ALMS 2012 thread

[Shifty]

Ain't it teh greatest? My wife keeps telling me to calm down! Outstanding run OG and Tommy!

[MOTV8]

Really enjoyed Olly's second stint...he just kept pulling away, lead went from like 4 seconds up to 20 seconds. All teh while teh Bimmers kept losing the spots tehy needed to stay alive in teh championships. Demoralizing.

Oliver Gavin Wins Big at VIR

By Team Update ⋅ September 16, 2012 ⋅ E-mail this post ⋅ Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin is likely, with massive British reserve and understatement, to look back on today as “a good day”.

The 39-year-old long-time GM factory driver not only won today’s ninth and penultimate round of the 2012 American Le Mans Series at Virginia International Raceway, but he also won his fourth ALMS Drivers’ Championship title, secured for Chevrolet the Manufacturers’ Championship and for Corvette Racing the Teams’ title. And all on his 100th start in the ALMS.

The victory, Olly’s 38th career ALMS win and his fourth of the season, was in fact a dominant display by both he and team mate Tommy Milner of safe, sensible and smooth driving. Starting from third place on the GT grid, but with nearest championship rivals either side of him, the Corvette stalwart could have been forgiven for feeling some trepidation at what might happen during the four hours of racing ahead.

But, as Olly explains, some things just work out right. “Everything worked for us today, right from first corner on the first lap where there was a huge mess, with cars everywhere. I think I was most probably only millimetres away from hitting an LMP car but he just got out of the way in time and the danger evaporated. As I went through the gap I thought, “this is definitely our day”. It was meant to be.

“Tommy drove brilliantly for the middle two hours and never made a mistake; he was fantastic. By the time I got in for the final hour Dirk Muller in the BMW had a problem with his car and we had a fairly clean run through to the finish. As has been for quite lot of the year, we navigated our way through issues and problems and didn’t make any mistakes.”

After dedicating his victory to his mother, who has been suffering from ill-health, the overjoyed driver had an opportunity to briefly reflect on how the Championship title had been captured at VIR. “We have always been fast and therefore in the right place to capitalise on anyone else’s mistakes, and today was a relatively easy race. Yes, we had a bit of luck in avoiding the first lap pile-up, but we knew from the start that if we made no mistakes we’d be in a position to win the race. We had a fast car and could race anyone, but all the time we kept the pressure on and the pit stops going. That’s really been the key to our successful season: everyone’s performed at the highest level and delivered.”

The final jewel in the 2012 crown would be another victory at the final round of the season, the 1000-mile or ten hour Petit Le Mans event on 20th October. Few would bet against the Gavin/Milner partnership at the moment.

[MOTV8]

Watching teh race again today on teh ESPN2 is awesome...you get teh NFL scores scrolling across teh screen too!

Corvette Racing sweeps ALMS GT Championships with VIR 240 victory

ALTON, Va. – Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner won the American Le Mans Series GT Drivers Championship with a victory today in the VIR 240 at Virginia International Raceway. Their fourth victory in nine races clinched the GT Manufacturer Championship for Chevrolet and wrapped up the GT Team Championship for Corvette Racing.

"This is the kind of day you hope for – a perfect race, a great race car, the right pit calls, and no drama," said Milner. "I got my start in professional sports car racing at VIR, so to get my first championship here in my home state of Virginia is very special. I can't say enough for Oliver and the Corvette Racing crew; they've been best friends from the day that I arrived. Just a great day!"

Gavin avoided trouble in a chaotic start and took the lead at 42 minutes into the four-hour race. A well-timed pit stop at the one-hour mark put the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R in control with Milner taking the two middle stints. Gavin then drove the final hour and crossed the finish line with a 19.5-second margin of victory over the second-place No. 45 Porsche.

"There is no better way to crown 60 years of Corvette production than by winning the ALMS GT Manufacturer Championship," said Jim Campbell, Chevrolet U.S. Vice President for Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. "This achievement is the result of a tremendous effort by the entire Chevrolet team.

Start with a high-performance platform from the Corvette production group, add power, durability and efficiency developed by GM Powertrain, perfect the package with the engineering expertise of Corvette Racing, put exceptional drivers behind the wheel, and then go head-to-head with world-class competition in the most intense road racing series on the planet.

Corvette Racing's championship season reflects Chevrolet's commitment to winning on the race track and in the showroom."

