Factories Face Off at American Le Mans Series Petit Le Mans

The biggest names in auto manufacturing and in motorsports will meet to prove which is the best over 1000 miles of flat-out racing at the thirteenth annual running of Petit Le Mans, the American Le Mans Series finale at Road Atlanta on Saturday, October 2nd.

Audi, Peugeot, Porsche Ferrari Ford, Jaguar, Chevrolet, Honda and BMW all have factory- or factory-assisted teams competing in this classic endurance event.

Audi and Peugeot face off in the fastest—and most expensive—Le Mans Prototype 1 class, where their 5.5 liter twin-turbo diesels are the class of the field. These are full factory entries, paid for and operated by Audi and Peugeot.

Audi had historically dominated here, wining nine races in a row, and the diesels have not been seriously threatened since their first appearance on the endurance racing scene in 2006. The overall winner will almost certainly be either an Audi or Peugeot P1 car.

Peugeot won the rain-shortened 2009 race after Allan McNish spun his Audi shortly before the race was stopped, ending Audi’s perfect record. Audi will be back for revenge. Peugeot which lost Le Mans after leading most of the 24 hours, will be eager to notch another win over its rivals.

Petit Le Mans will also be the second round of the three-race 2010 International Le Mans Series, so Audi and Peugeot have even more to fight for. Peugeot won the first round, the Silverstone 1000 km. Audi is looking to even the score.

The rest of the P1 field only have a chance if the big teams break. The Lolas of Drayson, Intersport, and Autocon, all running E85 ethanol fuel, are P1-Lites for all practical purposes; the current rules give the diesels a huge advantage.

These are also privateer teams—teams run by enthusiasts on much smaller budgets. Drayson and Intersport can be very fast. But Intersport (and Autocon) have long histories of reliability issues and Drayson has never mounted a sustained challenge over 1000 miles.

Porsche vs. Honda in P2

Well, not really. The Patrón Highcroft Honda Performance Development ARX-01c does get some factory support, but it is far from being a factory car. Duncan Dayton’s Highcroft Racing runs the car, calls the strategy, and provides a lot of funding through Patrón Tequila and other sponsors.

The Muscle Milk Team Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder is a privateer effort, with no cash or parts from the factory. Still the Cytosport Porsche has shown good speed this season, beating the Highcroft HPD at Sebring, Lime Rock, Road America and Mosport. The P2 title will be settled at Petit Le Mans: Highcroft has the lead, but if Cytosport wins the class and Highcroft does badly, the Porsche could take the title.

Cytosport and Highcroft face a foreign competitor at Petit Le Mans. The French Oak Racing team is bringing its Pescarolo-Judd to Petit, preparing for the 2011 ILMS, which will expand to six races, including the Sebring 12 Hours and Petit Le Mans. While new to North America, the team has participated in past LMS and ILMS events, and should provide tough competition for the ALMS regulars.

Dyson Racing returns with its Isobutanol-fueled, Mazda-powered Lola. If the team can last the distance they should finish well; they are fast when running, but too often this season the engine had not held up.

Libra Racing will run its Radical SR9 powered by an IES-modified Nissan V8. Libra is running the car to prepare for next season—it is unlikely to figure in the points.

All the Big Names Meet in GT

The GT class is the largest and usually provides the most exciting racing. Here is where the various marques compete with versions of their road cars—the Porsches 911s and Chevrolet Corvettes any one of us could buy.

Flying Lizard’s #45 Porsche lead the points race, and if the car can earn a top-ten finish, it will win the class. Porsche factory pilots Joerg Bergmeister, Patrick Long, and Marc Lieb are among the best in the field, and the team is skilled and reliable. While not actually a factory team, Flying Lizard benefits from having the best drivers on the Porsche payroll assigned to their cars.

Flying Lizard faces stiff competition from the Risi Ferraris. Risi Competizione is also not a “factory” team, but Ferrari does provide assistance including its best factory drivers, including Giancarlo Fisichella, Jaime Melo, Toni Vilander, Gianmaria Bruni, and Mika Salo.

Ferrari is currently 20 points down in the Manufacturers’ battle, behind Porsche and BMW, but Risi has a better endurance record than does the Rahal-Letterman BMW team. It is doubtful they could get the drivers’ championship—everyone else would need to crash, basically, but with two cars with top-tier drivers, they could still fight for the makes points.

BMW is currently second in manufacturers’ points, only one point behind Porsche. Rahal Letterman Racing—probably the least factory-connected of the big Euro manufacturers’ teams—also features an all-star lineup: Dirk Müller, Joey Hand, Andy Priaulx, Bill Auberlen, Tommy Milner, and Dirk Werner.

The BMWs are usually very fast at the end of the race, and their Dunlop ties often let them run more stints than their competitors’ Michelins. With the same driver line-ups, both BMWs managed to beat the #45 Lizard at Sebring. With BMW and Porsche so close in the GT Makes contest, look for a major battle in the closing laps between these teams.

Porsche’s Amazing Hybrid

Porsche, the factory, will be bringing a car never before seen in America, the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid. The car is basically a GT-3 Porsche with two 60-kw electric motors driving the front wheels—the motors recharging off of braking forces which power an electro-mechanical flywheel, rather than a bank of batteries.

The electric motors give the car up to eight seconds of 180 added horsepower.

