2008 ALMS Official Thread

[raceopen]

US media reported that Peugeot won everything at LeMan France. Somebody else told me that the Audi's did. Whats going on I thought to myself now these hardcore media people are trying to fool viewers now. Earlier this ALMS season in Long beach qualifying the Audi TDI diesels and their FSI technology was being highlighted so I can presume true the Audi really won over in Europe two weeks ago.

[RacingManiac]

Uh, Peugeot lost....

[henk4]

I could not beleive my eyes the way Peugot won everything last week. Whats going on I thought to myself.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read your post....

[raceopen]

I guess the schedule got changed post 24 because of the teams that are dual. But anyway during the first part of the ALMS season in GT2 the Audi TDI and their FSI technology was pretty much the talk and was highlighted so I didn't expect that outcome in LeMan France last week.

Allan McNish has been featured in the US in sports cars with many other European drivers from all over at Portland Oregon once a year. So we saw quite a bit of McNish in the US..

[raceopen]

We just see McNish but we don't know much of anything about him he doesn't do anything out in the US. but I've seen him drive one year only Portland Oregon. I have seen McNish do interviews up there too.

[raceopen]

If my memory serves me correct I believe there's a Jim Russel Racing franchise in British Columbia Vancouver Canada or just outside of Montreal, Quebec. Three thousand dollars plus the racing series is the cost approximately another fifteen hundred dollars plus the new helmet three hundred dollars and a four to five hundred dollars for a new driving suit and eighty dollars for shoes. Most people jump to whatever form of racing that the school recommends and offers after some success in their series. They were offering open wheel Toyota Atlantic 15 years ago and just recently 5 years ago they were asking students if they liked NASCAR.

[raceopen]

Please excuse me Jim Russel Racing School. Cost for the course for 1 week is 3000 dollars. 1500 dollars per each racing period that can last for several weeks all using the school equipment and competitors.

[raceopen]

Question for the above entry for the person with user name Racingmaniac. What are you driving in now that you've finished those student series. What did the school you attended get you geared for? Are you doing instructing at your school thats what they frequently do at the Jim Russel Racing School. When drivers win in their series they turn them into employees and have them become teachers.

[raceopen]

Some great racing as usual but then there was some overly aggressive driving too. At least Audi's Luhr got a stop/go for dangerous driving.

The first laps were great with both Audi's powering to the front on the main straight...then John Field in the Intersport Lola diced his way to the lead and held it shortly, then his tires gave up.

The P2's had a hot battle but I think every Acura but one had some kind of incident along the way. Great showing for de Farren's team, stayed clean.

The GT1 Vettes were basically doing a tire test for Le Mans, running 2007 and 2008 Michelins. The sweeper like turns at Miller Park are similar to those at le Sarthe.

GT2 is really tightening up. The Panoz since switching to Dunlop tires was much more competitive and the C6 Vette showing improvement too. The Panoz ran in third place for a good while. The class of the category is still the F430 and RSR and Henzler in the Flying Lizard RSR got a fantastic break in an early yellow to leap to a one lap lead.

Risi continued their nightmare season by having to start from the pits. Salo and Melo worked their way up to knocking on the door of second place when Melo in a boneheaded move tried to force up the inside of the GT2 Vette and collided with it. The front right tire of the 430 and the left rear of the Vette clawed into each other sending the 430 up into the air not unlike two open wheel cars getting together. This demolished the 430 as it landed at an angle back onto the tarmac wrecking the suspension.

Tafel did well once again finishing third. Not sure why they were two laps down to Henzler though.