"Winning the Drivers Championship in a category as fiercely competitive as the ALMS GT class requires speed, stamina, strategy, and teamwork," said Mark Kent, director of Chevy Racing. "Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner have those qualities, and now they have the 2012 GT Drivers Championship.

Both are excellent racers and outstanding representatives for Corvette and Chevrolet. We congratulate Oliver and Tommy on their well-deserved championship, and we are confident that there are many more titles in their future."

Gavin scored his 38th career ALMS victory today in his milestone 100th start. He joined Corvette Racing in 2002 as an endurance racing specialist, and became a full-season driver in 2003.

Gavin won three consecutive ALMS GT1 championships in 2005-07, and twice finished second in the GT1 championship. Following Corvette Racing's move to the GT class in 2009, Gavin was runner-up in last year's GT title race.

"Tommy made it so easy for me," Gavin said. "We had a decent lead and I just wanted to make sure I kept that in case there were any problems at the end. From the championship standpoint I knew we were really strong and just needed to make no mistakes and get to the finish."

Getting to the finish wasn't easy. Just as the race started, chaos erupted in the first corner when the No. 20 LMP1 spun. With the track blocked, there was a chain reaction pileup. Gavin made it through, but Jan Magnussen was in the middle of the melee in the sister No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R.

"I was on the inside, and fortunately all of the craziness was happening to the left of me," Gavin said. "I followed the No. 01 Ferrari into Turn 1, then there was a wall of smoke and I could see Johannes was really cutting to the inside. I had to go even farther to the inside, and then an LMPC car spun right in front of me.

I thought I was going to nail it, but it just seemed to evaporate. I got through on the grass, and was nearly T-boned by Bergmeister as he was trying to avoid the wrecks. It was like the seas parted and I went through."

The No. 3 Corvette's race essentially ended in the first corner, with the car sustaining damage to its hood and left-front fender. Magnussen pitted and the Corvette crew taped the damaged panels, but he had to return to the pits on the next lap for a complete new nose assembly.

The Dane rejoined the race four laps down to the leaders. Despite running some of the fastest laps of the race, the deficit was too great to make up.

"There was a bit of stop-and-go and it was looking like it was going to be a messy start," Magnussen said. "Then we got going and as we went into Turn 1, the inside lane stopped a bit and it was clear for me on the outside.

I don't know what happened up in front, but they started spinning and I had nowhere to go. I tried to stop, but hit an LMPC car and had a lot of damage to the nose. I couldn't go to the inside because the other Corvette was there. I can't believe it."

Gavin emerged in second, and was shadowing van Overbeek's race-leading No. 01 Ferrari. At the 42-minute mark, Gavin made his move for the lead.

"I passed him in Turn 1 and made it stick in Turn 2," Gavin recalled. "He got a bad run off Turn 11 and then a GTC car slowed him in 14 and 15. The GTC driver didn't see him and pushed Johannes wide so I got a run on him. My car was better under braking, and I thought I could make it through if he didn't put me in the grass."

As the stint continued, Gavin's tires began to lose grip and he was passed by the No. 01 and No. 02 Ferraris. He pitted from third at 1:01, and while Tommy Milner was getting into the No. 4 Corvette, the race's second full-course caution began. That fortuitous timing put the Gavin/Milner Corvette in the GT lead when racing resumed after the pit stop cycle.

Milner ran a relatively uneventful double stint, maintaining a steady four-second lead over the second-place No. 56 BMW. Milner pitted at 2:12 into the race for tires and fuel and stopped again with one hour to go, turning the No. 4 Corvette over to Gavin for the run to the finish. Almost simultaneously the No. 56 BMW of championship rival Dirk Mueller pitted with a broken toe link, falling from second to eighth.

"When the car is that good and so comfortable, when you're by yourself and out in clean air, it's a lot of fun," Milner said. "That was a good two stints. A great pit stop and a bit of good luck got us in before the yellow and put us ahead, but nobody could catch us."

Magnussen ran to 2:19 before handing off the No. 3 Corvette C6.R to Antonio Garcia. The Spaniard drove to the checkered flag, gaining spots with quick laps and attrition among his rivals to finish eighth. Magnussen and Garcia are second in the driver standings going into the season finale at Road Atlanta.

