Petit Le Mans – Preview
Don’t Miss This One

The regular season is over.  It’s now time for those special races - Petit Le Mans, then Laguna.  But first, Petit.  It’s always been special – in fact, it is truly the beginnings of the series - but what about this year?  Is it the high water mark?  Maybe.  Many are considering this as the best assembly of sportscars and driving talent for quite some time, at any circuit.  As a fan, I hope this is not as good as it gets – I want more -  but with all of the turmoil going on in the financial world right now, it’s difficult to imagine it not affecting the entries in the ALMS in the future.

But that is for later.  What we do have for this race is plentiful and headlining it is the continuation of the Audi-Peugeot war.  This started at the Sebring Test, back in late January and fittingly the battle will end, for 2008 at least, back here in the States in Early October.

Like at Sebring earlier this year, Peugeot is stepping into an Audi strong hold.  Audi has won every race here since 2000.  Petit, like Sebring, has been an Audi playground; at least until this year, when Penske Porsche won Sebring overall.

This one will be interesting to see how it plays out.  Peugeot has the advantage with speed, or at least it has everywhere else they have been.  But Audi has the experience here and they have what appears to be a reliability advantage.  And Audi also have another big advantage – two cars entered.  Due to the damage from the LMS race at Silverstone, Peugeot has opted to run only one car here for Petit.  Too bad for them and for the fans, but at least they are here.  They were already going at it over the weekend, where Pedro Lamy had a bad moment it traffic in the Peugeot, thoroughly damaging the car.  Indications are that the Peugeot was into the 1:06 range before the crash.  Thankfully both Lamy and the car were OK.

But this is more than an Audi vs. Peugeot war.  As of the writing of this, there are 20 prototypes entered.  Over half of the field will be prototypes.  And over half of those entered could be considered as possible overall winners.

What makes this even more intriguing though is the championships that are on the line in P2; Acura vs. Porsche; Patron Highcroft vs. Penske.  Penske adds a car, making it an unbalanced affair, with five Porsches taking on four Acuras; but Acura responds by putting some awfully big names into their cars.  Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Michel Jordain plug into the Acuras, while Penske brings over Helio Castroneves and sometimes ALMS driver Ryan Briscoe from his IRL program.  Add in the two Dyson Porsches, with the usual cast of drivers being joined by Andy Lally in the No. 20 and you have the makings of an outstanding race.  All of these cars will be challenging not just for class wins, but for the overall win over the course of 1000 miles/10 hours.

The rest of the prototype field is looking pretty well also.  Mazda debuts their new Lola B08/86 coupe and Autocon also appears with a new car for them – a Lola B06.  Gone is their Creation, but thankfully there will be two coming over from Europe, as Creation Autosportif comes over in force to play.  Intersport adds in another Lola to replace their car that was destroyed at Mosport.  This time, they’ll have a Judd powering the new one, so the team can evaluate packages for the future.

With Corsa debuting their new maybe/maybe not hybrid Zytek and Team LNT bringing over a Ginetta-Zytek, we’ve got quite a few of the chassis in the sport covered.  But I do have one concern.  How do you explain some of these cars to a person that is not familiar with the sport?  Zytek?  It sounds like a male medication.  “Take Zytek for men…”  Then there is Lola.  Janos asked me if Lola was my hot girl friend from before I was married that I never told my wife about.  Maybe Lola is why Zytek was marketed?  The only Lola I could think of is the one the Kinks sing about – glad I never met that one.  Then there is Creation.  Is that a right wing car?  Were they looking to change that when they created a Creation Evolution, or does Creation Evolution cancel each other out?  Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming…

I know, all season long I’ve lumped both prototype classes together.  That will likely continue this coming weekend, but with ten cars in each of the two prototype classes, we should have some compelling battles in each class and for overall.

GT1 sees Corvette racing concentrating on two things.  First, the normal race and championship type of things.  With two races to go, there are 55 points available.  Car No. 3 holds a 23 point lead.  Finishing, or at least completing 70% in both races will clinch the drivers title for O’Connell and Magnussen.  But a DNF?  That would be costly for them. 

This race will likely and sadly be the last one for Ron Fellows with Corvette Racing.  Time will tell what other changes will be taking place within the team for next year.

But for this race, Corvette Racing will also be concentrating on the first Green Challenge, a championship within a championship, rewarding performance, efficiency and low emissions, based upon input and formulas developed by input from the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and SAE International.  Winners will be rewarded in both the prototype and production based classes, as well as overall; and, of course, Corvette Racing is shooting for the overall.

At least they have something to compete for, because sadly the once-interesting GT1 class has become, well, not that interesting.  After some of the battles we have seen in GT1, it is sad to see that, after the withdrawal of the Bell Motorsport, Petit Le Mans will only feature two Corvettes in the class.

GT2 on the other hand is full.  16 cars are entered, with, as usual, Porsches and Ferraris making up most of the grid.  This time it is evenly spread between the class stalwarts – five German and five Italian cars.  As with P2, there are some championships to be decided here.  But, like in GT1, the chasing team will need some help.

Unless the Lizards falter, which they haven’t yet this year, the drivers and team championships look to be theirs.  They currently have commanding leads in both of the championships and have helped Porsche to a 19 point lead in the manufacturers championship.  But with 55 points available over the last two races, nothing is for certain.  A bad moment in traffic can drastically alter the championship point battles.

Joining in with the usual grid are JMB, who are the only European team to come over and play, bringing over their Ferrari.  Returning are LG Motorsports, with help from Riley, after a long absence from the series.  Tomy Drissi is bringing along his usual Hollywood support to the team and they are anxious to make this a memorable return to the series.

Look for the usuals to be up there fighting for the win, but also keep in mind that there are the points to worry about.  Maybe cruise control until 70% of the race has been run for the No. 45 Lizard and the No. 71 Tafel, while the rest, especially the No. 62 Risi and the Farnbacher-Loles Porsche have sprinted out, with nothing to lose?  Or maybe the Tafel car will push from the beginning, thinking they too have nothing to lose?  Whatever, look for some interesting battles all race long, but especially when it starts to get dark.

That holds true for all of the classes, but once it gets dark, beware of the “Cabbage Patch Children of the Corn”.  To quote the Smashing Pumpkins (appropriate for the fall season) “they only come out at night…”

Full DSC coverage will kick off on Thursday.  Friday, as usual, will see the State of the Series Address, as well as the announcement of the schedule for 2009.

Gary Horrocks