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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">AMERICAN LE MANS SERIES</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">03/10/2000</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">PLM ROUND UP</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">The race of the year </FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><img border="1" src="Storage/D%20UPear%20AME.jpg"></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">Scarlett O'Hara at the Petit Le Mans? Fortunately, the dear lady wasn't driving. As Milka Duno found out, the ALMS - especially at Road Atlanta - isn't for the feint hearted. Move off line and you collect a tonne of rubber on the tyres. 'Stay on line and let the prototypes pass you where they can,' seemed to be the advice. But it didn't always work out as planned. Ask Rohan Skea. "I think there is going to be a few people who get punted off the track." Oh dear. Fateful words. David Murry had an inkling of what was in store too. He voiced his concerns on Friday. <BR> <BR> "I can see both sides because I've driven GT and prototype, and that gives you a better understanding of the situation. The high speed turns are so much faster for the LMP cars than they are for the GTs, yet there's hardly any difference at all through a corner like Turn 7. Take the Esses, for example. You can lose several seconds as an LMP through the Esses, so it's important to get past a GT car before you enter the first component. The prototype has to make the decision to pass far sooner, while the GT invariably ends up with the short straw - having to back off to let a prototype through and accept that their lap time's out the window. The trouble is, it happens every single time and at nearly every corner!" <BR> <BR> By Saturday afternoon, Murry had this to add. <BR> <BR> "I'd had a series of prototypes pass me. The Audi, Panoz and BMW guys were clean, no problem. Coming up through 9 and 10 two more had gone through. I'd moved way over to give them space. Up to the bridge, I chose to make it really easy for the next, and went 25 feet away from the racing line, onto the marbles. He had plenty of room. As he came alongside, he simply tracked sideways into me. I saw a flash of silver, and next moment I was over the grass and into a tyre wall. It was so avoidable. I gave him so much room. I simply can't believe it!" <BR> <BR> Knock-about racing was the term used on this site after Silverstone. At Road Atlanta, it seemed to be a knock too far. <BR> <BR> There was the poor deer crossing the track, with Doc Bundy first on the scene ("It came bounding across the gravel trap, and looked at me. I couldn't believe it!"), and there were these two sweet little 'dears' in the Paddock and Media Center. <BR> <BR> Cara de Vlaming looks as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, while Sylvia Proudfoot is ready to pounce the moment Tom Kjos gets the story wrong. <BR> <BR> It wasn't the result either lady wanted for their respective employers, and for Cara, that makes two this year. Oreca have failed to win twice! For Sylvia, of PTG of course, there was the misfortune early on for #10, then a great run for #7 until driveshaft and oil line problems sprayed the track and the cockpit. <BR> <BR> Still, at least Sylvia hasn't acquired a nickname yet. Cara's was Eucalyptus Honey Child (that was Morse's invention), then Cara Dallara - and now it's some full blown concoction of every nickname she's ever had.<BR> <BR> So what is the appeal of the ALMS, and in particular the Petit Le Mans? More pre-race bookings than tickets sold last year and 60 000 fans for the race seem to have made it the second biggest event on the US sportscar calendar - already. At this rate, it will out-grow Sebring before long. <BR> <BR> Le Mans has always been 24 hours, but ten or twelve seem to be enough to capture the imagination of the US sportscar fan. Sebring, Le Mans, Petit Le Mans - they're events, aren't they. Not just races. <BR> <BR> Year after year (can you say that after only three?), the Petit creates headlines. The Porsche 911 GT1-98 looked as though it would win at a canter, then it flipped. BMW looked to have it sewn up, then Jorg Mueller got it wrong. Audi did have it sewn up, maybe later rather than sooner, but there was all the drama of the chase for second, and the wonderful GTS race. Plus a Viper on its roof, an irate Shane Lewis, Rohan Skea equally angry, the contacts, the yellows, the darkness, the dramas. All witnessed by an army of press wallahs. <BR> <BR> The support races weren't too shabby either. A year ago, EFR was heading for that unlikely seeming drivers title, this year he was thrashing round in a Beetle. The Women's GT race adds something different, the Speedvision field was huge, the Barber Dodge Series adds something else - add it altogether and who could resist going?<BR> <BR> Richard Dean - a GT Champion in the UK - saw Atlanta for the first time. <BR> <BR> "Brilliant! This is one of the best circuits I've driven, but it will take quite a while to tune into it. It demands respect. You can't push too soon because there are so many blind brows and corners." <BR> <BR> That was in the #70 car, as #71 was still being prepared for its first laps - anywhere, ever. Team Manager John Pollard had ordered chassis #127 on the evening of Doc Bundy's incident at Portland. In less than three weeks, a fully prepared and comprehensively track tested racecar was delivered half way around the world, inclusive of gear ratios suitable for Road Atlanta. It was side-swiped by a GTS Viper on its first lap out of the pits! <BR> <BR> In the race, Dean watched the Auberlen flip. Then saw a BMW LMR wheel and associated parts heading towards his car. Race over.<BR> <BR> The diffuser of the #77 Audi. It was this component of the sister car that was damaged and removed, resulting in all that drama in the closing laps. McNish was livid that his (almost) race winner was put in jeopardy to help protect #78's second place, but it all ended well for the Scot. <BR> <BR> The Oreca Vipers may be in their last full season, but GM can expect a formidable opponent in the Saleen S7. It was confirmed that the car will debut at Laguna Seca and will run the entire 2001 ALMS season, plus the Rolex 24 and the Le Mans 24 Hours. <BR> <BR> The Patriot Viper(s) may have had a difficult Petit, but they'll be back - initially at the Rolex 24. Chamberlain Engineering have confirmed two Vipers at Laguna Seca, Las Vegas and Adelaide, then the same again at Daytona and Sebring. After that, well, they're thinking about it. The ELMS arrangements and the tracks came as something of a surprise to many - but that's another story for another day.</FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>