Porsche tackles 2007 ALMS season with Penske Motorsports

[NarendZORCE]

American Le Mans Series, round 10 in Laguna Seca, USA
Porsche tackles 2007 season with Penske Motorsports
Photos supplied by Porsche AG



Stuttgart. The course of Porsche�s future in the American Le Mans Series is set: Prior to the season-final on 21 October in Laguna Seca, the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer has renewed its successful partnership with Penske Motorsports for the 2007 season. With the new Porsche RS Spyder, which recently made its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show, the two enterprises aim to continue the excellent results achieved this year.

Before the final round on the 3.6 kilometre circuit close to Monterey in California, Porsche has already claimed the manufacturers title (chassis and engine) in the LMP2 class. Penske Motorsports has secured the team classification ahead of schedule.

�With their experience and professionalism, Penske Motorsports has contributed substantially to us reaching the objectives we set for ourselves this season,� said Porsche�s head of motorsport Hartmut Kristen. �We are confident that we will maintain this success streak next year with the new generation RS Spyder.�

Again in 2007, Porsche and Penske Motorsports will concentrate on all twelve rounds of the American Le Mans Series. New on the calendar and particularly attractive for spectators are the street races in St. Petersburg/Florida, Long Beach/California and Detroit/Michigan. In keeping with tradition, the race series with the world�s fastest sports cars launches into the 2007 season with the Sebring 12 hour race (17 March) in Florida.

For the season-final of this year�s American Le Mans Series, Porsche returns to the demanding circuit two hours south of San Francisco, where the winning streak of the RS Spyder began with a class victory one year ago. With five class wins and a historic overall victory in Mid-Ohio so far this season, Porsche has already earned itself the manufacturers title in the LMP2 class. And now all sights are set on claiming the fiercely-contested drivers title.

�That would be the icing on the cake after a very successful season,� stated Porsche�s head of motorsport Hartmut Kristen, who with Sascha Maassen (Belgium) and Lucas Luhr (Monaco) has two title aspirants in his ranks. �After winning both the manufacturer and team titles before the end of the season we can now fully concentrate on supporting our drivers in their fight for the title.�



On behalf of Porsche, Penske Motorsports brings two RS Spyders to compete on the 3.6 kilometre circuit on the Pacific coast. Contesting the race with the #6 car are points leader Sascha Maassen co-driven by Timo Bernhard (Germany), the class winners of the Petit Le Mans race in Road Atlanta. Sharing driving duties in the #7 RS Spyder are Lucas Luhr and Romain Dumas (France). At the race debut of the Weissach-developed sports prototype a year ago in Laguna Seca, Sascha Maassen and Lucas Luhr crossed the finish line first in their class.

For Roger Penske, who is equally as pleased about the continuation of the partnership with Porsche in the American Le Mans Series, his full attention is also focussed on a successful conclusion to the season. �We want to help Sascha and Lucas win the drivers title. That�s now our top priority,� said the icon of American racing. �When we manage this we will get straight to work on preparing the new RS Spyder for the 2007 season.�

Also in the GT2 class, Porsche has succeeded in securing the manufacturers trophy, with two Porsche pilots as hot contenders for the drivers title: Johannes van Overbeek (USA), co-driven by Wolf Henzler (Germany) in a Flying Lizard Motorsports 911 GT3 RSR, and Joerg Bergmeister (Germany), who shares the 911 GT3 RSR run by Petersen Motorsports/White Lightning Racing with Patrick Long (USA).



The race in Laguna Seca gets underway on Saturday, 21 October 2006, at 2.45pm local time (11.45pm CET) and runs over four hours.


The points standings:

LMP2 Drivers
1. Sascha Maassen, Porsche RS Spyder, 165 points
2. Lucas Luhr , Porsche RS Spyder, 161
3. Clint Field , Lola B05, 150
Liz Halliday, Lola B05, 150

LMP2 Manufacturers Chassis
1. Porsche, 177 points (champion with one remaining race)

LMP2 Manufacturers Engine
1. Porsche, 177 points (champion with one remaining race)

LMP2 Teams
1. Penske Motorsports, 177 points (champion with one remaining race)

GT2 Drivers
1. Johannes van Overbeek, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 132 points
2. Joerg Bergmeister, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 128
3. Patrick Long, Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 118

GT2 Manufacturers
1. Porsche, 173 points (champion with one remaining race)
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[Plex]

Porsche really flexing their power here..