2010 Petit LeMans ****SPOILERS****

No. 62 out of fuel on last lap. Hands race victory to Corvette Racing.

 

I don't think anyone could have forseen the torrid pace of GT2! The Porsche only had to finish 6th to win. I think Chevy won the manufacturers championship...

 

BMW won the MFG CH. The Ferrari running out of fuel at turn 10 made that possible for BMW.

I wish ORECA would have had the funds to bring their customer 908 over to run in this race. Probably could have been a Peugeot 1-2-3.

Audi should not put funds into going to China but figure out how to quality control their cars a bit better!

Carol

 

Long and Bergmeister Champs again!!!

 

What a way to blow a championship - running out of gas with two corners to go! Oh, well, it was a fun race regardless.

 

Arrrggh!

I go out for the night with 52 laps to go feeling good and I wake up and see this

 

Man what a crowd this year, it was jammed packed, could have used a little more traffic control , 3 times I couldnt even open the door or climb in the window of my car because someone wedged in! but no dings so its all good.
I brought my radar gun & unfortunately I didnt get any top speed on the back straight but here are some interesting observations:

at the exit of turn 5 the get cars were exiting between 87 & 94 mph with the bmw's on top , the Risi 2nd & the vettes last. The LMP cars, the 908 was @ 110 every lap, followed by the audi & P2 patron car @ 101 to 104.

At the short straight between t5 & entry to t6 the 908 hit 158 mph before at the first patrone brakeing marker, the audis were 147, on the GT cars , the ferraris were 127 as was the hybrid & the vette.

apex speed @ t6 on the 908 was 116!

T7 was only 37 to 45 mph with th fastest cars exiting at 80 or so & again the 908s hitting 150 by the first hill. 10 mph faster than anyone else & consistently hitting the same speeds at exactly the same places.

Turns 10 a& b were also very slow, 65 max on all cars , with the GT cars just as fast as the wing cars. At the begining of the bridge was around 100 to 110 on the P cars.

The apex of t12 we saw 150 with the 908, 144 with the Audi & patron highcroft, & 127 with the Risi cars. SICK!

Turn one saw Pcars entry speeds at turn in at 140, & 155 on the top of t2, with the GT3s in the 80's & the GT2's in the 110 to 115 range.

I wish I got top speed but could not even get near the black flag station & deemed it wasnt worth the grief.

I prefer the Grand Am for actual racing action , but I have to admit that this was the best ALMS race I have seen in years & reminded me of the first 3 Petits when it was actually a race with a full field of Pcars & GT1's. If it werent for the GT2 races of late it would be a total bore. Todays race was a good one even though the last turn heartbreaker gave the Vettes the win & BMW the championship.

The huge crowd was very encoraging.

But what is with all the texting? I was @ turn 10b for a while & noticed hundreds if not thousands of people looking at their phones, even my buddy was texting his old lady while a great battle was happening 10 feet in front of us? the Audi whacking the 908 in the corner, you could see each driver turing the wheel into each other to counteract the rubbing! What ever happened to being in the moment?
Im getting old I guess.
Peace

 

Great post. Great information!

 

jim, they would have lost anyway had they come back in for a splash of fuel. i was pleased to see the corvette win. the rules have certainly not been in their favor.

btw, i saw your ferrari in the infield...i think the plate gave it away.

great event!!!! alms / imsa makes grand am look like a mickey mouse series!!!

pcb

 

Very interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing this.

I'm a little torn by Risi, too. I was really looking forward to them taking it.

 

Here are my Friday photos:

http://s962.photobucket.com/albums/ae110/gatorrari/Petit%20Le%20Mans%2010-10/Petit%20Le%20Mans%20Friday/

Saturday still to come!

 

One thing noticed on the Speed broadcast and a colleague
from our time together with the Olive Garden/Rafanelli team
who was in attendance at PLM was high profile Rolex
signage around the track.

This is curious as the ALMS has had several high-end
watch sponsors but, of course, Rolex seems curiously
joined at the hip with GrandAM as the series title sponsor.

Rolex is high profile at Le Mans so perhaps they're alligning
themselves more with ALMS for more consistent branding.

Does anyone know more about this?

BHW

 

another comment/observation...

i noticed that on the magnus racing trailer, the large rolex logo was taped over. i was curious as they are classically a grand am team but was wondering if the logo was hidden on the demand of alms?

 

Not going to attach all my photos. Here's my gallery from the weekend.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21345&id=109412042441855&ref=mf


And for you non-facebook types...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tchphotography/sets/72157625111130796/

 

Well pasaw...........I cannot believe the Risi car ran out of gas so close to a win.............

 

ALMS demands it , they wont allow the logos

 

If this is the logo which appears on all GrandAM cars,
transporters, driver's suits, etc, then ALMS has every
right to have them removed or covered at their races
just as GrandAM has every right to request the same
of any ALMS signage at their events.

