ALMS Rnd 1: 12 hours of Sebring 13-15 Mar 2003

[Fab]

I thought it was time to open a thread dedicated to Sebring 12 hours race... if not, Ayse will cancel it...

And first of all, a question : what's the purpose of having a car n° 1 and a car n° 01, a car n° 2 and a car n° 02, etc...

And more widely, how ALMS cars are numbered ?

The LM way is practicle to recognize the category...

[Aysedasi]

Quite appropriate Fab.

And yes, how is this rather eccentic numbering justified?

[Fab]

Other comment about the entry list :
- only one Dodge Viper, against three Maranellos, two Corvettes C5R and three Saleens... the end of the Viper era ?
- Morgan and Sypker are here
- Zonda
- the Esperante is back
- still two B2K10
- and two B2K40 : Lola's alive and kickin'
- a Dallara, but what the engine ? MG ? :confused:
- interresting : DBA4 and Lister LMP

For me, the first real test between Audi and Bentley (only two )

The Courages are missing (too far, too expensive), the Norma and the WR will represente French industry (kookookadoo !)...

An 'avant goût' for June !

[KA]

Originally posted by Fab
- a Dallara, but what the engine ? MG ? :confused:

It's the Judd V10 (although Doran use the 5-litre version?) - Judd recently tied up a deal to run their engines under the 'MG X-Power' name

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by KA
It's the Judd V10 (although Doran use the 5-litre version)

Correct. Same horsepower as the 4L, but more torque.

[Tim Northcutt]

So it is the "MG" - the V-10/5.0...

Not to be confused with the "MG" -- the V-10/4.0 that other LMPs have run last season..

Or for that matter, the "MG" -- the V-8/3.5L that was going to be built for CART before CART screwed them and went with a single builder -- Ford (cosworth)

or with, of course, the "MG" -- The MG-Rover 1.8L 4 engine with a turbo that powers the MG-Lola 675s, but will now be built the the same builder of the Judds...I mean "MG"s and "MG"s and "MGs")

I'm sure that we who are die-hards will keep track of this and at least know that the 675s have the 4-banger turbo...and look up which of the "MG" engines will be in the LMP 900s for each entry...

[rdjones]

I am looking forward to seeing the TVR and Lister, hopefully they should last the distance.............

[Aysedasi]

I wouldn't bank on it Rob. Fingers crossed though!

[rdjones]

Originally posted by Aysedasi
I wouldn't bank on it Rob. Fingers crossed though!

At the end of the day, a lot of teams will be using it as a test session for the big one in June

[RobweenerPI]

I'm expecting a 12 hour dogfight in GTS. Corvette and Ferrari and Saleen running raged for 12 Straight. Ron Fellows running down the Prodrive car at the end of the PLM was stunning. Much like when Andy Pilgrim did it to the Oreca Viper a few years before.

Spyker built a pretty reliable car last year. The car ran strongly for much of the race. Although they were unpainted and quite ugly upclose. But I was told by the team they also had major restrictions on them for weight and air restrictors because they hadn't sold enough of the roadgoing cars yet. If they've gotten those restrictions removed this year the car should be decently quick. The car to watch however will be the C5R-GT of Michael Collucci Racing. They've got some quasi-factory thing going with kaytech engines and alot of support from other places. I bet that car flys. The Callaway they built two years ago was blazing fast just somewhat unreliable. Hopefully this one got it right.

The Dallara will suck again this year much the same as it did last year. Apparently the bumbs at Sebring were too much for the pitch sensitive chassis. Didier Theys backed it into the wall coming onto the pit straight after about 2 hours of racing. Mike have you seen anything from the Panoz camp on thier protos. They sold them to a third party right?? I'm worried about the Riley and Scott that did so well last year. What a sweet car at Petit Lemans and it was very very fast. But now with a questionable engine.

MG and Reynard 02S will be stupidly fast as usual. But I'm looking forward with much anticipation to the new Pilbeam. I liked them before with thier silly SCCA DSR looks but now they might actually be fast.

PS. The Five liter Judd really does launch the car better out of slow corners. I was at working station 12 north of the Oak Tree corner at VIR when Grand Am was there. The Dallara(5L judd) pulled significant distance on the Crawford(4L judd) out of this slow 40mph corner everytime. I'm talking like 5 car lengths. Although the top end was still much the same.

[choked_wasp]

Originally posted by RobweenerPI
I'm worried about the Riley and Scott that did so well last year. What a sweet car at Petit Lemans and it was very very fast. But now with a questionable engine.

I don't get it, just because the engine isn't a Elan it becomes questionable. What makes you think that Yates (JMR) and Lozano (American Spirit) engines can't hold their own. Lozano and Yates have been around for a whole lot longer than Elan has, which gives them more experience (EPP aren't slouches though).