Today's victory was Corvette Racing's 85th win in 140 races. Chevrolet and Corvette Racing have won nine ALMS manufacturer and team championships since 2001. The team made the transition to the production-based GT category in 2009, and has scored eight wins in the super-competitive class.

"I think today was emblematic of all the things that make Corvette Racing a champion," said Corvette Racing program manager Doug Fehan. "Preparation, strategy, and execution."

Corvette Racing's next event is the 10-hour/1,000-mile Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga., on Saturday, Oct. 20.

Source: Team Chevy

[Grayeagle]

Was a good race .. it is interesting that this may be the last season for GT2 if the merger goes well. I hope it does .. if they have a single venue perhaps more manufacturers will get involved. With a bigger field they may have to split out the prototypes or limit the field. Truly incredible that the 7 quickest were within a second of each other. *That* makes great racin -Frank aka GE

[Shifty]

I thought they were leaving ALMS alone until 2014? And, even then, everything I've heard has been to leave GT2 as it...

[MOTV8]

I thought they were leaving ALMS alone until 2014?

Riight.

And teh check is in teh mail, etc...

Corvette Racing claims ALMS GT championships!

By: Tommy Milner on September 26, 2012

I'll just go ahead and get this out of the way: YES!!! Say hello to the 2012 American Le Mans Series GT championships for Chevrolet, Corvette Racing, and for Oliver Gavin and me. This is an amazing feeling and the year has been absolutely incredible. The best part is, it's not even over yet! At Virginia International Raceway a little over a week ago, with Oliver and I taking the win after four hours, we've clinched the championships with one race to go—Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta next month.

Let me rewind for a bit and talk about the season to this point. All of our off-season testing with our updated 2012 Chevrolet Corvette C6.R showed us promise and excitement for this season. Our performance in 2011 was not where we would have liked and many, many people and engineers from Pratt & Miller, Chevrolet, and General Motors Powertrain gave us a much improved car from 2011. I was immediately excited about our potential this year to fight on equal terms for race wins.

First race, Sebring. The best of the best in GT racing competes in the season opener, and there is no better test of our performance than that race. Qualifying third and fourth during a crazy session where lap times fell to times I didn't think were possible—while watching from the famous turn 10—was awesome. I can still remember it vividly now, and it's a nice reminder of how much fun these cars are, how impressively quick they really are, and the diversity in sounds and looks of the different makes of cars.

A podium at Sebring was followed by my first ALMS win at Long Beach. Those final 30 minutes at Long Beach were impossible to watch. I'd been in situations in the past before where a win was possible and had it slip away. That was an incredible feeling and really set the tone for the rest of the year for us in the No. 4 car. In situations where there could have been danger or problems, we escaped and were able to work our way methodically to the front.

Then, heading to Laguna Seca on the high of the Long Beach win, to back it up again with another win and a 1-2 finish for Corvette Racing was phenomenal, and gave us a huge confidence boost heading into the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Le Mans didn't go to plan, that's for sure, but we were able to continue our run at Lime Rock and finish on the podium again. Then, strong finishes at Road America and Baltimore set us up for our race at VIR.

One thing in racing that is undeniable: You need luck. Our teammates, Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, had very little of it. You can certainly make your own luck, but in some situations you are just a passenger, and we were very lucky in that sense this year. Our whole team executed in every situation whether it was pit stops, strategy or car setup. Looking back on the year to this point, we had an incredibly mistake-free and strong season.

Heading into VIR, all Oliver and I had to do to lock-up the drivers championship was finish ahead of our teammates and the No. 56 BMW. Of course, that would be the ideal scenario, and my mindset was the same it had been all year: Make no mistakes and maximize every lap. If I did that, if we did that, we would be in good shape.

At the very start, it all could have gone wrong—much like Baltimore—but, luckily, Oliver escaped the carnage in turn one and made it out in second place. Some quick pitwork got me out in the lead, and we wouldn't give it up from there. The win was a fantastic way to put a stamp on the championship, and also special for me since my first professional GT race came in 2004 at VIR, not to mention it was Oliver's 100th ALMS start.

Now we head to Petit Le Mans without any concerns about winning the titles, and we can focus solely on winning the race. Make no mistake, we won't lay down at all. Oliver and myself want to win and I know Richard Westbrook, our third driver for the race, is equally as eager to get a win. In one of the most competitive GT classes in the world, if we could walk away from 2012 having won five out of 10, yeah, that would be another massive achievement to be proud of.

