Pigouts fastest in unofficial testing Tues.

PEUGEOT PACES FIELD AT TUESDAY SEBRING TEST

http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3112008182420843_Image1_Thumb.JPG
Pedro Lamy was fastest Tuesday afternoon in testing at Sebring International Raceway.
Pedro Lamy kept Peugeot at the top of the timing sheets at Sebring International Raceway on Tuesday in the final test session for the 56th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. Lamy's time of 1:43.710 (128.435 mph) was the best in the field by 0.725 seconds with official practice sessions starting Wednesday.

The Peugeot 908 is racing in North America for the first time with Lamy, Nic Minassian and Stephane Sarrazin doing the honors. Saturday's 12-hour season opener for the American Le Mans Series will serve as a diesel duel between Peugeot and Audi, which has won at Sebring every year since 2000 including the last two seasons with its diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI.

But it's not just a two-car race. Marco Andretti made sure of that with a best lap of 1:44.435 (127.543 mph) that was fastest in LMP2 and second overall. Andretti will make his Series debut in the Acura ARX-01b for Andretti Green Racing, which won in class last year in its maiden American Le Mans Series race.
http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3112008182420843_Image2_Thumb.JPG
Marco Andretti was quickest in P2 and second fastest overall for Acura and Andretti Green Racing.
Andretti, the grandson of three-time Sebring overall winner Mario Andretti, was 0.279 seconds better than the first Audi of Marco Werner. He will drive the No. 2 R10 TDI with Lucas Luhr and Mike Rockenfeller.

Next was the second-place LMP2 car, the Acura of Lowe's Fernandez Racing. Adrian Fernandez's time in the car he will share with Luis Diaz was 1:45.549 (126.197 mph), good enough for a 0.6-second cushion over Dindo Capello in the second Audi he will drive with Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen.

Jan Magnussen went quickest for Corvette Racing in GT1. His lap of 1:56.742 (114.098 mph) was 0.155 seconds better than the sister Corvette C6.R of Olivier Beretta, Oliver Gavin and Max Papis.

Magnussen will share duties with Ron Fellows and six-time Sebring winner Johnny O'Connell. http://www.americanlemans.com/News/NewsImages/3112008182420843_Image3_Thumb.JPG
Risi Competizione was the fastest GT2 car for the second straight day at Sebring with its Ferrari F430 GT.

Jaime Melo kept Risi Competizione on top in GT2 with a time of 2:02.535 (108.704 mph) in the team's No. 62 Ferrari F430 GT. Melo and Mika Salo will team with Gianmaria Bruni in an effort to repeat as class winners at the 12 Hours. Last year Melo, Salo and Johnny Mowlem won by 0.202 seconds for the closest finish in race history.

Flying Lizard Motorsports, the team Risi beat the checkered flag in 2007, was second quickest in class Tuesday. The team's No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Jörg Bergmeister, Wolf Henzler and Marc Lieb were just 0.283 seconds behind the Ferrari. Farnbacher Loles Racing's Porsche of Dirk Werner, Marc Basseng and Bryce Miller was third in class at 2:02.829 (108.443 mph).

GT1 and GT2 Aston-Martin lap times posted tromorrow.

Thanks for that Steve, makes me wish even more we had a national series like this here.

Nice to see Marco having a go at the enduros, I hope for his sake that this furthers his career in motorsport.

Also, the duel between Peugeot and Audi should be something to watch veeeery closely!

Wow, just realized something!
Look at these 2 cars:
http://tinyurl.com/2cf27h
and
http://tinyurl.com/yq7ejk
The first is a Peugeot 905 Evo. 2 "Supercopter"
and the second is a Peugeot 908 from Sebring (taken from above)
There is pretty close resembles between the 2 which have over 14 years in difference
Just saw how bad the first Pic got, so here's a link:
http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/3292/Peugeot-905-Evo-2-Supercopter.html

Jan Magnussen is the balls! He can get away with having a girls name (yes I know it's pronouced differently) and still be a total badass. I'm just going to refer to him as "Da Magnum"

Haha.... In Denmark (where Magnussen is from), Jan is considerate a more masculine name. The cool thing about Le Mans 2007, was that a dane was leading all classes at a time, and tehe Danes could have won all classes!, but it didn't go that way, no danes won anything :(
But Tom K, and Jan M, is the best danish sports-car racer ever!

