2010 24 Hours of Sebring goes into the books

by Sam Abuelsamid

The first of nine races that comprise the 2010 American Le Mans Series is now in the history books, as the 12 Hours of Sebring came to a conclusion under the cover of darkness Saturday night. For those of you who still have the race on your DVRs, you can come back here later. For the rest of you, read on to find out who got a jump on the rest of the ALMS field.

For the first time in a decade, there were no Audis in contention for the overall victory at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Audi has been in Florida for the past week, but for reasons that remain unclear, the Germans opted not to participate in the opening round of the ALMS season. Instead, the team tested the revised R15+ TDI in South Florida at Homestead Speedway. On Monday, Audi will join Peugeot in a private test at Sebring.

That left Peugeot largely unchallenged in terms of outright speed for the past week and it showed as the French team topped the timing charts with its diesel-powered prototypes. As the 908 HDi begins it final season of competition (at least for the factory team) the Peugeots grabbed the top two qualifying spots over the only other LMP1 entrants, Aston Martin and Drayson racing.

The Peugeots have always been fast in their previous Sebring runs, but the bumpy track has taken its toll in terms of reliability. This time, however, the progress that the team made to win Le Mans in 2009 showed, as the 908s ran trouble-free for the full 12 hours. The only real challenge came early on when the Drayson Lola-Judd briefly ran second in the hands of former Audi pilot Emanuele Pirro. Ultimately, the E85-fueled Lola slipped back as a result of cooling problems.

The #07 Peugeot of Marc Gene, Alex Wurz and Anthony Davidson led the way home ahead of its sister car, with the Aston Martin finishing three laps down in third overall.

In LMP2, the race was primarily between defending LMP1 champs Highcroft and the Cytosport Porsche RS Spyder. Highcroft has reverted back to an updated P2 Acura and qualified fastest in class. The Acura ran away from the Porsche for the first seven hours, building a five lap-lead. An electrical problem caused an extended stay in pit-lane for the ARX-01c, however, and the RS Spyder kept circulating in the meantime.

Ultimately, the Acura got back in the race seven laps down from the Porsche. David Brabham, Marino Franchitti and Simon Pagenaud whittled away that lead over the last three hours, eventually recovering three laps but finishing fifth overall behind the Porsche. Third place went to the butanol-fueled Dyson Lola-Mazda after it also experienced early electrical problems.

Perhaps the biggest drama of the race unfolded in the highly-competitive GT2 class, where 13 cars started. The #90 BMW M3 had a tough start; its qualifying time was disallowed and it subsequently crashed during the morning warmup. The Bimmer's driver, Dirk Müller, started from the pit lane and made his way up to fourth in class in the first hour. Meanwhile, the new factory-backed Jaguar XKR cracked a cylinder head and dropped out of the race after completing just 11 laps.

The most disappointing result probably went to the Corvette Racing crew. After dominating the old GT1 class for years, the C6.R is now a full-time GT2 competitor. After qualifying fourth and fifth, the Vettes got up to second and third before their troubles began. The #3 car was parked for an extended period of time to replace a damaged power steering hose, dropping it eight laps back. The worst was yet to come, though.

Corvette Racing has been together for over a decade, and the outfit takes pride in its professionalism. That makes what happened just past the three-hour mark even more shocking. A radio miscommunication resulted in Jan Magnussen being allowed to pull out of his pit just as Emmanuel Collard pulled in to the next pit. Collard nailed the #3 Corvette right behind the left front wheel and a crew member was almost run over.

Collard's #4 Vette spent several laps behind the pit wall getting its front bodywork and stabilizer bar replaced while Magnussen came back to replace a punctured tire after only one slow lap. After the repairs were completed on #4, the #3 car also pitted for some new bodywork. Thankfully, no one was injured but both cars dropped to the back of the class. The Corvettes ultimately finished in eighth and ninth positions, 11 laps behind the GT2 winner.

More weirdness came to GT2 when when the Falken Tires 911 lost a right rear wheel that ended up clipping the left rear tire of one of the Flying Lizard Porsches. That caused a bent wheel and loss of tire pressure. Both cars eventually continued and finished the race. Late in the race, a full-course yellow was triggered when Scott Sharp's new Ferrari F430 caught fire, dropping it out of the competition.

Both GT2 BMWs moved steadily up the field to recover from pre-race woes and crossed the finish line in second and third place, with the #92 car of Bill Auberlen, Tommy Milner and Dirk Werner leading the way. Overall GT2 honors, however, went yet again to the Risi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT driven by Jaime Melo, Gimmi Bruni Pierre Kaffer. The Sebring win follows a 2009 hat trick when the same team won at Sebring, Le Mans and Petit Le Mans. Double hat-trick, anyone?

In the new LMP Challenge class, six of the Oreca FLM09 cars started but none of the teams had extensive testing time going in. As the clock rolled around to 10:30 pm for the finish, the Level 5 Motorsports' trio of Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Mark Wilkins won handily as their ORECA FLM09 prototype held a 16 lap advantage over the Gunnar Racing squad for the victory. The Gunnar team was eventually disqualified and the Genoa Racing Oreca was classified second in class some 46 laps behind the winner.

The second new class is GT Challenge, which this year includes only Porsche 911 GT3s - something that'll hopefully change in 2011. Of the six GTC cars at Sebring, three were fielded by ex-Porsche factory GT2 squad Alex Job Racing. Veteran Butch Leitzinger was joined by Juan Gonzalez and Leh Keen at the top of the podium.

ALMS races also include a second competition in which efficiency and alternative fuels come to the fore. The Michelin Green X Challenge rewards the cars that exhibit the best combination of on-track performance, fuel efficiency and overall carbon footprint. In the prototype class, this was an easy victory for the same #07 Peugeot that took the overall victory on the track. Among the GT competitors, the #44 Porsche 911 RSR of Flying Lizard Motorsports took the honors. The Flying Lizard cars run the same cellulosic E85 blend used by the Corvettes; the fuel itself is made from wood chips.

The American Le Mans Series resumes in four weeks time on the streets of Long Beach, California