ALMS: Petit Le Mans (October 4, 2008)

[RacingManiac]

Webcast

motors tv stream feed from the www.americanlemans.com

[RacingManiac]

McNish won....coming from a 2 laps down from the start after crashing on the recon lap. Took the lead with 40 min to go on the 2nd to last restart and held on to the lead after the last restart(Alonso style, lol). Peugeot have officially achieved nothing in 08....

Porsche won P2, with Castroneves and Briscoe winning. Dumas and Bernhard won the championship after all the Acura self destructed.....

Johnny O, Ron Fellows and Magnussen won the battle of the Vette....

Risi Ferrari of Salo and Melo won GT2

[Zytek_Fan]

It's not over yet

[LTSmash]

Wow, awesome finish by McNish. It was a great race all around.

[Wouter Melissen]

PETIT LE MANS: ALMS Drivers Feature at Goodwood Revival
A number of ALMS drivers and personalities spent their free weekend before Petit Le Mans driving vintage race cars at the Goodwood Revival in England. They just can’t get enough.
AUTO-RACING - The Online Motorsports Authority - NASCAR Racing Schedule - F1 - Formula 1 - Drag Racing - Motorsports - Indy Car - SPEEDtv.com

[Dino Scuderia]

The weather was perfect and the crowd was one of if not the biggest in Petit Le Mans history. I don't know if that was a fluke or if the battle of the diesels made everyone toss off the bad economy to see the race anyway. Those who went to see the Audi/Peugeot battle certainly got their money's worth.

It was a great race in every category...McNish wins from two laps down due to his throwing the car off the track in warmup on cold tires. Risi also came back and won from losing two laps to a throttle sticking problem.

Too bad the Mazda P2 coupe didn't get to race...I was watching it in T1 during warmup as the driver pushed too far to the edge and lost the back end then backed it deep into the tire barrier. The morning sun was brutal at the time which certainly could have been a factor. There was a lot of time to make a repair but the tub was too damaged to simply bolt on new parts.

Lot of heartbreaks for Acura...the Patron P2 crashed out in the first hour...the rest of them struggled to keep pace with the Porsche's except for the XM car which was very exciting to watch as it was on the limit and further the whole race....then involved in a massive crash in the dark. The Panasonic car never was a threat to the Porsche's however it was the only Acura to finish.

The passing was intense with so many P1's and P2's on track reeling in the GT's in the blink of an eye. I've never seen so much close passing with so few incidents...most of the 9 cautions had nothing to do with contact during passes.

Here are some pics, some from qualy, warmup and race.

[Dino Scuderia]

