American Le Mans Series

ALMS: 45 entries for 13th Annual Petit Le Mans

© Audi Motorsport // 2009 Petit Le Mans start

Just days before the first track activity of the first Intercontinental Le Mans cup round at Silverstone American Le Mans Series organiser IMSA has announced 45 entries for the 13th Annual Petit Le Mans Powered By Mazda2 at Road Atlanta. The 45 cars will be racing in seven different classes.

In the main category, the LM P1 class, a total of seven cars are entered for the 10-hour race set to take place on October 2nd, 2010. Audi Sport Team Joest will enter two Audi R15 TDIs for Dindo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish (#7) and for Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer and Benoît Treluyer (#9).
The Audi works team will face competition from two Team Peugeot Total entries, the #07 of Marc Gené, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson and the #08 of Pedro Lamy, Franck Montagny and Stéphane Sarrazin.

The four diesel powered teams will be joined by American Le Mans Series regular teams Drayson Racing (Paul Drayson, Jonny Cocker, Emanuele Pirro – Lola B09/60 Judd), Autocon Motorsports (Bryan Willman, Tony Burgess, Chris McMurry – Lola B06/10 AER), Intersport racing (Jon Field, Clint Field – Lola B06/10 AER).

In the LM P2 category American Le Mans Series front runners Patrón Highcroft Racing (David Brabham, Simon Pagenaud, Marino Franchitti – HPD ARX-01c), Team CytoSport (Klaus Graf, Sascha Maassen, Lucas Luhr – Porsche RS Spyder) and Dyson Racing (Chris Dyson, Guy Smith, Andy Meyrick – Lola B09/86 Mazda) will face opposition from France in Georgia. OAK Racing will send one of its Pecarolo 01 Judd’s to the United States, where it will be driven by Jacques Nicolet, Frédéric Da Rocha and Patrice Lafargue. Completing the LM P2 class is the Libra Racing Radical SR9 IES that withdrew from the last race weekend with an engine failure. Andrew Prendeville is the only confirmed driver at the moment.

As the Intercontinental Le Mans cup is running under Automobile Club de l’Ouest regulations GT1 cars are allowed and therefore the GT category will be known as GT2 again at Petit.

The final American Le Mans Series round will see several GT2 teams and cars make their debut in the series. ACS Express Racing is set to make its American Le Mans Series debut with their Doran Ford GT for Brandon Davis, Boris Said and Townsend Bell, while the brand new Panoz Team PTG Panoz Abruzzi is still set to make its debut on home soil. Right now the Panoz Abruzzi is listed with Ian James and Benjamin Leuenberger, both already familiar with the Panoz group. Also on the list is a second JaguarRSR Jaguar XKR with a yet to be determined crew as well as the second Robertson Racing Ford GT for Anthony Lazzaro, Robert Bell and David Murry.

A total of seventeen GT2 cars will race at Road Atlanta. Next to the new cars the regular teams in action are Corvette Racing (O’Connell/Beretta/Garcia – Gavin/Magnussen,/Collard), Team Falken Tire (Sellers/Henzler/Ragginger – Porsche 997 GT3 RSR), Robertson Racing (David and Andrea Robertson), Flying Lizard Motorsports (Law/Neiman – Bergmeister/Long), Risi Competizione (Fisichella/Vilander/Salo – Melo/Bruni), JaguarRSR (Gentilozzi/Goossens/Dalziel), BMW Rahal Letterman Racing Team (Müller/Hand – Auberlen/Milner) and Extreme Speed Motorsports (Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher – Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa).

Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller will join the GT battle with a Porsche Motorsports entered Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid in the GTH class.

So far the only entry in the GT1 category is the Atlas eFX Team FS Saleen S7R but the Austrian has yet to confirm its entry, even though the intention to race at Petit Le Mans is certainly there.

In the LMPC category we find seven entries. Genoa Racing has not yet announced its drivers, but the other teams have. Level 5 Motorsports will stick to its regular crews of Tucker/Bouchut and Tucker/Wallace, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports will have Ricardo Gonzalez and Luis Diaz again. Green Earth Team Gunnar will be back at Road Atlanta with Christian Zugel and Gunnar Jeannette. The only team stepping up is Intersport Racing, which will enter two FLM Oreca 09s for Antonio, Lucas and Matt Downs as well as the regular #89 entry for Kyle Marcelli, Chapman Ducote and David Ducote.

And last but not least GTC. The Porsche GT3 class will also have seven cars, all of them familiar names.
Alex Job Racing will run the #23 Porsche for Bill Sweedler, Romeo Kapudja and Jan-Dirk Lueders, while Timothy Pappas and Jeroen Bleekemolen will be joined by Jeroen’s brother Sebastiaan Bleekemolen again.
911 Design and Paul Miller Racing (Orbit) will again run cars for Loren Beggs/Doug Barron and Bryce Miller/Luke Hines. TRG (Henri Richard/Andy Lally/Duncan Ende), WERKS II Racing (Robert Rodriguez/Galen Bieker) and Velox Motorsports (Shane Lewis/Jerry Vento) will complete the field.