2010 12 Hours of Sebring

[Dino Scuderia]

Entry list:

http://americanlemans.com/files/even...ring_Entry.pdf

DYNAMIC SEBRING ENTRY LIST TO OPEN 2010 SEASON
Contenders in every class will vie for victory in 58th edition of 12 Hours



With the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón concluding its annual Winter Test at Sebring International Raceway, the focus now shifts to the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. The opening round of the 2010 season will see 35 of the world’s best sports car drivers, teams and manufacturers grace the grid for America’s greatest and most demanding endurance race.

Fifteen prototypes and 20 GT-class cars are on the initial entry list. Four closed-top coupes are among the entries in LMP1 – two diesel-powered factory Peugeot 908 HDi FAPs, Aston Martin Racing’s V12-powered Lola-Aston Martin and Drayson Racing’s Lola with Judd power. All four entries will also use Sebring as preparation for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Lola contingent in LMP1 at Sebring will include Autocon Motorsports, Intersport Racing and Drayson Racing.
At Sebring, they will run alongside open-top prototypes from Creation Autosportif – with its Creation CA10-Judd – and AER-powered Lola B06/10s from Intersport Racing and Autocon Motorsports with the latter also bound for Le Mans.

The overall race-winner may not necessarily come from the P1 class. A solid collection of LMP2 cars are entered including Patrón Highcroft Racing, last year’s LMP1 season champion. The team will be running the Honda Performance Development ARX-01c for the first time although the car is an updated version of the P2-spec ARX-01b that Patrón Highcroft drove to four victories – including one overall – in 2008.

Patrón Highcroft Racing, last year's LMP1 champion will return to LMP2 at Sebring with the HPD ARX-01c.
Dyson Racing will enter its Dunlop-shod Lola B09/86-Mazda - another coupe – as the team starts its second season in partnership with Mazda and BP. Muscle Milk Team CytoSport will race at Sebring for the first time with its Porsche RS Spyder, a car that claimed an overall victory in the 12 Hours in 2008.

The GT2 class has it all for fans with quantity AND quality. An eye-popping 14 entries from nine teams representing six manufacturers – BMW, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Ford, Jaguar and Porsche - are on the entry list. There are five two-car teams - Corvette Racing with its Corvette C6.Rs, Flying Lizard Motorsports with two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs, two BMW M3s for BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team, and a pair of Ferrari F430 GTs for Risi Competzione and first-year entrant Extreme Speed Motorsports.

Team Falken Tire and JaguarRSR each will make their Sebring debuts in GT2.
In addition, Team Falken Tire and Black Swan Racing are part of the Porsche camp with one 911 GT3 RSR each. Robertson Racing’s Doran-Ford GT is entered alongside JaguarRSR’s Jaguar XKRS, which will make its first start in the 12 Hours. Jaguar also serves as the Official Car of Sebring International Raceway.

The Series’ two Challenge classes are storylines in themselves. The Le Mans Prototype Challenge (LMPC) cars will feature the ORECA Group’s FLM09 prototype, a slightly smaller race car than its LMP1 and LMP2 counterparts. The first race for the new class features five strong entries. Primetime Race Group and Intersport Racing each have previous experience in the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón, with Intersport also campaigning its Lola LMP1. Genoa Racing, Level 5 Motorsports and Green Earth Team Gunnar will make their first starts in the Series.

The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car will make its first appearance in the Sebring 12 Hours as the basis for the GT Challenge class. Alex Job Racing will make its long-awaited return to Series competition with a two-car effort, as will The Racers Group with a single-car entry. Velox Motorsports, GMG Racing and Werks II/P7 Racing were competitors in last year’s Challenge class.

The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón will open its 12th season with America’s greatest sports car race, the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida from March 17-20. The green flag will fall at 10:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, March 20 with live coverage on SPEED. Visit the American Le Mans Series' schedule page for ticket and accommodation information.

American Le Mans Series - News

[RacingManiac]

ALMS is definitely in a slump now....even with the GTC and LMPC in the field they can only squeeze 35 cars....

[henk4]

ALMS is definitely in a slump now....even with the GTC and LMPC in the field they can only squeeze 35 cars....

it contributed to our decision to cancel a trip to Florida.

[Dino Scuderia]

Yup, it's a sad deal....but considering P1 class and GT1 class never really had a showing it could be a lot worse.

[henk4]

Yup, it's a sad deal....but considering P1 class and GT1 class never really had a showing it could be a lot worse.

if only Audi could have put its act together on time...

[Cobrafan427]

The GT battle should be a pretty good one. Flying Lizard vs Corvette Racing vs. Risi Competizione vs. the new ferrari team w/ Sharp and van Overbeek. P2 might be a good battle too, it depends on if the Lola Mazda can be fast and durable. Unfortunately P1 is just a tune up for Peugeot to gear up for the LMS season and 24 hrs of Le Mans.

[Kitdy]

So what is the ALMS going to look like after Sebring?

I'm not particularly interested in the spec classes of LMPC and GTC and P1 is decimated, so I guess if I watch it will be GT that I'm interested in. It's a shame to see the series in such a state of disrepair, especially when as far as I know the LMS is doing great, and the GT1 WC looks to be very interesting with a nice, big field with a few different manufacturers represented.

