2011 24 Hours of Le Mans, LMS and ALMS news.

[Dino Scuderia]

Prolly a sign of sponsors fleeing ALMS in general.

I'm afraid it's another broken series.

[RacingManiac]

there are no series in N/A thats not broken...NASCAR included....

[Dino Scuderia]

That's the thing, whatever goes bad for NASCAR goes doubly bad for the rest.

[RacingManiac]

Didn't hear about this before...

American Le Mans Series partners with ESPN - AutoWeek Magazine


So no more ALMS on Speed, ABC will show their typical crappy highlight show, and races will be shown live on ESPN3, live though, which isn't that bad(good for me actually since I can run video games on TV and races on PC).

Wonder what happens to the 24 hours of Le Mans though...

On the side note, Rolex 24 is on Speed now, but they are only showing 14(13.5 actually) of the racing. After 10pm EST they are showing some live-NASCAR in California at Irwindale, then they are showing OLD NASCAR races, then Infomercial then crappy Castrol Engine Block programming, then the rest of the Rolex race....this network is pretty much garbage now, more so I mean...

[Chernaudi]

According to what I've read, the ABC/ESPN races will be like the old CBS/NBC races, with live footage edited to fit in a 2/2.5 hour block.

Speed will still have Le Mans, though, and might get NA rights to the ILMC events. However, those'll be highlights specials too if it happens like in the past for the LMS.

[Dino Scuderia]

"Contesting the ILMC means ORECA will return to the Sebring 12 Hours for the first time since it won the GT class with its Chrysler Viper in 2000."

autosport.com - Le Mans News: ORECA enters ILMC with 908

[Chernaudi]

During testing at Sebring, the R18, in an LM spec areo kit, ran a fast lap of a 1:44, and averaged about a 1:45-1:46, the range being between 1:44-1:48 (Peugeot ran a similar range of times in '10 at the 12 Hours of Sebring).

It also seems that the grandfathered LMP1 diesels won't be far off that pace as well, at least on paper, so that gives Audi and Oreca hope with the grandfathered R15 and 908. And it doesn't help that Peugeot will have their first race with the 90x at Sebring, and will be up against Audi with the proven R15, and their customer Oreca with what should be a very reliable 908. Those power restrictions will only make the Audi and the old Pug more bullet proof.

Update: This was just published by Audi Sport/Audi of America: AudiWorld News

[Dino Scuderia]

Wow, don't know what to make of this latest statement from Risi Competizione...especially the last lines , ' Do not be too surprised if you see a pair of Risi Competizione transporters in the paddock, unloading a 458GT, with a single driver there for the test. And certainly, do not be surprised if you don’t.

They also take a poke at team Extreme Speed and their 'checkbook'.

"March, 2006. Without much pre-race fanfare and zero pre-race American testing, the new Ferrari 430GT is rolled out from the second story of the Rosso Corso Risi Competizione transporter and onto the liftgate for its’ descent into the brutal endurance racing forum that is the 12 Hours of Sebring. The new car has not been raced in competition in the U.S. before; it was entered by Houston-based Ferrari racing experts Risi Competizione, a very private outfit with an intensely private managing director, Giuseppe Risi.



It was a new day for Risi Comp, who would put two of their long time drivers in the new 430GT(Ralph Kelleners and Anthony Lazzaro) along with the new kid in town, Brazilian sports car ace and Ferrari factory driver Jaime Melo. This entry from the Texas team was ripe with variables. The 430GT was a new model, an unknown quantity in international racing circles; Melo was well known only to a handful of racing professionals inside the gates of Ferrari’s Maranello compound. He had been the development driver for the street version of the 430 (which was offered in both Spyder and Berlinetta configurations) as well as the Ferrari Challenge version of the 430 and the new 430GT designed specifically for international sports car racing. Safe to say that Melo had the most seat time in the 430 of any driver in the world, but he had no rep or street cred at Sebring, nor did the the 430GT. The fact that Melo was driving for Risi Competizione was evidence enough that he were to be taken very seriously.



