ALMS news

[Rob]

WOW! RECORD-SETTING ENTRY FOR SERIES AT LONG BEACH
Thirty-five world-class entries to pack it in at historic circuit
2010-03-25

One of the largest fields for any event in the 36-year history of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach will take to the famed southern California street circuit for the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach. Thirty-five cars will compete in the second round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón championship.

The field for Long Beach is the largest for a non-endurance-length race in the Series since 2003 and is also the biggest at the circuit for the Series since its first race there in 2007. The grid is the largest of any kind at Long Beach in 15 years

“We were blessed with a fantastic field of world-class competitors at Sebring, and they certainly did not disappoint,” said Scott Atherton, Series President and CEO. “As we move on to the biggest and most strategic market for our series – southern California – we have been overwhelmed by entries, both the quantity and quality. There is no question we will have a record-breaking field for our fourth-annual event through the streets of Long Beach. I am confident that the tens of thousands of spectators in attendance at America’s premier street race will witness a great race among the world’s best sports cars, teams and drivers.”

The Series’ fourth consecutive visit to the 11-turn, 1.968-mile historic Long Beach track will boast a number of new features. First and foremost is the debut of the Series’ combined LMP class. Five separate marques will fight for overall victory – Aston Martin, Lola, Mazda and Porsche. Adding to the mix is the inclusion of two exotic closed-top prototypes: Drayson Racing’s E85-powered Lola-Judd and Aston Martin Racing’s Lola-Aston Martin with its screaming V12 production-based engine.

Another new addition to Long Beach is the first-year LMP Challenge class featuring ORECA’s FLM09 prototype. Seven FLM09s are entered after a successful opening race last weekend at the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, where the ORECA-built racers passed their debut with flying colors.

Among the highlights on the entry list are two cars for Level 5 Motorsports, the class winner at Sebring, and G-Oil’s Green Earth Team Gunnar. There is one new entry – PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports for prototype expert Johnny Mowlem and Tom Papadopoulos.

The GT class is its usual spectacular self – double-digit entries representing six manufacturers (BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Jaguar and Porsche). Risi Competizione’s duo of Jaime Melo and Gimmi Bruni enter as the championship leaders after another Sebring victory for the Ferrari F430 GT. Of course the list of challengers is extensive including Corvette Racing’s two Corvette C6.Rs (making their first Long Beach start in the class), JaguarRSR’s Jaguar XKRS and two cars each for BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team (second and third in class at Sebring) and defending Series and race champion Flying Lizard Motorsports.

A nine-car field for the GT Challenge class will be part of the Long Beach grid with new additions from 911 Design (Loren Beggs/Doug Baron) and Black Swan Racing (Tim Pappas/Jeroen Bleekemolen). Sebring class-winner Alex Job Racing leads the GTC contingent with three cars – one under the Car Amigo-Alex Job Racing banner.

The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is the second round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. The race, set at the historic Long Beach street circuit, is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 15 with coverage on SPEED set for 8 to 10 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche – a production of Radio Show Limited – as well as Sirius and XM. Visit the the Series’ schedule page for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com.

You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes) and on our Facebook page and the official YouTube channel.

[Rob]

ALMS, Laguna Seca: important points for Risi Competizioni

Maranello, 23 May – After a great showing from the Brazilian Jaime Melo in Friday’s qualifying was rewarded with pole position, the car he shared with Gianmaria Bruni finished the GT category of the race in fourth place, at the spectacular Laguna Seca circuit, which hosted the third round of the American Le Mans Series. Fifth place went to the Extreme Speed Motorsports F430 GT2, driven by Scott Sharp and Joannes van Overbeek, which had set the second fastest time in class during qualifying.

The Bruni-Melo car was caught up in traffic caused by one of the prototype cars on lap fifteen and also lost a few places after tangling with another car, in a race affected by strong winds and which was hard fought all the way to the chequered flag. The final reward was two important points in the championship battle. The three podium positions went to the winning Porsche 911 of Patrick Long-Jorg Bergmeister, followed by the BMW M3 of Dirk Muller-Joey Hand and the Chevrolet Corvette of Olivier Beretta-Oliver Gavin. Risi Competition leaves Laguna Seca in third place in the championship, heading into the next round of the prestigious series, scheduled for 11 July at Miller Motorsports Park, in Utah.

[Rob]

10.07.2010
Bruni leads Ferrari GT qualifying blitz

In an incredibly tightly fought session, with the top seven cars all within four tenths of a second of each other, Toni Vilander did a great job to place the #61 car in third place on the GT grid for tomorrow’s Utah Grand Prix**. His time of 1:47.909 was just two hundredths of a second ahead of the current GT championship leader, the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche.

