2009 American Le Mans Series Thread

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Check the FIA GT3. Cars are highlevel sportscars, but the development that has gone in to them is very little compared to even GT2. They (GT3) are about 5 seconds slower around Monza than a GT2 car. GT1 is another 5 seconds faster, approximatly. Monza is mainly about speed, so the difference is slightly larger on twistier tracks.
 
BACK TO THE FRONT: BERNHARD, DUMAS WIN IN UTAH

Americanlemans.com
With all the focus at Miller Motorsports Park on the new de Ferran Motorsports Acura entry, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas did what they do best - win in the American Le Mans Series for Penske Racing and Porsche. The duo took a hard-fought victory Sunday in the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix presented by the Grand and Little America Hotels.
Dumas' pole-sitting Porsche RS Spyder crossed the finish line 22.656 seconds ahead of Patrick Long in the second Penske Porsche that he shared with Sascha Maassen. The de Ferran entry of Simon Pagenaud and team owner Gil de Ferran placed third, nearly 29 seconds back.
"The key to the victory was the race strategy," Bernhard said. "They brought me in during the second yellow and put me out of sequence so I had a clear run to the end. I was pushing quite a lot. It was hard because I couldn't see the other people from the P2 class so all I had was the split time on my dash and I knew I just had to keep pushing."
Dumas and Bernhard captured their first overall victory for Penske since a season-opening win at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring with Emmanuel Collard. The pairing also were winners in LMP2 after seeing their eight-race class winning streak end in the previous round at Long Beach.
Dumas inherited the lead when Audi Sport North America's Emanuele Pirro pitted from first place near the two-hour mark but still had to withstand challenges from the two diesel-powered Audi R10 TDIs. Lucas Luhr suffered a slow puncture with 30 minutes to go while running within three seconds of Dumas, and Pirro made contact with David Robertson's Ford GT just two minutes later and was knocked off course. The No. 1 Audi was penalized three championship points for the incident (IMSA Code 5.6).
"When I got in there was little more than one hour to go so I knew I had to be careful in my stint," Dumas said. "I knew with 20 to 30 minutes to go when the de Ferran car had to pit, I just had to take care of the car and win. For sure our team made a very, very good strategy and did not make any mistakes. We pushed at the right times."
The first six cars were from the lighter, more nimble LMP2 cars that took advantage of its cornering abilities around the 3.048-mile, 15-turn circuit.
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Code: 
[Color=red]LMP1[/Color]
1. Marco Werner/Lucas Luhr - Audi AG R10/TDI .
2. Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro - Audi AG R10/TDI 
3. Jon Field/Clint Field/Richard Berry - Lola B06/10 AER 

[Color=blue]LMP2[/Color]
1. Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Porsche RS Spyder 
2. Sascha Maassen, Germany; Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Porsche RS Spyder 
3. Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Simon Pagenaud, France; Acura ARX-01B 
4. Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Porsche RS Spyder
5. Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B 
6. Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder 
8. Christian Fittipaldi/Bryan Herta, Valencia, CA; Acura ARX-01B 
9. Ben Devlin/Gerardo Bonilla - Lola B07 46 Mazda 
10. Scott Sharp/David Brabham - Acura ARX-01B 


[Color=green]GT1[/Color]

1. Johnny O'Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Corvette C6.R 
2. Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Oliver Gavin, England; Corvette C6.R 


[Color=yellow]GT2[/Color]

1. Wolf Henzler/Jörg Bergmeister - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 
2. Johannes van Overbeek/Patrick Pilet - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 
3. Dominik Farnbacher/Dirk Mueller - Ferrari F430 GT 
4. Tom Milner/Tom Sutherland - Panoz Esperante Ford .
5. Seth Neiman/Darren Law - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 
6. Doug Peterson/Lou Giglilotti/Eric Curran - Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 
7. Harrison Brix/Patrick Friesacher - Ferrari F430 GT 
8. Gunnar Jeannette/Johnny Mowlem - Ferrari F430 GT 
9. Rueben Carrapatoso/Francisco Pastorelli/Nicky Pastorelli - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 
10. Nathan Swartzbaugh/Craig Stanton - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 
11. David Murry/David Robertson/Andrea Robertson - Doran Ford GT-R 
12. Mika Salo/Jaime Melo - Ferrari F430 GT 
13. Joel Feinberg/Chris Hall - Dodge Viper Comp Coupe 
14. Jonny Cocker/Paul Drayson - Aston Martin Vantage GT2 
15. Alex Figge/Jim Tafel - Ferrari F430 GT 
16. Marc Basseng/Dirk Werner - Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

Boy, that start was incredible. Jon field surprised the hell out of me when he got by the audis and was even able to to keep up on the straight away. With that kind of performance from a Petrol LMP1 car, perhaps there is hope in the P1 class.
 
