1000 Km of Monza and the Long Beach Grand Prix
May 6st, 2008
Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarazin managed to put their Peugeot 908 HDi in the first place
at the 2008 1000 Km of Monza, handing Peugeot the second Le Mans Series win in a row.
Audi captured the second place and Pescarolo Sport the third. It's good to see privateers
like Henri Pescarolo getting close to the top and challenge giants Audi and Peugeot.
Small private teams have a hard time convincing sponsors they stand a chance against
such powerful players and therefore their resources are rather limited these days.
Audi is doing much better in the American Le Mans Series where they scored an important
win by taking the first two places of the Long Beach Grand Prix. Penske's Porsche RS Spyders
only arrived 4th and 5th, the 3rd place going to PATRîN HIGHCROFT RACING.
Tafel Racing declines 24 Hours of Le Mans invite, Saulnier Racing gets the place
April 13st, 2008
After a surprise win at the st. Petersburg Grand Prix in the American Le Mans Series Tafel Racing has decide to decline the invitation it was awarded by the ACO to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2008. The reason invoked by Jim Tafel is his desire to dedicate all this year's available resources to the to the American Le Mans Series.
In accordance with ACO regulations, Tafel's place was awarded to the first car on the waiting list, that is Saulnier Racing's Pascarolo Judd no. 4.
Audi wins at Saint Petersburg and Peugeot takes the lead in Barcelona
April 6st, 2008
Audi won the Acura Sports Car Challenge of Saint Petersburg this weekend. Saint Pete is the second race of the American Le Mans Series and Audi managed to win it for the secod year in a raw. Audi's Marco Werner and Lucas Luhr managed to cross the finish line in front of Penske's Roland Dumas and Timo Bernhard, after 81 laps. The Audi drivers have also scored the fastest lap time: 1:54.952 in lap 8. Penske's best performance was recorded in lap 49: 1:05.121.
The 1000 Km of Catalunya gathered a crowd of 28000 to the race track near Barcelona for the Le Mans Series opening race. Peugeot won the race in front of Audi but the second 908 HDi and only came in 8th, which allowed Audi to take the lead of the series.
Peugeot and Audi were followed by Charouz and Pescarolo Sport.
1000 Km of Catalunya, Acura Sports Car Challenge of Saint Petersburg
March 31st, 2008
The Le Mans racing season will resume this week end with the 1000 Km of Catalunya in Europe and the Acura Sports Car Challange of Saint Petersburg in Florida. We'll keep you posted with latest developments.
Sebring results: Penske's Porsche RS Spyders make an impressive overall win
March 16th, 2008
For the first time in Sebring Le Mans racing history, the overall win went to a LMP2 car. Penske's Porsche RS Spyders took the first two overall places, with Roland Dumas, Emmanuel Collard and Timo Bernhard arriving first.
This is a dream coming true for Penske, who's Porsche RS Spyders have been battling for years against Audi in the American Le Mans Series on the track as well as at regulatory body level. Over the last two years Penske complained several times about unfair advantages class one Diesel powered Le Mans prototypes have over their traditional gas powered counterparts. These advantages have been extensively explained by Henri Pescarolo in an open letter he sent to the A.C.O. last year. Penske has pushed for and obtained a series of regulation changes that that are supposed slow down the diesels.
Penske's Porsche RS Spyders have beaten the Audi R10s in plenty of American Le Mans Series races last year, but only in shorter two to three hours races. The Audis have won both of last season's longer endurance races: the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, which lasts 10 hours. This is the first time the Porsches beat the Audis in a real endurance race.
Porsche and Penske have turned down invitations to participate in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year on grounds of the same unfair advantages Diesel prototypes have over gas powered ones. Their result at Sebring this year has shown this shouldn't be an issue any more so let's hope Porsche and Penske will review their position when next invited to Le Mans.
Audi have placed their two R10s in 3rd and 6th place overall, while first time contender Peugeot placed its Peugeot 908 in 11th place. Click here for a full race report.
The starting grid of the 12 Hours of Sebring 2008 has been announced. Even though Peugeot have scored the fastest
lap time during the qualifying session, Audi has got the pole position thanks to an accident that
rendered the track unusable early in the process. Indeed, Ben Devlin crashed his car into the tire wall which
caused a high quantity of debris and stopped the session.
Because there was not enough time to clear the track and resume the qualifying session and because LMP1 cars
had less than 10 minutes of running time, the officials canceled the session and set the grid by practice time.