Will UCP be attending any GT1 WC races?

[Soloracer]

it contributed to our decision to cancel a trip to Florida.

I shall be there shooting photos... Even though its going to be boring.

[Dino Scuderia]

I shall be there shooting photos... Even though its going to be boring.

Why would it be boring? There should be more actual racing going on than ever with the number of GT2 cars.

[Soloracer]

yeah, but only two of them are going to compete....

[Chernaudi]

if only Audi could have put its act together on time...

You mean if the ACO got its act together sooner. In August, the ACO posted it's proposed 2010 rules. Then after meeting after meeting after meeting with manufacturer heads and team owners, it took them until December to post what was 90-95% the same as what they proposed in August. Both Audi and Highcroft's Duncan Dayton have said that if the ACO delivered on their rules in October as promised, this wouldn't be an issue.

And IMSA saw the writing on the wall, too. Hence, the screwed up class structure for this year. That too, was largely the ACO's doing with piddling with the rules and IMSA had to take control for their own sake. Unless IMSA and the ACO can have a coherant set of rules that works for both the ALMS and LMS for 2011, the ACO can kiss their agreement with IMSA good bye.

Good riddance there, but where would that leave Audi? The R15 was designed for the ALMS, but has/will rarely race on the tracks it was designed for unless Audi gets a waiver from IMSA/ACO that applies to the ALMS for 2011. Sad thing is, the modifcations that Audi would've needed to do to make the R15 suit the rules were relatively minor, but due to the ACO's piddling, Audi had to stall on everything else on the R15 that they needed/wanted to do to fix the problems at Le Mans in '09(namely the 10 mph gap to the 908s down the straights). We've already seen what the abscene of Audi had done to the ALMS, and I think that there's a pattern of wait and see for manufactures who are waitng to see what Audi does as far as the ALMS, as IMSA doesn't have the depth of professional privateers that the LMS has.

If only the ACO followed though with their promises or just said "screw it, well declare rules stability for 2010", this discussion would be moot. And it would be largely moot now, if Audi wanted to race a "rules" compliant car. But it lacks the full update package(mostly aero related to reduce drag at LM) that they want to run, hence Paul Ricard replacing Sebring as Audi's racing debut this year, though Audi has done a multi day test at Sebring a few weeks ago that included a 24 or 30 hour endurance test(with a 2009 car with some '10 part on it), and have a similar test planned following the 12 Hours with what should be a full-spec 2010 R15.

But the ACO has screwed themselves on this deal, and I doubt that Audi or for sure IMSA will have much more tollerance for the ACO and their fiddling.

[henk4]

no, I did mean Audi. They failed to properly "understand" the R15 right from the beginning even though they designed it. That the ACO then may have complicated things is another matter, (first by declaring an illegal design legal, and then coming back on it), but it has taken the Audi engineers far too long to develop the car to its full potential.

[Gunman]

yeah, but only two of them are going to compete....

Corvette, Lizards, and Risi should make for a good battle. I'm cheering for Risi, and anyone ahead of the Corvettes

[Chernaudi]

no, I did mean Audi. They failed to properly "understand" the R15 right from the beginning even though they designed it. That the ACO then may have complicated things is another matter, (first by declaring an illegal design legal, and then coming back on it), but it has taken the Audi engineers far too long to develop the car to its full potential.

Well, you can accuse Acura of the same, as Acura and Audi did the same thing-they designed cars aimed at the ALMS, and Audi didn't stand a chance at LM against a car that was more proven, while their car had little useful testing(almost every test Audi did was impacted by weather and by late driver shuffling) and was 10 mph slower down the straights.

Acura did the same, but worse-they designed their car around a gutless engine that began it's life as a proposed IndyCar V8. Even Oreca had the Acuras at PLM once the track dried-that's the difference between a 4.0 V8 and a 5.5 V10-same horsepower, but the 5.5 Judd/AIM V10 had about 130 more ft/lbs of torque.

For the ALMS, the R15 has shown it's potential(and there's still some, and if they could run to the early 2009 specs, there'd be plenty more), considering how bad PLM was going for Peugeot until the track started to flood. But you can't take a car designed around an aero/chassis concept suited for the ALMS/LMS and expect it to do well at Le Mans. Hence why Acura skipped Le Mans, and why Audi struggled against a car designed to do well at LM above all else.

But as for Audi at Sebring, if the ACO published their rules when promised(in October of last year), Audi would have the new R15 ready now, as waiting for the ACO to verifiy their own rules caused Audi to stall on work that started after Le Mans.

Or Audi probably should've stuffed the V10 in a few R10s for Le Mans, as the R10 was a car that was more suited for LM.

[henk4]

I find it interesting to read that the R15 was designed for ALMS, and then Audi decided to stay away from ALMS altogether in 2009.....and they also refrained from participating in LMS. I actually think that every Audi since 2000 or so has been designed to win LeMans, no factory would spent so much on ALMS only. (I am not judging Acura).
As far as PLM is concerned, yes, Peugeot was lucky because of the flooding, but before that Audi was lucky because of the wet conditions.....so let's call that a draw. Spa (early May) will be the big showdown.