Sebring

 Encouraged by Their First Outing, LG Motorsports / 3 Dimensional.com Look Ahead to Round 2 in St. Petersburg
News from Creative Communications

Photo courtesy John Thawley
SEBRING, Florida (March 16, 2008) — With the waving of the green flag for today's 56th running of the American Le Mans Series 56th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Florida Fresh, the No. 28 LG Motorsports / 3 Dimensional.com / Riley C6 Corvette made history. The LG Motorsports C6 became the first ever Chevrolet Corvette to compete in the highly competitive GT2 class of the American Le Mans Series.

The early laps proved the LG Motorsports team and engineers from Riley Technologies have created a fast and smooth race car. It was only nearing the half way point of the 12 hour event, after a stellar early performance, the LS3 engine showed signs of overheating and the decision was made to pull the car behind pit wall.

"It was a spiraling effect," commented LG Motorsports team owner Lou Gigliotti. "It got hot, and then it spiraled and got a little hotter. We had some dirt in the radiator which didn't help."

"Endurance racing is just that," continued Gigliotti, "it finds the weak link in everything. The car is going back to Riley and they will fix the issues. We have some three hour events coming up and I am looking forward to them. I know we will do well."

"The cars are awesome," commented driver Doug Peterson. "There are some things we need to do. We struggled a bit today; it's a big learning curve for the team. I really think the Riley built car will be very competitive in a couple of races."

The team will now prepare for the next round of the American Le Mans Series at the Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg April 4-5. For the second year in a row, the American Le Mans Series will hit the streets of St. Petersburg in the first of four races on a temporary street circuit along the Tampa Bay waterfront. Coverage will be live April fifth at 1:30PM EDT on ABC

 

2nd Annual Mazda “ShuGo” Presented by Classic Mazda Set for the 12-Hours of Sebring
Mazda Car Corral during the week’s festivities presents Mazda enthusiasts with great benefits
SEBRING, FL (March 10, 2008) — The 2nd Annual Mazda “SHUGO” presented by Classic Mazda is set to begin later this week to kick off the festivities at the 2008 12-Hours of Sebring in Sebring, FL. The annual Mazda car corral will this year be located in the inside of Turn #1 at the famed circuit, a location where the group made up of Mazda club members, owners and enthusiasts can congregate among one another while enjoying the racing events.

“ShuGo was taken from the Japanese language meaning ‘get-together’ and we all wanted to provide every Mazda owner and enthusiast an opportunity to enjoy some great event perks with other Mazda friends,” said Chad Rogers of Classic Mazda. “This event has doubled in size compared to last year and we hope to make it an on-going thing each year thanks to the support of our great event sponsors and all of the participating Mazda clubs that will be in attendance.”

Sponsors of the event include the Mazda Owners Club of America (www.MazdaOCA.org), StreetUnit.com, Yokohama Tires, Mazda, BP & Castrol with each being represented in the corral area throughout the event. Several show cars will be on display in the corral as well.

Classic Mazda “ShuGo” participants will receive plenty of benefits over the duration of the event. In addition to exclusive turn one corral parking (Mazdas only) for all 4 days, ticket-holders will also be provided with hospitality tent access with a large-screen TV providing the track’s cable-feed, event t-shirt, lanyard & ticket holder & in-corral camping/tail-gating and tickets to a beer garden sponsored by Horton Motorsports. Thanks to BP, clean bathrooms will also be provided.

For the motorsports enthusiasts, race team & driver “meet and greets” and paddock tours will be provided by reps from Mazda teams; B-K Motorsports, Tri-Point, Tindol and Horton Motorsports. There will be plenty of free give-a-ways from supporting sponsors and every ShuGo Corral parking pass includes a chance to take laps around the famed Sebring circuit in their own vehicle behind the official ShuGo pace car.

“Sebring is more than just a race, it’s an annual gathering of enthusiasts to enjoy a wide variety of races that help kick off the season,” noted Jim Jordan, Alternative Marketing Manager, Mazda North American Operations. “We’re pleased that so many Mazda car clubs will be joining us for the 12-Hour classic along with the season openers for SPEED World Challenge, Star Mazda and the Skip Barber series. We’ll have at least 60 Mazda race cars on the track throughout the week, and many times that in the paddock.”

