SPEED DEMONS.(Motorsports)

Byline: Steven Cole Smith

With the Trans-Am series in limbo, expect road racing fans to focus on the SCCA Speed World Challenge GT and Touring Car series even more this year. The World Challenge is one of the healthiest road racing series in North America.

The purpose, as stated in the series regulations, is simple enough: "To provide teams, manufacturers and aftermarket suppliers a competitive production-based race series in which to prove their products.''

"Production-based'' is the key here, as Challenge cars not only look a lot like their street-going counterparts, they share a lot of the same components. Equality is achieved through "competition adjustments'' to car weight, rev limits or intake restrictors. The 50-minute race length makes for perfect packaging for Speed Channel's television coverage.

The Grand Touring class includes cars with any displacement engines, allows forced induction and rear- or all-wheel drive. Horsepower for GT cars typically ranges from 425 to 550.

The Touring Car class has a 2.8-liter engine size limit, with a typical horsepower range of 225 to 275. Cars must be four-passenger models, and they can be front-, rear- or all-wheel drive. Both classes run on spec Toyo Proxes tires.

The Challenge series has its roots in the SCCA's showroom stock class that was born in 1972, and the World Challenge series debuted in 1990 with the two-class segregation that continues. The present format has been in place since 2000, and it works. There were 33 entries in last year's Touring Car season opener at Sebring, 31 in GT. Healthy fields continued for the rest of the races, too.