ALMS: Petit Le Mans (October 4, 2008)

[togos452]

Risi Competizione Inside Track: Petit Le Mans

Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New MAZDA6

American Le Mans Series :: World Class

# 62 Ferrari F430 GTC: Michelin tires with drivers Mika Salo and Jaime Melo

# 61 Ferrari F430 GTC: Michelin tires with drivers Tracy Krohn, Nic Jönsson, and Eric van de Poele

[togos452]

# 28 LG Motorsports Corvette with Lou Gigliotti and Tomy Drissi

revised GT2 Corvette with Dunlop tires

9-24-08

American Le Mans Series :: World Class

Final countdown for Flying Lizard Motorsports

Jörg Bergmeister going for 6th-straight PLM victory

American Le Mans Series :: World Class

Endurance race promotion underway

American Le Mans Series :: World Class

[yaacorvette]

PETIT LE MANS PRE-RACE NOTEBOOK

The entry list for Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New MAZDA6 continues to take shape with several teams adding drivers to their lineups for the annual 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic at Road Atlanta. The American Le Mans Series’ founding event gets the green flag at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 4.

In GT2, Flying Lizard Motorsports firmed up its lineup by reuniting Porsche factory driver Marc Lieb with fellow works pilots Jörg Bergmeister and Wolf Henzler in the No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. The trio won in class at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring this year. Bergmeister and Henzler can wrap up the driver’s championship next week, as can Flying Lizard in the team standings.

Johannes van Overbeek and Patrick Pilet will drive the No. 46 entry. Seth Neiman, Darren Law and Lonnie Pechnik are teaming in the No. 44 Porsche.

LG BACK ON THE GRID: Lou Gigliotti will bring his Riley Technologies-built Corvette C6 back to GT2 at Road Atlanta and team with Tomy Drissi, who will drive in GT2 for the first time in his American Le Mans Series career.

Gigliotti raced the Corvette for the first four rounds of the Series, teaming with Doug Stevens. The pairing added Marc Goossens for Sebring, and the Riley factory driver could end up as the team’s third driver at Road Atlanta next week.

The Corvette ran as high as third in class at Miller Motorsports Park in May before finishing sixth.

WATTS, PLA IN GINETTA-ZYTEK: Frenchman Olivier Pla, a two-time winner in GP2, will team with Danny Watts in Team LNT’s new Ginetta-Zytek LMP1 entry. Pla made the transition to sports cars this year and placed fourth in LMP2 with ASM-Quifel Racing at the 24 Hours Le Mans; one of his teammates was Dyson Racing’s Guy Smith.

Pla also finished third in P2 at the Le Mans Series’ season-ending race at Silverstone two weeks ago, where he showed blistering pace particularly during a triple stint behind the wheel.

A LOLA FOR AUTOCON: When Autocon Motorsports rolls out of the pits for the first practice at upcoming Petit Le Mans, it will be in a Lola-AER the team recently acquired from Chamberlain-Synergy Racing, rather than the Creation CA06H-Judd that it campaigned since the Utah Grand Prix last season.

The Lola is the fourth different car Autocon has run in the American Le Mans Series since its inaugural series entry of the a Riley & Scott MXIII at Petit Le Mans in 2004. In 2006 and part of 2007, Autocon ran an ex-Dyson Racing Lola EX257, and produced its best performances in that car including leading overall at Lime Rock, and finishing second and third in team points in consecutive years in the P1 class.

The car is outfitted with an AER twin turbo V8 engine, which Autocon will run at Petit Le Mans and the Monterey Sports Car Championship incorporating cellulosic E85R ethanol racing fuel, before deciding on its 2009 power plans.

Chris McMurry, Tony Burgess and Bryan Willman will race the Lola in its first American Le Mans Series start.

[togos452]

Tafel Racing Enjoys "Home Field" Advantage for Petit Le Mans

second in GT2 points

9-26-08

# 71 Ferrari F430 GTC: Michelin tires with drivers Dominik Farnbacher and Dirk Müller

# 73 Ferrari F430 GTC: Michelin tires with drivers Alex Figge and Jim Tafel (Pierre Ehret shown on IMSA's entry list)

Tafel Racing Enjoys "Home Field" Advantage for Petit Le Mans | Frontpage

Also, the # 07 Peugeot 908 had a bad crash at Road Atlanta today (Saturday).

[Dino Scuderia]

The eco P1 and DBR9 dropped out of the event.

[MPME]

Two weeks after Peugeot destroyed one chassis and damaged another, Pedro Lamy ends their test day with a major off at Road Atlanta.

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[henk4]

Originally Posted by MPME

Two weeks after Peugeot destroyed one chassis and damaged another, Pedro Lamy ends their test day with a major off at Road Atlanta.

AUTO-RACING - The Online Motorsports Authority - NASCAR Racing Schedule - F1 - Formula 1 - Drag Racing - Motorsports - Indy Car - SPEEDtv.com

did they put somebody with a machine gun next to the wreckage to prevent photographers to take shots of the engine?

