2012 American Le Mans Series

Hampus Andersson · Jun 1, 2012

BRASELTON, Ga. (June 1, 2012) – The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón (ALMS) announced today that its 2013 season will include a race at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) – the soon-to-be-completed motorsports, entertainment and business development complex in Austin, Texas. The ALMS event will take place during the spring portion of the 2013 race schedule, which will be announced later this year.

Located less than 15 miles from the Texas state capital’s central business district, the unique 3.4-mile Circuit of The Americas will serve as a leader in sustainability through high-performance operations, design, research, education and partnerships, track developers say.

http://www.alms.com/articles/alms-circuit-americas-2013

Awesome!

Xosé Estrada · Jun 3, 2012

Sounds like a logical move

Eric Parker · Jun 15, 2012

As they should.

Having said that, I have my tickets for the ALMS/ Indycar race at Mid-Ohio. I love road courses but the thing that made me pull the trigger was the ALMS was the support race. I am really interested in seeing that series first hand. Grandstand seats and pit passes, hell yeah. It should be good times.

Of course If I happen to run into Rubens, I will mention RaceDepartment to him.

Kol Bailey · Jun 27, 2012

Does Rubens have an account?

Shawdad · Jul 24, 2012

Wow. Cant wait!

Kol Bailey · Jul 31, 2012

Did anyone here about both of the Factory-backed SRT-Vipers making their debut at Mid-Ohio?

Hampus Andersson · Aug 6, 2012

yea i saw the race, the livery sucks but it was cool to see.
Red with white stripes ORECA style, that´s what they should run.

Eric Parker · Aug 6, 2012

I was there, woot! Sat in the grandstand at turn 4.

I don't know if it will work in all regions, but in the US atleast the full race can be found here.
http://www.alms.com/video/2012-mid-ohio-sports-car-challenge

Hampus Andersson · Aug 18, 2012

Stream is absolutely worthless!!!

1 second, 15 second buffer, 1 sec, 15 sec buffer. WTF.

Edit: now it seems to have said "F*ck it, i´ll just stay on buffering..."

Hampus Andersson · Aug 18, 2012

Just realized you can watch the series on espnplayer.com

It´s way cheaper then i realized.
Basically you can see the whole season for a Pizza and a coke.
At least in my currency.
-

Damn listening to the two 458´s out of corners is like a symphony

They are neck and neck so they get on the gas almost at the same time

Rhys Gardiner · Aug 19, 2012

Just saw the Road America finish.

Not going to spoil anything, but daaaaaaaamn...

Hampus Andersson · Aug 19, 2012

0.083s

But when you consider one car was lapping three seconds quicker per lap that whole class is a bit iffy really.
He was 4 laps down and managed to claw it all back and almost win.

GT class was fantastic. It seemed like everyone in GT was in the lead at one point of the race.

Ivo Simons · Aug 19, 2012

The famous Drive video about the event.

Thilo Falkenberg · Sep 1, 2012

Reffering to SPEEDtv.com ALMS and the Rolex Sports Car Series are reported to join forces for 2014.

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/sportscar-alms-grand-am-finalizing-merger/

Eric Estes · Sep 1, 2012

Going to wait to see the details on this one. Having two series never made much sense (same as IndyCar/Champ car), but the cars are so different that I'm not sure how it will work, though it may make more sense with the 2014 LMS rule changes. Combining the GT's will be interesting (Le Mans Camaro, anyone?).
Don't particularly like the idea of the France family (NASCAR/Grand-Am) being in charge of the combined series.
Do hope that they keep the Continental Sports Car Challenge as a support series. Love the racing in that series (Mini's/Mazda 3/MX-5/BMW/Kia/Honda/Porsche/Aston-Martin etc in 2 classes - up to 70 cars on the track in class-combined races) which IMO is the best road racing in the US.

Juen-Jen Wang · Sep 1, 2012

Eric Estes said:
Going to wait to see the details on this one. Having two series never made much sense (same as IndyCar/Champ car), but the cars are so different that I'm not sure how it will work, though it may make more sense with the 2014 LMS rule changes. Combining the GT's will be interesting (Le Mans Camaro, anyone?).
Don't particularly like the idea of the France family (NASCAR/Grand-Am) being in charge of the combined series.
Do hope that they keep the Continental Sports Car Challenge as a support series. Love the racing in that series (Mini's/Mazda 3/MX-5/BMW/Kia/Honda/Porsche/Aston-Martin etc in 2 classes - up to 70 cars on the track in class-combined races) which IMO is the best road racing in the US.

I believe the Grand-Am GTs can race in ALMS GTC?

Also maybe the DP would stay and be a class within their own? I hope they don't go away. I actually like the DPs

Thilo Falkenberg · Sep 1, 2012

IMSA GTC is based on Porsche Carrera Cup cars, so if Grand-Am GTs are even to those, I don't think it would be problematic. ACO however uses GT3 as base for GTC, which as we know evolved away from Porsche Carrera Cup cars.

The thought of having the Daytona 24h, the Sebring 12h and the Petit LeMans in one championship however is truely amazing... A 6 hour race at Laguna Seca, a second 6 hour race at Road America... What a thought

Gary Jibb · Sep 2, 2012

I don't like the idea.
The 2 series were (essentially) one and through evolution (and the quote below) grew to differentiate into the 2 series. I think putting them together will eventually blend the DP and the Prototype cars back into the same 'category'. Where do they fit in? LMP1, LMP2, LMPC, DP, GT Pro, GTC, GTC^+1/2??? 7 different types of cars in the same race? No thanks. Dumbing down GT Pro to suit would be beyond rediculous. Adding Grand-Am GT Am cars to GTC wouldn't make sense either, they either wouldn't have the power or they'd have to dumb down the GTC anyways. (Please don't get technical and say there the same, that's not my arguement!!!!!)

I'd like to quote from Wikipedia regarding the purpose of the DP cars.

"Therefore GARRA decided that they would need to slow down their competitors in order to make Daytona safer. At the same time, due to the technological advancement of Le Mans prototypes, GARRA decided that they would also lower the overall cost of their prototypes."

I think it's good they are in there own series and have there own supporters and putting the 2 together will push it's supporters against each other rather than combining them.

Obviously my opinion doesn't matter, just think they're better apart...

*Any comments in a debate/argument-al manner ill be blatantly ignored*

Thilo Falkenberg · Sep 2, 2012

Some interesting read: http://www.dailysportscar.com/viewArticle.cfm?articleUID=8399BB0A-9E98-DCF5-8331F9E648DA6CDA

Also Starworks actually stating LMP2s are cheaper to run then DPs: http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/le-mans-starworks-embarks-on-wec-effort/

It actually surprises me to hear LMP2s being cheaper then DPs. I mean looking at the cars it is just not making sense. LeMans Prototypes seem to have a lot more aerodynamical design then the Daytona Prototypes... but well I think that is the result of the cost-capping efforts of ACO and IMSA.

Juen-Jen Wang · Sep 3, 2012

It looks like DPs are staying and LMPs are basically leaving. Twitter post:

News this morning from indisputable source: France family has purchased Panoz owned assets outright; tracks, hotels, etc. Atherton & Panoz will be on board of France owned company. Le Mans name to be dropped. Prototype category will not be drawn to ACO regulations.

As much as I actually like the DPs purely because they provided closer racing than most of what I've seen at ALMS (again exception exists) I didn't want the DPs staying at the expense of the LMPs.

I'm very sorry to those who were hoping for an LMP continuation and, quite frankly, it sucks that the Grand-Am mentality of "let's just do things our way and ignore the rest of the world" has shown through.