The revolutionary Audi R10 TDI has won the “Pioneering and Innovation Award” from the British magazine “Autosport” for the most important innovation of the 2006 motorsport season. Head of Audi Motorsport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich accepted the prestigious trophy Sunday evening in London in front of more than 1,000 guests. Also in attendance at the prestigious awards evening were Audi Sport “factory” drivers, Allan McNish, the 2006 American Le Mans Series champion, and Emanuele Pirro.
Multimatic Motorsports Team Panoz suffered an unfortunate ending to its 2006 American Le Mans Series assault with the #50 Panoz forced out of the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca event due to accident damage.
The final event of the 2006 American Le Mans Series Championship at Laguna Seca Raceway provided the perfect backdrop for Penske and Porsche to deliver Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr dual driving titles in the LMP 2 class.
Alex Job Racing finished third this evening in GT2 in the final round of the American Le Mans Series run at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
James Weaver, one of the best sports car racers of all time, announced his retirement today at the conclusion of today’s season ending American Le Mans race at Laguna Seca. He closed out his unparalleled career on top, winning second place honors in the 2006 American La Mans series championship.
With a 1-2 victory in the finalé of the American Le Mans Series at Laguna Seca (California), AUDI AG yet again has written a piece of motorsport history: The Audi R10 TDI is the first Le Mans Prototype to remain unbeaten in its début season. The revolutionary diesel sportscar competed in eight races since the début in March, crossing the finish line eight times as the outright winner.
This was the way it was supposed to end, the perfect final episode for a season of challenges: one race for the GT2 championship, with everything on the line, ace drivers in the cockpit, nothing held back, and an international TV audience watching the every move of a team kissed by destiny and shunned by luck.
The Flying Lizard No. 44 Porsche (Darren Law and Seth Neiman) finished fourth and the No. 45 Porsche (Johannes van Overbeek and Wolf Henzler) finished sixth in today’s Monterey Sports Car Championship at Laguna Seca. It was a frustrating day for the Flying Lizard team as they watched their hopes for a GT2 team and driver championship dashed just over one hour into the race when the No. 45 was hit by a prototype, requiring a 10-minute pit stop repair.
Corvette Racing capped Corvette’s 50th anniversary in international road racing by sweeping the American Le Mans Series manufacturers, drivers and team championships in tonight’s season finale at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. A runner-up finish by Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta in the No. 4 Compuware Corvette C6.R at the Monterey Sports Car Championships wrapped up Chevrolet’s sixth consecutive manufacturers’ title and gave the pair their second straight drivers championship.The four-hour race was hard fought from the green flag as all four GT1 contenders finished within one lap of each other. The Aston Martin DBR9 of Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy won by 4.945 seconds over Gavin and Beretta, while the No. 3 Compuware Corvette C6.R of Johnny O’Connell and Ron Fellows took third place by .474 seconds over the Aston Martin of Tomas Enge and Darren Turner.
Aston Martin Racing finished first and fourth at the Monterey Sports Car Championships at Laguna Seca on Saturday 21 October. Pedro Lamy and Stephane Sarrazin taking the final victory of the 2006 American Le Mans Series in their Aston Martin DBR9, the team’s fifth win this year.