In a stirring race victory, the Patron sponsored Acura came from behind with a late race charge to take the checkered flag at the Long Beach ALMS event. Photo by Dave R. Johnson.
SALINAS, CA — Teams from the American Le Mans Series will start their final preparation for the 24 hours of Le Mans this week as they ready for the six hour Monterey race presented by Patron. The race will give several France focused teams the opportunity for one last major test before heading to Circuit de la Sarthe. Absent from this race will be both the Peugeot and Audi team who have used Le Mans series events in Europe for their preparation — but that does not mean that the race will be any less important, or exciting, at least if results from the two events are any indication.
At the top of the list is the Patron sponsored Accura team that was the winner last time out (Long Beach) with an exciting come-from-behind charge late in the race over the factory-sponsored Aston-Martin. Driven by David Brabham and Simon Pagenaud with assistance from Marino Franchitti for the longer endurance events like Monterey (and we assume Le Mans), 2010 will mark the first entry for the team at the 24 Hours of Le Mans so gaining experience with the team will be critical. The team will be running in the LMP2 class at Le Mans where they will be the sole American entry.
David Brabham, a member of the winning Peugeot team at last year’s 24 Hour race, will lead the effort at Le Mans — but the team needs to show consistency with its effort at Monterey and be able to carry its effort from Monterey to France.
The Drayson team, which has shown outstanding team at times, will look to excise the demons of the last six months where it has run with the leaders but for a number of reasons has not been able to finish strong. For example at Sebring this year, the Drayson team was running as high a second, sandwiched between the two factory Peugeots. But then a myriad of mechanical issues hit the team virtually eliminating them from the checkered flag or a podium finish.
In GT2, which has been a total dogfight in the ALMS series, the same should be true at Le Mans and several of the American team will need a strong showing at Monterey in order to head across the pond with a positive mental attitude — starting perhaps with the Corvette team — the defending GT1 champs who at mid season in 2009 stepped down to the GT2 class.
The ‘Vette with Johnny O’Connell and Jan Magnusson driver was eighth in class at Sebring (15th overall) and second in class at Long Beach (and 10th overall) but have not been able to best either the Porsche or the Ferrari with regularity — and last year at Monterey crashed hard on the last lap on the last straightaway while racing for the lead while dicing with the Porsche.
Another team that needs a strong performance in preparation for Le Mans is Paul Gentolozzi’s Jaguar entry. The team has had a number of teething issues in its initial ALMS events and a strong performance at Monterey would help set the table for their participation at Le Mans.
The Ferrari 430 GT of Jaime Mello was the class winner at Sebring but was fourth in class at Long Beach and as the defending GT2 Le Mans Champion, would like to come to France with a win in their belts.
So the race at this historic track is important to many team for many reasons — but of course the most important reason is simply that it is a race and the idea is to win it.
