Sports Car Racing: Basically Like the Periodic Table

Remember when you were in school, either in high school or university? There was often a time where a teacher/professor would ask you to memorize a series or list of things and then you’d regurgitate them back for the sake of getting a good grade.

Sports car racing is the motorsports equivalent of the periodic table of the elements. I say that because throughout my own educational career, there were numerous times I’d need to memorize the 100-plus element table, and it’s why to this day elemental symbols like 79-Au for Gold and 47-Ag for Silver still stick. Or 25-Mn for Manganese, but who’s counting.

It’s with that as a reference point that sports car acronyms could be as confusing as the periodic table. Because for all the classes there are that exist in North America (or worldwide, but let’s take this one step at a time), the acronyms do match the name of the class.

There’s just so many that they rival the table in sheer volume and, easy confusion unless you take a substantial amount of time to study them.

So, here we go with “Acronyms 101: A Guide to 2014 Sports Car Racing in North America, and Maybe the World if We Have Time.” Remember, there will be a test on this later.

The first element/acronym that applies to more than simply one championship is BoP (#1). That stands for Balance of Performance. That’s what sanctioning bodies (FIA, IMSA, SCCA, etc.) use to help equal widely varying cars that could range anywhere from V10-powered SRT Vipers to smaller V6 turbos, and anything in-between. It’s not an easy task, and it’s a thankless job … because anyone who doesn’t get the necessary BoP will bitch about it constantly.

Now, we’ll move to the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship, or TUSC (#2). TUSC is the amalgamation of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS, #3), and GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series (no acronym here, because it never caught on. People just called it “GRAND-AM” or “Rolex Series”). TUSC is the merged series for 2014 … yet is still in a marketing/branding identity crisis because it began as United SportsCar Racing (USCR, #4) before TUDOR entitlement sponsorship and is also colloquially referred to as TUSCC (#5) in case folks don’t identify SportsCar as one word. Sanctioning body IMSA is #6 on the Sports Car Table of Elements, and has been through several iterations.

So, we’re through six acronyms and we haven’t yet got to the classes yet. Ready, set, go…

The lead class is P (#7), which combines Daytona Prototypes (DP, #8), LMP2 (P2, #9) and the radical DeltaWing (DW, #10) into one class. The DPs are not ACO (#11) homologated; P2s are ACO homologated, and the DeltaWing doesn’t fit into any technical set of regulations. But it has perpetually spawned “Ace and Gary” jokes for the life of its existence given its shape. ACO, we’ll get to again later.

PC (#12) is the second prototype class, combined of spec-ORECA FLM09s, which were introduced to ALMS in 2010. They require a pro-am lineup and have a lower cost than the flagship class; P2 is also cost-capped but not a spec-chassis.

GTLM (#13) is the ACO GTE class racing in America, but because we don’t have enough acronyms, the American series has adopted this name for the TUDOR Championship. Lucky #13 combines GT – for Grand Touring, but that’s not an acronym on its own because it fits into so many other acronyms – with LM for Le Mans. Most of these cars can go to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is run by the ACO, if they so choose.

GTD (#14) is not a GTE class, but instead GT Daytona, which combines 2013 Rolex Series GT class teams and 2013 American Le Mans Series GTC (#15) class teams. Rolex Series GT cars, except for the Porsche GT3 Cup, were eligible to continue into this class, as were ALMS GTC teams except not with their Porsche GT3 Cups. Porsche created an all-new car for this class, just for North America, the aptly named Porsche 911 GT America. This is a pro-am class and has the highest number of cars entered, north of 25, for the 2014 Rolex 24 at Daytona. GTC continues, but in other championships around the world and not limited to the aforementioned Porsche GT3 Cup. GTC in the ALMS stood for “GT Challenge.”

