American Le Mans Series

ALMS preview from Planetlemans

© Audi Motorsport

After 3 days of intensive testing at Sebring all seems to indicate that endurance race fans around the world can look forward to a very competitive season in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). After a very successful 2006 season that saw dramatically close racing, the return of Porsche to a full season of prototypes and the overwhelming dominance of the Audi R10 Diesel, 2007 promises 2 additional races, the presence of a new major manufacturer (Acura) and many European teams taking part at the Sebring, Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca rounds.

© American Le Mans Series

However, not all is rosy stuff in the category godfathered by Dan Panoz for this year. The LMP1 category shows an extremely scarce entry list with Audi seemingly having chased away all opposition. A lonely aging Lola from the Autocon team seems to be the only other regular contender for the season and Audi should expect some challenge only if some European teams (Creation, Racing for Holland, Charouz among the rumoured) are willing to cross the pond for the main events of the series.

But the main challenge for the German Diesel prototypes might come from the LMP2 category, just like in 2006. An updated version of the Porsche Spyder RS will be again the car to beat in this class in the hands of the Penske team. The times clocked at the Sebring test sessions seem to indicate they are indeed a serious threat and could think seriously about getting some overall victories. However, Roger Penske and his team are not alone this year and the Dyson team (including Le Mans winner Andy Wallace in their line-up) will also be running the RS Spyders. Their performance was impressive at Sebring and they were able to be a few tenths of a second quicker than the Penske boys with an out-of-the-box car.

The new contender in LMP2 is Acura (Honda) whose engines will be behind 2 Courage tubs (Andretti Green Racing and Highcroft) and one Lola (Fernández Racing). All three teams did a good job at Sebring and by the last sessions they were within reach of the Penske and Dyson lap times, the Adrián Fernández Lola in particular (driven by the former Indy car star himself) being the quickest of the Acura-powered pack. However with drivers like Bryan Herta and the Franchitti brothers for AGR and Stefan Johansson-David Brabham for Highcroft it will be difficult to predict a winner in the class. Some other teams like Intersport and the brand new Mazda-engined B-K Lola could also be very competitive as well as the van der Steur Radical SR9, the only one in the ALMS for the time being. Some European teams like Horag and Bruichladdich Radical are rumoured to be potential entrants at Sebring or Petit Le Mans.

© American Le Mans Series

The GT1 class seems to have become a one-team race for this year with Corvette as only confirmed participants. The exodus of Aston Martin drivers to other teams in ALMS or LMS seems to indicate that the rumors of Prodrive not taking part in this year’s championship are well funded and we won’t see the Aston-Corvette battle in 2007.
GT2 seems to be the other class where we should see close competition and many potential winners. The Risi Ferraris will not be the only ones since Petersen/White Lightning (featuring Tomas Enge and maybe a 2 car effort) and potentially a new Canadian team will use the Maranello products for 2007.The classic Porsche Armada will be led by the 997s of Flying Lizard but Tafel Racing and Rahal/Letterman will also be joining the series. In fact Tafel recorded the quickest lap time in class during Sebring testing and will be a team to watch.Last but by no means least the Panoz Esperantes will be present in the hands of the PTG team that is taking over the racing operation from Multimatic. Robertson Racing has another Esperante and will do some races as will some European teams, particularly Spyker that will again visit Sebring for the start of the season.
All in all two very strong and competitive classes and two very scarcely populated ones which leave many questions open about the series and its future but might nevertheless produce exciting racing, particularly if the LMP2s can take the battle to the Audis in the twisty circuits. March 17^th in Sebring some of the questions will start getting answers when the 55^th edition of the 12 Hours opens the 2007 ALMS calendar.

gabriel@planetlemans.com