Drayson Lola

It’s the height of presumption for a club-level racer such as myself to believe that I can effectively analyze a race like the 2009 Petit LeMans. To some degree, until the day comes that I put on my helmet and sit behind the wheel of an LMP1 in a major race, I’ll be doing nothing but vaguely educated guessing as regards what goes on beneath the surface in the ALMS — and that day will mostly likely never arrive. Still, after some conversations with the people who did put their helmets on for this one, and after reviewing the video at length, I think it’s safe to make some basic observations about what happened during this most unusual episode of America’s roadracing history.
Continue reading Truth in four and fifty-four.

When we hit the road for the 2009 Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6, we knew we were in for a special few days at the race track.  With the weather reports predicting gloom and doom over the skies of Atlanta, we prepared for the worst and figured the weather would at least for some interesting racing.  We weren’t disappointed in the least.   Thankfully, the weather gave us a couple of days of fantastic weather with blue skies and sunshine before the heavens opened up on Saturday. 

Now that we’re back home (with a few bumps, bruises and fire ant bites), we can get to work.  Jack Baruth will be posting up his thoughts on the weekend in a new Avoidable Contact post that will be up soon, and Nick Salvatore is busy twittering away about the weekend.  So, I guess that leaves me to produce something of value from the trip by way of these photo galleries.  I’ve created several galleries from the various events throughout the weekend and inserted them all into this post.   I probably have a few more photos to upload to each of the galleries throughout the day, but this should get you started.  

View full 2009 Petit Le Mans Photo Galleries after the jump

Continue reading 2009 Petit Le Mans Mega Photo Gallery

Franck Montagny and Stephane Sarrazin gave Peugeot its first American Le Mans Series victory on Friday, winning a weather-shortened 12th annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6. Race officials, citing hazardous conditions due to torrential rains that fell at Road Atlanta just past the four-hour mark, called the race at eight hours, 44 minutes running.

Peugeot’s two diesel-powered factory prototype coupes finished 1-2 with the pole-sitting 908 HDi of Pedro Lamy and Nic Minassian in second. The first of Audi Sport Team Joest’s Audi R15 TDIs placed third, the car driven by Allan McNish and Dindo Capello. The Peugeot-Peugeot-Audi finish mirrored the end result at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, and it ended Audi’s nine-year unbeaten streak at Road Atlanta.

“We only did three races this year,” Montagny said. “We missed Sebring by only 22 seconds, and it was a win for the Peugeot team at Le Mans and a win here. I think if we had a full time we really would have battled it out with the Audis.”

Continue reading 2009 Petit Le Mans Wrap-Up

Photos by Zerin Dube

Full Photo Gallery After the Jump

Continue reading 2009 Petit Le Mans – Day 2 – American Le Mans Series Practice and Qualifying Gallery

Photos by Zerin Dube

The S:S:L team of Jack Baruth, Nick Salvatore and Zerin Dube are hard at work in Atlanta for the cornerstone race of the American Le Mans series, Petit Le Mans.  We arrived at Road Atlanta yesterday and spent the day meeting folks, getting some paperwork taken care of, and enjoying the sights and sounds of the race.  Today, we get to work to bring you as much photographic coverage as we can, along with a couple of interviews with the Audi Sport team.  In the meantime, enjoy these photos from Day 1.  We’ll have MANY more throughout the weekend!

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More photos after the jump!

Continue reading 2009 Petit Le Mans – Day 1 Gallery

Click for Larger Image

Photography by Dave Everest

Price: $43,965
Major equipment: : Panoramic Vista Roof ($1,495), rear console fridge ($760), navigation system ($2,375), rear-seat DVD entertainment ($1,995)

In the fleet: 12/04/2008 – 12/11/2008

Approximate mileage driven: 1,850

J. BARUTH: The assignment we gave this “crossover utility wagon” sounded simple: Transport four people, plus all their gear, plus a full complement of tools and supplies for an eight-hour endurance race, from Powell, OH to Braselton, GA, in the dead of winter, on bad roads, in a single ten-hour stint the night before the race… and then turn around and do it in reverse two days later.

Oh yeah, a few more things. At least two, and usually three, of those people would want to be operating their laptops at all times. If they weren’t working, they would want to be entertained, and since there would be no time to stop for meals, there would have to be room in the car for everybody to stretch, eat, put their laptops aside, and take the occasional nap. Plus the roads would be unfamiliar, so we’d need a decent nav system. Everybody brought their iPods, but not everybody wanted to hear music.

In other words, it was a typical family road trip, except the “family” was a hastily assembled race team… which is the most dysfunctional family of all. An Explorer would have been too cramped; a Suburban would be too noisy, big, and bouncy; a Mercedes R-Class could probably do the job, but you’d need to spec one up to seventy-five grand to get the features. So we tried Ford’s avant-garde station-wagon-that-isn’t. Would the Flex be equal to the task? Could any Ford car be worth nearly forty-five grand? If so, why?

