Camaro, Ferrari and Porsche Battle for Championship in Grand-Am

The curtain will drop and the end of an era will take place this Sunday when the final Champion will be crowned in the Grand-Am’s GT class. The series announced in September 2012 that it will be merging with the American Le Mans Series, which had been Grand-Am’s main US competitor since its inception. The two series will fully merge next year under the banner of United SportsCar Racing.

The final race at Lime Rock Park, in Lakeville, Connecticut, comes down to a battle in the GT class between Porsche, Ferrari and Camaro for the top spot. Separated by only 11 points, Andy Lally of Magnus Racing, a team based in Salt Lake City, Utah, leads the points standings with 313. Lally was the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year before moving back into the Grand Am GT series. Team mate John Potter also sits at the top with Lally.

In second place going into the race, only four points behind the leaders is the Scuderia Corsa #63 Ferrari team with driver Alessandro Balzan. A post-race penalty after the last race moved the team up two positions in the final results which awarded the team and driver with four additional championship points.

GM factory drivers Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, winner’s of last week’s race, take the Stevenson Team’s #75 Camaro out to bolster the Steveson Motorsport’s full season team of Robin Liddell and John Edwards. The #57 Camaro of Liddell and Edwards are a mere 11 points behind and within striking distance of the championship.

There was drama on the final lap at Lime Rock race a year ago. Lally’s team miscalculated its fuel amount by a mere fraction which left that car sixth place in the final results. Balzan finished third a year ago with co-driver Johannes van Overbeek. If both of these team have problems, the Stevenson Motorsports Camaro will be there waiting.

Robin Liddell and John Edwards have won a class-high four races but the highs have been offset by four finishes of eighth or worse. As a result, the No. 57 Camaro drivers enter the weekend 11 points behind Potter and Lally, and would need a win with the Magnus team finishing seventh or worse to capture the title.