American Le Mans Series

The Planetlemans Utah Grand Prix preview

© Audi Motorsport

The American Le Mans Series returns to action after the street circuit excursions of St. pete and Long Beach. A new, faster circuit configuration will be adding thrill to the 2 hour 45 minute race, potentially giving Audi a bit more of an edge than last year when Porsche robbed them from what seemed a “logical” win beforehand. A total of thirty entries will take part of what will be the last race before the “Le Mans break” with some new faces in the paddock so let’s go class by class.

In LMP1 the Audis will be joined only by Intersport, Autocon already busy with their Le Mans preparations. The Lola has performed pretty poorly in the first part of the season but the Utah circuit should suit it better, at least to mingle with the LMP2 class and deliver a better race. The big question is whether Audi will be using the brand new “bodywork wings” as seen at the Spa LMS race(see our pitlane shots). The German diesels improved significantly with the new device and this will be a good second test before the 24 hour race.

On the side of LMP2 the Porsches will be back with both Penske and Dyson looking for improvement. Long Beach was an Audi 1-2 and an Acura victory in the smaller class. When it seemed we were getting used to Porsche overall victories the tide has turned (briefly?) against the RS Spyders and the Utah track is a good chance for them to fight back. Dyson on fifth and seventh was not satisfying either after a positive season opening for the Poughkeepsie team, they definitely can deliver better results.

On the Acura camp the Patrón Highcroft victory with a great drive by David Brabham has certainly lifted the spirits and confirmed the Japanese-powered cars are more than capable of stepping to the highest level of the podium. Fernández Racing have been unlucky so far this season and are hungry for a podium, both Adrián and “Chapulín Díaz” are top racers and love this kind of circuit so keep a close eye on them. Andretti Green is also ready to get top results, their only victory dating from Sebring 2007. The new kid in the block will be the Gil de Ferran Acura, team boss Gil and Simon Pagenaud a very strong pairing for their ALMS debut. The B-K Lola-Mazda will be there but cannot realistically challenge for victory, the BP-sponsored team targetting a good finish in the points for the race.

Corvette will be lonely again in GT1 running their last dry run before the “big one” in France. Bringing both cars home unharmed will be their aim and, should any gremlins appear, the team should be able to fix them on time before June when they will face Aston Martin again at La Sarthe.

GT2 has presented us a clear Porsche vs Ferrari duel up to now, Tafel surprisingly ahead of a very unlucky Risi team and the Lizard Porsches confirming the team from Alpharetta, georgia native Jim tafel would have been a strong contender for the 24 Hours as well… Both Tafel and Risi will be at Utah with 2 cars, the 61 Risi manned again by Brix-Friesacher while the 73 Tafel car will see team owner Jim Tafel be joined by Alex Figge. The Lizards will be on their usual 2008 3-car array battling the Ferraris but they certainly won’t be alone….

Farnbacher Loles and VICI have demonstrated to be very competitive up to now and the latter will be entering a second car as announced by Planetlemans a few weeks ago: Dutch brothers Nicky and Francisco Pastorelli will partner Brazilian driver Ruben Carrapatoso on a second VICI Porsche. Also Corsa Motorsports will be bringing a competitive car that can be a dark horse in the hands of Johnny Mowlem (what was he doing at Spa?) and Gunnar Jeannette, their Maranello “bambina” much quicker after their switch to Dunlops.

But ALMS would not be ALMS without some rule discussions and IMSA bulletin ALMS 08-04 has triggered quite some polemic. Literally, the IMSA regulations addendum says:

“The following “LM”GT2 cars may remove 25 kg from the minimum weight declared and listed on the Event Entry Form as received and approved by IMSA.
• Aston Martin Vantage
• Doran Ford GT
• Panoz Esperante LMGT
• Riley Chevrolet Corvette C6
The Porsche 911 RSR GT3 may continue at its currently homologated weight.”

It is clear that these cars are far behind in terms of pace/development and IMSA wants to stimulate competition in a similar way as when LMP2s got rule breaks on weight and/or restrictors in the last two years. While it is arguably not the best way to create competition, several other GT and Touring car classes use (variale) weight penalties to equalize performance. It will be interesting to see what the real effect is of this rule change and if the four cars with weight advantage are able to challenge the Porsches or Ferraris.

All in all the potential for a very entertaining race and a few new faces which should spice up competition, race starts at 1 PM MDT (20.00 GMT, 21.00 CET) on Sunday, May 18th, live TV coverage at Speed.