[IanGrohse]

Will the Pilbeam at Sebring be the new MP91 car?!?!?! Ive always liked the pilbeam, aesteticly its a pleasing car to look at, and reliable with the Nissan engine. But it has never been that fast, and even to look at it, it looks way outclasses in terms of aerodynamic sophistication.........I mean, it has that HUGE center section of body work that looks totally inefficiant, although nice to look at.

[Liz]

The Pilbeam has been completely redesigned over the winter and even has new livery now.

Dark Dog America to Sponsor Team Bucknum Racing

It was announced today that Dark Dog America (Dark Dog) will be the primary sponsor of Team Bucknum Racing (TBR) and its Pilbeam MP91 entry in the LMP 675 class of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) throughout 2003.

The announcement was made by Gregory C. Martin, and Jeffry O. Dana, company principals of Syndicate Sports & Entertainment (SS&E), a full-service sports and events marketing and property rights representation firm in the sports and entertainment sectors who brokered the deal between Dark Dog and TBR.

"We could not be happier to have such a strong international brand name represented on our car this season," stated team owner, Jeff Bucknum. "We have worked hard this off-season to improve our car's performance package, and we are elated to share this coming season's successes with Dark Dog."

Dark Dog intends to leverage through this partnership the marketing elements included in the TBR sponsorship to further build their brand in the minds of motorsports fans in North America.

Dark Dog's CEO, Randy Ridenour, reciprocated Bucknum's statement. "As we continually strive to increase our points of distribution in America and build our brand, the elements of the TBR package and the activation services that SS&E provides made this an opportunity we just could not pass up."

Elements of the sponsorship include: a complete redesign of the paint scheme on the team's lead race car (#56), logo identification on the driver suits, team transporter, paddock area, as well as numerous logo usage, likeness, and retail promotional rights with select retailers who will be announced in the near future. Dark Dog will enjoy primary sponsorship positioning with TBR throughout the 10-race ALMS season, as well as in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans this June in France.

About Dark Dog America

Dark Dog (http://www.darkdogamerica.com) produces energy drinks, with natural guaraná caffeine and vitamins. Dark Dog is the first premium energy drink, which has been awarded with two high profile awards for outstanding quality. The company is a growing and dynamic organization, founded in Austria in 1995, and based domestically in Hollywood, Florida. Over the last seven years, Dark Dog has developed into one of the world's strongest brands and is currently the number two energy drink in the world in terms of brand recognition.

Fortunately the Spyker -- my absolute favourite -- has not changed its appearance radically and still looks like a World War I airplane. It ran very beautifully until it hit an inconveniently parked Porsche, I think.

We're having freezing rain here. I can't wait for Sebring!

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Liz
The Pilbeam has been completely redesigned over the winter...

Easy now - this isn't a "complete redesign". the MP91 still looks a lot like the 84, it's just a carbon tub now, and some improvements here and there.

[Fab]

And what to expect of the Pilbeam, in performances term ?

The car was not very brilliant two years ago at LM...

[cybersdorf]

It should hopefully be closer now...

[Fab]

Originally posted by cybersdorf
It should hopefully be closer now...

Good news for the LMP 675 battle field...

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by choked_wasp
I don't get it, just because the engine isn't a Elan it becomes questionable. What makes you think that Yates (JMR) and Lozano (American Spirit) engines can't hold their own.

Well, Elan is enduro-tested. Yates didn't have the best weekend at Daytona (Multimatic had to change the header, if I'm not mistaken).

[Tim Northcutt]

Minor problems did occur with the Yates engine at Daytona (a throttle spring that, because of the design of the frame & chassis putting parts in their way to get to it, took about 15 min. to replace, plus the cracked header late in the race....

These are things that JMR can learn from and deal with prior to Sebring, etc.

Yates is an excellent engine builder and he knows how to get horsepower with reliability...don't ever count him out...

On another note, I thought that the American Spirit is running the Lincoln engine...is Yates the builder on that, too????

[cybersdorf]

Originally posted by Tim Northcutt
On another note, I thought that the American Spirit is running the Lincoln engine...is Yates the builder on that, too????

Lozano.

[Jellybabe]

Can someone tell me something about Sebring? You know, what the track's like, where exactly it is, what the weather's going to be like for the race, how many cars will enter, etc, please? A friend is going there so I want to know what I'm talking about when I talk to him about it!

[cybersdorf]

65 cars on the entry list, all 65 will be allowed to start.
All the facts & figures are here:
http://www.racingcircuits.net/United...bring1967.html
http://www.sebringraceway.com/

[Jellybabe]

Thanks

[cybersdorf]

Recently resurfaced but still a rough old racetrack, Sebring. Ex-USAF airfield.

[Graham Goodwin]

64 cars now - RML MG is withdrawn