"Acuras Double Up in St. Pete; Brabham, Sharp Notch First LMP1 Overall Win for Patron Highcroft Racing"

Scott Sharp started, and David Brabham finished up in Victory Lane with the LMP1 Acura ARX 02a, which we showed you on this blog in January. (OK, that's the excuse I am giving for not blogging a snapshot). The Acura driven by Simon Pagenaud and Gil deFerran started on pole and was fast--the gremlins bit, and the car completed only 66 of 93 laps on track...and was on the transporter by the time Sharp and Brabham went to Victory Lane.

This is Sharp's first LMP1 win, and the first in ALMS competition for the ARX 02a. Sharp and Brabham won Acura's first LMP2 tilt at Lime Rock last July.

The Patron Highcroft team leads the LMP1 points as the series gets a break for Easter next week.

In LMP2, Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz are two for the season. Their Acura ARX 01b was the only LMP2 car fast enough to stay on the same lap with the Patron squad, notching their second class win.

Fernandez and Diaz similarly lead the LMP2 points.

We're multitasking and trying to watch a little NC2A Final Four National Semifinal action in between work. Time for us to say good night and see all of you tomorrow morning.

"Acura LMP1 on Pole; Scott Dixon; Adrian Fernandez take LMP1 & 2 Honors at Sebring"

"It's an animal". That is what Indy 500 winner, and Indy Car champion Scott Dixon (2nd left)said about the de Ferran Racing Acura ARX 02a LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1), that he drove to the overall pole for Saturday's 12 Hours of Sebring. He nipped the vaunted challenge of the new Audi LMP1 R15 diesel driven by Tom Kristensen to notch the pole for the American LeMans Series opener here. You will be able to hear the smile in his voice on our "Race-Talk" program this weekend.

Erik Berkman (left) is the boss of Acura Racing...and had two reasons to smile. Adrian Fernandez put the Acura ARX-01B on the pole for the LMP2 class. They are a tick slower and will start 7th overall, with a speed of 121.438 miles an hour.

The ALMS is actually making strides in green racing, as our readers and listeners know. The series signed a deal with Green Earth Technologies to feature their G-OIL Ultimate Biodegradeable Motor Oil as the official motor oil. G-OIL is made from beef fat derived from processing. Animal fats share similar molecular construction to petroleum oils, and are renewable. The company experimented with plant based oils and found beef tallow worked better and was readily available.

We'll have more tomorrow.

"We Will Not Lift"

Notes from the American LeMans Series Test at Sebring:

• 
  
  ALMS CEO Scott Atherton replied to NASCAR Chairman Brian France's remarks about other racing series calling themselves green because they "plop an alternative fuel in the car and call it green." Atherton reminded the attendees about the five year commitment of the ALMS to alternative fuels (E10, E85 and clean diesel), and announced that the E-P-A invited the series to exhibit at the Washington Auto Show in early February as part of the E-P-A's display. Atherton said he admires and respects France, but suggested that France did not have all the facts. We will feature the original comments, and official responses, on this week's Race-Talk program. (To subscribe to our podcast, just enter this in your browser or podcast program http://msrpk.com/podcast/racetalk.rss ). Atherton says "green racing" will become "more than an elective" in the future, and that the concept is not exclusive to the ALMS.
• 
  
  Bobby Rahal will run BMW's GT2 program--this class should be a lot of fun to watch, with Corvette's eventual entry into this class, along with the Porsches.
• 
  
  Gil de Ferran seems to have the new Acura ARX02a (LeMans Prototype 1 like the car that you see above along with Honda Performance Development boss Erik Berkman) sorted out. In the morning session (unofficial, since it's testing), he and driver Simon Pagenaud busted the track record for LeMans Prototypes, with a speed of 127.082 miles an hour. (In 2007...the diesel Audi R10 of Marco Werner was timed at 126.889 miles an hour). The defending IndyCar and Indianapolis 500 champion, Scott Dixon, will be in the car for Sebring. The Patron Acura will be driven by Scott Sharp and David Brabham, with help from another Indianapolis 500 winner and IndyCar series champion (and Dixon's 2009 teammate), Dario Franchitti. Franchitti will join the Patron team for the endurance races (since the IndyCar schedule has some breaks that allow such a strategy).
• 
  
  For you fans of clean diesel burning cars, Audi will contest this year's 12 Hours with their new LeMans piece, the R15. They won't run the rest of the schedule...and Atherton says the door is open for their return...and that we ought not be surprised if the marque returns in the future, along with some other racing programs which may enter the series by mid-year.
• The title sums up Atherton's closing remarks. They were inspired from a talk from one of Porsche's engineers during the company's formal 2008 motor sports awards program. The not lift, refers to lifting one's foot off the accelerator when approaching a turn. Atherton says the ALMS will continue to move forward with investment in the core elements of the series that work well, and cutting or eliminating investments in areas that don't.

We'll take a SuperBowl break this weekend...and cut in if developments warrant.