Under the blazing Utah sun and in temperatures of 90o, Bruni completed just six laps – only two of which were at full qualifying speed. It was lap two which clinched the pole position, the Italian’s second in his ALMS career, and he then returned to the pits in order to preserve his Michelin rubber.

Despite encountering traffic from GTC cars on almost every lap, Gimmi Bruni was happy with the outcome although slightly frustrated that he didn’t find a completely clear lap.

Gianmaria Bruni: “It was a good session and the time was enough for P1 [in class], even if it was a bit of a mess with the GTC cars sometimes. Jaime and I have worked hard together with our engineer, Rick Mayer, to improve the set up, and the car was very good. Since we put it on the ground yesterday it’s been fast straight away and we’ve been fastest in each of the sessions so I’m very happy.

“Toni did very well to get p3 as I think the Porsche did a very good lap and he’s still very close to us all. I’m happy for Ferrari to have a 1-2-3 today in this very, very strong Championship. It has the best drivers, the best teams and many very good manufacturers all racing together – I’m proud to be here.

“Today was a good starting point and now we just have to win the race. I’m expecting a great race tomorrow – I think we’ll have a good chance.”

Toni Vilander was tasked with qualifying the #61 Ferrari F430 GTC and, watched by his team mate – Miller Motorsports Park debutant Giancarlo Fisichella – produced five flying laps of which the fifth and final one was his quickest. The duo have thoroughly enjoyed their time within the American Le Mans Series so far, and the Finn was also happy with the outcome of the day.

Tony Vilander: “Qualifying was quite okay and I’m very happy with the performance of car #61. The 62 has been very quick all week and we’ve been fighting to get the gap closer and this was our best lap time so far. Now our thoughts are immediately for the race and we may try to change it a little bit to get a better race car.

We are up there. We started with the same base set up as Jaime and Gimmi, the one they have found for the car during the year, and we have tried to personalise it a bit for me and Giancarlo. I’m happy with the car and everything and the result was good. To have p1 and p3 for Risi is good.”

** In post qualifying tech, a ride height infringement on the #61 car means that they will be forced to take the start from the back of the grid.

[Rob]

Risi Competizione No. 61 Ferrari F430 GT was moved to the back of the grid due to a ride-height violation discovered in post-qualifying technical inspections. Toni Vilander had qualified the car third; he will start the race with Giancarlo Fisichella handling the second stint.

Intersport Racing’s No. 89 ORECA FLM09 entry for LMPC elected to change tires and has moved to the back of the grid as well.

The other car at the rear of the pack is of course the Team Falken Tire Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. A day after it went up in flames during Saturday morning’s practice, Bryan Sellers took the Porsche out for an installation lap first thing Sunday morning, and the team spent more than an hour practicing pit stops.

Sellers was at the wheel Saturday morning when the rear of the car caught fire. He pulled into pit entry and exited the car as smoke moved from the rear of the car toward the front. The team replaced nearly – if not all of – every component piece from the seats to the rear of the car including suspension, bodywork, engine and mounts, brake parts…the list goes on.

Sellers said the car felt fine following the installation lap. The crew finished most of the rear rebuild Saturday afternoon. Sellers will start the race and hand off to reigning Le Mans GT2 champion Wolf Henzle

looks as if Ferrari bad luck continues even for Risi!!!!

[Rob]

LIZARD PORSCHE TAKES FIFTH IN ALMS GT IN UTAH, LOSES DRIVER POINTS LEAD TO FERRARI AND PORSCHE NOW THIRD IN MANUFACTURERS CHASE
2010-07-11

In the rough and tumble chase for the American Le Mans Series drivers and manufacturers GT class championship, the apple cart was turned upside down today by subtle, but results-altering incidents at the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park Sunday.

The Patrick Long (USA)/Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, which started fourth on the grid, looked like they were destined for a podium finish to retain their class points lead when the car suffered a puncture in its left rear tire and had to come in for a green flag pit stop with only 45 minutes remaining in the race. Long, who had moved into third place, and was challenging the Auberlen/Milner BMW for second, had to dive into the pits, and fell back to fifth place, where they finished to earn eight points.

The winning Melo/Bruni Ferrari won the class, however, and now leads the Lizard pair by two points, and BMW, with its second-place finish, has a one-point lead over Ferrari in the manufacturers standings with Porsche three points out of first.

"Our car was quick today, and we didn't have the fastest car in class all weekend, but we were still in line for a podium finish if it hadn't been for our two tire punctures -one during my stint and one during Patrick's session. Our crew did a great job keeping us in contention, and the points are so close that a position or two improvement at the next race will bring us back into the lead - and there are five races to go," said Bergmeister, who has won the GT driver's title the last two years with Flying Lizard Motorsports.

Patrick Long agreed, and emphasized the Lizard pit work to get them their eight points.

