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2006 ALMS

Ny Cadillac Northstar

Vi havde fået at vide, at Cadillac ville komme med en ny bil, og nu er det første computer billed af den nye racer frigivet.

Den ny Cadillac LMP vil blive udstyret med en opdateret 4 liters twin-turbo Northstar V8 motor. motoren udvikles iøvrigt i samarbejde med McLaren Performance Technology.

Der vil også blive monteret en helt ny sekventiel gearkasse og skifterne vil blive flyttet op på rattet, som vi kender det fra Formel 1.

2002 Cadillac LMP skal efter planen have sin racedebut ved 12 timers løbet på Sebring. her ud over skal den køre mindst 4 ALMS i 2002, og så skal den selvfølgeligt deltage på Le Mans.

ALMS afstemningen

Italy's Emanuele Pirro was the star of the evening Sunday night as the American Le Mans Series concluded its 2001 season with a lavish awards ceremony at the Chateau Elan. Pirro, driver of the Audi R8 for Audi Sport North America, was honored as the 2001 American Le Mans Series champion in the headlining LMP 900 class. He received a championship trophy and ring from series founder Don Panoz.

"I love racing in America," said Pirro during his acceptance remarks, addressing an audience of 500 who attended the banquet. "I've met so many wonderful people and made so many friends. I didn't know what to
expect when I came here last year."

During his remarks, Pirro asked co-driver Frank Biela to join him onstage. Biela finished second in the championship standings, only a few points behind Pirro. "I'm 50 percent of the championship, and he is the other 50 percent," said Pirro of Biela.

General Motors executive Gary Claudio was the surprised recipient of the American Le Mans Series "From the Fans" award, presented by Panoz. The award was voted to Claudio by fans of the series for his contribution to sports car racing through the development of the Corvette racing program in the ALMS. In accepting, Claudio asked Corvette project manager Doug Fehan to join him onstage and share the award.

Also honored during the banquet were the other class driving champions for the series in 2001, including LMP 675 champion Didier de Radigues, who drove for Dick Barbour Racing in a Reynard 01Q-Judd; GTS champion Terry Borcheller, who drove for Konrad Team Saleen in a Saleen S7R; and GT champion Jorg Muller, driver for BMW Motorsport in a BMW M3 GTR. Manufacturer championships were won by Audi in the LMP 900 class, Lola-Nissan in the LMP 675 class, Chevrolet in the GTS class and BMW in the GT class. Team championships were won by Audi Sport North America in LMP 900, Dick Barbour Racing in LMP 675, Corvette Racing in GTS and BMW Motorsport in GT.

Le Mans and Sportscar Racer magazine presented "Personality of the Year" awards in all four classes, with Jan Magnussen winning for LMP 900, de Radigues for LMP 675, Johnny O'Connell for GTS and JJ Lehto and Muller sharing the GT award.

Tire manufacturer championships were presented to Michelin for both LMP 900 and GT, Goodyear for GTS and Avon for LMP 675. Mechanic of the Year awards were presented to the lead mechanic on each team championship winner, including Jurgen Hoerdt from Audi Sport North America, Tim Mundy from Dick Barbour Racing, Bill DeLong from Corvette Racing and Wolfgang Egger from BMW Motorsport.

Also recognized during the evening were the top six drivers from the Panoz GT Pro Series, which accompanied the ALMS at several events during the season. The top three in both the GTS and GT classes were recognized, including GTS champion Gary Curtis and GT titlist Barry Davison. Bob Varsha of the Speedvision Television Network was Master of

Ceremonies for the event. Each champion driver and each category of awards was introduced by a music video that included scenes from the 2001 season. There was also a special video in honor of drivers ALMS drivers Bob Wollek and Michele Alboreto, who died during the 2001 season.

Grand-Am 2002 kalender

Grand-Am er en helt igennem Amerikansk serie, og den er normalt ikke å interessant set med Danske eller europæiske øjne. Men Daytona 24 er en del af denne serie, og det blev bekræftet at årets første løb, bliver dette, som Danske John Nielsen vandt i 1988.

Graham Nash Motorsport køber en Saleen

There was more than a hint of relief in Graham Nash's voice as he explained that, "the deal is done. We'll be running a Saleen next year. It will arrive either just before or just after Christmas."

But where, Graham, where will you be running it? "We'll be starting at Daytona for the Rolex 24, and after that I'm keen to support the Privilege British GT Championship by bringing a new car along to that. But at the moment everything is subject to an ELMS announcement."

