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.
It's been a while since we've heard anything from Panoz Auto Development. The American sportscar manufacturer came onto the scene in the late Nineties with their AIV Roadster, and later went onto create various road and race versions of the Mustang-based Esperante. Around the same time company founder Danny Panoz started building cars, his father Don Panoz also started the the American Le Mans Series, vaulting the family business from automaker and race team to race series organizer.
In the past few years, Panoz has crafted several Le Mans prototype racers and even some IndyChamp Car chassis. The company has achieved limited success with its front-engined LMP1 program, but the Esperante GT-LM racecar made history when it took GT2 class victories at both the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 2006. More recently, the company had been focusing its energies on a revolutionary new front-engine LMP1 design called Abruzzi to compete with the field of mid-engine rivals. Reports from the motorsport world, however, now indicate that Panoz has aborted the Abruzzi project in favor of a new GT2 program. But as we all know, GT racers are based on road cars, and that's exactly what Panoz appears to have in the works.
According to Autosport, Panoz decided against a purpose-built racing prototype in favor of a road car, and from that they plan make a racing version. Exactly what the car will be like is up to speculation at this point, but we're looking forward to finding out.
The 2009 ALMS season came to a close last night with a four-hour race into the sunset at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. While several championships still needed to be decided going into the race, much of the attention during the weekend was given to Gil de Ferran, who was competing in the last race of his career. His uniquely-liveried Acura ARX-02a not only looked fantastic, but it was quickest by a slim margin in qualifying. It seemed everyone hoped de Ferran would go out on top, but the sister Acuras in P1 and P2 were determined to make it difficult. In GT2, it was anyone's guess who would come out on top. A Corvette put down the quickest qualifying lap, but both the Flying Lizard Porsche team and the Risi Competizione Ferrari would be fighting hard to secure the championship. Would Gil de Ferran win his last race as a driver? Would the Corvette manage to hold off the Porsches and Ferrari? If you don't plan on watching the tape-delayed race on SPEED TV this afternoon at 2:30 pm EST, then read on to find out.
The ALMS race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this weekend is Gil de Ferran's final race of his career, and he plans to go out on top. The Brazilian captured pole position yesterday in his Acura ARX-02a, which features a unique livery to honor Jim Hall, the man who de Ferran first raced for. The milk white paint and number 66 roundels mimic Hall's legendary Chaparral race cars, two of which were on hand at the track. Gil de Ferran's qualifying time of 1:11.206 was less than a tenth of a second off the class record, which was followed closely by fellow Acura driver David Brabham. Brabham and the rest of the Patron Highcroft Racing team need only to complete seventy percent of the race to wrap up the LMP1 championship.
The Lowe's Fernandez Racing LMP2 Acura team continued its season-long dominance by capturing its fourth pole of the season and hopes to record its eighth victory this year. Although the team secured the class championship at Petit Le Mans two weeks ago, it hasn't secured sponsorship for the 2010 season and hopes to make a good final impression.
In the hotly-contested GT2 category, Corvette Racing continued to prove that it will be a top contender no matter what class it competes in. Jan Magunessen edged out the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 in qualifying for Corvette's first ever GT2 pole position. The main battle will be between the Ferrari and the Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 RSR, both of which are still in contention for the championship.
Remember when Le Mans was the name of a town in France and the race that took place there? International endurance racing has come a long way since then – the headline race has branched out into the European Le Mans Series (LMS) and the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), and race organizers ACO are now preparing for the start of the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series.
Like the European series – but unlike ALMS which is supervised by IMSA – the Asian LMS is being operated directly by the Automobile Club de L'Ouest (ACO), the century-old group responsible for the 24 Hours of Le Mans since its inception. Taking the place of the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge, the Asian Le Mans Series is set to kick off at the end of October with the 1000km of Okayama at the circuit that hosted the Pacific Grand Prix in 1994 and 1995.