What was curious at PLM was the inclusion of large
Rolex billboards around the track like those seen at
Le Mans, Wimbledon, golf tournaments, etc.

Rolex's GrandAM involvement always been interesting
as they sponsor events like Le Mans which gets crowds
into the hundreds of thousands and world wide media
exposure. And then, they sponsor GrandAM over here
who's marquis event is lucky to get 5000 paying fans
and is barely a blip on the media radar screen.

Just sayin...

BHW

 

And now, here are my Saturday photos:

http://s962.photobucket.com/albums/ae110/gatorrari/Petit%20Le%20Mans%2010-10/Petit%20Le%20Mans%20Saturday/

 

Rolex has been sponsoring endurance races since the 60'S, HSR vintage , Grand AM , both give Rolex watches to champions & winners of the 24 hour of daytona.
With the crowds that ALMS pulls why wouldnt they want a piece.

Although Grand Am has no spectators, it has full field every race, with up to 60 cars in the GS & ST ranks. At least 12 prototypes & 25 gt cars in the smallest fields., Double that in the biggest. Check out the finishes in the last 3 years & it goes down to the last lap in most cases
.
The drivers in rolex are world class, top notch & more than a few were in the Petit to shore up the driver line up.
Ask Mr Tucker, who BTW Level5 would enter two LMPC cars every race and Tucker would go from car to car each race accumulating championship points in both cars. Its now called the Scott Tucker Rule. Now thats some rules

And you gotta luv them field filling GS class spec GT3's adding some rolling chicanes to make things exciting.

You may not like the cars, but lets be real ,finishing first in a class of 3 is a joke, or in GT1's case the last few years of actually giving out a championships for said class is disgraceful. But the record books will still show a champion regardless of a class of 1.

You want speculation? why was Jean Todt at the last Grand Am race?

If it werent for ALMS GT2 class, the series would be dead.
ALMS.....where guys who cant buy a win in Grand Am go to race. Right Mr. Taffel?

Just sayin...

 

Jean Todt was also at Le Mans this year, so I feel the "where's Todt?" game is rather irrelevant.

Speaking as a sports car racing fan, all that you have said has not made me want to increase next season what little support I've given Grand Am this year either in attendance or viewing from home. Both series have world class drivers in them, some of whom bounce between the two series quite easily. Both series have world class teams in them. Both series also race at some world class tracks.

So why am I reluctant to give full support to Grand Am? The series appears to have settled into a comfortable "lowest common denominator" formula that they're happy with. In my opinion this has led to a sense of stagnation in Grand Am that their executives are just now feeling the need to address, the current design revamp of the Daytona prototypes being the most glaring example. Although there is plenty of international representation in the ranks of Grand Am, the series has always had the feeling of a strictly national series in spite of its cosmopolitan underpinnings. Recent acquisition by NASCAR has not helped this perception, and Grand Am's latest flurry of international outreach projects underscores managements realization of this. In a nutshell, they are desperately trying to shake off the very real perception in the international sports cars racing world that they are consistently "behind the curve" and irrelevant.

Which brings me to the American Le Mans Series. Through thick and thin they have constantly honed and improved a series that has been international in scope from its very inception. Using the greatest race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans (and don't shame yourself by arguing against THAT) as its cornerstone, the ALMS have created a true sports car series that realizes that the fans come first above all. But in doing so they haven't succumbed to the NASCAR disease of "entertainment racing". They have crafted a series that prides itself on embracing cutting edge technologies in all facets of the sport. They have provided a venue at which manufacturers and privateers alike are equally welcome. And they have without doubt provided some of the greatest and most exciting moments in 21st century sports car racing history. Period. In moments of "low tide" in the ALMS I have seen more exciting racing in a four car class field than I've seen in a full year of a 30 car field in other series. And now that more teams are apparently due to enter all four of the ALMS classes that world class level of racing is only going to get better.

A few years ago in between practice sessions at the 24 Hours of Daytona, one of the greatest drivers in sports car racing today, Alan McNish, was asked by a reporter how he liked driving a Daytona prototype. His answer? "It's adequate". When you have a driver of his stature and experience in sports cars making such a "ringing" endorsement of the flagship class car, then in my opinion Grand Am has a lot of catching up to do.

I have attended a couple of Grand Am races at VIR, and each time I've been more entertained by the Continental Tire Challenge support race than I have by the main event. If the schedule for 2011 at VIR announced they were putting on not only their yearly Grand Am race but also bringing in an ALMS race later that season and I could only go to one, there would be no choice. I would pick the ALMS race every time.

Gary

 

No chance in hell ALMS will come to VIR. Sanction fee is huge. Too bad, too. Would LOVE to see the LMP cars (an LMP2 car has the unofficial record, nearly seven seconds a lap quicker than the latest DP pole time) and more importantly, the GT2 battle...