American Le Mans Series

American Le Mans Series
Vehicle type	Le Mans prototypes and Gran Turismos
Country or region	North America
Current name	American Le Mans Series
First season	1999
Last season	2013
Official website	americanlemans.com

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) was a racing series for sports cars held in North America and was organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), based on the classic Le Mans races of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest , with which also a partnership existed. From 2014 the series went on in the United SportsCar Racing .

history

The championship was created in 1999 after organizer Don Panoz struggled with low attendance and the new competing United States Road Racing Championship made up of breakaway teams the previous year . The GT vehicles used up to now were thus supplemented by the prototypes built for the Le Mans 24-hour race . Similar to the IMSA GT, the racing calendar in the first year consisted of a mixture of 165-minute races and longer championship races such as the Sebring 12-hour race and the Petit Le Mans . After the series was established in 1999 with the works teams from Audi , BMW , Panoz and Corvette , series organizer Don Panoz tried to gain a foothold in Europe in 2000. With the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring and the 500 km race at Silverstone , two championship races took place in Europe this year. In 2001 Don Panoz founded the European Le Mans Series, the European sister series of the ALMS. To support the new series, some European championship runs have been part of both the American Le Mans Series and the European Le Mans Series. However, Panoz's attempt failed, the new series was discontinued after only one season and the ALMS subsequently drove exclusively in North America.

Audi R10 TDI in Long Beach 2008

Apart from a few exemptions, the IMSA motorsport club followed the rules of the French ACO until 2007. However, when the manufacturer Panoz left the company in 2003 , the Audi works team only had private teams as opponents in the highest prototype category LMP1 . Therefore, the IMSA decided to bring the Le Mans prototype 2 previously used as a substructure to the level of performance of the LMP1 by making adjustments. As a result, Mazda and Acura were able to secure a commitment in addition to Porsche . In 2009, the highest GT class GT1 was also given up in favor of the brand cup vehicles of the GT Challenge . Corvette Racing, as the last remaining team in the category, switched to GT2 - simply called GT in the following.

From 2010 to 2011, selected races were part of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup . In 2012, the season opening in Sebring was also part of the sports car world championship . During the 2012 season it was announced that the championship would merge with the Rolex Sports Car Series for the 2014 season to form the United SportsCar Championship .

Vehicle classes

As in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the field was divided into several classes. The regulations have been adapted several times over the years. The following five classes were last eligible to start:

• Le Mans prototype 1 : racing car with a minimum weight of 900 kg and more powerful racing engines.
• Le Mans prototype 2 : racing cars with a minimum weight of 900 kg and series-based racing engines.
• Le Mans Prototype Challenge : ORECA FLM standard chassis with General Motors standard engine
• GT : Series sports car with increased performance and optimization for racing use
• GTC : Series sports car for the one-make cup vehicles from Porsche

American Le Mans Series classes

1990s

2000s

2010s

9

0

1

2

3

4th

5

6th

7th

8th

9

0

1

2

3

Le Mans prototype

LMP

LMP 900

LMP 1

LMP

LMP 1

LMP 675

LMP 2

LMP 2

LMP challenge

Gran Turismo

GT Surpreme

GT1

GT

GT2

GT

Chal. Cla.

