Grand-Am Daytona Prototypes

In an effort to reduce racing costs, organizers have instituted component-sharing for cars competing in the new series.

Sports car racing historically waxes and wanes through cycles of boom and bust, and today's tough economic climate has brought on another round of contraction. But this time, there is more at work than a global belt-tightening, asserts the Grand American Road Racing Series, the sports car racing division of the popular NASCAR stock car racing organization.

The problem is that sports car racing technology has reached such a pinnacle of exotic design and exorbitant cost that many traditional teams simply cannot afford to compete no matter the state of the economy, said Mark Raffauf, Director of competition for Grand-Am. As a result, the series has come up with an interesting money-saving rule: common components shared by all of the cars, no matter the chassis builder or engine manufacturer.