Mazda will also be providing the average race fan with an opportunity to experience the Zoom-Zoom lifestyle with two Mazda team racecars on display for the general public to sit in and have their photos taken to immortalize the experience. For more information or last minute ticket information, visit www.mazdaoca.org/moca-shugo.htm
 

American Le Mans Series

Eco Racing reluctantly withdraws from Sebring

News from Eco Racing

·         Announces commitment to compete in full ALMS from Round 4 onwards

·        Possible expansion to two car effort

SEBRING, Florida (March 13, 2008) — Eco Racing has reluctantly had to withdraw its new bio diesel Radical SR10 from the 12 Hours of Sebring due to the incorrect provision of homologation papers from chassis manufacturer, Radical.

However, the Team has taken many positives from being at Sebring over the past days and will return to action for the 4^th round of the ALMS at Salt Lake City in May, thereafter completing the full ALMS season with its unique production engined bio diesel LMP1 car. It is possible that this will increase to a two car effort.

ALMS Chief Operating Officer and Sebring Race Director, Tim Mayer said; “We have been delighted to welcome Eco Racing into the ALMS and greatly regret the circumstances of this situation, which were totally beyond the Team’s control.  Eco Racing is exactly the sort of professional and innovative organisation that we seek to attract to our Series and we look forward to seeing the cars competing in ALMS from Salt Lake City onwards.”

It was in late December 2007 that pioneering Diesel race engineer Ian Dawson, businessman Simon Wright and Finnish racing legend, Harri Toivonen formed Eco Project and sat down with Radical Sportscars to agree the scope of the LMP1 race programme, known as Eco Racing.

Just eight weeks later (Wednesday 5^th March), at a cold and windy Snetterton, England, Simon Wright drove the Eco Racing Radical SR10 -V10 out of the garage for the briefest of shake-downs, before the car was flown to Sebring in Florida, to attempt the hardest sportscar race in the US – the 12 Hours of Sebring.

To undertake such an arduous race with so little preparation would be difficult for an established works team, let alone a two-month-old consortium.  A Herculean effort by the Team saw the stunning green and white car be presented to the Technical Scruitineering Team where, much to the frustration and disappointment of all parties present, the absence of homologation papers allowed only basic dimensional eligibility checks to be carried out.

Team Principal, Simon Wright said. “This is massively disappointing for all of us, but just strengthens our resolve to get to Salt Lake City and go racing.  The interest and feedback we have received in the build up to this week and here at the circuit has been phenomenal and we would like to thank all race fans for the great reception we have had.” 

Team Manager, Ian Dawson confirmed, “Eco Racing has climbed a mountain in the last eight weeks and we knew we had another to climb here at Sebring.  We need to sit down with our chassis partner, understand the issues and use this time before Salt Lake City to test and prepare fully for the season ahead.”

In 2004 Dawson raced the first ever bio-diesel sportscar at Le Mans, two years ahead of Audi’s diesel racer, and three years ahead of Peugeot, before a lack of resource put the programme on ice. 

The philosophy of Eco Project is to search for and develop eco friendly solutions and apply them across all facets of the race programme.  Testing on Jatropha based bio diesel, recycling tyres and developing bodywork made of hemp fibre are just three areas that the project is working on.

To take on the sportscar establishment, with an eco-friendly, production engined race car is going to be an exciting, challenging and arduous road!

The Team will continue to support green racing conferences and initiatives over the race weekend and the car will be available for photography via appointment. 

Peugeot Paces Field at Tuesday Sebring Test
SEBRING, Florida (March 11, 2008) — Pedro Lamy kept Peugeot at the top of the timing sheets at Sebring International Raceway on Tuesday in the final test session for the 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. Lamy's time of 1:43.710 (128.435 mph) was the best in the field by 0.725 seconds with official practice sessions starting Wednesday.

The Peugeot 908 is racing in North America for the first time with Lamy, Nic Minassian and Stephane Sarrazin doing the honors. Saturday's 12-hour season opener for the American Le Mans Series will serve as a diesel duel between Peugeot and Audi, which has won at Sebring every year since 2000 including the last two seasons with its diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI.

But it's not just a two-car race. Marco Andretti made sure of that with a best lap of 1:44.435 (127.543 mph) that was fastest in LMP2 and second overall. Andretti will make his Series debut in the Acura ARX-01b for Andretti Green Racing, which won in class last year in its maiden American Le Mans Series race.

Andretti, the grandson of three-time Sebring overall winner Mario Andretti, was 0.279 seconds better than the first Audi of Marco Werner. He will drive the No. 2 R10 TDI with Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller.

