The American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consists of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams compete in one of five current classes: P1, P2 & PC Le Mans Prototypes and Grand Touring cars.
The series has been created by Braselton, a Georgia-based businessman Don Panoz and ran its first season in 1999. Panoz created a partnership with the Automobile Club de L’Ouest, the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to begin a 10-hour race in the spirit of Le Mans, dubbed the Petit Le Mans. The inaugural Petit Le Mans took place in 1998 as a part of the Professional SportsCar Racing series, in which Panoz was an investor. For 1999, the series changed its name to the American Le Mans Series, and adopted the ACO’s rulebook.
This season final, including the accident, was an extreme exciting game for the Porsche men. Despite this incident and an additional stop-and-go penalty, they still finished the 1,000-mile race on the challenging course in the U.S. state of Georgia fifth in the GT class at the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR fielded by Flying Lizard Motorsports. But finishing the race doesn’t stand up against the bitter taste of losing the vice-championship. With Porsche missing on the podium the first place went to Ferrari, Chevrolet Corvette became second and the third place was for BMW.
Joerg Bergmeister’s reaction to this incident; “I tried to overtake the Ferrari when he forced me onto the grass”, “I don’t understand why it should have been my fault and why I was punished for it”.
“To lose the vice-championship in this manner is of course bitter,” said Hartmut Kristen, Head of Porsche Motorsport. “The teams and drivers battled hard but it simply wasn’t enough.” Patrick Pilet added, “We put in a super fight for the podium but toward the end the car became very difficult to drive.” Patrick Long, who won in Lime Rock this season and came second at three races with Joerg Bergmeister, is now looking ahead to the next season.
Still, it was a good season for the Porsche team, who is looking forward to race again next year. They are sure they will not miss out on a podium placing during the new season. But for now we can only congratulate the team on their amazing performance during the 10 hours race.
For more information about Porsche, please visit www.porsche.com
For more information about ALMS, please visit www.alms.com