To add to the TUSC confusion, SRT Viper, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari are running cars with nearly the same nomenclature in both classes. There are two factory SRT Viper GTS-Rs and two factory BMW Z4 GTLMs that run in GTLM, and a solitary SRT Viper GT3-R and BMW Z4 GTD that run in GTD. Porsche, as mentioned above, has the new 911 GT America in GTD and the factory-run 911 RSR in GTLM. Ferrari seeks to be more confusing, because it has the Ferrari F458 Italia in GTLM and simply the Ferrari 458 in GTD. Easiest way to tell them apart is that the GTLM cars have red number badges and wing endplates; GTD’s are blue. The GTD cars are modified GT3 cars… GT3 (#16) is another animal in and of itself.

We’re not done, of course, with TUSC. Now we introduce the four driver rankings, which, this is perfect, nearly match up with four elements from the periodic table! These aren’t official acronyms but because we can never have enough acronyms, I’m just going to arbitrarily declare that Platinum (#78, Pt), Gold (#79, Au) and Silver (#47, Ag) match their place and symbol on the periodic table. No symbol exists for the fourth category, Bronze, but because it contains Copper elements I’ll give it the Copper number and symbol (#29, Cu).

The driver rankings system is a way of separating the pros from the wankers. For example, Anthony Davidson is an ex-Formula One driver who is now a factory shoe driving for Toyota’s Le Mans team. He’s a Platinum. The wanker who took him out in the below video at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, Pierguiseppe Perazzini, is a Bronze.

Determining Gold and Silver is a bit trickier, and for a couple years drivers with the Silver designation could race in more places because they met the “Am” driver requirement, even if they weren’t necessarily an “Am” driver. Because it’s sports car racing, and it’s complicated.

Now you’ll note here we’ve mentioned a few acronyms – FIA, ACO and GTE – that we haven’t elaborated on. So this will serve as a perfect transition into the FIA World Endurance Championship and its acronyms.

ACO (#11) is the Automobile Club de l’Ouest. They run the 24 Hours of Le Mans. They are French, and are kind of a big deal. The FIA (#17) is the Federation International d’Automobile. They are a slighter bigger deal, run most of worldwide motorsport and sanction several championships, including F1 and the WEC (#18). In 2012, the WEC succeeded the ILMC (#19), which was the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (2010-’11), as an FIA-sanctioned world championship for sports car racing. The ILMC not only didn’t receive that sanctioning, but it was a clunky name to begin with.

The WEC has four classes: LMP1 (#20), LMP2 (#21), GTE Pro (#22) and GTE Am (#23). LMP1, of course, because, this isn’t confusing enough, will see a new set of regulations enter in 2014 for both factories and privateer entries. Essentially, the factories have to run to a certain mandated fuel number while privateers won’t. And there are designations for hybrids versus privateers within LMP1. LMP2 is cost-capped and open-tire, unlike in TUSC, where P2 cars are still cost-capped but run on Continental Tires.

GTE Pro is the GTLM class in TUSC but with a different class name; GTE Am allows GTE-spec cars as runs in GTE Pro but they have to be at least one year old to be eligible, and requires at least one Bronze driver.

LMP3 (#24) was announced as a new 2015 class for the ACO, similar to PC as runs in America, but with different machinery.

(pausing for a gallon of water)

Now that those are straight, time to get to the dozens of other sports car acronyms.

Pirelli World Challenge (PWC, #25) is North America’s longest continually running sports-car championship. It celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2014. It allows full FIA GT3-spec cars (hey, there’s acronyms 16 and 17 together!) to run in its GT (#26) class, has created a GT-A (#27) subcategory (but not class) for gentlemen drivers, and also features the GTS (#28), TC (#30), TCA (#31) and TCB (#32) classes for 2014. More than 15 manufacturers are involved and more than 80 cars are projected to race. And there’s way more ways of denoting what those all entail, but I’m already at about 1,500 words.

IMSA also sanctions the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC, #33) which features the GS (#34) and ST (#35) classes. That’s a barnburner form of racing, usually on TUSC weekends, of more than 60-70 cars on average. Other series sanctioned by IMSA include Cooper Tire Prototype Lites, Ferrari Challenge, Lamborghini Super Trofeo, Porsche GT3 Cup USA and Porsche GT3 Cup Canada.

There’s also NASA (#36) and ITC (#37), sports car organizations that exist but I’m not sure if anyone really knows much more about them other than their acronym. Maybe the competitors.

