Bringing the American Le Mans Series and the GRAND-AM Rolex Series together under the one banner has been an enormous task. The men who made this happen were recognized today by GT LM tire partner Michelin.

Jim France, Chairman of IMSA and the founder of the GrandAm Series; Don Panoz, the Vice Chairman of IMSA and founder of the American Le Mans Series; Ed Bennett, the CEO of IMSA and Scott Atherton, president and COO of IMSA were presented with crystal Michelin Man statues as an expression of appreciation for their leadership in unifying the sport for the manufacturers, teams, sponsors and fans under the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship banner.

Known as Bibendum, the Michelin Man is one of the best known and well regarded corporate icons in the world.

In the 1890s, the Michelin brothers were leaving a fairgrounds exhibit when they noticed that a stack of odd-sized tires was being backlit by the sun streaming through a window. The resulting stack resembled a man made of tires, and so shortly thereafter, they commissioned an artist to create some poster art with a man made of tires.

The first poster depicted a banquet table with the Michelin Man raising a glass. The glass was filled with nails, screws and wire and broken glass and his toast was to the Michelin tires that drank up or overcame all obstacles.

Michelin will supply tires in the GT LM class for the Rolex 24 at Daytona for factory partners Aston Martin, BMW, Corvette, Porsche, Ferrari and SRT Viper.