Emanuel Pirro, who helped win the Petit Le Mans in the TDI R10 Audi with teammates Alan McNish and Dindo Capello just a couple of weeks ago, has announced his retirement after 15 years of racing for Audi. His last race will be the Monterey Sports Car Championships at Laguna Seca, airing Sunday on NBC (at around the same time as NASCAR—d’oh!). It strikes me as a little odd to see such a big name stepping down at what seems to be the peak of his career, but considering how superstar drivers in many motorsports series often hang on long after they shoud’ve been put out to pasture (cough, Petty, cough), the whole retire-in-your-prime thing might be a wise move. Pirro is 46, after all. See the full press release after the jump.

How would you rather have your favorite drivers go? Quit at the top of their game or keep plugging away until they’re eligible for AARP? 

Continue reading "American Le Mans Series Top Audi Driver Emanuele Pirro To Throw In The Towel" »

By John Coyle

Editor

While Jen and I were out covering the American Le Mans Series this summer, we shot a bunch of video. But because we wanted to post something that looked like it had been produced by adults, we delivered all the footage to Andy, our video editor. Of course, watching this clip doesn’t compare to actually being at the track, but it will give you an idea of just how close we were able to get to the action. Props to the B-K Motorsports team for putting up with us, and big time thanks to BP for sending us out on the road. You guys rock!

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!    

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

At every track I go to, I’m always curious to see what kinds of rides the fans show up in. The Road Atlanta crowd sure had a diverse array of cars, from beaters to exotics—and the percentage of old-school content was higher than I’d anticipated. Click below the jump to see a whole gallery of fan rides from the Petit Le Mans this weekend.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Race Fans' Rides At Road Atlanta" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

…but Peugeot got in the middle to thwart a 1-2 finish by the two R10s. It was the No. 1 Audi driven by Allan McNish that took the win, after having started the race from two laps down following his crash during the recon lap this morning. If you watched the race, you saw the No. 1 and No. 2 Audis and the No. 07 Peugeot swapping the lead back and forth all day, and you got to witness that vicious dogfighting between the three cars the race’s final hour, but in the end, the McNish’s Audi finished ahead of the Peugeot by four and a half seconds. While McNish both started the race and cruised past the finish line, the car was driven at various points by teammates Emanuel Pirro and Rinaldo Capello, and the victory marks the 9th straight win by Audi at Petit Le Mans—apparently, they’ve never not won this race! That’s totally great, but think it might be time to shake things up a little. A lot’s going to change between now and the 2009 Petit—stay tuned.

In other unofficial results, the Penske Porsches enjoyed a 1-2-3 finish for the LMP2 class, and the E85-powered Vette driven by O’Connell and Magnussen won in the GT1 class. Full race results for all classes will be posted here shortly.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I watched the No. 21 Panoz Esperante go for a little ride between turns 6 and 7, very close to the spot where the same car ended up in the dirt during night practice on Thursday. The car has been in the pits twice today for power-steering issues, though I’m not sure if that played any role in either of these incidents. Going into a turn at over 100 mph with marginal steering has to be just a little scary, though—nice save! Click below the jump to see the whole sequence.

The Panoz’s 360 has to be one of the least scary on-track incidents of the day, however—did you see the No. 18 Porsche bounce off the tire wall a few laps ago, and then the No. 46 Porsche demolish the No. 30 LMP1 Lola that was spun out backwards on the track during the subsequent restart? It’s getting really crashy now that it’s dark, and some of the most harmful wrecks seem to be happening on the restarts. Let’s hope for safe racing for the drivers from here until the checkers.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Panoz Goes For Another Spin… In Nearly The Same Spot!" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