Continue reading Speed Read: 2009 Ford Flex Limited

The 10^th Annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta is done and in the books after one of the most exciting finishes of any American Le Mans races in recent memory.  After 1000 miles, it was just 0.923 seconds that put the LMP1 Audi R15 piloted by Dindo Capello and Allan McNish in front of the LMP2 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder driven by Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Patrick Long.  This victory comes on the heels of a tough season for Audi where the Porsche RS Spyders have escaped them all year long.  The victory at Petit Le Mans is the first overall victory for Audi since the St. Petersburg race in March. 

The win for Audi wasn’t easy, as Dindo Capello had a seemingly insurmountable 30-second gap to close on Dumas with just a half hour of racing left.  Fortunately for Audi, a caution flag worked to Capello’s favor and allowed the R15 to work its way up through traffic.  With 15 laps to go, Capello took an amazing 8 minutes to pass Dumas and clinch the overall victory.  The victory gave Dindo Capello and co-driver Allan McNish their second consecutive LMP1 driver’s championship. 

#6 Penske Porsche RS Spyder of Maassen/Briscoe/Collard

In GT1, Oliver Gavin, Max Papis and Oliver Beretta took a class victory in their #4 Corvette Racing C6.R, escaping the fate of DNFs for the #3 Corvette Racing C6.R and the pole-sitting Lista Racing Maserati MC12.

GT2 proved to be a great class to watch as the Porsches of Flying Lizard Motorsports battled it out with Wolf Henzler and Dominik Farnbacher in the Tafel Racing Porsches.  At the end of 1000 miles though, it was the team Jorg Bergmeister, Johannes van Overbeek and Mark Lieb in the #45 Flying Lizard 911 GT3 RSR that took a three lap victory over Tafel Racing.  The pole-sitting Risi Competizione Ferrari F430, driven by Jaime Melo, Mika Salo, and Johnny Mowlem, was the dominant car in GT2 until electrical problems took them out of contention. 

All in all, this was the most exciting Petit Le Mans that we can recall in our minds.  Anytime a 10 hour or 1000 mile race comes down to a fraction of a second between first and second, you know the attendees got their money’s worth.   We hope next year’s race at Road Atlanta will be even better!

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Petit Le Mans @ Road Atlanta Race result (Round 10 of 11 races of the American Le Mans Series)
1. McNish/Capello/Pirro (GB/I/I), Audi R10 (LMP1), 394 laps
2. Minassian/Sarrzin/Klien (F/F/A), Peugeot 908, 394
3. Werner/Luhr (D/D), Audi R10 (LMP1), 394
4. Briscoe/Castroneves (AUS/BR), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 394
5. Bernhard/Dumas (D/F), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 394
6. Maassen/Long/Collard (D/USA/F), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 392
7. Leitzinger/Franchitti/Lally (USA/GB/USA), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 390
8. de Ferran/Pagenaud (BRA/F), Acura ARX-01B (LMP2), 388
9. Dyson/Smith (USA/GB), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 384
10. O’Conell/Magnussen/Fellows (USA/DK/USA), Chevrolet Corvette (GT1), 365

Result LMP2 class
1. Briscoe/Castroneves (AUS/BR), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 394
2. Bernhard/Dumas (D/F), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 394
3. Maassen/Long/Collard (D/USA/F), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 392
4. Leitzinger/Franchitti/Lally (USA/GB/USA), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 390
5. de Ferran/Pagenaud/Dixon (BRA/F/NZ), Acura ARX-01B (LMP2), 388
6. Dyson/Smith (USA/GB), Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2), 384

Further class winners
LMP1: McNish/Capello/Pirro (GB/I/I), Audi R10
GT1: O’Connell/Magnussen/Fellows (USA/DK/USA), Chevrolet Corvette
GT2: Salo/Melo (FIN/BRA), Ferrari F430

Points’ standings
Drivers LMP2 class
1. Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, Porsche, 189
2. David Brabham, Scott Sharp, Acura, 155
3. Patrick Long, Porsche, 121
4. Sascha Maassen, Porsche, 113
5. Butch Leitzinger, Marino Franchitti, Porsche, 102

Manufacturers LMP2 class – Engine
1. Porsche, 196
2. Acura, 188

Manufacturers LMP2 class – Chassis
1. Porsche, 196
2. Acura, 188

Teams LMP2 class
1. Penske Racing, Porsche, 196
2. Highcroft Racing, Acura, 155
3. Dyson Racing, Porsche, 116

Drivers GT2 class
1. Joerg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler, Porsche, 181
2. Dominik Farnbacher, Dirk Müller, Ferrari, 150
3. Johannes van Overbeek, Patrick Pilet Porsche, 124

Manufacturers GT2 class
1. Porsche, 195
2. Ferrari, 190

Teams GT2 class
1. Flying Lizard Motorsports, Porsche, 198
2. Tafel Racing, Ferrari, 160