"Lightning struck twice and it was a rough day. But the Lizard strategy and pit stops were phenomenal. We had twice as many pit stops as some of our competitors and still finished in the top five," said Long.

The second Flying Lizard Porsche, with Darren Law and Seth Neiman (both USA) at the helm, finished 11th in GT.

Wolf Henzler (Germany), who co-drove the Team Falken Tire Porsche with Bryan Sellers (USA), finished ninth in GT after the team spent more than 12 hours rebuilding the back two-thirds of the car, including the engine, suspension, brake lines, electronics - everything you could think of - after a fire during the first practice session yesterday ruined their chance to set up the car and qualify.

"We started at the back of the pack, and had to use the race itself for the set-up work we would usually do on practice and qualifying days. We made two adjustments to the car during Bryan's stint, and then another one during my stint, and that took us from two seconds slower than our competition to less than one second behind, but in this class, that ruins your chances for a podium finish. The Falken Tires crew, with help from Porsche Motorsport North America engineers, really came together to make this finish possible," said Henzler.

In the overall LMP prototype class, the Muscle Milk Porsche RS Spyder continued its string of podium finishes - now up to nine since the car's debut at Mid-Ohio last year, as Klaus Graf (Germany) and car owner Greg Pickett (USA) finished third to maintain second place in the class points.

"It was a great day with another podium but it was a tough race because this is a hard place in an LMP car, it's very physical. I spent the last two hours in the car and the track was green - no yellow flags - nearly all the way," said Graf.

"We didn't change the tires on our last pit stop which was the right decision. The Michelin tires once again performed extremely well. We have such great partners with Porsche and Michelin - we couldn't ask for more," he said.

The GT Challenge class provided the closest competition of the weekend, with four different teams taking the class lead before the Black Swan Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup scored its second straight win with Tim Pappas (USA) and Jeroen Bleekemolen (Netherlands) at the helm. Although the Juan Gonzales (Mexico)/Butch Leitzinger (USA) Mission Foods Porsche maintained its points lead, and came across the finish line second, the car was excluded from the results as it violated the minimum ride height rules. This, the TRG Porsche of Henri Richard/Andy Lally moved up to second, and the Robert Rodriquez/Galen Bieker Porsche was
third.

Fastest race lap in GTC belonged to the Miller Racing Porsche of Luke Hines and Bryce Miller, who both set the fastest race lap during their stints, with Bryce's lap holding up as the fastest of the day in GTC. The team scored its third-straight fifth place finish, losing time due to a pit violation penalty and a fuel pick-up problem.

[Rob]

BERGMEISTER LOOKS TO STAY DOMINANT AT LIME ROCK
Flying Lizard hopes to regain points lead in tight GT race (aint go happen Risi, Melo&Bruni are on a roll)
2010-07-20

In any competitive field, dominance can come from two avenues: consistency and skill. Jörg Bergmeister has displayed plenty of both at Lime Rock Park during the last four years. It’s why he enters this weekend’s American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix looking for a fifth consecutive class victory in the event. He will do so with Flying Lizard Motorsports teammate Patrick Long in one of the team’s two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs.

Bergmeister is searching for the small areas where he and Long can improve over their Northeast Grand Prix performance last year. The pairing won in GT2 by a lap and placed fifth overall; Bergmeister also set the fastest lap of the race.

“I guess a lot of luck was a big part of it,” said Bergmeister, musing about his incredible successes, “but it takes (practice and teamwork) as well to win at a busy track like Lime Rock. Traffic will be a big factor in the race, so it needs a lot of patience to survive, and if you have done that, you should be in a good position at the end.”

But as the GT points race heats up, Flying Lizard could use Bergmeister’s realistic perspective. Flying Lizard has now fallen to third in the standings after leading the class entering the last race in Salt Lake City. Team rivals BMW Rahal Letterman Racing and Risi Competizione now sit first and second in the points, respectively, forcing Flying Lizard to look toward this weekend as a chance for redemption.

Bergmeister and the Lizards do have history on their side. Porsche hasn’t lost at Lime Rock since 2004.

“I’m not going to Lime Rock for a win but for as many points as we can get,” the four-time Series champion said. “The goal is to win the championship every year, and it would be more than nice to do it again as the competition gets stronger by the year.”


Bergmeister, Flying Lizard Motorsports and the rest of the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón will return to action at the American Le Mans Northeast Grand Prix. The two-hour, 45-minute race is set for 2:05 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 24 from Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn. SPEED will air the race live at 2 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche – a production of Radio Show Limited – as well as Sirius Channel 127 and XM Channel 242. Visit the Series’ schedule page for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com.

You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes) and on our Facebook page and the official YouTube channel.

