In the end, it was the number 07 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP of Alexander Wurz, Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene that took victory in the first race of the 2010 American Le Mans Series.
Its sister car, driven by Pedro Lamy, Sebastien Bourdais and Nicolas Minassian, finished just behind in second place, completing the same number of laps.
It was, arguably, a somewhat hollow victory. The main challenge to the diesel Peugeots for both LMP1 and overall honours would probably have come from the Audi R15 TDI, also diesel powered.
Audi however was absent from Sebring, although it had wanted to compete. Because Audi didn’t have a full 2010 spec car ready in time, it tried to enter an interim R15 instead. It would have complied with the updated regulations regarding air restrictors and reduced turbo pressures, but its aerodynamics - especially around the front of the car - would not have.
Therefore, to be allowed to take part, all other teams would have had to agree. Peugeot emphatically said ‘non’ though, so that was that. The irony is that Audi will be taking the full 2010 spec R15 (pictured below) to Sebring later this week for a testing session.
The third podium place was taken by the LMP1 Lola-Aston Martin of Stefan Mücke / Harold Primat / Adrian Fernandez, the first petrol-powered car to cross the line.
Away from LMP1, LMP2 only had three entrants. The class was eventually won by the Porsche RS Spyder of Greg Pickett / Klaus Graf / Sascha Maassen.
GT2 was the most hotly contested category, with thirteen entrants. Many expected one of the Chevrolet Corvettes to win. Indeed, that did seem to be the likely outcome until just over three hours into the race.
In what could kindly be described as an unfortunate incident, Jan Magnussen had just got into the number 3 Corvette following a driver change. Upon being released from his pit box, he immediately collided with his team mate Emmanuel Collard who was entering the adjacent pit in the number 4 car. Both Corvettes needed repairs following the accident, gradually dropping them down the field.
Corvette Racing’s misfortunes, together with various episodes that affected the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR runners of Team Falken Tire and Flying Lizard Motorsports, ultimately handed the class win to the Ferrari F430 GT of Risi Competizione, driven by Jaime Melo / Gianmaria Bruni / Pierre Kaffer.
Luckily, the ALMS field is bolstered by two additional categories, LMP Challenge and GT Challenge, which are essentially one-make classes. Without these, the grid would have been reduced to a rather pathetic twenty-one entrants, rather than the thirty-four that actually did start the race.
LMPC is new for 2010, and all teams use the Oreca FLM09 prototype. These cars have full carbon fibre chassis, run with a minimum weight of 900 kilograms and have engines producing 430 hp. LMPC also uses single-supply Michelin tyres to keep the racing as even as possible. The Level 5 Motorsports car of Scott Tucker / Ryan Hunter-Reay / James Gue took a comfortable class win at Sebring, finishing 10th overall and sixteen laps ahead of its nearest LMPC challenger.
GTC is exclusively for the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. The class victory went to the number 81 car driven by Juan Gonzalez / Butch Leitzinger / Leh Keen, entered by Alex Job Racing.
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