GT challenge

master

year	class	Driver master	Master constructor	Team master
1999	LMP 900	Elliot Forbes-Robinson	Panoz	Panoz Motorsports
	GTS	Olivier Beretta	Porsche	Viper Team Oreca
	GT	Cort Wagner	Porsche	Prototype Technology Group
2000	LMP 900	Allan McNish	Audi	Audi Sport North America
	GTS	Olivier Beretta	Chrysler	Viper Team Oreca
	GT	Dirk Mueller	Porsche	Dick Barbour Racing
2001	LMP 900	Emanuele Pirro	Audi	Audi Sport North America
	LMP 675	Didier de Radiguès	Lola	Dick Barbour Racing
	GTS	Terry Borcheller	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT	Jörg Müller	BMW	BMW Motorsport
2002	LMP 900	Tom Kristensen	Audi	Audi Sport North America
	LMP 675	Jon Field	Lola	Knighthawk Racing
	GTS	Ron Fellows	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT	Lucas Luhr / Sascha Maassen	Porsche	Alex Job Racing
2003	LMP 900	Frank Biela / Marco Werner	Audi	Infineon Team Joest
	LMP 675	Christopher Dyson	Lola	Dyson Racing
	GTS	Ron Fellows / Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT	Lucas Luhr / Sascha Maassen	Porsche	Alex Job Racing
2004	P1	Marco Werner / JJ Lehto	Audi	Champion Racing
	P2	Ian James	Lola	Miracle Motorsports
	GTS	Ron Fellows / Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT	Timo Bernhard	Porsche	Alex Job Racing
2005	P1	Frank Biela / Emanuele Pirro	Audi	Champion Racing
	P2	Clint Field	courage	Intersport Racing
	GT1	Oliver Gavin / Olivier Beretta	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT2	Patrick Long / Jörg Bergmeister	Porsche	Petersen White Lightning
2006	LMP1	Rinaldo Capello / Allan McNish	Audi	Audi Sport North America
	LMP2	Sascha Maassen / Lucas Luhr	Porsche	Penske Racing
	GT1	Oliver Gavin / Olivier Beretta	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT2	Jörg Bergmeister	Porsche	Risi Competizione
2007	LMP1	Rinaldo Capello / Allan McNish	Audi	Audi Sport North America
	LMP2	Timo Bernhard / Romain Dumas	Porsche	Penske Racing
	GT1	Oliver Gavin / Olivier Beretta	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT2	Mika Salo / Jaime Melo	Ferrari	Risi Competizione
2008	LMP1	Marco Werner / Lucas Luhr	Audi	Audi Sport North America
	LMP2	Timo Bernhard / Romain Dumas	Porsche	Penske Racing
	GT1	Jan Magnussen / Johnny O'Connell	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GT2	Jörg Bergmeister / Wolf Henzler	Porsche	Flying Lizard Motorsports
2009	LMP1	David Brabham / Scott Sharp	Acura	Patrón Highcroft Racing
	LMP2	Adrián Fernández / Luís Dias	Acura	Lowe's Fernandez Racing
	GT2	Jörg Bergmeister / Patrick Long	Porsche	Flying Lizard Motorsports
	Challenge	Martin Snow / Melanie Snow	Porsche	Snow racing
2010	LMP	David Brabham / Simon Pagenaud	Acura	Patrón Highcroft Racing
	LMPC	Scott Tucker	not written out	Level 5 motorsports
	GT2	Jörg Bergmeister / Patrick Long	BMW	BMW Rahal Lettermann Racing Team
	GTC	Tim Pappas / Jeroen Bleekemolen	not written out	Black Swan Racing
2011	LMP1	Chris Dyson / Guy Smith	Lola	Dyson Racing Team
	LMP2	Christophe Bouchut / Scott Tucker	Lola	Level 5 motorsports
	LMPC	Ricardo González / Gunnar Jeannette / Eric Lux	not written out	CORE Autosport
	GT	Dirk Müller / Joey Hand	BMW	BMW Rahal Lettermann Racing Team
	GTC	Tim Pappas	not written out	Black Swan Racing
2012	LMP1	Klaus Graf / Lucas Luhr	HPD	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
	LMP2	Christophe Bouchut / Scott Tucker	HPD	Level 5 motorsports
	LMPC	Alex Popov	not written out	CORE Autosport
	GT	Oliver Gavin / Tommy Milner	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GTC	Cooper MacNeil	not written out	Alex Job Racing
2013	LMP1	Klaus Graf / Lucas Luhr	HPD	Muscle Milk Pickett Racing
	LMP2	Scott Tucker	HPD	Level 5 motorsports
	LMPC	Mike Guasch	not written out	CORE Autosport
	GT	Jan Magnussen / Antonio García	Chevrolet	Corvette Racing
	GTC	Cooper MacNeil / Jeroen Bleekemolen	not written out	Flying Lizard Motorsports

Others

The regulations largely corresponded to those of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the IMSA adapted some passages for the ALMS. The race distance varied from around 100 minutes in some city races to 12 hours in the Sebring 12-hour race . The most common distance used was 2:45 hours.

The season opener was the Sebring 12 Hours each year, while the highlight was the Petit Le Mans race in autumn.

Web links

Commons : American Le Mans Series  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• official homepage
• News about the ALMS

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stefan Volk: http://www.gt-eins.at/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7629&Itemid=42