Next was the second-place LMP2 car, the Acura of Lowe's Fernandez Racing. Adrian Fernandez's time in the car he will share with Luis Diaz was 1:45.549 (126.197 mph), good enough for a 0.6-second cushion over Dindo Capello in the second Audi he will drive with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen.

Jan Magnussen went quickest for Corvette Racing in GT1. His lap of 1:56.742 (114.098 mph) was 0.155 seconds better than the sister Corvette C6.R of Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis.

Magnussen will share duties with Ron Fellows and six-time Sebring winner Johnny O'Connell.

Jaime Melo kept Risi Competizione on top in GT2 with a time of 2:02.535 (108.704 mph) in the team's No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT. Melo and Mika Salo will team with Gianmaria Bruni in an effort to repeat as class winners at the 12 Hours. Last year Melo, Salo and Johnny Mowlem won by 0.202 seconds for the closest finish in race history.

Flying Lizard Motorsports, the team Risi beat the checkered flag in 2007, was second quickest in class Tuesday. The team's No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb were just 0.283 seconds behind the Ferrari. Farnbacher Loles Racing's Porsche of Dirk Werner, Marc Basseng and Bryce Miller was third in class at 2:02.829 (108.443 mph).

The 2008 American Le Mans Series season opens with the 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on Saturday, March 15. The race will start at 10 a.m. ET and will be broadcast live by SPEED, which will begin its coverage at 9:30 a.m. MotorsTV, SPEED Latin America and Greenlight Television will provide international coverage as well. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring will be available at www.americanlemans.com
 

Peugeot edges Audi in Monday Testing at Sebring
SEBRING, Florida (March 10, 2008) — Peugeot picked up where it left off at the American Le Mans Series Winter Test by turning in the fastest time in Monday's first test session for the 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. Stephane Sarrazin's unofficial time of 1:43.302 was the quickest in the two sessions at the 3.7-mile, 17-turn circuit.

Sarrazin's time was 1.672 seconds better than Marco Werner's qualifying record from 2007 in Audi's R10 TDI. Coincidentally, Werner was second quickest Monday at 1:43.784 that turned out to be Audi's best time on the day. Allan McNish had posted the fastest lap of the morning session at 1:44.093.

Sarrazin led all entries at the January Winter Test with a 1:42.801.

Audi has won Sebring's 12-hour classic every year since 2000 including the last two seasons with its diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI. The task grew tougher in February when Peugeot announced its entry into the race with its factory 908, the car that finished second to Audi at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2007.

The top three LMP2 entries were within 0.828 seconds of each other with the No. 7 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder on top at 1:45.147, set by Timo Bernhard in the morning session. The defending class Series co-champion with Romain Dumas was just ahead of last year's P2 race winner Andretti Green Racing (1:45.866 in the morning session) and Dyson Racing's No. 16 Porsche RS Spyder (1:45.975 in the afternoon).

Corvette Racing sat 1-2 in GT1 with Oliver Gavin pacing the works squad with a 1:56.501 in the No. 4 Corvette C6.R during the morning session. His time was 0.978 seconds better than the sister car of Jan Magnussen, Johnny O'Connell and Ron Fellows, a time set in the second period.

All six Corvette drivers boast at least one Sebring victory with O'Connell leading the way with six. That puts him in a tie for most in race history with Phil Hill. O'Connell also can set a record for most consecutive starts with his 18th this weekend.

Bell Motorsports' Aston Martin DBR9 was third in class with Terry Borcheller turning in a time of 1:59.882 in the morning. This will be the first race for the Aston Martin in the hands of the Bell operation, which has a long history of chasing the Corvettes in a Saleen S7R.

The top three in GT2 on Monday looked very much like the final championship standings from 2007. Risi Competizione's Jaime Melo in the No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT was quickest at 2:01.423 that was more than a second better than last year's qualifying record. The Risi squad won its second straight class championship in 2007 and won last year's Sebring race by just 0.202 seconds.

The team it beat was second fastest in class Monday. The No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche of Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb was 0.213 seconds back of the Risi car. Tafel Racing's new No. 71 Ferrari F430 GT was third in class at 2:01.882.

The 2008 American Le Mans Series season opens with the 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida on Saturday, March 15. The race will start at 10 a.m. ET and will be broadcast live by SPEED, which will begin its coverage at 9:30 a.m. MotorsTV, SPEED Latin America and Greenlight Television will provide international coverage as well. American Le Mans Radio and IMSA's Live Timing & Scoring will be available at www.americanlemans.com