A crash in Thurs 3/13 afternoon's qual session caused ALMS to set the field by Thurs AM times. Here is the starting lineup for Sebring:

1. Rinaldo Capello, Italy; Tom Kristensen, Denmark; Allan McNish, Scotland; Audi AG R10/TDI (P1), 1:43.195, 129.076
2. Nicola Minassian, England; Stephane Sarrazin, France; Pedro Lamy, Lisbon Portugal; Peugeot 908 (P1), 1:44.271, 127.744
3. Lucas Luhr, Germany; Mike Rockenfeller, Germany; Marco Werner, Germany; Audi AG R10/TDI (P1), 1:45.090, 126.749
4. Timo Bernhard, Germany; Romain Dumas, France; Emmanuel Collard, France; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:45.220, 126.592
5. Sascha Maassen, Germany; Patrick Long, Oak Park, CA; Ryan Briscoe, Australia; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:45.999, 125.662
6. Luis Diaz, Mexico; Adrian Fernandez, Mexico; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:46.029, 125.626
7. Butch Leitzinger, State College, PA; Marino Franchitti, Scotland; Andy Lally, New York, NY; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:46.348, 125.249
8. Bryan Herta, Valencia, CA; Christian Fittipaldi, Miami, FL; Marco Andretti, Nazareth, PA; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:46.632, 124.916
9. Jon Field, Dublin, OH; Clint Field, Dublin, OH; Richard Berry, Evergreen, CO; Lola B06/10 AER (P1), 1:47.358, 124.071
10. Chris Dyson, Pleasant Valley, NY; Guy Smith, England; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:47.567, 123.830
11. David Brabham, Australia; Scott Sharp, Jupiter, FL; Stefan Johansson, Sweden; Acura ARX-01B (P2), 1:47.819, 123.540
12. Fredy Lienhard Sr., Switzerland; Didier Theys, Belgium; Jan Lammers, The Netherlands; Porsche RS Spyder (P2), 1:48.522, 122.740
13. Juan Barazi, Switzerland; Michael Vergers, England; Jean Ravier, France; Zytek 07S (P2), 1:49.820, 121.289
14. Ben Devlin, England; Gerardo Bonilla, Orlando, FL; Raphael Matos, Brazil; Lola B07 46 Mazda (P2), 1:49.966, 121.128
15. Chris McMurry, Phoenix, AZ; Bryan Willman, Kirkland, WA; Tony Burgess, Canada; Creation CA07-002 Judd (P1), 1:53.851, 116.995
16. Ron Fellows, Canada; Johnny O'Connell, Flowery Branch, GA; Jan Magnussen, Denmark; Corvette C6.R (GT1), 1:56.269, 114.562
17. Olivier Beretta, Monaco; Oliver Gavin, England; Max Papis, Italy; Corvette C6.R (GT1), 1:56.547, 114.289
18. Terry Borcheller, Vero Beach, FL; Chapman Ducote, Miami, FL; Antonio Garcia, Spain; Aston Martin DBR9 (GT1), 2:00.730, 110.329
19. Jaime Melo, Brazil; Mika Salo, Finland; Gianmaria Bruni, Italy; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 2:01.184, 109.916
20. Dominik Farnbacher, Germany; Dirk Müller, Germany; Robert Bell, UK; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 2:01.800, 109.360
21. Jörg Bergmeister, Germany; Wolf Henzler, Germany; Marc Lieb, Germany; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:01.831, 109.332
22. Allan Simonsen, Australia; Jim Tafel, Alpharetta, GA; Pierre Ehret, Santa Rosa, CA; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 2:02.227, 108.987
23. Johannes van Overbeek, San Francisco, CA; Patrick Pilet, France; Richard Lietz, Austria; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:02.238, 108.968
24. Dirk Werner, Germany; Marc Basseng, Germany; Bryce Miller, Hoboken, NJ; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:02.594, 108.651
25. Lou Gigliotti, Dallas, TX; Doug Peterson, Bonita Springs, FL; Marc Goosens, Belgium; Chevrolet Riley Corvette C6 (GT2), 2:03.630, 107.741
26. Uwe Alzen, Germany; Craig Stanton, Long Beach, CA; Nathan Swartzbaugh, La Habra Heights, LA; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:03.861, 107.540
27. Joey Hand, Sacramento, CA; Tom Milner, Leesburg, VA; Tom Sutherland, Los Gatos, CA; Panoz Esperante Ford (GT2), 2:03.931, 107.479
28. Darren Law, Phoenix, AZ; Seth Neiman, Burlingame, CA; Alex Davison, Australia; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:04.081, 107.349
29. Tracy Krohn, Houston, TX; Nic Jonsson, Sweden; Eric van de Poele, Belgium; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 2:04.933, 106.617
30. Paul Drayson, London, UK; Jonny Cocker, UK; Tim Sudgen, England; Aston Martin DBRS9 (GT2), 2:04.938, 106.613
31. Gunnar Jeannette, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Johnny Mowlem, England; Ralf Kelleners, Germany; Ferrari F430 GT (GT2), 2:05.666, 105.995
32. Joel Feinberg, Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Chris Hall, Daytona, FL; Dodge Viper Competiton Coupe (GT2), 2:06.004, 105.711
33. Andrea Robertson, Ray, MI; David Robertson, Ray, MI; David Murry, Cumming, GA; Doran Ford GT-R (GT2), 2:06.527, 105.274
34. Miroslav Konopka, Slovakia; Mauro Casadei, Italy; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR (GT2), 2:14.059, 99.359