Like a good many other entrants (and drivers), Graham Nash is waiting for the ELMS news that might have been expected last week - but didn't arrive. "I've got drivers lined up to do the ELMS, but we can't go any further with those plans for the moment."

Nash explained that Sebring, Le Mans and the Petit Le Mans would fit in well with a group of high profile ELMS events. For now, it's wait and see. Whatever is announced regarding the ELMS, Graham Nash is looking forward to a very much better 2002 than 2001.

Lola blev LMP675 mester

Lola er netop blevet ALMS LMP675 mester for Chassis byggere.

Ben Devlin, Jason Workman og Andrew Davies sluttede årets ALMS serie, med at blive nummer 2 i Petit Le Mans, i deres Nissan-Lola.

The day got off to a bad start for Lola when John Field was pushed into a spin before the green flag, sending the American's Intersport Racing Lola B2K/10 into the wall under the starter's tower and damaging the rear of the car extensively.

Claudia Huertgen led the 675 category in the early stages in her KnightHawk Racing Lola B2K/40, but her co-drivers had less luck. An accident damaged the steering and cost the team 15 minutes, and the car eventually retired with a broken drive-shaft.

Emanuele Pirro won the overall championship in his Audi R8 shared with Frank Biela, the pair winning by a comfortable three laps from the Gulf Audi of Stefan Johansson and Patrick Lemarie. Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello could have claimed the championship from Pirro, but Kristensen crashed out in the first hour while leading. Their demise, and Biela's joint win with Pirro, ensured a 1-2 finish in the title for Pirro and Biela.

Andy Wallace and Johnny Herbert were third in the Champion Audi after the Panoz of David Brabham and Jan Magnussen crashed. Brabham was challenging for the lead, but attempted to squeeze between the Audi and a GTS-class car, causing heavy rear-end damage to the Panoz. The team repaired it in 40 minutes, and it returned to action to finish in the top ten.

Terry Borcheller won the GTS drivers' title in his Saleen S7R after rival Ron Fellows had his Corvette excluded in the first hour for having outside assistance repairing the Corvette by the track.

Jorg Muller became the GT champion in his Schnitzer BMW, finishing second to Bill Auberlen, Hans Stuck and Boris Said. The German was penalised a minute when he cleaned the windscreen for his co-driver Dirk Muller, the stewards deeming that too many people were working on the car during its stop.

Championship rival and erstwhile co-driver JJ Lehto had a collision with a prototype that caused a puncture, then co-driver Karl Wendlinger had a collision with a GT Porsche that damaged the BMW's steering.

Saleen tog 3 titler

David truly slew Goliath today in the fourth annual Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta as Terry Borcheller came from eleven points down to win the 2001 American Le Mans Series (ALMS) GTS Drivers’ Championship. Last year’s Grand-Am GTS Co-Champion, this was the third GTS championship in four years for the Saleen factory driver.

Borcheller set the fastest lap for the sixth straight race while he and teammates, Franz Konrad and Charlie Slater, drove the #26 Konrad/Team Saleen S7R to a second place finish in today’s 1000-mile endurance classic. The series-leading #3 Corvette was disqualified in the second lap. Konrad finished in second place just three points behind Borcheller.

"This same thing happened to me in 1982 in a world karting finale here at Road Atlanta," commented a jubilant Borcheller. "The leader DNFed and I won the race to win the championship. When the team told me that I had won the championship after my first stint, I just looked up and said a big ‘thank you, Lord’."

This was actually the second GTS Drivers’ Championship this season for a Saleen driver as Ian McKellar won the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) last month driving the Ray Mallock (RML) Saleen S7R. RML also won the Team and Manufacturers’ Championship in the ELMS where Konrad/Team Saleen also placed second. And a third victory is highly likely as Chris Bingham can win the Grand-Am GTS Drivers’ Championship next month by simply taking the green flag at the Daytona finale in the #05 Fordahl/Team Saleen S7R.

Three Saleen S7Rs in three series around the world = three GTS Drivers’ Championships. Not bad for a first-year effort!

BMW gaderacer
Kilde:

Under sidste weekends Petit Le Mans erobrede BMW deres 6. American Le Mans Series GT klasse sejr. og det er nu samtidig besluttet at der skal komme ny M3 GTR gadebil.

M3 GTR bliver en letvægts M3 udstyret med en V8 motor. Det gode ved denne motor er at det ikke er neddroslet 5 liters V8 fra M5 og Z8, Nej det er en modificeret race motor, som den der bliver brugt i AMLS.

