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Unified US series to be known as United SportsCar Racing

United SportsCar Racing is the new brand name of the unified US series that will begin in 2014

The new name, which follows the merger of the Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series for next season, was announced at a glitzy press conference at Sebring on Thursday, ahead of the opening ALMS round on Saturday.

The full and exact name of the series has yet to be announced, however.

ALMS boss Scott Atherton, who is on the board of the new group, said: "It could be called a championship, a series, a cup or a challenge; there are any number of ways to skin that cat.

"If I had to take a guess, I would say that we will end up calling it the United SportsCar Racing Championship, although I think everyone will end up calling us just United SportsCar."

Grand-Am president Ed Bennett added: "The new name says it all. United SportsCar Racing reflects the fundamental spirit of how we are working together towards a common goal."

It was also announced that the new sanctioning body of the series will retain the historic IMSA name of the group that runs the ALMS.

Atherton explained that the move reflected the "tremendous equity recognised by teams, sponsors and race fans" in a body that dates back to 1969.

The unveiling of the names for the classes of the unified series was also part of the announcement: the top class made up of Daytona Prototypes, LMP2 cars and DeltaWings will be known as the Prototype category; the one-make LMPC ORECA-Chevrolets FLM09s will competed in the Prototype Challenge; the ALMS GT or GTE division will be know as GT Le Mans; and the Grand-Am GT category has been dubbed GT Daytona.

A firm set of rules for the series could be announced within "the next 90 days", according to Atherton.

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