Quote:
Originally Posted by tomtom72
GT1 was eliminated because no one wanted to play heads up with the old C5R's and C6R's. The Alms made "competition adjustments" to the corvettes using weight penalties and restricting motor output. Eventually there was not much that could be done to "level" the playing field in GT1 so corvette racing was tired of being frustrated and they agreed to a new class, GT1 with new rules.
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Hey Tom, just so you know, the ALMS made those sorts of adjustments up and down the board. It wasn't unique to Corvettes. In fact a quick read of the rules shows very biased monkeying to ensure "satisfactory" results. Diesels are far and away the biggest recipient. They can run larger engines, 2-3 times as much boost, and larger fuel tanks, than their gasoline powered counterparts. For some odd reason the ALMS has tried to position itself as being fairly "green". I never understood who the demographic was that cared about racing and also about being green.
Also, Aston Martin competed in GT1 from time to time, and certainly took it to the Corvettes at LeMans. GT2 existed the whole time, and was where the non-prototype excitement happened. Ferraris and Porsches and such were dicing it up. When Corvette quit GT1 to move to GT2, they just called GT2 "GT" (as there were no more GT1 entries).
I suspect the European competition for LeMans-style racing has hurt the ALMS a fair bit. There is the ACO's LeMans Series, the Intercontinental LeMans Cup (which includes two ALMS races), and probably to some degree the FIA's GT World Championship.