GX Class to be folded, introduced to USCR GTD Class

When the announcement of the United Sports Car Series was made, the merger of the American Le Mans Series and the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series, many knew there would be a lot of choices to be made pertaining to which classes would go where.

With a total of seven classes between the two, much reorganizing had to be done to put entrants where they belong in the new series.

One victim to the merger, would be the GX class announced this week. Low car counts have plagued the relatively new class, which focussed on sustainable technology.

Instead of sending the teams packing, the class will be merged with the new GT Daytona class as "the GX cars are close enough in performance that a merger of GX into the GT Daytona category is not that much of a reach," according to ALMS President Scott Atherton.

#70 Mazdaspeed Speedsource Mazda6 GX: Jonathan Bomarito, Marino Franchitti, James Hinchcliffe, Sylvain Tremblay

Photo by: Eric Gilbert

There will be four classes made for the new series. There will be the Prototype class, which combines the Daytona Prototype and the ALMS P2 prototypes, along with the Deltawing car. Prototype Challege will see the spec class carried over from the ALMS series, bringing the Prototype Challenge cars built by Oreca and engines provided by Chevrolet.

As for the production based cars, there will be the GT Le Mans class, which will be the ALMS GT class from ALMS. Cars will match the Automobile Club de l'Ouest's GTW specification.

Lastly, the GT Daytona class, which will see the three former GX class participate in will be the Grand Am GT class, and the Porsche 911 GT3 Cups from the ALMS GTC class.

Director of Mazda Motorsports North America is a supporter of the decision to move the GX class over, saying it will allow the SKYACTIV-D platform to continue competing.