It seems that Black Swan Racing’s Falken-sponsored Ford GT is always a fan favorite, so yesterday after American Le Mans Series practice I thought I’d stop by the team’s tent to give you a look at the car’s insides. The car is packing a Roush-built 5.0L V8, restricted to 500 hp through its 29.3 mm intake ports, as per GT2 regulations. I talked with Dennis, one of the lead technicians, who was busy tinkering with different suspension setups—mostly swaybar and shock adjustments. He said they’d been unhappy with the existing configuration and plauged by understeer problems, so they were swapping the suspension back to the old setup in an effort to get back into the top 10, "where we belong." The team almost did it yesterday, qualifying 11th in the GT2 class—but as of hour 7 of the Petit Le Mans, they’re running in 28th overall, near the bottom of the GT2 standings. Nonetheless, they’ve hung in there throughout the race, even weathering a shock failure that appeared to drop the left rear of the car down on its body, making a hell of a cloud of tire smoke. Tune in to SPEED to catch the end of the race and see how they do. In the meantime, check out some pics of the car in its garage stall and out on the track.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Falken Ford GT-R, Apart" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I got to Road Atlanta a little early this morning to watch the TDI Jettas complete the half-hour mad scramble that was the final race of their series. It was awesome! Lots of close, three-wide and even four-wide racing as the drivers battled door-to-door for that quarter-million dollar award—the $100,000 championship prize, plus an additional $150,000 bonus they get for signing with a sponsor. In the end, there was a desperate battle between Josh Hurley in the No. 11 car and Liam Kenney in the 35, with Liam finally taking the win and Josh hanging onto the championship. Congrats to both! CarDomain member Chris Castagna came in 12th, which was also a pretty stellar finish considering his No. 37 car had sustained a bent frame during a wreck in practice the night before. I spoke with him on the phone after the run, and he says the TDI cup has been a great time and that he’s looking forward to taking another stab at it next year. And in the meantime, he’ll be looking out for other series and sponsorship possibilities. Best of luck, man! Follow the jump to check out more crazy bumper-to-bumper and side-by-side racing from the TDI Cup race, and click here to check out yesterday’s tour of the TDI garage.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "VW TDI Cup Crowns Race Winner and 2008 Champ!" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This really sucks: in the final test session before the start of the Petit Le Mans, the new B-K Motorsports Lola coupe got loose, hit the wall backwards, and was demolished beyond repair. Following the wreck, the B-K team got its car under wraps and its tent buttoned up pretty quick, but B-K crew chief Larry Ellert and Mazda’s John Doonan were kind enough to come out and talk to me a bit about the car. Nearly the entire rear corner of the car was gone, with the wing, bellypan, and lots of carbon-fiber bodywork involved. The rear suspension was pretty severely jacked, with the right rear wheel ripped almost clear and the transaxle damaged beyond repair. Driver Gerardo Bonilla was at the wheel at the time, and as you can imagine, he’s pretty devastated. The B-K team will not be able to get the car back out on the track today, as there’s simply too much damage that won’t be able to be repaired on site.

But the B-K team isn’t the only one facing heartbreak—during the recon laps directly preceding starting grid, the No. 1 Audi driven by Allan McNish, who was fastest in the morning practice, also spun and got in the wall. The likely culprit was a cold set of tires on a cold track, and McNish limped the car back to the garage area with a lot of flapping bodywork (and some panels left on the track). Though it was initially reported that the Audi would be out for the start of the race as planned, it’s now not entirely clear whether it’ll join the pack on the starting grid. I guess we’ll know in a minute!

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Mazda Team's Day Ends In Practice With Devastating Wreck" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Today I met with driver Liz Halliday and marketing guy Andy Woolgar of Creation Autosportif, which is fielding two LMP1 prototypes in the Petit Le Mans, the No. 88 and the No. 888. Like Peugeot, Creation has only run two ALMS races this year, in preparation for a full season in 2009. The team focuses on setting the cars up for durability, as they run a number of burly endurance races throughout the world each season, the longest being the 24-Hour Le Mans in France. Their approach isn’t so much about showing off and running up front, Andy tells me, it’s about staying the course and bringing a steady charge from the rear—last year at Petit, it scored them a podium finish in third place. Liz says her No. 888 car tends to do well at Road Atlanta, and right now they’re just trying different suspension setups in an effort to compensate for the handling characteristics of the new style of Dunlops they’ve recently adopted. She says the car "porpoises" a little with the new tires, but they’re hoping to adjust that away before the green flag drops tomorrow. Oh, and another crazy thing about Creation? You can see the likenesses of their cars in the new Grid game. See more…

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Crazy 8's: The Creation Autosportif Team" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Peugeot has been throwing a serious monkey wrench into Audi’s perfect program, coming out ahead of both R10′s yesterday in practice, and even thrashing the fabled Germans in qualifying today by winning the overall pole position with a lap of 1 min, 6.242 seconds—the fastest lap time recorded at Road Atlanta, ever. And the kicker? Peugeot’s not even competing for real—they’re simply testing their car and their team for what’s sure to be a blistering full season of ALMS racing in 2009!

Yesterday I talked to Bruno Famin, the technical director for the Peugeot team. He told me about the car’s all-aluminum 5.5L turbo-diesel V12, and explained how they’re working on going hybrid, adding a secondary electric motor to improve accelleration and efficiency on the 700-hp mill. I got a bit of a look at the Peugeot 908 today and yesterday in the garage—it’s clearly packing some state-of-the-art-technology, and the team is pretty secretive about it, even draping a sheet over the car’s internals any time they have it apart. Peugeot may run the new hybrid during the 2009 season, depending on whether possible changes in ALMS weight regulations allow for the heavy li-ion battery. The hybrid racecar would serve as a testing platform for the development of diesel-electric hybrids for the consumer market, like the Peugeot RC Concept making its debut at the Paris Motor Show. But since Peugeot doesn’t sell cars in the US, their full-season entry into American Le Mans Series has been a long time coming. And even once they do jump in with both feet, their participation in the series will be primarily geared toward preparation for the big one—the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Nonetheless, it’s going to be really interesting to see them rough up Audi’s reigning champions. Click below the jump to see more of the 908 and its team.

Check out the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest. They’re giving away gas money on a weekly basis, and one Grand Prize Winner will get to go to France for 24 Hours Of Le Mans!

Continue reading "Diesel Dogfight: Peugeot 908 Is Up In Audi's Grille" »