We have time between here and the next ALMS event (remember that Le Mans is not an ALMS event), so why not a chance to sound off?



John's Debate! - Making a Statement?
How do you think racing fans could have responded if the lone Lola in LMP1 (the one Jon Field raced) won the race with Audi having problems? Do you think it would be good for sportscar racing if this only Lola won the race overall? What about if it won P1 honors?
 
I think for the first time in a long time, there may actually be hope for the P1 class. The fact that a small team like intersport had a car heavier then the P2s but was able to keep up, pass, and actually hold off the Audis for a bit may actually help sports car racing abit. I certainly hope it does.
 
I think I´ve been through all this before, but here we go;
I have no idea why P1 and GT1 are lacking so horribly in the ALMS. Maybe there just isn´t enough interest in Le Mans over in the States?
The European LM Series are not lacking any interest at all, since P1 has 16 running cars at every event. GT1 has lost some appeal though, and has only 7 entries. GT1 is due to change sometime soon though, so that noone is willing to develop and race something in that class in understandable.
What the ALMS needs is American factory efforts in both P1 and GT1. That would get some attention!
 
I think ALMS could do a better job of promoting itself. I think another problem is there are no marquee American drivers right now. They don't have a face for the sport for the American public to identify with. NASCAR has Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr. etc... Indy has Danica Patrick but no ALMS has no way to speak of.
 
kjb
I think ALMS could do a better job of promoting itself. I think another problem is there are no marquee American drivers right now. They don't have a face for the sport for the American public to identify with. NASCAR has Jeff Gordon, Dale Jr. etc... Indy has Danica Patrick but no ALMS has no way to speak of.
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Problem with that is that supposedly the cars are the stars. The appearance of Makes like Ferrari, Porsche, Chevrolet, Audi, Acura are whats suppose to attract the fans. I do agree that their could be a better way to promote the series though.If I remember, didn't they actually used to have commercials advertising the series in 2004?
 
The American Le Mans Series is ready to go back to work starting with a race on perhaps the shortest track on their schedule- Lime Rock Park. Some say these cars shouldn't be running at a track like this. However, it still remains one of America's finest road courses. It has picturesque beauty and really feels like a park with a race track. Anyone think this could be an outright Penske Porsche win? Or maybe even an Acura winning outright?
 
JohnBM01
The American Le Mans Series is ready to go back to work starting with a race on perhaps the shortest track on their schedule- Lime Rock Park. Some say these cars shouldn't be running at a track like this. However, it still remains one of America's finest road courses. It has picturesque beauty and really feels like a park with a race track. Anyone think this could be an outright Penske Porsche win? Or maybe even an Acura winning outright?
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Well, that happened this weekend in the form of the #9 Patron' Highcroft Acura. I missed that race thinking it was gonna be tape delayed only to find out it was live on Speed:grumpy:
 
RACECAR
Well, that happened this weekend in the form of the #9 Patron' Highcroft Acura. I missed that race thinking it was gonna be tape delayed only to find out it was live on Speed:grumpy:
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It was tape-delayed. The race was yesterday but Speed aired it today.

Fantastic race. It's a shame about Dyson, but it was a very exciting finish. Congrats to Acura, Brabham, Highcroft and the whole team.

I also enjoyed the introduction for the top class qualifiers: "I'm David Brabham and I'm from the same place you are: Planet Earth."
 
What a dramatic end to this race! Timo Bernard gave a "love tap" to the Dyson Porsche. It's no way for the Poughkeepsie, NY-based Dyson Racing to celebrate 25 years... in the gravel trap by a Penske Porsche. Maybe it was divine intervention or black magic in which not only the #7 Porsche committed a foul (stop and go penalty for spining out the Dyson Porsche), then ended up spinning off the track out of turn one... giving the win to a hard-charging Highcroft Acura team!



My debate is on the new-look Lime Rock Park. Tracks change a lot after repaving. So let's see what you thought about this 1.54 mile course:

John's Debate! - New vs. Old
What do you think about the repaved Lime Rock Park? Especially if you seen on of the Audi get owned (pwned) in that new chicane, what do you think about all the insanity that took place in that section? Do you like the newer configuration or the older configuration of this beautiful track?