[Shifty]

Looks like all teh 'heads were meeting last week in LeMans with teh Grand Am, ALMS, WEC and teh ACO.... BTW: Go vote: http://editor.des05.com/vo/?FileID=05d43515-5a98-494c-9fe2-663a5b9a77e8&m=21bbb03e-e4dd-448a-ac28-1930517d89d6&MailID=25218868

[MOTV8]

Teh Deltawing-a-ma-jig is racing at Petit! Woohooo....parrr...taaay!

ALMS Season Closes With Stellar Petit Le Mans Entry

The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón closes its season with a stellar entry for the 15th annual Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda. The ALMS’ cornerstone event will see 43 sports cars on the grid – the full ALMS field along with a choice group from Europe which makes the Road Atlanta race one of the sport’s biggest international events.

Perhaps never has Petit Le Mans – running 1,000 miles or 10 hours – played a larger role in settling ALMS championships. The two prototype classes – P1 and P2 – have come down to the season’s 10th race. It’s winner-take-all for Dyson Racing and Muscle Milk Pickett Racing in P1 as well as Level 5 Motorsports and Conquest Endurance in P2.

The Muscle Milk-Dyson battle has ebbed back and forth over the last two months. Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr won five straight races from April to August before Dyson Racing won at Road America and Baltimore – the latter a 1-2 class finish. Graf and Luhr were back on top at VIR in the most recent round three weeks ago.

In addition to the Muscle Milk HPD prototype and Dyson Racing’s two Lola-Mazda coupes, Rebellion Racing is part of the P1 battle at Road Atlanta with a Lola-Toyota.

The trio of Andrea Belicchi, Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost will drive the No. 12 entry and hope to improve on last year’s fifth-place overall finish at Petit Le Mans.

The other “new” top-line entry for the race is the Nissan DeltaWing, driven by Gunnar Jeannette and Lucas Ordonez.

The radical car, racing for the first time in North America, will run unclassified as it did at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

The fight between Level 5’s two HPD entries and Conquest’s Morgan-Nissan is part of an expanded P2 field that features four entries from the European Le Mans Series. Level 5 has seven class wins in nine races – six coming from Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut. David Heinemeier-Hansson and Martin Plowman have two wins in Conquest’s rookie campaign. Level 5 has enlisted the driving skills of four-time IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti and younger brother Marino in hopes of collecting its second consecutive P2 championship.

Dempsey Racing returns to the ALMS P2 field with Hollywood star Patrick Dempsey partnering with fellow team owner Joe Foster in a Lola-Judd. Level 5, Conquest and Dempsey will compete against European counterparts representing Zytek, ORECA and Nissan.

The ALMS GT grid continues to be the best in the world, featuring 12 full factory or works-supported entries. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner wrapped up the GT driver’s title at VIR, as did Corvette Racing and Chevrolet in the team and manufacturer standings, respectively.

Corvette Racing leads a contingent of two-car teams. Flying Lizard Motorsports enters two Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs, BMW Team RLL has two BMW M3 GTs, and SRT Motorsports races its two new SRT Viper GTSRs. Team Falken Tire and Paul Miller Racing each have a single Porsche, and Lotus Alex Job Racing enters its Lotus Evora GTE.

Extreme Speed Motorsports also has two cars in the race – a pair of Ferrari F458 Italias. However, one will race in GT and the second in GTE-AM – a class featuring both professional and amateur lineups. Another Ferrari – from AF Corse – is in GTE-AM for Petit Le Mans as is IMSA Performance Matmut’s Porsche 911 GT3 RSR.

Prototype Challenge closes the season with eight ORECA FLM09s, led by class champion CORE autosport with two entries, including one for class driver’s champion Alex Popow (CORE clinched team championship at Road America, and Popow clinched driver’s championship at VIR). Among the other PC teams contesting Petit Le Mans is defending race-winner PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports.

Seven Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars will compete in GT Challenge. Alex Job Racing’s Cooper MacNeil already has the driver’s title locked up, as does AJR in the team category.

The final race of the 2012 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón is Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda. The 1,000-mile/10-hour race from Road Atlanta is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Oct 20. ABC's broadcast begins at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 21. Full, live coverage starts at 11:15 a.m. ET on ESPN3.