Results:

1. Bernhard/Dumas Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder 96 laps LMP2
2. Maassen/Long Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder 96 laps LMP2
3. de Ferran/Pagenaud de Ferran Motorsports Acura ARX-01B 96 laps LMP2
4. Leitzinger/Franchitti Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder 96 laps LMP2
5. Fernandez/Diaz Lowe's Fernandez Racing Acura ARX-01B 96 laps LMP2
6. Dyson/Smith Dyson Racing Porsche RS Spyder 95 laps LMP2
7. Luhr/Werner Audi Sport North America Audi R10 TDi 95 laps LMP1
8. Herta/Fittipaldi Andretti Green Racing Acura ARX-01B 94 laps LMP2
9. Devlin/Bonilla BK Motorsports Lola B07/46-Mazda 93 laps LMP2
10. O'Connell/Magnussen Corvette Racing Corvette C6.R 88 laps GT1
11. Gavin/Beretta Corvette Racing Corvette C6.R 88 laps GT1
12. Field/Field/Berry Intersport Racing Lola B06/10-AER 88 laps LMP1
13. Bergmeister/Henzler Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 87 laps GT2
14. van Overbeek/Pilet Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 86 laps GT2
15. Farnbacher/Mueller Tafel Racing Ferrari 430 85 laps GT2
16. Milner/Sutherland Panoz Team PTG Panoz Esperante 84 laps GT2
17. Law/Neiman Flying Lizard Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 84 laps GT2
18. Gigliotti/Peterson LG Motorsports Corvette C6 83 laps GT2
19. Brix/Friesacher Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 83 laps GT2
20. Biela/Pirro Audi Sport North America Audi R10 TDi 79 laps LMP1
21. Jeannette/Mowlem Corsa Motorsports Ferrari 430 79 laps GT2
22. C'potoso/P'relli/P'relli Vici Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 79 laps GT2
23. Stanton/Swartzbaugh VICI Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 77 laps GT2
24. Brabham/Sharp Patron Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01B 70 laps LMP2
25. Robertson/Murry Robertson Racing Doran Ford GT-R 62 laps GT2

Rtd Salo/Melo Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 60 laps completed GT2
Rtd Feinberg/Hall Primetime Race Group Dodge Viper 35 laps completed GT2
Rtd Cocker/Drayson Drayson-Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9 27 laps completed GT2
Rtd Figge/Tafel Tafel Racing Ferrari F430 25 laps completed GT2

I'm so shocked by the decision by Gil de Ferran to manage a racing team and no longer drive especially in ALMS when the race cars are all prototypes. Also why would Gil not want to apply his open wheel FEDERAL EXPRESS CART ppg indy car experience to his ALMS team as a driver/owner is mysterious when one considers how dominant he drove in just recent years in that series. What a quag-mire! ALMS has another CART veteran driver but he's still a driver with an interesting task in ALMS. Its not exactly research and development but Adrian Fernandez has an ALMS team too and he's using a Lola BOS/40 chassis with an Acura-Courage LC75 Engine size V8. Wow what an American open wheel puristic set up. Thats the old way of driving open wheel boy that sounds like the old school of thought on open wheel. Adrian Fernadez is really doing it I couldn't believe Fernandez was involved with something like that. Thats so inventive. When you put something like that together your not just trying to go fast anymore.

[Dino Scuderia]

Gil has experience but he knows he can hire, and has already hired younger and faster drivers than himself. He can still teach them from his experience, it's a win/win.

[raceopen]

Jim Russel Racing School located at Infineon Speedway used to send their drivers to drive in the indy lights series, now they send their drivers on to ARCA and outlaw series for the hope of entrance to NASCAR.

[Dino Scuderia]

That speaks volumes about the state of racing in the US.

[raceopen]

I guess your right but ALMS would be perfect because its very low profile he wouldn't be on TV all the time. The perfect place for an older driver from somewhere else to hide. For me that is. I watched him drive for a long time he's a really good aggressive driver.

[Dino Scuderia]

Gil was one of my favorites in open wheel.

[raceopen]

Yeah thats the way Racing has moved. The trend left open wheel and moved to NASCAR, but however now that the Indianapolis 500 is a dominant event again even though its only one race each year. They could keep things spicy if they manage to get hardcore drivers like Gil de Ferran and others out to qualify like that NASCAR Andretti cousin (Jon Andretti) who got in did this past year. He's a hardcore veteran driver, and maybe also other drivers like Paul Tracy. Dario Franchitti is good but we also need more veteran drivers like them in there with Dario for the experience.