ALMS: Sebring 2010

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Patron Highcroft Racing Team's David Brabham is the driver to post wins in four different American Le Mans Series classes. Brabham hopes to pilot the Honda Performance Development ARX-01c to victory in Saturday's 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race.

Brabham excels in ALMS

SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY - With his rich racing heritage and history of personal success, the always smiling David Brabham should be the poster boy for the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patron.

He is the only driver to capture pole positions and race victories in four different ALMS class. Since joining the series in its inaugural 1999 season, he has won 19 times in 92 starts. That's better than a 20 percent winning percentage, excellent for any motorsports specialist.

For the last four years, he has been a key member of the Patron Highcroft Racing team and last year earned his first ALMS championship, capturing the LMP1 title. This year, Patron Highcroft Racing is competing in the P2 division and the No. 1 Patron Honda Performance Development ARX-01c prototype he'll share with new teammates Simon Pagenaud and Marino Franchitti is strongly favored in the 58th annual Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh From Florida Saturday.

"I feel very fortunate to have been a part of this series since the beginning," Brabham says. "I've seen it grow. The thing I like about it is the people, to be honest. It's a great atmosphere, great sort of family-type atmosphere. Like when I leave my family at home, I'm here with a bigger family.

"The racing on the track is tough. It's good competition. You judge how happy you are by what you're doing and I've always been happy in this series. To see the way the series has grown is gratifying. We are certainly in interesting (economic) times at the moment, but the series has done more than to maintain itself. It is growing during these difficult times and I think the future looks very good."

Brabham is the son of Sir Jack Brabham, the three-time Formula 1 World Champion, and brother of Gary (1991) and Geoff (1989 and '91), both Sebring winners. Geoff was a four-time IMSA Camel GT champion and won a record eight straight races in 1988 in a Nissan GTP prototype.

"I don't remember much when Geoff first started to be perfectly honest," Brabham said. "But the time he hit the IMSA trail and won four (Camel GT) championships, I was racing myself in England. Geoff was a great driver and had a great team. Back then the series was really strong with a lot of manufacturer involvement and he was one of the great stars of IMSA racing.

"I don't feel I have to live up to his legacy, because I grew up in the shadow of the three times World Champion. You don't really think about it when you're young but you get older, right now I am focused on what I'm doing to make the Highcroft team better and win more races."

Last year was the highlight of David's sterling career.

"Last year not only winning the American Le Mans Series, but to go with Peugeot and to win with them at Le Mans was a highlight for me," the talented driver said. "It was my 16th time there and I probably only had one other time when I thought I had a chance to win overall.

"The last three years at Le Mans have been good to me - two GT1 wins with Aston Martin against Corvette and a win overall with Peugeot so it made it a special year in the 50th anniversary of my dad's win (at Le Mans)."

Peugeot is back at Sebring and is heavily favored to win the 58th annual 12-hour race.

Is Peugeot beatable?

"With the car we have, no," says Brabham. "We're a P2 and they're a P1, so they've got an advantage. We're not actually racing directly against Peugeot. Our goal is to win P2 class against Mazda, Porsche. Our car is very reliable. Last year, this type of car finished fourth overall which was a good result."

Pagenaud will be Brabham's regular co-driver this season and Franchitti has been added to the lineup for the Sebring and Petit Le Mans endurance races.

"Obviously with Scott (Sharp) leaving and going to his own setup in GT2, that opened the door for the team to look at new drivers," Brabham says. "Simon is a great competitor and I am glad he has come on board. Marino always shown a lot of potential and I think he will grow a lot with our organization.

"I think we've got a very strong driver lineup."

The No. 1 Patron Highcroft prototype was fastest among P2 entries and third overall quickest behind the two Peugeots Wednesday when Franchitti ran a 1:47.995 lap around the 3.7-mile old airport circuit.

"If you look at it on paper, yes, we probably should be favored in P2," Brabham says. "We've got three very good drivers in the car and team has grown and gotten better and better over the years. On paper, we are the favorite but that doesn't guarantee a win."

And Brabham knows how important is for a good finish at the season-opening race.

"It's really important for a team to arrive here at Sebring absolutely prepared because if you're not it's a championship breaker," Brabham says. "If you don't do well here you are behind the 8-ball from the first race and it would be very tough to win an American Le Mans championship with a bad first race. It's important for us to finish and get good points on the board so it will set us up for the whole year.

"This is a very critical race. Sebring's got the most history. It's the toughest race we do."

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#07 Peugeot leads night practice

After the #08 Peugeot had topped both daytime practice sessions at Sebring on Thursday, the sister #07 entry moved back to the front in yesterday evening's night practice.