Connected in unknown ways to the Ferrari factory, Risi Comp had campaigned the under-powered Ferrari 360GT for a few years, breaking Porsche’s stranglehold on the GT2 category in the process. Before that he had been successful with the Ferrari 333SP, the last purpose-built Ferrari sports prototype race car, winning the first Petit Le Mans as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans with that model. In 2005, Risi Comp’s entry of the Maserati MC12 had rattled the ALMS and Sebring establishment to the point that the car was literally “legislated” out of competition. Among those seen having a hissyfit in the Sebring pits when the big Maserati took the track was one of the managing directors of Aston Martin, who apparently didn’t like true competition but preferred rule bending of the type that might give his team a chance to win (they didn’t and within a few years, Aston had disappeared completely from ALMS competition). The Maserati MC12 went on to dominate FIA GT2 racing, in races both long and short. One thing about the unsettled Aston director: he knew a winner when he saw it and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.



The 2006 Sebring 12 Hour race was one of the best in the storied track’s history; in the GT2 category, the Risi Comp 430GT finished third in its’ international endurance racing debut, after a twelve hour battle that featured 27 lead changes. All three of the GT2 podium cars finished on the same lap—a telling indication of the competitiveness of the race. The winning car was a Panoz(Maxwell/Brabham/Bourdais), followed by a Porsche (van Overbeek/Fogarty/Lieb). The fastest lap for the GT2 category was laid down by the Risi Comp 430GT, a 2:04.002 produced by that new kid, Melo.



The Risi Comp 430GT went on to win the ALMS GT2 championship in it’s first year of competition and Jaime Melo finished the season packing international track cred without equal in sports cars. A new era was born and that basic combination, Risi Comp, Melo, and the 430GT were constants on the podium, in the winner’s circle, in championships won and championships contended for, for the next five years.



Now, jump ahead, into a cold and blustery December Friday, 2010, at Fiorano, Ferrari’s private test track in Maranello. A red 458GT is circling the track, Jaime Melo at the wheel, while a group of Ferrari engineers and racing directors follow the progress on the multiple screens inside the small white garage that serves as the launch point for test sessions at Fiorano. The black ribbon of track provides a stark contrast to the snow covered infield as the scream of the latest Ferrari racing engine rises and falls, from corner to corner, from lap to lap. Photos are taken (after all, this is history at Ferrari) and cell phones are dialed as on-site personnel report back to those not on- site. Following the progress via telephone is the now legendary Managing Director for Risi Competizione, Giuseppe Risi, who has yet to make public his racing plans for 2011.



Risi is not alone in his interests in the new 458 GT. The usual suspects have made their pilgrimage to Maranello, hoping to gain the favor of the factory in their racing enthusiasm for the Ferrari 458. The factory will sell them a car or two, sell them the spare parts, provide race engineers for their on-track competitive efforts but despite cheery press releases that say that the (insert team name here) is building a close working relationship with Ferrari and Ferrari racing, everyone in the business knows the truth: Only Risi in the United States has managed to build that relationship, and he didn’t build it only with his checkbook (although he has committed millions to his Ferrari racing programs) or his late enthusiasm for the brand, like the latest group of suitors.



Risi has been with Ferrari for decades now, been a Ferrari dealer for over thirty years, knew Enzo Ferrari personally, has consistently campaigned Ferrari sports cars even when the odds were enormously stacked against him, as in the 360GT period. He has always made the supreme effort to represent the tradition and professionalism of Ferrari racing. In five years racing the 430GT, Risi’s team captured 7 majors in Endurance Racing. One team racing against him with another pair of 430GTs spent tens of millions of dollars and only made the podium one time, when Risi’s car ran out of gas on the last lap at Petit. He has turned down offers to race other marques and models and has always been the go-to guy for Ferrari sports car racing in America. The pilgrims will come, their orders and deposits will be collected, and their cars will be shipped to racing operations headquarters, but only a fool would bet against Risi having the best 458 operation of all in North American in 2011…….if he races.