Petit Le Mans powered by the Totally New MAZDA6
Road Atlanta, Braselton, Ga.
Saturday's results
1. (2) Allan McNish, Scotland; Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Emanuele Pirro, Italy; Audi AG R10/TDI (1, P1), 394.
2. (1) Nicolas Minassian, France; Stephane Sarrazin, France; Christian Klien, Austria; Peugeot 908 (2, P1), 394.
3. (3) Marco Werner, Germany; Lucas Luhr, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (3, P1), 394.
4. (4) Ryan Briscoe, Australia; Helio Castroneves, Brazil; Porsche RS Spyder (1, P2), 394.
5. (5) Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Porsche RS Spyder (2, P2), 394.
6. (6) Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Sascha Maassen, Germany; Emmanuel Collard, France; Porsche RS Spyder (3, P2), 392.
7. (14) Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Andy Lally, New York, NY; Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Porsche RS Spyder (4, P2), 391.
8. (8) Gil de Ferran, Brazil; Scott Dixon, New Zealand; Simon Pagenaud, France; Acura ARX-01B (5, P2), 388.
9. (13) Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (6, P2), 384.
10. (20) Johnny O'Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Ron Fellows, Canada; Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Corvette C6.R (1, GT1), 365.
11. (21) Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Max Papis, Italy; Oliver Gavin, England; Corvette C6.R (2, GT1), 359.
12. (22) Jaime Melo, Brazil; Mika Salo, Finland; Ferrari F430 GT (1, GT2), 358.
13. (25) Joerg Bergmeister, Germany; Marc Lieb, Germany; Wolf Henzler, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (2, GT2), 358.
14. (9) Danny Watts, UK; Olivier Pla, France; Ginetta Zytek 07S (4, P1), 355.
15. (24) Dirk Mueller, Germany; Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (3, GT2), 355.
16. (7) Tony Kanaan, Brazil; Franck Montagny, Brignoles France; Marco Andretti, Nazareth, PA; Acura ARX-01B (7, P2), 347.
17. (27) Nic Jonsson, Sweden; Tracy Krohn, Houston, TX; Eric van de Poele, Belgium; Ferrari F430 GT (4, GT2), 346.
18. (26) Pierre Kaffer, Germany; Ben Aucott, England; Stephane Daoudi, France; Ferrari 430 GT (5, GT2), 344.
19. (35) Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Lonnie Pechnik, Pacific Grove, CA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (6, GT2), 339.
20. (36) Alex Figge, Hollywood, CA; Pierre Ehret, Santa Rosa, CA; Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Ferrari F430 GT (7, GT2), 331.
21. (38) Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Patrick Pilet, France; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (8, GT2), 311.
22. (29) Jonny Cocker, UK; Darren Turner, England; Paul Drayson, London, UK; Aston Martin Vantage (9, GT2), 294, Mechanical.
23. (33) Nicky Pastorelli, Netherlands; Francisco Pastorelli, Netherlands; Marc Basseng, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (10, GT2), 291.
24. (32) Anthony Lazzaro, Acworth, GA; Andy Pilgrim, Del Ray Beach, FL; Tim Pappas, Boston, MA; Doran Ford GT-R (11, GT2), 291.
25. (30) Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; Andreas Wirth, Germany; Panoz Esperante Ford (12, GT2), 282.
26. (11) Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Michel Jourdain, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (8, P2), 281, Contact.
27. (34) Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Comp Coupe (13, GT2), 280.
28. (23) Dirk Werner, Germany; Bryce Miller, Hoboken, NJ; Joerg Hardt, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (14, GT2), 277, Drive shaft.
29. (31) David Murry, Cumming, GA; Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; David Robertson, Ray, MI; Doran Ford GT-R (15, GT2), 263, Engine.
30. (18) Ryan Lewis, UK; Luke Hines, England; Georges Forgeois, New York, NY; Lola B07-17 Judd (5, P1), 237, Accident.
31. (10) Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (6, P1), 160.
32. (16) Stephen Simpson, South Africa; Jamie Campbell-Walter, England; Harold Primat, Switzerland; Creation CA 07 AIM (7, P1), 138.
33. (37) Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Tony Burgess, Canada; Bryan Willman, Kirkland, WA; Lola B06-10 AER (8, P1), 122, Accident.
34. (19) Stuart Hall, England; Dean Stirling, England; Liz Halliday, Rancho Santa Fe, CA; Creation CA 07 AIM (9, P1), 113.
35. (17) Johnny Mowlem, England; Gunnar Jeannette, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Stefan Johansson, Sweden; Zytek 07S (10, P1), 73, Accident.
36. (28) Tomy Drissi, Hollywood, CA; Marc Goosens, Belgium; Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, TX; Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 (16, GT2), 37, Mechanical.
37. (12) Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; David Brabham, Australia; Dario Franchitti, Scotland; Acura ARX-01B (9, P2), 16, Mechanical.
38. (15) Ben Devlin, England; Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Lola B07 46 Mazda (10, P2), 0, DNS.

[RacingManiac]

5 cars on the lead lap after 10 hours...it was a really close race, and P2 did stand a chance of winning.....

[yaacorvette]

I found this and thought it was neat...


From now until October 15, the American Le Mans Series is asking fans to pick their ultimate podiums in voting for the Drivers of the Decade (americanlemans.com/poll/poll.aspx).

The list of choices includes the elite of the elite. It consists of drivers with at least 35 starts, five Series victories and/or one Series championship. Fans can pick up to three when they vote. Voting will close at midnight on Wednesday, October 15 to coincide with the start of the Monterey Sports Car Championships. The results will be revealed during the weekend.