Some news from ALMS.com about Sebring testing
Sebring, Fl. - The first of four days of exciting American Le Mans Series' testing at Sebring International Raceway has come to an end with representatives of all four ALMS classes joining in on the fun.
Champion Audi led the way with both entries posting incredibly fast unofficial test times. The team of Frank Biela, Emanuele Pirro, and Allan McNish finished the day behind the wheel of the No. 2 Audi with a best lap time of 1:47.557, beating the qualifying record of 1:48.029 set by Frank Biela in 2002. The No. 1 Audi driven by JJ Lehto, Marco Werner, and Tom Kristensen set the second fastest time of the day with a fast lap of 1:48.073. Intersport Racing tested two cars today both driven by Jon and Clint Field. The team is experimenting with a Lola as well as a Riley Scott MK IIIC.
Last year's LMP2 Champions Miracle Motorsports ran its Courage C65 with drivers John Macaluso, Jeff Bucknum and Chris McMurry. The team utilized its new Kumho tires to post a time of 1:52.668 – just seconds off of the LMP1 times set by Champion Audi.
The ever-popular ACEMCO Motorsports Saleen S7R driven by Terry Borcheller, Johnny Mowlem and Ralph Kelleners was true to form running a best lap of 1:57.931 on its maiden voyage with Michelin tires. Aston Martin, the most anticipated entry of 2005, set a time of 1:58.883 led by drivers David Brabham and Tomas Enge. Aston Martin will release its drivers for the second entry tomorrow.
The familiar BAM! Racing team represented the GT2 class of the ALMS with drivers Tony Burgess, Leo Hindery, and Mike Rockenfeller, setting a fast lap time of 2:06.626
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I'm not surprised that the Audi's were damn fast, they always are! LOL Hopefully Dyson will be there sometime soon so they can put up some times for comparison.
The P2 Courage is only 5 seconds off from the P1 cars, which is a lot and not much at the same time. Anything can happen in an endurance race. I wouldn't mind seeing Courage (or any P2) take the overall win again.
Th biggest surprise is the Astons laptime. Just under a second off the Saleen's time! Which is good, hopefully they'll have a good showing and will decide to do more races than just the big events. Seems the Aston isn't the flop that some people are predicting it to be. Hopefully we'll get some laptimes of the C6R's soon.
Here are some pics of the testing if you are interested:
http://www.americanlemans.com/galler...test/index.asp