The Grand American Road Racing (Grand Am) series was established in 1999 after the demise of the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC). The original USRRC was created by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in 1962 and ran until 1968 when it was replaced by the Can Am series. In 1998 the SCCA revived the championship as an alternative to the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) series, however, it lasted only two seasons. It had moderate success the first year but in 1999 there was very little interest among competitors and the final two rounds were cancelled.

Like the USRRC concept, Grand Am was seen as an alternative to IMSA. With NASCAR support the Grand Am model differed from the IMSA series on a number of points:

  • cost control
  • allow private teams to be competitive
  • avoid being dependent on manufacturers
  • stable rules

The rules for the 2000 Grand Am season were basically the same as those used the previous year in the USRRC. The series had two major categories: Sports Racer (SportsRacer and SportsRacer II) and Grand Touring (GTO, GTU and American GT).

The inaugural season kicked off with the series premier event the 24-Hours of Daytona. It was followed by races at Phoenix International Raceway, Homestead-Miami, Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, Daytona, Road America, Trois Rivieres and ending mid-August at Watkins Glen.

In late August the Grand Am season ended at Watkins Glen with a 6-hour finale. A unique feature of this event was two qualifying races Friday evening to determine the final grid positions for the Six-Hour event. There was an 18-lap race for the GT classes and another for the SRP cars. The GT race was won by Irv Hoerr in an American GT Chevrolet Camaro. The SRP race was called after 10-laps with darkness setting in - the victory went to the No. 16 Dyson entry.

As usual, the best-subscribed class was GTU with 22-cars and the least – 4 in SRP II. At the finish 35-cars were classified as finishers.