Marc Gene led the way for the team, with a lap of 1m45.494s giving him the top spot by 0.3s.

Peugeot's main rivals had been within a second during the day, but last night the gap back to the third-placed Aston Martin Racing entry was up to 2.6s.

Highcroft led LMP2 in fourth place overall, edging ahead of the LMP1 Drayson Lola that had held third in the previous practice sessions.

JR Hildebrand set the LMPC pace for Genoa, less than a tenth of a second in front of the #95 Level 5 car.

Rahal Letterman BMW's run of one-two results continued in GT2 for a third consecutive session, with Dirk Muller the team's pacesetter. The two Extreme Speed Ferraris were next up in class. Alex Job Racing was first and second in GTC, ahead of TRG.

The only team unable to make it out in night practice - during which each driver must complete three laps - was RSR Jaguar, which remained in the pits following a failure in the afternoon session.

Pos Cl Drivers Car Time
1. P1 Gene/Wurz/Davidson Peugeot 1m45.494s
2. P1 Lamy/Bourdais/Minassian Peugeot 1m45.811s
3. P1 Mucke/Primat/Fernandez Lola-Aston Martin 1m48.180s
4. P2 Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti HPD 1m48.711s
5. P1 Drayson/Cocker/Pirro Lola 1m49.888s
6. P2 Pickett/Graf/Maassen Porsche 1m50.989s
7. P1 Willman/Burgess/Ehret Lola 1m52.287s
8. P2 Dyson/Smith/Meyrick Lola-Mazda 1m55.700s
9. PC Wallace/Sutherland/Hildebrand ORECA 1m57.393s
10. PC Tucker/Hunter-Reay/Gue ORECA 1m57.471s
11. PC Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins ORECA 1m57.765s
12. PC Feinberg/Marcelli ORECA 2m00.497s
13. PC Zugel/Jeannette/Julian ORECA 2m01.355s
14. GT2 Muller/Hand/Priaulx BMW 2m01.928s
15. GT2 Auberlen/Milner/Werner BMW 2m02.535s
16. GT2 Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher Ferrari 2m02.593s
17. GT2 Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa Ferrari 2m02.847s
18. GT2 Magnussen/O'Connell/Garcia Corvette 2m02.905s
19. GT2 Melo/Bruni/Kaffer Ferrari 2m03.066s
20. GT2 Bergmeister/Long/Lieb Porsche 2m03.184s
21. GT2 Beretta/Gavin/Collard Corvette 2m03.259s
22. GT2 Sellers/Henzler/Pilet Porsche 2m03.305s
23. GT2 Krohn/Jonsson/van de Poele Ferrari 2m05.678s
24. GT2 Robertson/Robertson/Murry Doran Ford 2m06.430s
25. GTC Gonzalez/Leitzinger/Keen Porsche 2m08.012s
26. GTC Gonzalez/Diaz/Kelly Porsche 2m08.251s
27. GTC Richard/Ende/Lally Porsche 2m08.255s
28. GTC Curtis/Sofronas/Pilgrim Porsche 2m08.430s
29. GTC Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders Porsche 2m10.062s
30. GT2 Law/Neiman/Lietz Porsche 2m11.573s
31. GTC Rodriguez/Bieker/Friedman Porsche 2m11.688s
32. GTC Lewis/Vento/Aschenbach Porsche 2m11.838s
33. PC Pagerey/Wong/Ducote ORECA 2m24.812s
34. GT2 Gentilozzi/Goossens/Dalziel Jaguar

Autosport

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Sebastien Bourdais hopes to pilot the No. 08 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP to victory in Saturday's 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race. Bourdais had the fastest lap in Thursday morning's practice session at Sebring International Raceway.

Peugeot: We are our own enemies

SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY - With Audi absent, the powerful Peugeot 908 HDi FAP diesel-powered prototypes appear to be unbeatable in Saturday's 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh From Florida.

The atmosphere in the impressive Peugeot paddock structure conveys a hushed tone of deserved confidence.

"There is nobody who can come to our pace and really give us a run for our money," Sebastien Bourdais says matter-of-factly. "Aston Martin is running around with its Le Mans package (setup), so they have no downforce. They are bloody quick in the straights but that doesn't make the car fast around here. They cannot stay with us in the turns. The Intersport car looked pretty quick, and it would have been a bit of a challenge, but the car took off and it is wreckage now so they are not going to enter the race (the No. 37 Intersport Lola crashed in testing Monday and withdrew from the race)."

But Bourdais admits there is a possible kink in Peugeot's expected 1-2 finish.

