Season-ending Laguna Seca race will be a real barn burner

Pirelli-Shod Intersport P2 Racer Leads Tire Manufacturer Championship With One Race to Go

Monterey, California, October 13, 2004 The American Le Mans Series is closing its sixth season of operation in spectacular fashion this weekend with a " new" event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Though the ALMS has raced at the famous Monterey road racing circuit since the inaugural season in 1999, the 2004 version of the Audi Sports Car Championships event will be quite different from past races and will explore a brave new world of darkness.
For the first time in its long history, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will host an event that runs into darkness when the American Le Mans Series begins its timed event of four hours at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 16. Long before the event ends at 8 p.m., darkness will have descended upon the Monterey Peninsula and the ALMS drivers will circulate the 2.238-mile track aided only by their headlight beams and whatever ambient lighting there is around the circuit.
This is a huge departure from past events, which were timed races of two hours and 45 minutes and started and ended in daylight hours.
But racing in darkness is a tradition of Le Mans-style endurance sports car racing. The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the event upon which the ALMS is based, includes many hours of total darkness racing in the French countryside, and ALMS events such as the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta are also run partially at night.
" The fans who come to the season finale at Monterey are in for a real experience," said Scott Atherton, President and CEO of the ALMS and formerly the general manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

" One of the things that separates the American Le Mans Series from other forms of racing in North America is that our cars are designed to race in daylight and darkness," he said.
" Our teams and drivers are used to racing at night and the fans who have attended Sebring and the Petit Le Mans love it. It creates an additional challenge for the racers and additional excitement for the fans.
" The fans will be able to see glowing brakes, flame belching from exhaust pipes, and sparks flying as cars bottom out in various sections of the track," he said. " It's a sensory overload that just makes the event even more interesting and thrilling."
It will also be interesting and thrilling for Pirelli and Intersport Racing. Following a one-two finish in the P2 class at the Petit Le Mans 10-Hour race at Road Atlanta in September, Pirelli enters the season-ending Laguna Seca event with a 9-point lead for the Tire Manufacturers Championship in P2. The Pirelli-shod Intersport Racing Lola/Judd has won five of the previous eight ALMS races this year and holds a slim three-point lead in the battle for the number one spot in P2 IMSA Cup Points. But because of two DNFs, the Intersport duo of Clint Field and Robin Liddell, who will be joined by Rick Sutherland for the 4-hour Laguna Seca race, find themselves 21 points behind the class-leading Miracle Motorsports racer in the fight for the ALMS P2 Team and Drivers Championships.

With the extended-length Monterey event awarding 23 points to the winner, Field and Liddell's only chance of overtaking Ian James and winning the driving and team titles is to win again and have Miracle again score no points. Field and Liddells five wins this season, tie Didier de Radigues (2001) for the most wins in a single season since the introduction of the LMP2 class in 2001. But they need that sixth.
" We've kept the championship alive," said Liddell. " We honestly thought we had no chance until it was pointed out to us that there was a possibility."
The dominant factory Corvettes have won the 2004 GTS Championship but Terry Borcheller and Johnny Mowlem have earned six podiums in GTS this year in the Pirelli-sponsored ACEMCO Saleen S7R and will looking for a lucky seventh at Laguna. But ACEMCO Motorsports now has an unassailable lead for the coveted IMSA Cup presented to the top independent team in GTS over the Pirelli-shod Carsport America Dodge Viper GTS-R of Tom Weickardt and Jean-Philippe Belloc.
In the GT class the Pirelli-sponsored Risi Competizione Ferrari 360 Modena GTC piloted by Ralf Kelleners and Anthony Lazzaro won at Lime Rock, and the duo has battled for podium positions all year long. Fabrizio De Simone of Rome, Italy, who raced with Kelleners and Lazzaro at the 10-Hour Petit Le Mans, will also share the wheel of the red Ferrari at Laguna Seca.

Another of the GT entries, the Pirelli-shod Panoz Motor Sports Esperante GT-LM, made its debut at Mid-Ohio and shocked the predominantly Porsche GT class by qualifying second and running for the lead until an accident and a broken half shaft put an end to its day.
Since that initial success, the season has been a series of ups and downs for the Panoz team.
Top Gunnar Jeannette will share the Panoz with Marino Franchitti at Laguna and the dynamic duo will be looking for a podium finish to conclude the season.
The four-hour Audi Sports Car Championships event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca begins at 4 p.m. on Saturday, October 16, and will mark the first time in the long history of the raceway that an event has run into darkness.
Drivers will have one hour of night practice on Thursday evening to get used to navigating the track in darkness before Saturday's race. There will be limited artificial lighting in some areas of the track, but for the most part drivers will be racing only by their headlights, just as they do in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 12 Hours of Sebring and other sports car endurance races.

The Audi Sports Car Championships event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will get the green flag at 7 p.m. (EDT) on Saturday, October 16. The American Le Mans Series Radio Network will have live coverage that can be heard online at www.americanlemans.com. NBC Sports will have coverage of the event on a one-day tape delay from at 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. (EDT) on Sunday, October 17.