[Dino Scuderia]

PEUGEOT BACK ON TRACK AT ROAD ATLANTA

Peugeot's testing effort at Road Atlanta was back under way Sunday afternoon.
Less than 24 hours after what looked to be a catastrophic crash, Peugeot's diesel-powered 908 HDi was back on the track Sunday at Road Atlanta in testing for the coming weekend's Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New MAZDA6. Nic Minassian brought the Peugeot coupe back into pitlane around 1 p.m. ET as the crew continued to tweak and sort a few remaining issues.

Pedro Lamy was not injured in the Saturday crash, which happened at the final downhill turn. He lost control trying to avoid a slower prototype but the car impacted the outside wall multiple times before coming to rest halfway down the frontstraight.

Minassian will drive with Stephane Sarrazin and Christian Klien in Saturday's annual 1,000-mile/10-hour American Le Mans Series classic. Sarrazin, a Petit Le Mans contestant with Aston Martin Racing, said most of the damage was concentrated on both the front and rear suspension. The monocoque was intact and not damaged.

"Our mechanics did a fantastic job working late yesterday and during the night to have the car prepared for today," Sarrazin said. "There are still some things that we need to work on. We are trying to work on some of the suspension settings and power steering system."

Peugeot will fight for overall victory against such manufacturers as Audi, which is unbeaten at Road Atlanta since debuting in 2000, along with Porsche, Acura, Zytek, Creation and Mazda.

American Le Mans Series :: World Class

[Wouter Melissen]

PRUETT: Tuesday Petit Le Mans Blog
Peugeot's 100M head start, Luhr checks his knobs, Corvette can't wait for their GT2, Pug can't crash and Audi's R15 starts to take shape...

AUTO-RACING - The Online Motorsports Authority - NASCAR Racing Schedule - F1 - Formula 1 - Drag Racing - Motorsports - Indy Car - SPEEDtv.com

[Kitdy]

Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen

PRUETT: Tuesday Petit Le Mans Blog
Peugeot's 100M head start, Luhr checks his knobs, Corvette can't wait for their GT2, Pug can't crash and Audi's R15 starts to take shape...

AUTO-RACING - The Online Motorsports Authority - NASCAR Racing Schedule - F1 - Formula 1 - Drag Racing - Motorsports - Indy Car - SPEEDtv.com

As usual a fascinating and very informative article from Mr. Pruett.

Couple things: why will the Corvette GT2 utilize a aluminum/steel chassis? (I actually typed aluminium with an "i" there I am sad to report.

Why are Porsche and Penske splitting up exactly or does anyone know? Is it purely a money thing? Because things with Penske have been pretty good in the past two (even three) years I'd say.

What is necessitating Audi's change to a V10 and will it be a 5.5L like the V12, or will they go smaller and rely on the different air-restrict or rules for an advantage?

[MPME]

that's what corvette wants to do -- they didn't say why

no one is buying rs spyders, they have a number of unsold chassis, and why pay penske to win and promote cars that aren't selling.

it's the engine they always wanted for the R10 but were overruled from above. dunno on displacement

[Zytek_Fan]

Originally Posted by Kitdy

As usual a fascinating and very informative article from Mr. Pruett.

Couple things: why will the Corvette GT2 utilize a aluminum/steel chassis? (I actually typed aluminium with an "i" there I am sad to report.

Why are Porsche and Penske splitting up exactly or does anyone know? Is it purely a money thing? Because things with Penske have been pretty good in the past two (even three) years I'd say.

What is necessitating Audi's change to a V10 and will it be a 5.5L like the V12, or will they go smaller and rely on the different air-restrict or rules for an advantage?

Well, there's the V10 TDI engine available now in the Touareg and Q7, which provides a good basis.

[Wouter Melissen]

Originally Posted by Zytek_Fan

Well, there's the V10 TDI engine available now in the Touareg and Q7, which provides a good basis.

That has been tried before and wasn't a big success. To beat Peugeot, Audi will need an engine that was designed as a racing engine from the ground up.

[Kitdy]

Originally Posted by MPME

that's what corvette wants to do -- they didn't say why

no one is buying rs spyders, they have a number of unsold chassis, and why pay penske to win and promote cars that aren't selling.

it's the engine they always wanted for the R10 but were overruled from above. dunno on displacement

I have an inkling that maybe not all of the chassis in GT2 maybe allowed to be aluminum or something.

As for the V12/V10, I find it strange that they were overruled form above for - why does it matter if it's a V10 or a V12 anyways - just go with what's best to win. Peugeot seems to think that the V12 was a good option as they opted for that configuration as well. I was more wondering the technical reasons as to why a V10 would be chosen over a V12. I suppose there are some ideal cylinder dimensions/volumes or something?

Originally Posted by Zytek_Fan

Well, there's the V10 TDI engine available now in the Touareg and Q7, which provides a good basis.

Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen

That has been tried before and wasn't a big success. To beat Peugeot, Audi will need an engine that was designed as a racing engine from the ground up.

Agreed - they can't have any pretense of production if they are gonna beat Acura and Peugeot.

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen

That has been tried before and wasn't a big success. To beat Peugeot, Audi will need an engine that was designed as a racing engine from the ground up.

Well as the season has turned out they would've won with an A3 TDI...

Concerning engine regulations I read somewhere that they want to introduce the LMP2 rules in LMP1. That means 2-litre forced induction engines and 3.4 litre normally aspirated units.