"We are our own enemies," Bourdais says. "In terms in pace, we should be comfortable enough. We are the quickest two cars for sure. We are our own enemies. If we make the mistake, we could lose."

Neither Bourdais nor his teammates ever think in terms of anything but winning. After finishing second overall in the 2009 Mobil 1 Twelve Hours, Bourdais is now teamed with Pedro Lamy of Portugal and Frenchman Nicolas Minassian in the No. 08 Peugeot HDi FAP, which has been quickest around Sebring International Raceway's rough and tough 3.7-mile road course all week.

Bourdais was quickest Thursday morning at 1:45.840 and Minassian improved the best lap to 1:45.731 in the afternoon. It was quite an accomplishment as the Peugeot crew had to rebuild the No. 08 after discovering a small crack in the monocoque during a routine inspection Tuesday night.

The No. 07 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP will be driven by Marc Gene, Alexander Wurz and Anthony Davidson. Wurz was second quickest in practice Thursday at 1:46.539.

"It would really be cool to win Sebring," Bourdais says. "Other than 2006, I have always been hampered by 'things' here, broken parts that took me out of the win."

In 2006, Bourdais was in the middle of the best years of his career. From 2004-2007, he won a record four straight Champ Car World Series titles for Newman Haas Racing. In 2006, he captured a GT2 class victory at Sebring, co-driving a Panoz Esperante GTLM with David Brabham and Scott Maxwell.

"The 2006 race was a completely different deal," Bourdais says. "The only thing you can do when you are in GT2 is to win your class, and that can be a difficult thing. We lost the diffuser and we were losing the bolts to the main drive. We did not know what was wrong with the car; we just worried if it would last to the finish. It was not my regular program, but it was really, really neat to win with David and Scott. There was a late yellow, but we were able to resist the pressure. We felt like we were running on three legs at the end, so we were really relieved at the finish line."

Bourdais says driving the GT2 was more like "dancing instead of driving. And with the bumps, you moved around even more. It was a good car but it was very particular."

Driving the Peugeot is pure pleasure, Bourdais says. "The Peugeot is very fun to drive. It is powerful and has great grip. There is very little difference between our two cars. We still have some reliability issues. You are never completely safe."

Bourdais is a native of Le Mans, France, yes the home of the famous 24-hour race. He still maintains the home in St. Petersburg where he lived during his Champ Car championship run, but doesn't get to spend much time there. "When we arrived for testing, I went over and checked on the house," he says. "It was the first time I've been there in two years."

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Gene takes Sebring pole for Peugeot

Peugeot took its anticipated front row sweep in qualifying for the Sebring 12 Hours, with Marc Gene beating team-mate Nicolas Minassian to the top spot.

The diesel-powered LMP1 squad has dominated the event from the start of unofficial testing this week, and only needed one run in qualifying to secure the top two positions, with 0.3 seconds separating its drivers.

Stefan Mucke briefly put Aston Martin Racing on provisional pole before the Peugeots got fully up to speed. He held on to third place, 0.8s from Gene's time. AMR will share row two with the Drayson Lola, swiftly repaired after Paul Drayson's practice crash in time for Emanuele Pirro to take it out in qualifying.

A little under 0.2s covered the three contenders in LMP2, but it was Highcroft that emerged narrowly in front, despite Marino Franchitti having a quick spin. Klaus Graf put the Cytosport Porsche in second, fractionally in front of the Dyson Lola-Mazda.

LMPC also saw an extremely tight contest, as the Genoa, Level 5 and Green Earth Gunnar entries repeatedly swapped class pole. Gunnar Jeanette eventually pipped Level 5's Ryan Hunter-Reay by 0.118s with his final lap, while JR Hildebrand took third for Genoa.

Rahal Letterman BMW claimed pole in the wide open GT2 battle thanks to Dirk Muller, who led a pair of Porsches. Reigning class champion Flying Lizard will start second, ahead of the Falken car - showing hugely improved form now it has moved up Porsche's pecking order.

Risi's lead entry was the top Ferrari in fourth, ahead of the two Corvettes.

Alex Job Racing dominated the GTC class, taking a one-two-three on the grid. Leh Keen was the team's star performer, securing pole by over a second.