If he races. That qualifying statement can serve as the key to the 2011 North American ALMS season. After the 2010 season, in which the team came so close to winning it all after a season of very difficult events, there was low talk in the pits that Risi had had enough, that the last race loss—and the way the race was lost—had shredded his drive and finally convinced him that further racing activities were not in his future. It was time to scale back and let others chase the numbers his team had put up. He could leave the scene as the most successful Ferrari team owner since Luigi Chinetti’s operation in the late 50’s and early 60’s.



Those who know Risi well—and there are few who do—will tell you in private that Risi Competizione will not leave the scene in such a fashion. The team did not get to the top of the heap in GT racing by backing away from tough challenges; it will not go out on an off note, it will leave on high one.



When/if Risi Competizione receives it’s new 458GT, this is what the team will be looking at in terms of specs:



Name: Ferrari 458GT

Engine 90 Degree DOHC V8 w/4 valves per cylinder

Location Mid engine, longitudinally mounted

Construction Aluminum Alloy block and heads

Displacement 4.499 Liter/274.5 Cubic Inches

Valve Train 4 valves/Cylinder, DOHC

Fuel Feed Direct Fuel Injection

Aspiration Naturally Aspirated

Gearbox Hewland 6 speed sequential

Drive Rear Wheel Drive

Weight 1245 Kilos/2744 lbs

Power 470 BHP/351 KW

BHP/Liter 104 bhp/Liter

Power to Weight 0.38bhp/kg





Will the 458GT be as fast out of the box as the car it replaces, the now-legendary Ferrari 430GT? That answer will not be long in coming, as the 458GT is due to show at the fabled Sebring winter tests, held on February 9th&10th. Do not be too surprised if you see a pair of Risi Competizione transporters in the paddock, unloading a 458GT, with a single driver there for the test. And certainly, do not be surprised if you don’t. "

[RacingManiac]

2011 Peugeot 908...

Peugeot Sport - ENDURANCE - news-720-peugeot-sport-sur-tous-les-fronts

3.7 liter V8, diesel still, 4 "rear" tire all around...

SPEED's piece:
AUTO RACING - LE MANS: Peugeot Unveils New 908

The car is obviously still an evolution from the old 908, some pretty significant detailing changes though, and I think it looks less brute-ish than the R18. With the paintjob and all the wide front tire treatment looks a lot less obvious than the Audi. The car will likely still be the car to beat, and according to Peugeot its been running since July of last year, and the car's work had been going on since 2009 Le Mans win.

We can be pretty thankful to both PAG and VAG though, still bank rolling these 2 teams at the level they are at. Its been a pretty epic battle...

[Ferrer]

Why was there any doubt that it would be a diesel? If anything the whole PSA is focused on diesel...

[RacingManiac]

Depends, the engine rule was re-written quite a bit, and not being "in the know" in the engine circle I am not sure how the performance will stack up comparing the new diesel to the new gas rule. There is a whole argument since both PSA and VAG are both heavily into diesel cars in their regular business that its in their best interest to pursue diesel, but if it works out in such a way that the diesel are no more advantageous, then logic will force them to switch....

The fact though that both Audi and Peugeot stuck with it, means the diesel are still the format to have. The caveat being how much more of an advantage will they hold(and will they show) to combat the performance balancing that ACO is committed to do...

[Dino Scuderia]

Next year they will be front wheel drive turbo 4 cyl.

[Kitdy]

We can be pretty thankful to both PAG and VAG though, still bank rolling these 2 teams at the level they are at. Its been a pretty epic battle...

It has been. It would be nice to have one other factory team go balls in (Toyota in the coming years after teaming with Rebellion?).

The two way fight has been great, but were there three teams in it with a shot to win, that'd be sweet.

[Ferrer]

Even better if we got back to the late 90's with the GT1 cars and open prototypes.

[RacingManiac]

autosport.com - Le Mans News: Q & A: Gene on latest Peugeot

Interesting interview with Gene, apparently there was a big testing crash that put the whole BHF to the test...