NBC has the next round of ALMS action from the Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course in Lexington, Ohio next Sunday. It starts a Midwest swing including a trip to the Toronto area's Mosport next month. Congratulations to the Highcroft Acura team on winning outright at Lime Rock Park.
 
JohnBM01
Especially if you seen on of the Audi get owned (pwned) in that new chicane, what do you think about all the insanity that took place in that section?
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What happened to the Audi? The coverage i watched only caught the back end of the incident. It seemed to me that the Aston missed it's braking point and ploughed into the back of the Audi which looked to be passing a Ferrari around the outside at the time.
 
Best guess is that one of the GT2 cars didn't give the Audi any leeway heading into that chicane... when a GT2 doesn't cooperate with a charging P1 car = P1 gets in trouble and MAYBE the GT2 car as well.
 
TheCracker
What happened to the Audi? The coverage i watched only caught the back end of the incident. It seemed to me that the Aston missed it's braking point and ploughed into the back of the Audi which looked to be passing a Ferrari around the outside at the time.
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They explained at one point what happened. Audi overtook a Ferrari and then overtook an Aston Martin on the inside line and then tried to cut back into the racing line and brake straight in front of the Aston. What really happened is the Audi clipped the Aston Martin when violently cutting back to the racing line (the outside) and that spun the Aston and the Audi. The Ferrari just avoided crashing into them. So it was for the most part, completely the Audi driver's fault. GT2 Ferrari didn't have anything to do with the incident.
 
I can't decide if it's more pathetic the two Vettes got 5 min. penalties and are still in first and second or hilarious that since there's no competition for them they decide to screw each other. Someone really needs to get these guys off their high horses...
 
did the vettes take each other out? i only caught the last 11 minutes due to user error in converting eastern time to central standard.
 
No, I wish those tards did though... After listening to that Redneck Fellows ( or was it O' Connell... ?) talk he should go to Nascrap racing, he'd fit right in. :rolleyes:
 
V1P3R
No, I wish those tards did though... After listening to that Redneck Fellows ( or was it O' Connell... ?) talk he should go to Nascrap racing, he'd fit right in. :rolleyes:
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It was Johnny O'Connell to be exact. And whats your problem with him anyhow?
 
V1P3R
No, I wish those tards did though... After listening to that Redneck Fellows ( or was it O' Connell... ?) talk he should go to Nascrap racing, he'd fit right in. :rolleyes:
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What is wrong with a country accent?

And I find it funny you call NASCAR NASCRAP just after you slammed the ALMS for having 0 competition in GT1.

Only 2 cars in a class = CRAP

But I guess in your narrow minded brain anything is better then NASCAR, even the ALMS where P1 cars get beat by P2 cars on a regular basis because Audi is 5 seconds a lap faster then the other mom and dad P1 cars so they have to equalize them by giving the P1 audis a bogus weight penalty

Once again, another example of somebody brainlessly finding a stupid reason to blast NASCAR when their own 'superior' racing series is anything but perfect
 
i actualy find the fact that the 2 corvettes being rough with each other good. it shows that even though they are teammates they are strictly buisness and even when they only have each other to race they are still racing and going for a win not just driving around the circuit. and that is just yet another reason why corvette racing is always at the top because even when they dont have to go all out they do just so that when the time comes they are ready.
 
NapoleonMikey
i actualy find the fact that the 2 corvettes being rough with each other good. it shows that even though they are teammates they are strictly buisness and even when they only have each other to race they are still racing and going for a win not just driving around the circuit. and that is just yet another reason why corvette racing is always at the top because even when they dont have to go all out they do just so that when the time comes they are ready.
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Yeah, I really liked that. The bonus is, as long as both get penalized, they are the only 2 GT1 cars in that race, so they still are equal, and are only worried about each other.
 
I'm surprised no one has mentioned how good the race was. David Brabham's LMP2 charge for the lead in the last half hour was sick. Also that pass he made on the LMP2 car that was 2nd in class with 10 minutes to go was just awesome. He did a pass extremely similar to Mika Hakkinen's pass on Schumacher at Spa-Francorchamps in 2000. He nearly beat the Penske at the very end, but just didn't get enough luck with traffic. Amazing charge though.
 
He probably would have gotten by if he hadn't had that mistake with about five minutes left. Of course, the save there was absolutely amazing.
 
Studentdriver
He probably would have gotten by if he hadn't had that mistake with about five minutes left. Of course, the save there was absolutely amazing.
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Yep that mistake probably cost him. However, David Brabham's car handling skills are clearly just really freaking good. I cannot praise this man enough in the sportscar racing world. He is just really good.
 

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