Oh JOY – ALMS Test days
The 2010 season of American Le Mans series will be upon us in 25 days and counting. March 20th will be the date to save. But before then, engines are roaring already in Sebring International Raceway in Florida for the scheduled test days for the series. For this post, I’ll highlight the teams that I’ll have my eyes on and couple of teams that caught my eye.
For those that knows me, it’s expected that I’ll be cheering for the Team Rahal/Letterman’s BMW M3 GT. Yup, M3 GT is what this car is labeled now replacing the longer by one character – M3 GT2 from last year. Both #92 and #90 will still be competing in the GT2 class.
The drivers for each car have been jumbled around though. The BMW#92 will be driven by Tommy Milner like last year but his teammate Joey Hand will now be driving the #90 car. And Bill Auberlen who used to drive the #90 will be with Tommy driving the #92. Dirk Muller and Dirk Werner will be the other drivers along with Joey Hand for the #90 car.
Exterior wise, I didn’t catch any changes in the aerodynamics. The only thing that’s different this season is their livery. BMW is really pushing their JOY campaign and it’s literally splattered all over the M3 GTs.
Like Ren & Stimpy would say… “OH JOY!”
But wassup with them taking out the BMW ///M Motorsport flag off the fenders?!!
A new sponsor is also on board for this season – Crown Plaza, new for these cars but not new in it’s involvement in BMW Motorsport sponsorship.
After the end of the first test day, the ever threatening RISI Competizione F430 GT
posted the fastest time followed by the #92 BMW M3 GT with the Flying Lizard Porsche 997 RSR coming in 3rd by a slight margin of 0.032 seconds behind the M3 GT.
I don’t follow the LMP class too closely compared to the GT2 class. But I’ll have my eyes on the Patron Highcroft Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-01c in the P2 class.
This year, there’s a new prototype car in the P1 class that caught my eye. Check out the Aston Martin Racing Lola B09 60.
Adrian Fernandes shown here will be driving this ride along with Chris Buncombe, Harold Primat and Stefan Mücke.
The gulf livery looks hot!!!
ALMS just posted this video from the test day.
For more info on the series, goto Americanlemans.com
sources: Motorsports.com by Eric Gilbert, Speed TV by John Dagys
I’ll be cheering for the No.44 & No.45 Flying Lizard team.
Going to be tough for them this year to defend the title they have held for the last 2 seasons.
Should be good this year.
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