[Shifty]

Corvette Racing at Road Atlanta: Finish with a Flourish

With GT Championships Clinched, Corvette Racing Still Has Unfinished Business at Petit Le Mans Season Finale

BRASELTON, Ga. - Petit Le Mans, the finale of the 2012 American Le Mans Series, will crown a season that has seen Corvette Racing score four victories in nine ALMS races and sweep the GT driver, team, and manufacturer championships. The pressure to win the class titles may be off, but the Corvette team has unfinished business in the 10-hour/1,000-mile endurance contest in the red clay hills of northern Georgia on Saturday, Oct. 20.

Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner wrapped up the GT championships with a victory in the preceding round at Virginia International Raceway in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R, but teammates Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen are fighting for second in the final standings in the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R. Despite a run of misfortune in the last two races, Garcia and Magnussen hold a two-point margin over their four closest rivals on the strength of four runner-up finishes. It's indicative of the heated competition in the GT category that 10 drivers are still in contention for the second spot. Magnussen's record streak of at least one victory in every ALMS season since the series' inception in 1999 is also on the line at Petit Le Mans.

"The race will be tough, dealing with traffic, dealing with conditions, dealing with darkness as well," said Magnussen. "Nevertheless I always look forward to Petit Le Mans, it's one of my favorite races of the year. The atmosphere is fantastic, and when I first came to the States to race with Panoz, Road Atlanta was my home track. I'd like to finish off the year there in style."

"Petit is always a big event," said Garcia. "The race has been part of my schedule for the last three years, so I know the track and what to expect. Road Atlanta was where we first tested the wide-body Corvette C6.R last year, and we knew right away that the new bodywork was a big improvement. Now with a year of development, it should be even better. The competition will be really strong as always, but I think we are in a good position to fight for the win. That would be the best way to finish the season."

Corvette Racing's driver roster will be bolstered at Petit Le Mans by the return of third drivers Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Corvette and Richard Westbrook in the No. 4 Corvette. Taylor and Westbrook drove for the team in the Sebring 12-hour and Le Mans 24-hour races this season.

Corvette Racing has won Petit Le Mans eight times, including two dramatic come-from-behind victories. In 2000, Andy Pilgrim passed the race-leading Viper in the closing minutes to score the team's first win in a major endurance race. Then in 2010, Oliver Gavin passed the class-leading Ferrari for the victory on the final lap as the Ferrari's fuel tank ran dry.

"The 2010 victory was certainly the most extraordinary win of my career, an extraordinary turn of events," Gavin recalled. "I still find the Road Atlanta circuit a great challenge even though we have done so many races and thousands of laps of testing there. It's a grueling race, a tough race, and as we found a couple of years ago, you cannot give up. You have to keep pushing to the very last lap because you never know what is going to happen with the guys in front and behind you.

"It's a place that you must always be 100 percent focused because there are some areas if you get it wrong, you are going to have a big accident," the Englishman noted. "You have to use controlled aggression, be mindful of where you need to place the car on the track. Going down the hill through the Esses, you must be absolutely inch-perfect. With the race later in the year, we'll have more time in darkness, which will add to the challenge."

Gavin's championship-winning co-driver agreed: "Petit is tough," Milner said. "It's a great event, a great race track for our cars, and a great way to end the season. I wouldn't be surprised to see six or seven GT cars racing nose-to-tail for nine hours.

"We saw in testing last year that the wider C6.R is better," he reported. "We have improved our Corvette throughout the year, so I'm looking forward to going back to Road Atlanta and seeing just how much the car has progressed since our first test there. The wider car produces more downforce, which helps you everywhere on that track."

[MOTV8]

PWNED! Love that ad, right click save as....

[Desertdawg]

Yeah that's an awesome slap in the face....

