Heading North of the Border For American Le Mans Action

Heading North of the Border For American Le Mans Action

Posted: September 5th, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: Joe Martin
Photo By: Joe Martin

The American Le Mans Series headed north of the border for it’s only visit to Canada this year. Unfortunately, those traveling north for the race with the hidden hope of getting out of the way of Tropical Storm Ernesto, only had it follow them to the Toronto area. Saturday found a day of rain and cold conditions with the series canceling qualifying as conditions worsened throughout the day. However, the start of the race on Sunday brought clear skies as the cars hit the track on this high-speed circuit.

Audi made history again by clinching the American Le Mans Series championship with Alan McNish and Dindo Capello. It was not a run a way victory as Dyson received the pole position when they were fastest in the test sessions. This race was a hard fought battle that came down to pit stop strategy. The Audi double stinted tires, while they Dyson had fresh rubber to make a run at the end of the race before running out of time.

Penske Racing has been concentrating on the P2 championship after his drivers were split up the last race to better the chances of winning the series. Lucus Luhr and Romain Dumas collected their first victory as teammates over their counterparts. Sascha Maassen also took the lead of P2 and is 5 points over the Intersport Team.

In GT1 the Aston found themselves in the pole position and were fast during the test sessions. The battle of the Corvettes and the Astons has been closer with the weight advantage of the green cars helping to level the playing field. With the win of the Aston, there is an 18 point difference between the leading Corvette Team of Beretta and Gavin. It should be interesting to watch these teams go down the wire with only two rounds left in the season.

Ferrari kept it on the road during the race to finish 1-2 over the Porsche of the Flying Lizard Team, after going off course during some of the test sessions. Team Risi had to skip the wet morning warm up to be sure they had their equipment right for the race. The cars were fast on this difficult course and kept it together for the sprint race of two hours and three quarters to get their victory.

As the season comes to the finale at Road Atlanta and the Race into Darkness at Laguna Seca we wait for new entries. The fans are anxious to hear the announcements of the teams coming from aboard to challenge the American competitors. Will we see if the rumors of Zytek and Team Creation coming over the pond as we rap the 2006 season?Â

Pitjournal.com will be there to give you all the latest American Le Mans Series news as the season winds down.

Joe Martin
PitJournal.com