[Rob]

45 entries for 13th Annual Petit Le Mans

Just days before the first track activity of the first Intercontinental Le Mans cup round at Silverstone American Le Mans Series organiser IMSA has announced 45 entries for the 13th Annual Petit Le Mans Powered By Mazda2 at Road Atlanta. The 45 cars will be racing in seven different classes.

In the main category, the LM P1 class, a total of seven cars are entered for the 10-hour race set to take place on October 2nd, 2010. Audi Sport Team Joest will enter two Audi R15 TDIs for Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish (#7) and for Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer (#9).
The Audi works team will face competition from two Team Peugeot Total entries, the #07 of Marc Gené, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson and the #08 of Pedro Lamy, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin.

The four diesel powered teams will be joined by American Le Mans Series regular teams Drayson Racing (Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Emanuele Pirro – Lola B09/60 Judd), Autocon Motorsports (Bryan Willman, Tony Burgess, Chris McMurry – Lola B06/10 AER), Intersport racing (Jon Field, Clint Field – Lola B06/10 AER).

In the LM P2 category American Le Mans Series front runners Patrón Highcroft Racing (David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud, Marino Franchitti – HPD ARX-01c), Team CytoSport (Klaus Graf, Sascha Maassen, Lucas Luhr – Porsche RS Spyder) and Dyson Racing (Chris Dyson, Guy Smith, Andy Meyrick – Lola B09/86 Mazda) will face opposition from France in Georgia. OAK Racing will send one of its Pecarolo 01 Judd’s to the United States, where it will be driven by Jacques Nicolet, Frédéric Da Rocha and Patrice Lafargue. Completing the LM P2 class is the Libra Racing Radical SR9 IES that withdrew from the last race weekend with an engine failure. Andrew Prendeville is the only confirmed driver at the moment.

As the Intercontinental Le Mans cup is running under Automobile Club de l’Ouest regulations GT1 cars are allowed and therefore the GT category will be known as GT2 again at Petit.

The final American Le Mans Series round will see several GT2 teams and cars make their debut in the series. ACS Express Racing is set to make its American Le Mans Series debut with their Doran Ford GT for Brandon Davis, Boris Said and Townsend Bell, while the brand new Panoz Team PTG Panoz Abruzzi is still set to make its debut on home soil. Right now the Panoz Abruzzi is listed with Ian James and Benjamin Leuenberger, both already familiar with the Panoz group. Also on the list is a second JaguarRSR Jaguar XKR with a yet to be determined crew as well as the second Robertson Racing Ford GT for Anthony Lazzaro, Robert Bell and David Murry.

A total of seventeen GT2 cars will race at Road Atlanta. Next to the new cars the regular teams in action are Corvette Racing (O’Connell/Beretta/Garcia – Gavin/Magnussen,/Collard), Team Falken Tire (Sellers/Henzler/Ragginger – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR), Robertson Racing (David and Andrea Robertson), Flying Lizard Motorsports (Law/Neiman – Bergmeister/Long), Risi Competizione (Fisichella/Vilander/Salo – Melo/Bruni), JaguarRSR (Gentilozzi/Goossens/Dalziel), BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team (Müller/Hand – Auberlen/Milner) and Extreme Speed Motorsports (Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher – Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa).

Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller will join the GT battle with a Porsche Motorsports entered Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid in the GTH class.

So far the only entry in the GT1 category is the Atlas eFX Team FS Saleen S7R but the Austrian has yet to confirm its entry, even though the intention to race at Petit Le Mans is certainly there.

In the LMPC category we find seven entries. Genoa Racing has not yet announced its drivers, but the other teams have. Level 5 Motorsports will stick to its regular crews of Tucker/Bouchut and Tucker/Wallace, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports will have Ricardo Gonzalez and Luis Diaz again. Green Earth Team Gunnar will be back at Road Atlanta with Christian Zugel and Gunnar Jeannette. The only team stepping up is Intersport Racing, which will enter two FLM Oreca 09s for Antonio, Lucas and Matt Downs as well as the regular #89 entry for Kyle Marcelli, Chapman Ducote and David Ducote.

And last but not least GTC. The Porsche GT3 class will also have seven cars, all of them familiar names.
Alex Job Racing will run the #23 Porsche for Bill Sweedler, Romeo Kapudja and Jan-Dirk Lueders, while Timothy Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen will be joined by Jeroen’s brother Sebastiaan Bleekemolen again.
911 Design and Paul Miller Racing (Orbit) will again run cars for Loren Beggs/Doug Barron and Bryce Miller/Luke Hines. TRG (Henri Richard/Andy Lally/Duncan Ende), WERKS II Racing (Robert Rodriguez/Galen Bieker) and Velox Motorsports (Shane Lewis/Jerry Vento) will complete the field.


www.planetlemans.com