The Spyder Wants to Play with the Big Boy’s

The Spyder Wants to Play with the Big Boy’s

Posted: May 22nd, 2006 in American Le Mans
Author: Joe Martin
Photo By: Joe Martin

At the drop of the green flag the American Le Mans Series rolled into action with the third round with sunny clear skies. It was a change from the morning warm up which found the cars going through the wet from the morning rain. Quite a bit of history was formed by the end of the race.

The Penske RS Spdyer’s sweep the overall podium and were untouched for the entire race. This was the first time that a P2 team would take the first two spots in an overall victory in the American Le Mans Series. Also since the existence of the series it is the first overall victory for Porsche. The Audi R8 was no match for the Porsche prototypes since the track was freshly repaved and there was no concern of the cars being abused.

Aston Martin was left with finishing up after the two Pratt & Miller Corvettes for the third straight time this year. The team has been weighed down and always fights through adversity to get to the finish line first. The Aston’s were fast all weekend and it will be interesting to see them improve as the season goes on. Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta celebrate their eighth victory in a row. These teams last year only met three times and will challenge each other throughout 2006.

Flying Lizard Motorsports claimed another Mid-Ohio victory for the second time in three years fighting off a lot of stiff competition. Ferrari, BMW and Panoz were no match for the Porsche GT3 RSR, which claims its second victory of the season. For many years the Porsche had little competition except for in-between themselves. This has changed and we look forward to the future rounds as the manufactures continue to develop.

The month of June will find some American Le Mans Series teams take on the challenge of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Other teams will be waiting for round four, which takes us to the beautiful countryside of Limerock Connecticut. This will be the last race of the Audi R8 before its predecessor the R10 starts competing in Salt Lake City. The green flag drops again in Limerock on July 1st 2006 at 3pm.