Pos Cl Drivers Car Time
1. P1 Gene/Wurz/Davidson Peugeot 1m45.214s
2. P1 Lamy/Bourdais/Minassian Peugeot 1m45.841s
3. P1 Mucke/Primat/Fernandez Lola-Aston Martin 1m46.079s
4. P1 Drayson/Cocker/Pirro Lola 1m46.460s
5. P2 Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti HPD 1m47.684s
6. P2 Pickett/Graf/Maassen Porsche 1m47.738s
7. P2 Dyson/Smith/Meyrick Lola-Mazda 1m47.882s
8. P1 Willman/Burgess/Ehret Lola 1m54.441s
9. PC Zugel/Jeannette/Julian ORECA 1m55.279s
10. PC Tucker/Hunter-Reay/Gue ORECA 1m55.397s
11. PC Wallace/Sutherland/Hildebrand ORECA 1m55.579s
12. PC Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins ORECA 1m56.101s
13. PC Pagerey/Wong/Ducote ORECA 1m59.580s
14. GT2 Muller/Hand/Priaulx BMW 2m00.782s
15. GT2 Bergmeister/Long/Lieb Porsche 2m01.150s
16. GT2 Sellers/Henzler/Pilet Porsche 2m01.201s
17. GT2 Melo/Bruni/Kaffer Ferrari 2m01.236s
18. GT2 Magnussen/O'Connell/Garcia Corvette 2m01.358s
19. GT2 Beretta/Gavin/Collard Corvette 2m01.628s
20. GT2 Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher Ferrari 2m01.914s
21. GT2 Auberlen/Milner/Werner BMW 2m01.922s
22. GT2 Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa Ferrari 2m02.242s
23. GT2 Robertson/Robertson/Murry Doran Ford 2m03.622s
24. GT2 Gentilozzi/Goossens/Dalziel Jaguar 2m04.804s
25. GTC Gonzalez/Leitzinger/Keen Porsche 2m05.959s
26. GT2 Krohn/Jonsson/van de Poele Ferrari 2m06.680s
27. GTC Gonzalez/Diaz/Kelly Porsche 2m07.018s
28. GTC Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders Porsche 2m07.205s
29. GTC Lewis/Vento/Aschenbach Porsche 2m07.412s
30. GTC Curtis/Sofronas/Pilgrim Porsche 2m07.751s
31. GT2 Law/Neiman/Lietz Porsche 2m07.874s
32. GTC Rodriguez/Bieker/Friedman Porsche 2m10.312s
33. GTC Richard/Ende/Lally Porsche 2m11.371s
34. PC Feinberg/Marcelli/Weickardt ORECA


Autosport

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Porsche at the 2010 12 Hours of Sebring

The 2010 12 Hours of Sebring marks the 50th anniversary of Hans Herrmann's victory at the legendary event in his 1960 Porsche RS 60. This year, the pair of Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 RSRs are on hand to defend their 2009 championship title.

Jörg Bergmeister and Patrick Long, both Porsche factory drivers, discuss what its like to race at Sebring and to be part the Porsche driver legacy. It was a close battle in GT2 last year between the Lizards and Corvette Racing, making this year all that more important.

Also on hand for this year's race is Hans Herrmann, the first Porsche driver to win the Overall victory at Le Mans. Hans talks with Patrick and Jörg while at Sebring about the changes in the racetrack over the past 50 years and how motorsports as a whole has changed.

While at Sebring, Hans got the opportunity to drive his 1960 Sebring winning RS 60 on the track prior to Thursday night practice.




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Peugeot clinches easy Sebring 1-2

Peugeot claimed a straightforward one-two finish in the Sebring 12 Hours, having taken command of the event from the start of unofficial testing.

The #07 car of Alex Wurz, Anthony Davidson and Marc Gene took victory, just ahead of their team-mates Pedro Lamy, Sebastien Bourdais and Nicolas Minassian.

With Audi unable to gain Peugeot's dispensation to race at Sebring in a modified version of its 2009 car that did not quite fit the 2010 rules, the French squad was the only diesel entrant and was an overwhelming pre-race favourite.

Sure enough, the two 908s ran one-two for most of the distance - although they had some early scares from Drayson's Emanuele Pirro, who split the Peugeots for a while with a stunning opening stint charge.

Once Drayson had faded, Peugeot was able to relax and go into testing mode, trying various strategies with its two cars. The lead was swapped during pit sequences several times, before Wurz and Bourdais went into the final two hours just 2s apart.

Wurz managed to pull out a slight gap, but Bourdais was running longer to his final stop. He did not quite do enough to emerge in the lead though, and then a big spin on cold tyres on his out-lap effectively ended his shot at the win.

With Drayson ultimately delayed by alternator problems and damage from contact with Wurz in traffic, Aston Martin Racing had a very straightforward run to third place.

Highcroft looked assured of LMP2 honours until a wiring problem kept its HPD chassis in the pits for 10 laps with three hours to go.

That left the team five laps down on new class leaders Cytosport Porsche and Klaus Graf, Sascha Maassen and Greg Pickett, and lacking time to do anything about closing the gap.