Worldwide, you have things like the Blancpain Endurance Series (BES, #38) and other GT-type series that widely embrace GT3 machinery.

You can’t know sports car racing without knowing Radio Le Mans (RLM, #39), led by the renowned voice of sports car racing John Hindhaugh, with responsible adult Eve Hewitt and the team that make their broadcasts around the world can’t miss. The flagship is the weekly Midweek Motorsport (MWM, #40) and the Midweek Motorsports Listeners’ Collective, that that has spawned.

RLM, unfortunately, has been passed over for MRN (#41) for TUSC radio coverage, which make RLM and many sports car fans around the world collectively SMH and ask WTF.

I haven't mentioned SCCA (#42) yet, so I am now. Apologies for the oversight.

The beauty of sports car racing is its variety, diversity of machinery and friendly, open paddock. The downside is that it is bloody confusing to keep track of. And I say this having covered it regularly for six years.

And even after all the above words, I know I’m almost guaranteed to have missed an acronym … or 12.

Here’s my completely unofficial recap:

Acronym #	Acronym	Description
1	BoP	Balance of Performance. Designed to level playing field
2	TUSC	TUDOR United SportsCar Championship: The official acronym
3	ALMS	American Le Mans Series: 1999-2013, part of TUSC
4	USCR	United SportsCar Racing: TUSC before TUDOR arrived
5	TUSCC	TUSC with an extra, stupid, unwanted C
6	IMSA	International Motor Sports Association. TUSC sanctioning body
7	P	Main Prototype class in TUSC
8	DP	Daytona Prototypes; part of P class in TUSC. Was in Rolex Series
9	P2	P2; part of P class in TUSC. Was in ALMS
10	DW	DeltaWing; part of P class in TUSC. Radical car from ALMS
11	ACO	ACO; head sanctioning body of the 24 Hours of Le Mans
12	PC	Prototype Challenge; spec P class in TUSC. Was in ALMS
13	GTLM	GT Le Mans; open GT class in TUSC. Was in ALMS
14	GTD	GT Daytona; modified GT class in TUSC. Combo Rolex/ALMS
15	GTC	GT Challenge; former class of ALMS, integrated into GTD
16	GT3	Most popular level of GT cars; modified for TUSC and PWC
17	FIA	FIA; head sanctioning body of WEC
18	WEC	FIA World Endurance Championship; world sports car chp.
19	ILMC	Non-FIA sanctioned forerunner to WEC
20	LMP1	Top class of WEC. Open to factories/privateers. New 2014 regs
21	LMP2	Cost-capped second prototype class in WEC, w/open-tire regs
22	GTE Pro	GTE-spec lead GT class in WEC. Open all around.
23	GTE Am	GTE second GT class, requires 1+ year older machinery
24	LMP3	Future class, because we don’t have enough classes
25	PWC	Pirelli World Challenge; sprint series in North America
26	GT	Lead class of PWC
27	GT-A	GT subcategory in PWC, open to gentlemen drivers
28	GTS	Grand Touring Sport, GTS open to Camaros, Kia, Porsche, etc.
29	Cu	Bronze driver ranking, to sync up with Copper of table
30	TC	Touring Car class in PWC
31	TCA	Touring Car A class in PWC, designed to lower cost
32	TCB	Touring Car B class in PWC, entry level professional racing
33	CTSCC	IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge
34	GS	Conti’s lead class
35	ST	Conti’s second class
36	NASA	Another sports car racing organization
37	ITC	International Trophy Cup, another NA sports car series
38	BES	Blancpain Endurance Series, races in Europe
39	RLM	Radio Le Mans, ace broadcasters of sports car racing
40	MWM	Midweek Motorsport, weekly show on Wednesdays led by RLM
41	MRN	MRN Radio, who are not RLM. NASCAR-owned radio station
42	SCCA	Sports Car Club of America. They do Runoffs and way more.
47	Ag	Silver driver ranking, to sync up with Silver in table
78	Pt	Platinum driver ranking, to sync up with Platinum in table
79	Au	Gold driver ranking, to sync up with Gold in table