[Shifty]

Now, to wrap up the year at Petit Le Mans How does a newly-crowned American Le Mans Series GT Champion prepare for one of the season’s biggest races, the 1,000-mile Petit Le Mans? Well, as far as Corvette Racing’s Oliver Gavin is concerned, there’s only one way to approach any race, and that’s with a view to winning it. The British driver has taken class honours at the tricky and challenging Petit Le Mans race five times previously and he and co-GT Champion, Tommy Milner, plan to notch up a fifth victory to round off an amazing 2012 season in style. They will be joined at Road Atlanta, Georgia by their regular endurance team mate, Richard Westbrook. Here Olly gives his views on all things concerning the forthcoming Petit Le Mans. On Petit Le Mans: “There aren’t the same pressures on us as last year, to get a decent result, and I think it’ll change our approach for the better. If our car isn’t at the top of the time sheets every session, or if we don’t get pole or aren’t at the front straight away, it doesn’t mean we won’t win the race because we’ve got absolute faith in the car and ourselves. We’ll take a balanced view on it and will certainly be competing as hard as ever as we want that fifth win of the year. “It’s a 1000 miles though and possibly a ten hour race because the faster cars like Audi and Toyota aren’t there this year to speed it up. It’s also being held slightly later in the year and starting 30 minutes later in the day so we’ll run a lot longer in the dark which will be an added challenge. It will come down to being smart in the dark over those final couple of hours when, historically, Road Atlanta gets extremely difficult and tricky to drive due to either traffic, people going off, or lack of vision. It’s a lot less well lit than some of the other night races we do.” On the additional ELMS entries, bringing the total field to 43: “Without a doubt there have been some hairy moments in the ALMS this year, with some drivers who aren’t as experienced as others at the start or on re-starts, and that presents the biggest danger to any competitor. Restarts in the night, on cold tyres and in the cooler evenings at that time of year, plus guys who are new to the circuit and haven’t driven that much in the dark – whether they are prototypes or GT cars – are going to be a big challenge. You’re going to have to have your wits about you and be really focussed on those re-starts to make sure you avoid what can often be carnage. As we’ve seen all through the year, the thing which ends up getting you victories or podiums is to not make any errors and we’ve been able to execute that through most of the season. It’s all about staying out of the pits, not going off the road and trying not to hit anybody. On his co-champion, Tommy Milner: “He brings to our partnership a very level head and he’s mature for his years, both in and out of the car plus, of course, he has great speed! This year he’s grown a lot in understanding what he needs to do for our car to be winning races and he’s smart. He’s dealt with the pressure of this year exceptionally well. An example of this was at VIR, when the pressure was obviously on us to deliver a win: he didn’t twitch, he was icy cool in the car, just doing his job and driving as if it was a test session. He did a phenomenal job and the pressure never seemed to show on him – a really great team mate.” On endurance team mate, Richard Westbrook: “Richard is someone who’s very fast and hungry for victories and he’s very focussed on what he wants from the car and is hugely competitive. He can also be a great person to have around the team for morale, as there’s always a bit of banter and he’s always got a joke or a bit of fun. He makes sure he slots in with Tommy and me and the rest of the crew who’ve been together all year, although he’s aware he’s just coming in for the three endurance races – Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. That’s a tough role to fulfil but he does it well and I get to return the favour at the Daytona 24!” Race details: Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda is 1,000 miles or 10 hours (whichever comes first) of gruelling racing up, down and around the foothills of northern Georgia. With the exception of the deluge suffered during the 2009 race, each Petit Le Mans has gone the distance with run times ranging from 8h 56 minutes (1999) to 9h 48 minutes (1998).

[Desertdawg]

When and where does it air? I hope they have fun out there with the championship already in the bag, maybe stuff a beemer in the wall or something ...

[MOTV8]

The final race of the 2012 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón is Petit Le Mans powered by Mazda. The 1,000-mile/10-hour race from Road Atlanta is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Oct 20. ABC's broadcast begins at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 21. Full, live coverage starts at 11:15 a.m. ET on ESPN3.

Einstein.

[Desertdawg]

I started reading that post and saw nissan deltacrapper and decided to skip the rest for fear of saying something abusive about that ginger bread (i.e. delicate) piece of sh*t!

[Shifty]

When and where does it air?

I hope they have fun out there with the championship already in the bag, maybe stuff a beemer in the wall or something ...

Mags needs to score high enough to keep 2nd place...and a win to keep his streak of at least one win a year alive....

[MOTV8]

Yep, and I hope he gets it by stuffing a beemer in the wall.

Who knew Mags was so verbose?

Magnussen ready to finish off 2012 with Petit Le Mans victory

Braselton, GA. (Monday, October 15, 2012): Corvette Racing’s Danish star Jan Magnussen is ready sign off on the 2012 American Le Mans Series championship season with a victory for the No.3 Corvette squad.

Magnussen and regular teammate Antonio Garcia grabbed the championship lead at the half-way point of the season after Mosport (after starting from pole) but since that weekend, their ALMS assault has been fraught with misfortune.

Magnussen suffered contact at Mid-Ohio which sent the No.3 car tumbling down the order late in the race; he was turned around on the final corner at Road America within sight of a podium finish; Garcia suffered an opening lap puncture at Baltimore which necessitated a huge fightback in a two hour sprint and the pairing’s hopes at VIR were ruined when prototypes starting running into each other in turn one on the opening lap causing major mayhem, carnage and heavy damage to the No. 3 Corvette.

The entire No. 3 team has been keeping a look out for a stray black cat, making sure they don’t walk under ladders and being very careful to make sure they don’t break any mirrors.

Magnussen, Garcia and third driver Jordan Taylor are confident the misfortune is a thing of the past and they can grab the victory that has eluded them this year.

Corvette Racing has already secured the team’s and manufacturer’s championship while teammates Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner wrapped up the driver’s championship at VIR.

The No. 3 is now out to make sure Corvette finishes 1-2 in the driver’s championship. While Magnussen certainly didn’t have his sights set on finishing second - with four other driver pairings within 11 points of second place in the rankings - the No. 3 team have a simple plan. Win the race and the points will take care of themselves.

The 1000 mile / 10 hour (whichever comes first) Petit Le Mans kicks off on Saturday, October 20 at 11:30am.

JAN MAGNUSSEN Q&A

Q: What’s your mindset heading into the Petit Le Mans, the last race of the 2012 ALMS season?

A: “To win. That’s it.

“The championships are over – with the guys in the No. 4 Corvette taking the ALMS GT driver’s championship and Corvette Racing winning the team and manufacturer GT titles.

“Petit is about getting the win for the No. 3 car that we haven’t had all year. There is a lot of testing during the week. We’ll be doing a lot of running and should be able to get everything sorted out.

Q: How can you lock up a one-two finish in the driver’s championship with a race like Petit as the season finale?

A: “If you look at the GT driver standings, you’ll see that all of us from second to seventh could end up finishing second in the championship. There are some pretty impressive names on that roster and everyone runs so close.

“But like them, it was never my intention to finish second at anything, including the championship. This weekend it’ll all be about winning. The team and drivers that win will most likely finish the championship in second, and for Corvette Racing it would be great for it to be the drivers of the No. 3 Corvette.”

Q: Jordan Taylor will be back with you in the No. 3 for Petit Le Mans as the third driver. You’ve been in that position before, how hard is it to come and join an established driver pairing?

A: “Obviously as the third driver you want to do a good job but not do anything that could throw off the full-time drivers or the team.

“Jordan is the perfect third driver with Antonio and me for Petit. He ran with us at Sebring and Le Mans, and worked great with everyone and was very fast.

“I’ve enjoyed working with him this year and know he’ll have a great future ahead of him in racing.”

Q: How do you need to drive for endurance races like Petit Le Mans?

A: “You’ve got to be at 100 percent for the entire 1000 miles. Always pushing, trying to gain position and get any sort of advantage.

“Honestly there’s really very little difference in how you drive the sprint races or endurance races. You have to be as fast as you possibly can.

“The difference is if you have a problem early on in the race, you may have a chance to catch back up. That’s what 10 to 24 hours allow you. In the shorter races, from two to four hours, it’s much harder to come back from a small mistake or problem.”

Q: What are your thoughts on Road Atlanta?

A: “If any track in the U.S. could be called my ‘home track,’ Road Atlanta would be it. It was the first track I ever drove in a sports car in the States.

“Road Atlanta is a challenging track all the way around. It’s very technical and very fast, and there’s a lot of undulation. Some places you need to stay completely off the curbs to keep the car calm, and other places you’ve got to attack so hard and hit the curbs as fast as you can.

“And of course, if you screw parts of it up, there are some pretty big penalties!

“It’s just fantastic. I’ve driven thousands of laps around the place in GT cars, prototypes and other cars, and I know the place very well. I love it.”

Q: Your first test in sports cars in the U.S. was Road Atlanta? Tell us more about that.

A: “It was 1998 and I was coming straight out of Formula 1. The car was the Panoz GT1, a car that was difficult to see out of, and it felt like you were sitting on the rear axle.

