[ILMC/ALMS]2010 Petit Le Mans - Road Atlanta

[Tom206wrc]

Hey, don't forget this race will run THIS week

Audi vs Peugeot, next round

http://www.americanlemans.com/
http://www.imsaracing.net/

First free practices start tomorrow wednesday

[harvick#1]

Driving down tomorrow

[wedge]

Driving down tomorrow

I'm jealous!

Enjoy yourself, dude.

What's the weather like for the weekend? Hope it won't be like last year.

[harvick#1]

I'm jealous!

Enjoy yourself, dude.

What's the weather like for the weekend? Hope it won't be like last year.

perfect, as long as the tropical depression stays in its projected path, but even that will be gone by Thursday.

but mid 70's everyday and clear. so it will prolly favor Peugeot, but Audi's car is new so I dont know what the R15+ will do. but with 45 cars on a tight circuit, expect alot of sparks to fly

[courageous]

Going to be a headache keeping track of everything

Audi should do better against the Pugs than at silverstone

P2 & the ALMS championship will be a way behind (Cytosport fave for the win, but Highcroft just need to do 70% to take the title)

LMPC Tucker & Geanette are tied on points, Tucker of course gets 2 chances to score.

How far into the GT2s will the hybrid porsche get?

AWOL back in a Jaguar
Panoz in classic livery (probably won't race though)
Werner & Pirro return
3 Intersport cars (2 lmpc)
1st Pescarolo chassis (Henri's team ran a courage once)
Hindy shall rant about pace cars
Fans will battle fire ants
It will not rain like last year

[FormerFF]

This was an odd weather day. A shower passed through in the morning, dampening the qualifying. I got there about the time that the Barber cars were getting off of the track. Next up came the Trans-Am cars, which are mostly club racing GT1 cars, and not very many at that. One thing that was kind of cool for me is that John Baucom is racing in this series. I knew his dad from my racing days. I have a feeling that the Trans-Am race is going to be a bit of a snooze.

Best race of the day was for the GT3 Porsches. There had been a second rain shower, which took up most of the Star Mazda qualifying and all the ALMS practice. The GT3 race started in the wet, was red flagged for a tire change, and ended in the dry, and it was close during both halves. The Prototype Lites was pretty good as well. The US F2000 race was processional. A 15 year old driver won it going away. I didn't stay for the Barber race, I'll catch the other one tomorrow.

We should be done with the showers, the forecast for tomorrow and race day are perfect.

[Tom206wrc]

Sunny weather announced for today qualifying practice and tomorrow(+ sunday)race

I want 10 hours of race not 5 hours of shower race

[FormerFF]

Much better weather today, and a big crowd on hand, probably about the size of a raceday crowd from four or five years ago. More of the same expected tomorrow.

Yesterday, the F2000 race wasn't interesting, so I slept in rather than coming up for it. Today's GT3 race wasn't quite so eventful at the front, but there was some serious racing going on farther back, especially after the only yellow flag of the day, to pull a car out of the gravel. The Star Mazda cars are neat and quick. There were a couple of battles farther back, and a last minute charge for second, And yes, Connor Daly, that move you put on WAS a block, and if I were chief steward, you'd be penalized a couple of places.

The prototype Lites are fun to watch, though the race wasn't overly close. The Barber National series only had nine cars. One dropped back a little, then there were eight in a pack. One spun, then there were seven, and they stayed in a pack for the entire race. It was a lot like a Formula Ford race, where a driver would be leading one lap and get put to fifth the next. Definitely the most competitive race of the day.

Qualifying was uneventful.

I stayed for the Trans Am race. There turned out to be a lot more cars than I'd seen yesterday. I'm not much of a fan of V8 engines or front engined race cars, but what can I say, I'm a junkie and didn't feel like going home yet. The level of car preparation and driving was uneven at best, and there were a lot of cars in the pits for such a short race. If I were Road Atlanta, I'm not sure I'd get that race again next year. Watching that made me miss not having the World Challenge series this year.

The track announcer said that one of the Peugeots touched 204 mph in the speed trap last night. That's down a moderately long "straight" (it isn't) and off of a slow turn. 204 freaking MPH, that's mind blowing.

Epic battles:

Ferrari vs. Ford
Porsche vs. Ferrari
Audi vs. Peugeot works for me.

[Mark in Oshawa]

The track announcer said that one of the Peugeots touched 204 mph in the speed trap last night. That's down a moderately long "straight" (it isn't) and off of a slow turn. 204 freaking MPH, that's mind blowing.

At Road Atlanta? My god, I can imagine how fast one of those Pugs might pull up the hill at Mosport then....that is very scary stuff....

[Tom206wrc]

Very good job Anthony Davidson