Dyson's hopes of LMP2 victory were very quickly dashed, its Lola-Mazda spending 80 minutes in the paddock early on having a misfire cured.

Risi Ferrari's Jaime Melo, Pierre Kaffer and Gianmaria Bruni ultimately ended up with a one-lap GT2 cushion over the two Rahal Letterman BMWs, which swapped places on the very last lap when Dirk Muller spun and allowed Dirk Werner through.

Rivals feared that Corvette would be untouchable, but it ruled itself out when its drivers collided in the pitlane as Jan Magnussen was waved out into the path of the sister car. No one was hurt in the dramatic incident, but time-consuming repairs were required.

A bizarre piece of misfortune wrecked Porsche's day too. Wolf Henzler put the Falken team into the lead at the start, before dropping back later. The car then shed its right rear wheel twice in quick succession, and on the second occasion the stray wheel clouted the Flying Lizard Porsche - which had been fighting Risi for GT2 victory at the time - as it passed the scene.

That damaged the Porsche's left rear corner, and four laps were lost as the rules did not permit the pits to reopen for repairs until the safety car had successfully collected the leaders - which took an unusually long time on this occasion.

Also making a dramatic exit was the #01 Extreme Speed Ferrari, which caught fire in the final stages while running fifth in class.

Level 5 Motorsports and Alex Job Racing took comfortable wins in the LMPC and GTC categories respectively. While Leh Keen, Juan Gonzalez and Butch Leitzinger led their Job team-mates home in a team one-two-three and dominated the majority of the GTC race, LMPC was close-fought until mechanical problems delayed the #95 Level 5 car and the Green Earth Gunnar entry, and JR Hildebrand crashed Genoa's car.

That left the way clear for Christophe Bouchut, Scott Tucker and Mark Wilkins to clinch the class victory by 16 laps in Level 5's #55 entry.

Pos Cl Drivers Car Time/Gap
1. P1 Gene/Wurz/Davidson Peugeot 12h00m54.362s
2. P1 Lamy/Bourdais/Minassian Peugeot + 13.817s
3. P1 Mucke/Primat/Fernandez Lola-Aston Martin + 3 laps
4. P2 Pickett/Graf/Maassen Porsche + 14 laps
5. P2 Brabham/Pagenaud/Franchitti HPD + 18 laps
6. GT2 Melo/Bruni/Kaffer Ferrari + 36 laps
7. GT2 Auberlen/Milner/Werner BMW + 37 laps
8. GT2 Muller/Hand/Priaulx BMW + 37 laps
9. GT2 Bergmeister/Long/Lieb Porsche + 38 laps
10. PC Tucker/Bouchut/Wilkins ORECA + 40 laps
11. GT2 Law/Neiman/Lietz Porsche + 42 laps
12. P1 Drayson/Cocker/Pirro Lola + 43 laps
13. GT2 Brown/Cosmo/Barbosa Ferrari + 44 laps
14. GT2 Krohn/Jonsson/van de Poele Ferrari + 46 laps
15. GT2 Magnussen/O'Connell/Garcia Corvette + 47 laps
16. GT2 Beretta/Gavin/Collard Corvette + 47 laps
17. PC Zugel/Jeannette/Julian ORECA + 56 laps
18. GTC Gonzalez/Leitzinger/Keen Porsche + 59 laps
19. GTC Sweedler/Kapudija/Lueders Porsche + 62 laps
20. GTC Gonzalez/Diaz/Kelly Porsche + 63 laps
21. P2 Dyson/Smith/Meyrick Lola-Mazda + 64 laps
22. GTC Rodriguez/Bieker/Friedman Porsche + 65 laps
23. GT2 Robertson/Robertson/Murry Doran Ford + 67 laps
24. GTC Lewis/Vento/Aschenbach Porsche + 68 laps
25. GTC Richard/Ende/Lally Porsche + 85 laps
26. PC Wallace/Sutherland/Hildebrand ORECA + 86 laps
27. GTC Curtis/Sofronas/Pilgrim Porsche + 87 laps
28. GT2 Sharp/van Overbeek/Farnbacher Ferrari + 96 laps
29. GT2 Sellers/Henzler/Pilet Porsche + 112 laps
30. PC Feinberg/Marcelli/Weickardt ORECA + 133 laps
31. PC Pagerey/Wong/Ducote ORECA + 135 laps
32. PC Tucker/Hunter-Reay/Gue ORECA + 143 laps
33. GT2 Gentilozzi/Goossens/Dalziel Jaguar + 356 laps
34. P1 Willman/Burgess/Ehret Lola + 367 lap

Autosport

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