The first and only GRAND-AM – ALMS doubleheader, here at Road America, is intended to give teams and fans a preview of the unified presentation of the United Sports Car Racing series for 2014.

One of the by-products of the weekend will be comparative data with the two series on the same track, same weekend. At 4.048 miles, the historic 14 turn circuit with three long straightaways and major elevation changes is one of the fastest, most challenging and most popular venues in American sports car racing.

One of the biggest challenges facing series organizers is combining the GRAND-AM Daytona Prototype class (pictured right) with the ALMS P2 entries into a single class for 2014. The timing screens and qualifying session reports help illustrate the scope of the challenge.

The top two DPs qualified for Saturday’s Rolex Sports Car Series with best lap times of 2:00.028 and 2:00.575 for Dane Cameron’s Team Sahlen BMW-Riley and Jordan Taylor’s Wayne Taylor Racing Corvette DP respectively.

Meanwhile, Marino Franchitti (pictured below) put the Level 5 Motorsports HPD–Honda on the ALMS P2 class pole with a lap of 1:54.806. Guy Cosmo in the Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD Honda was second quickest at 1:55.622.

That means the difference from the P2 pole to DP pole is 5.22 seconds. That is a greater margin than the 3.382 second differential between the DP pole and the ALMS GT class pole taken by SRT Viper’s Jonathan Bomarito with a lap at 2:03.410. The ALMS GT class will transfer virtually intact to the new series in 2014 as the GT-Le Mans class.

Colin Braun of CORE autosport clocked a 1:57.630 time, or 2.398 seconds quicker than the DP pole time in taking the ALMS PC class pole for the single specification Chevrolet powered Oreca prototypes. The PC class is also expected to transfer with little change for 2014.

The GRAND-AM GT and ALMS GTC classes posted nearly identical pole times, with Scuderia Corsa Ferrari’s Leh Keen at 2:11.183 and ALMS GTC Pole winner Spencer Pumpelly turning in a 2:11.931.The GRAND-AM GT class will be renamed as GT-Daytona (GTD) in 2014.

The fastest qualifier of the weekend was Lucas Luhr in the ALMS P1 class Muscle Milk Pickett Racing HPD Honda at 1:51.460. The P1 class will not be included when the United Sports Car Series begins competition at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in January.

Pole Lap Time Comparison: