ALMS performance at LeMans

[tblincoe]

once again the ALMS teams were the class of the field this year: excellent job by Chamion in LMP1 to come in 3rd (I'm confident that if not for the off due to the oil in the 2nd hour, 3rd place would not have been where Champion would have finished) Intersport won LMP2, Corvette goes 1-2 in GTS, and Petersen gets the win in GT... the ACO really needs to start giving these teams more credit and start inviting more ALMS teams to race (AUTOCON!!!! )

[Tim Northcutt]

The ALMS Terams did run very strong....


Well done.....

and yes....Let's hope AutoCon gets an invite next year!!!!

[pirenzo]

But the FIASCC/LMES car won (Goh)

[Tim Northcutt]

Originally posted by pirenzo
But the FIASCC/LMES car won (Goh)

True, they won the overall....

But 3 of the 4 classes were won by ALMS teams....

[GT1]

Last year many thought there were far too many ALMS teams, this year there were not enough. I think its just the flow and swing of the ACO entry lists...

[Tim Northcutt]

The ACO "swings and flows" all right...

In another thread, therre was excerpts from a news confeence they did last week...they were not pleased with all of the withdrawals this year.....

I'll bet that the process is a lot more thorough next time around...

at least I hope that it will be...

[GT1]

Well last year there weren't any and the year before the Olive Garden Ferrari was the only one, and what was there this year, eight or nine?

[jhansen]

I've done some thinking about this one. The ALMS was represented by 11 cars, or about 23% of the starting grid. That's not that bad really. I'm curious what people think the "right" number is. I think it looks worse than it was in reality. Especially when you think about maybe one or two cars that should have been there. That tends to get you thinking negatively about it.

But as for performance, it was great! Hat's off to the class winners. And I firmly believe that Champion would have been in the hunt at the end if they hadn't been screwed by the oil situation.

[SALEEN S7R]

Yes a strong performance by the US squads. But next year, expect the same result in LMP 1, and for the factory Maserati's to dominate in GTS (FIA GT), and for the works Courages to be well and truly sorted out (LMES) and in GT, well who knows its wide open in that category. Sure the ALMS teams took most of the honours this year, but thats due mainly to lack of track time in LMP 2, and lack of European factory teams in GTS, in GT though fair is fair and the European squads didnt perform as well.

Next year things will be differnt I think.

[tblincoe]

you have to remember saleen that corvette will be running the C6-R next year too...

[SALEEN S7R]

Oh yes Im aware of that Tblicone, but then the C6 isnt that differnt to the C5, its just a slightly shorter car with a longer wheel base, its going to need more than that to beat the factory Maserati's, if the Maseratis are lapping faster than the Prodrive Ferrari 550s and the 550s are faster than the C5R's, which they were at LM.

Sorry but theres really no comparisson between the C6 and the MC12 IMO, the Maserati is better both areodynamically and is at least on a par power wise with the vette, if not better as its based on the best GTS powerplant anyway, the same engine the 550 and 575's use..

[jhansen]

I'd say the Vettes and the 550's are pretty much on par with each other in terms of pace. A lap here or there doesn't prove anything to me. They both proved that they are darn fast! But I agree with Saleen, the Vettes (and 550's) will have nothing for the Maserati.