Race organizers have done their best to attract both local entries as well as established teams from the American and European championships, and they have brought in some big guns: Aston Martin will be there in the top LMP1 category along with a pair of private entry Audi R10s and a few privateer Orecas and Judds. A few Porsches, Astons, Lambos, Saleens and Ferraris are set to round out the lower classes, including Rahal Letterman's BMW M3 GT2, fresh from their double class victory at Road Atlanta. All in all, 23 entries have been confirmed for the inaugural event, which will include two races in support of the World Touring Car Championship round the same weekend.
The Audi vs. Peugeot endurance racing battle will continue next month at Road Atlanta as the German team finally confirmed it will bring the R15 TDI back to America. Peugeot announced several weeks ago that it would run its Le Mans-winning 908 HDI at both the Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca. So far Audi has only committed to the 10-hour race in Georgia. Audi Sport Team Joest will be running the two R15s for the German automaker.
The diesel-powered racers opened up the season battling at the 12 hours of Sebring with the R15 grabbing a debut victory. From there, the Franco-Prussian war moved on to the 24 Hours of Le Mans where Peugeot finally came through with a win after three years of trying.
Audi motorsports boss Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich blamed a lack of testing for the team's failure in France this year and plans to have the team test at Road Atlanta the week prior to the race next month. Hopefully, Audi will stick around for the California race, as well. Full press release after the jump, and thanks to all for the tips!
Nigel Mansell's name is still a legend in motor racing. He remains the most successful driver in British racing history and one of only a handful of drivers to win both the Formula One title and the CART championship. It's been fourteen years since he last competed in a grand prix, but he'll soon be back behind the wheel in pursuit of more trophies at the 1000 Kilometers of Silverstone, the Le Mans Series race at the same track where he won the British Grand Prix three times.
To sweeten the deal, Mansell will be joined in his headline return by his own 21-year-old son, Greg, who recently left the Formula Renault 3.5 series. Rounding out the three-man team will be Ginetta chairman Lawrence Tomilson, who also took home a GT2 class win at Le Mans in 2006.
The American Le Mans Series is responding to economic conditions and the decline in the diversity of racing machinery on the grid by changing up the racing classes in its ranks for next season. Rather than imposing spending caps that would be tough to enforce, the series is adding new classes that are closer to production machinery.
Starting in 2010, the two-tier LMP1 and LMP2 categories will be merged into one LMP class, while a new LMP Challenge class will be added starting with the inclusion of Oreca's lower powered Formula Le Mans cars. However, the old system will remain in place for the Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans races so as to allow European teams to compete in the series' premier American races.
In the GT categories, GT2 class will be remade as GT in the wake of GT1's decline, with a new GT Challenge mirroring the LMP Challenge class for Porsche 911 GT3s. ALMS CEO Scott Atherton has left the door open to other GT3 competitors if they are interested, so hopefully we'll soon see the Audi R8 GT4 get the necessary mods to run in the GTC class.
The Audi R15 TDI should be hitting the track competitively for the first time next week at the 12 Hours of Sebring. The new diesel-powered racer will be running against the Peugeot 908 HDi and Acura's new ARX-02a next Saturday. The oil-burning Audi and Peugeot will be competing under modified LMP1 rules that have cut their wing widths by 40 mm (for all P1 cars) and reduced the size of their air restrictors and amount of turbo boost pressure for the diesels. The new R15, which replaces the very successful R10, has been optimized with a reduction in weight, radically new aerodynamics and an all-new powertrain to work with the new rules while still trying to outrun the Peugeots.
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Given its relatively small current model line, you'd be forgiven for categorizing Aston Martin as a small automaker. But the British sportscar-maker is one of the busiest in the business. As if developing the new Rapide four-door coupe didn't demand enough resources from a company that recently went independent after years under the Ford umbrella, Aston rolled into Geneva with the new V12 Vantage, DBS Volante and One-77, while reviving its Lagonda marque with a new crossover concept. Oh, and while they were at it, they redesigned London's famous double-decker city bus.
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