The big benefit Porsche seeks with the car is not more power, but improved fuel economy with the same performance. And the car does perform, leading the field for eight hours at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring and running for more than 22 hours before retiring with mechanical troubles.

The new Porsche will not be running for points at Petit Le Mans, The car is all alone in the newly created GTH (GT-Hybrid) class. It will be piloted by the 2010 Le Mans winning team of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas, and Mike Rockenfeller. This car could well pull off another Nürburging-type performance and finish among the regular GTs.

The Rest of GT

Porsche is also represented by the Falken Tire team, but judging from past performances, the team will not be contesting the podium.

Corvette Racing, the de facto Chevrolet squad, will bring its two Corvette C6Rs to Petit. After dominating GT1, the team has not fared well in GT2. Fourth in manufacturers’ points, the team’s best hope is for a class win, something that has eluded it so far this season.

With 61 percent of GM owned by the government, Corvette Racing is America’s Team; unfortunately America seems to be in a bit of a slump on the racetrack.

Behind Chevrolet comes Ford. While not official Ford teams and not factory-backed, the Robertson Racing Ford GT has always been a crowd favorite. This year Robertson is adding a second car with a full slate of professional drivers. The second car has the team of David Murry, Rob Bell, and Anthony Lazzaro driving, and might actually run at the front of the pack.

Roberttson racing is joined by ACS Racing, also with a Ford GT. ACS Racing has a long history of building Ford Mustangs for Trans-Am and World Challenge. With a lineup of proven drivers: Brandon Davis, Boris Said, and Townsend Bell, ACS could prove the fastest Ford on the track.

ACS is viewing Petit as a chance to learn the new car. The team plans to run a full season in 2011.

RocketSport Racing is bringing a brace of Jaguar XKRs to Petit Le Mans. After somewhat ignominiously debuting here last year (the car wasn’t ready to race and barely made a few demonstration laps,) and frankly after not performing much better all through 2010, RSR hopes to double down and win big.

RSR is supported by the Jaguar factory. Seeing the car’s results so far, one wonders whether anyone at Jaguar has been paying attention. But a second car, and a slate of seasoned drivers, speaks of an extra influx of cash from the factory. Hopefully this will work; up to now RSR’s efforts have been an embarrassment for the marque’s once-proud racing history.

Finally come the Ferraris of Extreme Speed Motorsports. Extreme Speed has had a rough year, starting with a fire at Sebring and continuing with a series of dismal finishes, The team is fifth in team points, ahead of Falken, Robertson, and RSR, but given the budget, the preparation, and the drivers, one might expect more of the team.

True, they are the first of the rest, after Porsche BMW, Ferrari and Chevrolet, but one might think the team could challenge the bigger teams occasionally. The middle of the GT field is starting to get crowded. ESM needs to take it up a notch or it may be pushed down a few places.

LMPC: Breaking the Tie

Originally maligned as being an unnecessary spec class used as a field-filler, LMPC is in danger of being squeezed out altogether as LMP-2 regs approach LMPC rules. ALMS guaranteed the class for three years when LMPC was created, in order to allay investors’ worries that it was merely a stop-gap field-filler. Next year’s P2 rules call for cost containment and mandate stock-based motors, so the cost benefits of LMPC will shrink, while the publicity benefits of running a spec class will stay small.

To balance all that, LMPC is serving a down-to-the-wire dead heat battle for the class win. Scott Tucker’s Level 5 team is tied at 153 points with Gunnar Jeannette’s Green Earth Team Gunnar. Petit Le Mans will decide the class victory.

Some fans have complained that a rules loophole which allows Scott Tucker to drive—and score with—two cars in each race is unfair; Gunnar Jeannette earned his points in one car in each race, while Tucker could drive both Level 5 cars and pick the one that scored best.

In fact, the rule, probably written in part to attract Scott Tucker’s two cars to a class that was a bit thin at the beginning, is not particularly fair. Nonetheless, it is the rule, and Scott Tucker and Gunnar Jeannette will go head to head for the class win at Road Atlanta.

The larger restrictor granted the LMPC cars has given them a much-needed edge in performance, clearing up some of the traffic issues they had caused early in the season, and Road Atlanta, a high-speed track, should favor the LMPCs. Spec cars or P2 precursor, the class battle promises to add excitement to the race.

GTC: Black Swan vs. AJR

In GTC or Porsche Cup, ALMS’s all-Porsche GT-3 substitute, Black Swan Racing leads the class and probably will win the championship.

After missing Sebring and finishing poorly at Long Beach, Black Swan has won four times and finished second twice. Alex Job Racing and Velox Motorsports—both solid teams—simply haven’t had the pace for Black Swan.

Black Swan’s triumph is not certain. The team needs a class win to stay ahead of AJR; (a third would be enough to beat Velox.) But Black Swan has run fast and trouble-free all season. All they need to do is keep clear of traffic and not break.

On the other hand, AJR showed its endurance ability at Sebring, entering three cars and sweeping the podium. Black Swan’s longest effort had been six hours at Laguna Seca—where the team won. Will the extra length show any weaknesses? Or will fate turn away from the Black Swan team?

Barring bad luck, Black Swan has to be considered the favorite.

The race will be televised in the U.S. on SPEED-TV starting at 11 a.m.