2006 Petit Le Mans

[Dino Scuderia]

Will be heading to Road Atlanta Friday morning for all the activities through the end of the main event Saturday night. The weather is going to be near perfect, cool at night and not too hot in the day.

Read all about the schedule etc. here:

http://www.roadatlanta.com/index.las...dID=10&-search

[RacingManiac]

should be a blast....quality entries this year, though not in quantity....

[Zytek_Fan]

The 2 car assault from Creation should give Audi something to think about. The number 88 CA06/H posted a lap time ONLY about a second slower than the R10 at today's practise session. The rest of the cars in LMP1 were all within .9 secs of the CA06/H.

Horag Lista Racing should be out tomorrow. What was the deal with them? Were they waiting all year for a new chassis?

GT1 is of course gonna be the Corvette vs Aston battle. I hope Aston wins
There is a rumoured 5th entrant in GT1. I am thinking it is ACEMCO or one of the European C6R teams (GLPK or PSI Motorsport).

[RacingManiac]

Wednesday time:
http://www.motorsport.com/news/artic...FS=ALMS-LEMANS

Dyson is very close to the R10...but all that will mean nothing once the race goes into endurance mode.....

Creation only entered one car for this race, with the 2nd car due for Laguna's race....

[Dino Scuderia]

The 2 car assault from Creation should give Audi something to think about. The number 88 CA06/H posted a lap time ONLY about a second slower than the R10 at today's practise session. The rest of the cars in LMP1 were all within .9 secs of the CA06/H.

Horag Lista Racing should be out tomorrow. What was the deal with them? Were they waiting all year for a new chassis?

GT1 is of course gonna be the Corvette vs Aston battle. I hope Aston wins
There is a rumoured 5th entrant in GT1. I am thinking it is ACEMCO or one of the European C6R teams (GLPK or PSI Motorsport).

I fully expect the Audi's to win overall.

My pal who is at the track spoke to former ACEMCO driver, Terry Borcheller, who said they sold their cars, he is currently out of a drive as a result.

Might have another update later.

[adamfraser]

Have a great day Guys!

Lucky people...

[Dino Scuderia]

There was a hard rain shower for about an hour around 3:30pm...all practice was halted...it cleared off then rained again a bit later but it appears clear skies are in order for a good while.

It will be messy tomorrow walking in the red clay mud of Georgia.

[Zytek_Fan]

I fully expect the Audi's to win overall.

My pal who is at the track spoke to former ACEMCO driver, Terry Borcheller, who said they sold their cars, he is currently out of a drive as a result.

Might have another update later.

It's sad that such a great like ACEMCO is gone. Sure they didn't win any races, but they gave the vettes something to think about last year

I fully expect an Aston win in GT1

[Zytek_Fan]

Some news from Petit courtesy of Mulsanne Mike

>>Mazda's John Doonan, though very tight lipped, did tell me that Laguna Seca will be the venue for Mazda's "monumental" announcement regarding the LMP2 program for '07. Expect a new chassis and the announcement of an engine program (yes, I know we’ve been saying that all year…THIS time, trust me!). BK Motorsports will continue to be the factory endorsed effort.

>>Radical's Tim Greaves indicates that there have been inquires into a LMP1 version of the SR9. Don't confuse this with the SR10 coupe mentioned a few weeks ago. What we're talking about is a LMP1 version of the current open top SR9. While a conversion kit would consist of a bit more than a new engine installation, all the pieces are in place.

>>Creation's Ian Bickerton mentioned that the CA06/H will be staying States side next year. The team is looking to set up a base to run the car from. The Le Mans Series program will continue, running in new CA07 spec.

>>Tim Holloway, Chief Designer for Zytek, indicates the high possibility that the Zytek 06S could find a U.S. customer for ‘07. Hybrids will continue to be legal in the American Le Mans Series.

>>The State of the Series press conference brought forward the 2007 schedule. IMSA's Tim Mayer also laid out plans for next year's performance adjustment procedure citing that, as needed, there will be two adjustment periods during the season with the parameters of weight, fuel, boost, and restrictor diameter, being adjusted accordingly at those times. Mayer's stated goal for the potential performance adjustments is simply to allow for reasonable competition for privateers against the factories. It was also mentioned that the ACO is fully behind IMSA, having come to the recognition that regulations designed for one event aren't necessarily perfect for an entire series. This is a noted change in the ACO's tone inasmuch as they weren't necessarily on the same page until recently.

Ultimately all rather anticlimactic (and nearly 2 hours to get to it). Though it was worth the price of admission to witness first hand Audi's Dr. Wolfgang Ulrich stick his feet in it. During the press Q & A Ulrich found it appropriate to take the time to air out his (Audi's?) feelings regarding the IMSA performance adjustments and frankly came off as disingenuous, his quote simply doesn't bear repeating. Rob Dyson, in response to Ulrich, took to the microphone to give his own views citing, the need to be able to compete against, "...superior technology that is totally unavailable."

In the end the very informal consensus within the paddock is that the performance adjustments only keep chasing up the Audi R10's boost. And while the Series may feel otherwise, there are few who shed a tear for Audi and at least one who feels the American Le Mans Series might very well be better off if they left. And while I may be hard on Audi, personally I'm on the fence. But Audi's results still speak for themselves; the Audi R10 has been unbeaten all year, performance adjustments or not. You just would have hoped that Audi would have relished some competition for once. Though there seems to be a simmering undercurrent, is Audi indicating they will make good on their oblique threats to leave (see August 13, 2006 news item)? That this keeps coming into the public eye might be Audi's way of playing chicken. IMSA has replied, what will Audi do? Hopefully put their toys back in the toy box and get on with it.

[henk4]

A hypothesis: Suppose Audi had fielded a state of the art LMP1 car with a new petrol engine, (and using the same amount of budget and manpower) and had run away with the series the same way the diesels do, would then the reactions have been similar?

I love Dyson's comment that they need to be able to compete with "superior techonology" Who ever would have thought 5 years ago that this was going to be said about a diesel engine....

[The_Canuck]

Lol i loved the part where the power of the Audi scared the tire off the Zytek

[Viper007]

Was coming back from UGA yesterday Dino and stopped by Road Atlanta what a site, all those beautiful cars. I hope you have fun and take lots of pictures.

[johnnyperl]

Do you have a press pass?

I got back last night (Friday). I had a Hot Pit Pass that allowed me to go right up to the pit wall which is quite an experience to say the least (especially during the night practice!)