Det forventes at motoren kommer til at yde i omegnen af 350 HK, og den vil dermed komme til at kæmpe imod Porsches modspil, som hedder

Bilen kommer til salg fra Februar 2002, til en pris af 250.000 €

Bentley køre måske?

Jeg skrev allerede om Bentleys krise den 27. september, hvor jeg fremdrog at der var visse økonomiske problemer i dette projekt.

Ifølge mine kilder kommer kommer Bentley til Le Mans i både 2002 & 2003, men der iøjeblikket ikke midler til at sætte bilen ind i andre serier.

Herbert skal køre Panoz i 2002 ?

Der versere et rygte for tiden om at Johnny Herbert skal køre for Don Panoz i i både ALMS og IRL i 2002.

Johnny Herbert har i år kørt for Champion Audi teamet i ALMS og på Le Mans, men hvis han skifter til Panoz i den kommende sæson, bliver han øjensynligt chauffør både i "batmobilen" og i en IRL racer.

Dette betyder i så fald at der skal ofres en af de faste piloter på ALMS teamet, som idag rummer Klaus Graf, Franck Lagorce, David Brabham og Jan Magnussen, og jeg kan ikke umiddelbart se hvem der er det svageste led her ?

LMP 675 Test

MG are testing their LMP 675 car at Estoril this week, according to a story in this week's "Motorsport News."

Chamberlain Motorsport are not involved, and the story suggests that, despite a two year contract, the team have been asked to put in "a fresh bid" for 2002. No 2002 plans have been released yet for the exciting 675 cars - just Le Mans, or more than that this time?

Frank Dernie is in charge of the four day test, with (Brands Hatch BTCC winner) Anthony Reid doing the driving. The main task seems to be to check on upgrades to the AER engine. Customer versions of this car will come complete with this power unit. Six customer cars were mentioned by Lola when they announced that the car was for sale.

Esses bygges om på Le Mans

Vi troede lige at Le Mans var færdigombygge for denne gang, men nu kommer der altså flere ændringer til den gamle bane, for Esses skal bygges om.

Der er ikke frigivet tegninger af ombygningen, men ifølge mine kilder sker ændringen på strækningen imellem Dunlop broen og ned til Esses. På denne strækning kommer der en venstre~Højre chikane inden bilerne kommer ind i den kendte Esses kombination.

Denne ombygning sker samtidig med den planlagte ændring af Bugatti banen, som jeg skrev om den 21. september. Arbejdet starter november 2001.

DAMS får ikke den ny Cadillac

DAMS har igennem de sidste par kørt med Cadillac chassiser i sportscar racing, og dette er sket med blandede resultater, og om det er årsagen vides ikke. Men de kommer ikke til at køre med de ny Cadillac chassiser.

ORECA køre Chrysler/Dallara

"Ouest-France" har bekræftet at Oreca køre Chrysler/Dallara prototyper under næste års Le Mans, men det er endnu ikke bekræftet hvilken motor der skal ligge i bilen. Det er muligt at bilen igen bliver udstyret med en Mopar motor, men både Mugen og Judd er også nogle gode bud.

YGK

Et Japansk bilimport selskab som bliver kaldt YGK, har planer om at indsætte 4 biler i det kommende Le Mans løb, og bilerne fordeler sig i to klasser. Selskabet er ikke helt ukendt med langdistance racing, for under navne "Yellow Magic" deltaget i sidste to års 24 timers løb på Daytona, med Ferrari F355.

Det er planen at de vil stille op i både LMP 675 og LM GTS.

Yellow Magics website som desværre kun er på Japansk

Pescarolo 2002 planer

Henri Pescarolo er måske ved at line op til noget stort, for selskabet har hyret den tidligere Peugeot og Toyota designer André de Cortanze, som teknisk direktør for 2002.

Hans første opgave bliver og forbedre aerodynamikken på deres Courage C60, dette sker selfølgeligt i samarbejde med Yves Courage.

Teamet har allerede nu plalagt deres første langdistance tes, til at skulle foregå i starten af 2002. dette skal selvfølgeligt ske, for at man kan vurdere om de nye aerodynamiske tiltag har fået den ønskede efekt.

Pescarolo's mål for det kommende le Mans er at blive 'best of the rest' og det betyder forhåbentligt en podieplads. Her ud over skal teamet deltage i hele FIA Sportscar Championship.

Peugeot engineers are expected to provide increasing support for the engine programme