Despite having a dominant year with a record-tying eight class wins in the LMP2 category, the Lowe's Fernandez Acura ARX-01b might not be back for the 2010 ALMS season. The Indianapolis-based race team, one of the three original announced by Acura back in 2006, has failed to secure a major sponsor for next year and will cancel its racing program if it fails to find one by the end of the month. As is often the case, however, misfortune can often lead to opportunity. England-based Strakka Racing has made plans to purchase the Acura ARX-01owned by Fernandez Racing and will compete with the car in the European Le Mans Series next year as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The deal has yet to be finalized, but Strakka has already informed the LMS organizers of its intentions and has signed British driver Danny Watts, who previously drove a Panoz Esperante GT-LM in the series.
Throughout the history of motorsports several Hollywood actors have had aspirations to be professional racecar drivers. Steve McQueen and the late Paul Newman come to mind, both of whom were very successful, and some modern era actors have also had a go at it too like Jason Priestley, Eric Bana and the annoyingly ignorant Franky Muniz. Adding to that list is Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey, who has competed in the Daytona 24 Hour Race and the Baja 1000 and has been competing in Grand Am's GT class since 2007. This June he'll be stepping up his game even further when he takes on the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Team Seattle and last year's Grand-Am Koni Challenge champion, Joe Foster. Dempsey will be driving a Ferrari F430 GT prepared by Advanced Engineering who has previously won the GT2 category in the FIA GT, although he'll have his hands full taking on the likes of factory-supported teams from Porsche, BMW, Panoz, and Ferrari. We wish him the best of luck!
It really is a shame that Audi has pulled out of the American and European Le Mans Series, choosing only to run its new R15 TDI Le Mans Prototype racer at this year's 12 Hours of Sebring in March and 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. All that money, effort and time to develop a replacement for one of the winningest cars in all of motorsports seems like a waste on just two races, even if they are the sport's biggest. This image released by Audi shows the design of the new R15 TDI ahead of its track debut in March. The new diesel-powered prototype car is much more radical compared to the R10 that it replaces than that car was to the R8. The most noteworthy difference is a new front end with an elevated nose that features two supports extending down to the pavement-scraping front chin spoiler. There's clearly some F1 influence up front, though Audi opted not to switch to a closed cockpit design like Peugeot uses for its 908 HDi.
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This year's exciting 24 Hours of Le Mans ended a short time ago. In deference to those of you who might have recorded the race,
As many of you are well aware, the 24 Hours of Le Mans kicked off during the last hour. American viewers can catch the action on SPEED TV. Unfortunately, unlike the old Speedvision days, there isn't full 24-hour coverage.
Here is the SPEED TV schedule:
All times Eastern
* Saturday, June 14: 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM: Live Coverage
* Saturday, June 14, 9:00 PM - Sunday, June 15, 9:30 AM: Live Coverage
SPEED airs assorted NASCAR and other (summarily unwatchable) assorted programming between Noon and 9:00 PM today.
Web Coverage:
* RadioLeMans.com has excellent live streaming audio. Just go to their homepage and click the Listen Live link. It dovetails nicely with the SPEED TV coverage (when it's on).
* The official Le Lans site has standings, photos, and info. You can also get web video of the race there at Club24Web, but you will need to open your wallet to do so.
As we reported yesterday, Peugeot was clearly the fastest in qualifying for this weekend's running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The record-setting runs of all three 908 HDi diesel-powered LMP1 cars places Peugeot's entire field of entries 1-2-3 on the starting grid. That's impressive considering two of Peugeot's car crashed during the past two weeks of practice. Audi is hoping that its team's experience, quicker pit stops and more fuel efficient R10 LMP1 cars will eventually carry it past the Peugeots, despite starting fourth, fifth and seventh on the 55-car grid. And thanks to the speed of Lola Aston Martin driver Stefan Mücke whose petrol-powered car earned the sixth spot on the starting grid, not all the front runners will be diesel-powered.
As for classes other than LMP1, the next fastest LMP2 class was dominated by the Porsche Spyders not surprisingly, while LMGT1 is being led by the #63 Corvette Racing C6.R. The Corvettes will be chased this year by the particularly fast #50 Larbre Competition Saleen S7 and some slower but determined Aston Martin DBR9s from Aston Martin Racing. Finally, LMGT2 will be another great battle between Porsches and Ferraris, with the #76 Imsa Performance Matmut Porsche 911 GT3 RSR on pole for the class. Remember the amazing GT2 class finish of last year's race between Flying Lizard's Jorg Bergmeister in a Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo in a Ferrari 430GT? If not, watch it again here as a reminder of why Le Mans is absolutely amazing. Also check out this great post at UltimateCarPage that has a detailed breakdown of all 55 cars with an image of each one and a list of their drivers.
The 76th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans takes place this weekend, and just like last year, Audi and Peugeot will be duking it out in front with their diesel-powered LMP1 cars. The Audi R10 is a proven race machine, both durable and fast, but the Peugeot 908 has often times proved faster. Late yesterday at the first qualifying session for the endurance race, the 908 proved to be the fastest by far when it shattered the lap record at Le Mans by 7.8 seconds! The car was being driven by French driver Stephane Sarrazin, who man-handled the 908 around the track in 3 minutes and 18.513 seconds. A truly amazing feat, though what's more incredible is that the next five fastest times also beat the previous lap record, two of which were Audi R10s. Unfortunately, the second and third fastest times behind the fastest Peugeot 908 were two more Peugeot 908s. The Peugeot cars are clearly faster than the Audis so far in qualifying, but that was the case last year and Audi pulled out a win just like it has the past four years in a row. Unlike the Le Mans Series races where Peugeot has won the first three races so far this year, Le Mans is about endurance and Audi has proven seven out of the last eight years that it can last longer than the rest.