“So I was used to Formula 1 tracks, which were billiard table smooth and pretty boring. I’m in a front-engined, closed sports car, sitting way at the back, driving a track where just about every corner is blind.

“From turns one through three I was looking at the sky because of the elevation change and trying to figure out my turn and braking points. It was quite an eye-opener, but I was hooked.

“Even better was working with the Panoz guys. They were fantastic and really spent a lot of time with me, giving me great data to work off of and good feedback.

“It was that test that was really the turnaround point from my not-so-great F1 experience to knowing exactly what I wanted to do from then-on. And I’m still doing it today, after more than 100 starts and some pretty good success.

“Now I’m just ready to get that win this weekend at the Petit Le Mans.”

Source: Jan Magnussen

[Desertdawg]

Does ya think teh #4 car might miss a shift at the end allowing teh #3 car to slip by for teh win ??? Hey, it could happen /judy tanuta

[MOTV8]

Both those teams enjoy pounding the other. There'll be no reach-arounds.

[Shifty]

I dunno, I thinks it was Road America that Jan was told to let OG by (Team Orders)-I'm sure if it comes down to it, teh 4 car will let teh 3 pass...

[Shifty]

That poor Delta-Wing just can't catch a break...

BTW: Teh #3 Corvette was fastest in early practice wednesday, teh #4 in late...

[Desertdawg]

Bwahahaha... Damn good thing his helmet was there, now they won't have to replace both rearview mirrors.......

[MOTV8]

After being quickest in teh test sessions.... Gavin and Garcia Separated by .021 Seconds in Intense Qualifying Session Corvettes Qualify Fourth and Fifth for ALMS Season Finale Corvette Racing drivers Oliver Gavin and Antonio Garcia qualified the twin Compuware Corvette C6.Rs for Saturday's season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta with nearly identical lap times. Gavin put the No. 4 Corvette C6.R fourth on the GT grid with a 1:19.065 lap time (115.652 mph) on the 12-turn, 2.54-mile road course. Garcia was just .021 seconds behind his teammate with a time of 1:19.086 (115.621 mph) that secured the fifth spot in the production-based GT category for the No. 3 Corvette C6.R. Guy Cosmo captured the GT pole in the No. 02 Ferrari with a track record qualifying time of 1:18.677 (116.222 mph). The top six GT qualifiers were separated by less than half a second. "GT qualifying was very close, as always," said Gavin, who ran his quickest time on his fifth flying lap. "Antonio helped me out massively; he was caught behind a Porsche and I was catching them both quickly. He moved over at just the right spot going into Turn 10, which meant that I got a clean run through to the front straight. Then when I felt my tires were at their best, I caught traffic in the chicane, which killed my speed onto the straight for my next lap. Perhaps there was a tenth of a second in that, but we weren't going to beat the Ferraris today. "The final race of the year, qualifying fourth – we'll take that," the Englishman declared. "We've won from farther back on the grid this year. It's a long race, and there will probably be plenty of action just in the first corner, so we'll need to have our wits about us." Garcia had to contend with traffic throughout his qualifying run, and nailed his quickest time on his eighth and final flying lap. "My fastest lap was at the end of the stint, so that means that our car is very competitive," Garcia explained. "That's where we have focused during the week, and we have a fast race car. We knew the Ferraris were going to be strong in qualifying. If we had put everything together, we might have been a little closer to the front. "Petit Le Mans is one of the longest races of the year and it doesn't really matter where you start," he observed. "After the first round of pit stops, everyone will be mixed up. We have a very competitive car, very driveable, and we proved that today by doing competitive times through the entire qualifying session." The 10-hour/1,000-mile Petit Le Mans, the season finale of the 2012 American Le Mans Series, will start at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 20. The race can be viewed live on ESPN3.com starting at 11:15 a.m. ET. ABC will televise the race at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 21.

[Shifty]

To me it looked like teh OG wasn't even pushing very hard...

[MOTV8]

Well, 3 and a half hours to go and my streaming ESPN3 feed has given up like teh French army again...Mags was leading from Sharp in a 458 but he just pitted, Milner/Gavin were looking good until some fustercluckage and are way back now. It has been a knock down drag out race so far, hell a Viper was leading at one point! Gunna kick the 'puter in teh 'nads and try to get ESPN3 back online...