|
After several seasons of almost predictable outcomes in most
of the ALMS's four classes, the 2007 racing season is suddenly
less easy to divine. While Audi's past domination of the
premier LMP1 class appears that it might continue almost
unopposed, with its flawless works' team of revolutionary
diesel-powered R10s, the supposedly slower, less dramatic
LMP2 class, originally intended for privateer teams with prototypes
up to 3 liters displacement, unexpectedly promises to
be the proverbial wrench in Audi's carefully engineered plans
to again dominate the series.
In a beautifully orchestrated but rather unspectacular
American racing series modeled after the rules for the famed
24 of Le Mans, the eight year old American Le Mans Series
has almost been devoid of “name” teams and drivers in any of
its four classes. But that seems to be changing too.
At the tail end of the 2005 season, the combined entry of
Porsche Motorsports and the famed Roger Penske organization,
with a pair of yellow, DHL-sponsored, Porsche RS prototypes,
was perhaps all the rudderless racing world needed to
know about where the most interesting competition would
occur in the near future. Penske's astute decision to join the
ALMS focused the racing world's attention on the potential of
the American series, and other prominent teams took notice.
Most surprising about the whole endeavor was that Porsche
would build cars for LMP2 instead of going for the overall
win with a larger engined P1 racer. Then when the new RSs
suddenly showed P1-speed potential in their first outing in the
final race of the '05 season at Laguna Seca, it appeared that
Porsche and Penske knew exactly what they were doing.
Racing by its very nature tends to be cyclical due to the
fact that a series becomes “hot” whenever the factories decide
to compete there. Their confidence in the viability of the marketing
value of a series is everything. As long as they stay in
the game and more than a single team has a chance of controlling
the spotlight, the series becomes the focus of public attention.
Penske's entry did that. It's where the major factories
decide to place their emphasis that determines how long the
cycle will last and ALMS is just now entering a very competitive
cycle, with factory support in several classes.
It costs millions to develop and race a factory team, so the
marketing strategy for any astute manufacturer is to select a
series they can dominate, or at least race in competitively, to
best recoup their promotional investment. If two or more
teams feel they have a serious chance to win a class title, out-side sponsors are more easily attracted to assist in the effort.
On the negative side, Audi's phenomenal success in the
ALMS over the past seven years has been so overwhelming
that factory opposition has been almost non-existent. Even
GM's nicely organized three-year effort in '00-'02, with their
IRL-based Northstar-engined Cadillac protos, would have
been seriously competitive had the Audi R8s not been so
dominant with its advantage of the direct-injected V-8s. The
Auto Club de l'Ouest's efforts to reign in the Audi's speed at
Le Mans, to make the Cadillacs competitive, didn't help
against Audi's superior, direct-injected fuel mileage, and
essentially put “paid” to the upstart Cadillac program even
before it could get rolling. Since then no factory has been
willing to challenge the mighty German team.
When Penske's DHL team arrived at Laguna Seca with the
first RS, it appeared that Porsche's plan was to dominate P2
as Audi had P1, which would essentially scare off any potential
privateer contenders. But then it became obvious that the
new Porsches had the potential to run with the Audis.
Conversations with the Porsche engineers cooled some of that
enthusiasm when they explained that their cars could be
equally fast by themselves on the track, but not to expect
them to be able to pass the torque-superior Audis one on one.
Still, Penske's two-car effort was one of the best things in
years to elevate the series' potential. The second shoe
dropped last season when Acura announced a long term plan
to enter the ALMS with three P2 cars and eventual plans to
run at Le Mans with a P1 racer! Then Mazda came in too,
with the announcement that it was exchanging its rotaryengined
car program in favor of an AER-developed pistonengined
racer that would also run in P2 with drivers Jamie
Bach, Ben Devlin and Rafael Mattos.
Making matters even more appealing in LMP2, Rob
Dyson, long one of ALMS's major privateer teams,
announced he was selling both of his Lola/AER-engined P1
cars in favor of two new ‘07 Porsche RSs! In a few short
weeks the ALMS could boast not just the single Penske twocar
team, with factory drivers Sascha Maassen, Ryan Briscoe,
Timo Bernard, and Romain Dumas, but also that Dyson was
coming in with its twin RS effort driven by veterans Andy
Wallace, Butch Leitzinger, Guy Smith and Chris Dyson. Even
better is the fact that two of Acura's open-wheel “name”
teams, with considerable Honda experience, have elected to
shift much of those team's energy to the ALMS' expanding
cycle of public awareness. The Andretti-Green Acura team,
with drivers Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, Danica Patrick
and Tony Kanaan, all highly visible Indy racers, should add
considerable luster to the ALMS' starting grid. Lowe's sponsorship
for the all-Mexican Acura team of Adrian Fernandez,
Luis Diaz and David Martinez portends a huge Latin following.
Duncan Dayton's Highcroft Racing organization will run
a Courage/Acura chassis driven by David Brabham and
Stefan Johansson, with Dayton sitting in for longer events.
For more on this article and much more grab a copy of Auto Aficionado Magazine on newsstands nationwide!
|
