American LeMans Series--2008 Sebring Test
The picture above is of yet another diesel powered racing car...the Peugeot 908, testing at Sebring, during the pre season test at the central Florida road course. It will challenge the Le Mans Prototype 1 (LMP1)championship (and 24 Hours of LeMans) winning Audi R10 TDi diesel powered sportscar in the 10th season of the American LeMans series. The Penske LeMans Prototype 2 (LMP2) champions are also testing, ready for defense of their title.
Also seen in the paddock is Scott Sharp...who will be driving the Highcroft Racing LMP2 Acura this season. We'll have more with the 1996 Indy Racing League co-champ and past Trans-Am champion on our Race-Talk program this week. Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz are testing their LMP2 Acura..along with Bryan Herta and Christian Fittipaldi for Andretti Green Racing.
Sebring has a great history. In its original configuration, it was the training base for some of the bomber pilots of the Greatest Generation during World War II; today, it is a road racing shrine and one of the crown jewel facilities for the ALMS...which kicks off its 10th season on March 15 with the 12 Hours of Sebring.
We'll post any other interesting tidbits we find on this series' media day.
Lunchtime Update--Gil de Ferran will return to American racing after a tenure as Honda's F1 Sporting Director. The 2 time CART Champion is forming an American LeMans Series team to run an Acura ARX-01B, with a scheduled launch later in the season...he'll sit out the first few to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's crossed. This "green" initiative that the ALMS is pursuing with the EPA, SAE, etc is for real. The Corvette team will run an E85 'Vette in the GT2 class. That means that the race car will run on 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline...like about 2-million other General Motors products. The obvious question: Yes, GM is working on a production 'Vette that will run on E85.
More later.
Did You Know?????--the ALMS picked the GT2 nail-biting .202 second 2006 12 Hours of Sebring finish of GT2 champ Jaime Melo over Jorg Bergmeister (you might remember him from Grand Am in 2006) as the greatest moment in American Le Mans Series history so far.
A final thought about the 24 Hours of Daytona: No observer of racing will deny that A. J. Allmendinger is the real deal, after the Champ Car wins that got him noticed by Dieter Mateschitz of Red Bull...and two strong 24 Hour of Daytona runs in successive years. It would have been interesting seeing A. J. and perhaps Juan Pablo Montoya or Scott Pruett fighting for the lead. Allmendinger's Michael Shank mount led easily until it fell victim to the road racing gremlins that prowl about the "world center of racing" looking for cars to bother.
We'll be back in sunny central Florida for the Champ Car festivities this weekend at Sebring, where we will likely see the first official appearance of new Newman Haas teammates Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal, who also partnered as teammates with the aforementioned Allmendinger and Michael Shank Racing.
