, Sebring, VIR."
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