In the fiercely contested GT Le Mans (GTLM) class, it has been a surprisingly different story than what we’ve seen in the prototype class of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship in 2014.

The big factory teams from Corvette Racing, BMW Team RLL, Porsche North America and SRT Dodge Viper and top independents Risi Competizione Ferrari and Falken Porsche have all been extremely well matched, but just Porsche and Corvette have led the champagne spraying.

The new Porsche North America factory team prevailed in the opening acts at the Rolex 24 at Daytona with Nick Tandy and Richard Lietz (with Patrick Pilet) taking the honors while teammates Patrick Long and Michael Christensen (with Joerg Bergmeister) prevailed at Sebring.

At that point, the 2013 ALMS GT champions Corvette Racing and Antonio Garcia and “the world’s second fastest Magnussen,” Jan (father of McLaren F1 rookie Kevin) took over, reeling off four consecutive victories at Long Beach, Monterey, Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with the new Corvette C7.R.

BMW Team RLL took podiums early in the season and looks to leverage the Bobby Rahal led team’s experience at Indianapolis to good advantage for Bill Auberlen with Andy Priaulx and Dirk Mueller with John Edwards.

The Dodge Vipers from SRT have been very quick, finishing second and third at both Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
Marc “the Goose” Goossens and Dominik Farnbacher delivered the first win for Viper at Road America last August.

Teammates Kuno Wittmer and Jonathan Bomarito combined to win the GTLM pole and and set fastest lap in Canada. Ferrari claimed the GT victory at Le Mans and Giancarlo Fisichella is a veteran of the IMS F1 battles.