A win in Friday night’s qualifying race earned James Weaver and his driving partners, Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace the pole for the Six Hours of Watkins Glen. Starting next to them on the front row was the Judd powered Doran Special which was shared by Didier Theys, Fredy Lienhard and Ross Bentley.
Driving the No. 81 G&W Motorsports Porsche GT3R was Darren Law and Mike Fitzgerald. This pairing had scored four GTU class wins during the 2000 season. Law won the GTU class in the qualifying heat Friday evening and the duo captured the victory in Sunday’s 6-Hour race. But Fitzgerald took the Driver’s title as the result of his finish at the season-opening 24-Hour race in Daytona.
James Weaver, Andy Wallace and Butch Leitzinger drove the No. 16 Riley & Scott. Wallace had a comfortable 20-second lead over Oliver Gavin in the final 30-minutes of the event but a late race caution eliminated the advantage. However, the race ended under a full course yellow and the trio was able to take the victory at the Six Hours of The Glen and secure the Driver's Championship in SRP for Weaver.
Finishing two laps behind the class winning Mustang Saleen SR were Eric Messley and Stu Hayner in the No. 46 Dodge Viper GTS-R. A class win at Daytona in the Paul Revere 250 and a poorly subscribed class allowed Messley to take a comfortable second in the final GTO Driver's standings.
The biggest threat to the G&W Porsche of Law and Fitzgerald was the GTU class entry from Kelly Moss Racing. The No. 7 Porsche GT3R was driven by David Murry, Lucas Luhr and Rick Polk. Although the Kelly Moss team had been away from professional sports car racing, they finished a very credible second in class and eighth overall. In addition, David Murry recorded the fastest GTU race lap.
It appeared that SRP II honours would be between the series leading Archangel Lola and the No. 6 TRP Racing Nissan Lola. Sharing the TRP entry was Buddy Rice, John Macaluso and Gary Tiller. As expected the Archangel and TRP led the class but accidents with less than 30-laps completed in the race took both cars out of contention. With the help of Snow/Schumacher Racing TRP was able to get the car back on track and finish second in SRP II.
The top GTO finisher was the Saleen-Allen Speedlab Mustang Saleen SR of Terry Borcheller and Ron Johnson. Borcheller and Johnson easily captured the 2000 Grand-AM GTO Driver's Championship. Their entrant, Saleen-Allen Speedlab, took the Team Owner's title.
Race incidents for the SRP II entries of Archangel and TRP allowed the Team Spencer Motorsports Kudzu to go unchallenged for the class victory in the Six Hour event. Drivers Dennis Spencer, Rich Grupp, and Ralph Thomas had proven to be competitive throughout the season but were no match for Archangel. Their consistency paid off and Spencer and Grupp finished second in the Driver’s standings.
The second G&W Motorsports entry was driven by John Morton, Price Cobb and Michael Schrom. The No. 80 Porsche GT3R finished third in the twenty-one GTU field and twelfth overall.
The last car to finish on the lead lap was the Robinson Racing Judd-powered Riley & Scott. The duo of Jack Baldwin and car owner George Robinson finished third. During 2000, the pair had a season-best finish of first at Mid-Ohio. Baldwin also scored a win with Irv Hoerr at Phoenix.
Going into the final round at Watkins Glen Belgian Didier Theys had a mathematical chance of catching James Weaver for the SRP championship. However, that possibility ended when co-driver Fredy Lienhard hit the guardrail while trying to avoid a slower. After 85-laps, they retired the car with engine and suspension problems this resulted in a ninth place finished in the SR class and forty-third overall.
The duo of Oliver Gavin and Jon Field had a solid weekend finishing second overall in Field’s Lola B2K/10 Judd. During the fourth hour of the race, Gavin and Butch Leitzinger in the Dyson Riley & Scott staged a terrific battle. Gavin earned the fastest race lap and led 30 of the 166-laps.
In addition to two GTU class entries, G&W Motorsports had a Porsche 911 GT2 EVO competing in GTO. This car was driven by Steve and Danny Marshall and Porsche racing veteran Hurley Haywood. This trio finished third in class - 7-laps behind the winning Saleen Mustang.
Finishing third in American GT was the Farrell-Seward Motorsports Oldsmobile Aurora. The car was driven by Glenn Seward, David Galpin, and Jim Yeames.
The No. 22 Nissan-powered Lola was entered by Archangel Motorsport for Larry Oberto, Ryan Hampton and Paul Macey. Hampton and Oberto captured seven SRP II victories during the 2000 season which was enough for them to secure the Driver's Championship. At Watkins Glen, a series of issues during the race resulted in a class finish of third.
The second Dyson Riley & Scott MK III was to be shared by team owner Rob Dyson, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and John Paul Jr. The car started seventh with Forbes-Robinson behind the wheel. On lap-60 the team pitted and Paul Jr. took over the driving duties. Unfortunately, on his out-lap he spun on some oil and crashed - resulting in the retirement of the car.
Craig Conway, Doug Goad and Troy Flis took the American GT honours at Watkins Glen. The Spirit of Daytona entry won the 2000 Team Owner's title but the win at The Glen was not enough for Conway and Goad to take the Driver's Championship. They finished second to Chevrolet Camaro driver Doug Mills in the final standings.

Pos.No.DriversCarEntrantLapsRetirementsPos.Class
116Weaver/Leitzinger/WallaceRiley & ScottDyson Racing Team166-1SR
237Field / GavinLola B2K/10Intersport Racing166-2SR
374Baldwin / RobinsonRiley & ScottRobinson Racing166-3SR
463Smith / Katz / DowningKudzu DLYDowning Atlanta, Inc.162-4SR
517Simon / Simo / LauerRiley & ScottHybrid Racing161-5SR
681Law / FitzgeraldPorsche GT3RG&W Motorsports158-1GTU
75Johnson / BorchellerSaleen MustangSaleen-Allen Speedlab157-1GTO
87Murry / Luhr / PolkPorsche GT3RKelly Moss Racing157-2GTU
962Spencer / Grupp / ThomasKudzu DLMTeam Spencer157-1SR II
1046Messley / HaynerDodge ViperTeam Viper West155-2GTO
1109Conway / Goad / FlisChev CamaroThe Spirit of Daytona154-1AGT
1280Morton / Schrom / CobbPorsche GT3RG&W Motorsports154-3GTU
1354Jennings / CollinsBMW M3Genesis Racing154-4GTU
1450Auberlen / FairbanksBMW M3Genesis Racing153-5GTU
1566Buckler / CollinPorsche GT3RThe Racers Group152-6GTU
1698Zitza / Lacey / HopkinsPorsche SuperGrand Touring Tech.151-7GTU
1707Haywood / Marshall / MarshallPorsche GT2G&W Motorsports150-3GTO
1811Bupp / Mills / LeavyChev CamaroLeavy - Hamilton Safe150-2AGT
1995Carter / Volk / PeteryRiley & ScottTRV Motorsport150-6SR
2018Pobst / HiskeyPorsche CarreraFordahl Motorsports148-8GTU
2138Schroeder / Wollek / MullerLola B2K/10Champion Racing147-7SR
2297Policastro/Policastro/JacksonPorsche CarreraGunnar Racing146-9GTU
2343Baron / Drendel / BuitoniPorsche GT3ROrbit146-10GTU
2467Wurtz / Manfredi / BiskupPorsche GT3RThe Racers Group146-11GTU
2558Knollenberg / Bouchier / ShalalaPorsche 911ProTechnik Racing145-12GTU
2649Lewis / McKeeverPorsche CarreraJack Lewis Enterprises145-13GTU
270Lacey / Wilkins / CzapkaPorsche GT2Doncaster Racing144Accident4GTO
2851Seward / Galpin / YeamesOlds AuroraFarrell-Seward144-3AGT
293Stefanowicz / PavlinaPorsche CarreraRS Motorsports139-5GTO
3084Finger / McNeil / SmithChev CamaroComer Racing Inc129-4AGT
316Rice / Tiller / MacalusoLola B2K/40TRP Racing127-2SR II
3234Pumpelly / AssentatoPorsche CarreraPumpelly Racing126Drive shaft14GTU
3377Ave / DoranPontiac Grand PrixDoran Lista Racing125-5AGT
3455Gleason / BurrowsBMW M3Genesis Racing123Accident15GTU
3500Curran / Jenkins / NesbittFord MustangOrion Motorsports122-6AGT
3688Julien / DumoulinPorsche GT3 CupPorsche Haus Racing120-16GTU
3712Kelleners/Schiattarella/van de PoeleFerrari 333 SPRisi Competizione118Fire8SR
3822Oberto / Hampton / MaceyLola B2K/40Archangel Motorsport111-3SR II
3921Aase/Hajducky/OnegliaPorsche CarreraAasco Perf/Alta-Vista104Spin17GTU
4091Hoerr/Frank/SchrammChev CamaroRVO Motorsports101Clutch7AGT
4104Rice / Earle / TreneryPorsche GT2Roock Motorsports94-6GTO
4225Haupt / WagnerPorsche GT2Roock/DM Motorsports89Engine7GTO
4327Theys / Lienhard / BentleyDoran SpecialDoran Lista Racing85Accident9SR
4444Aponte / BlancMazda RX-7Aponte Bros Racing78DNF18GTU
4561Brunk / FisherPorsche CarreraParagon Motorsports68Accident19GTU
4679Kicak / PillaPorsche GT2Free Spirit Motorsports61Axle8GTO
4720EFR / Paul, Jr. / DysonRiley & ScottDyson Racing Team60Accident10SR
4873Argetsinger/Stewart/ZiegelmanPorsche CarreraAutosport South60Gearbox20GTU
4931Smith / RuizChev CamaroCarolina Engines58Engine8AGT
5089Veilleux/Tancrede/OveringPorsche CarreraPorsche Haus Racing45Exhaust21GTU
5190Friedman / PeterPorsche CarreraMillennium Motorsports10Accident22GTU
5299Snow / SchumacherLola B2K/40Snow/Schumacher3Engine4SR II


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