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edit: Fastest P2 in aborted qual was an Acura. In GT1, Johnny O was 2.4 sec faster than the Aston in aborted official qual. We shall see. If LeMans is an Autoroute; Sebring is a backroad.

It's this Saturday, the race, damn...this'll be cool to watch. :)

I'm liking the Peugeot Team...;).

Damn man, they don't broardcast it here. That's unfair... I'm the one who wants to watch it the most.

Is there anywhere on tEh internetz you can follow the race?

I guess we were too "spoiled" with last years finish, this race was pure boredom. Penske finally broke through to win Sebring and its Porsche's first overall win in over 20 years. The Audis were marred with problems all race long and probably would have won the whole thing if it wasn't for a very lengthy pit stop to replace the front brake rotors. The Pug had some hydraulic issues that dropped it to the back, but it had the fastest pace out of anyone there and IMO they would have ran away with it. They were conistently faster than the Audis and the P2 class Porsches and Acuras. Shocking fact of the race (one that Audi predicted) P2 cars took the top 3 overall finish positions. GT1 was a snoozefest with the #3 Vette winning with a nice lead over the #4 teamcar. GT2 was an even larger snoozefest with the Flying Lizard Porsche GT3 RSRs taking the first two spots, 45 was first and 44 was second. A Ferrari managed to get onto the podium.

It was probably going to be more exciting if it was the 13 hours of Sebring, but it wasn't and it was boring.

Link to story/results below:

http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=4020

The race was good..Although peugeot posted one of the fastest times it did fall short out of the top 3...They faced a serious problem with a hydraulic leak which to me cost them the race...They started off leading very good...Better luck next time..Penske Porsche came out as the winners..

If the P2 Lowe's Fernandez #15 Acura had not been DQ'ed for total BS; Audi would not have made the podium. We can't have that. As is; two (2) different P2 Porsche teams beat the P1 Audis.

Did anyone see that idiotic move by the #62 Risi Ferrari against the #87 Farnbacher-Loles Porsche that took BOTH out of the race? Routine on XBOX; that would have gotten a survivor the black flag in a Spec Miata race! Idiot!

It was a good race to watch in person, I have to admit. I saw the Ford GT spin off, the Horag Team Porsche hit the tires, and the Risi Ferrari collide with the Farnbacher Porsche.

I think that if Peugeot can get their reliability under control, they could win Le Mans, since they had undoubtedly the fastest car in the field.

Great to see Marco driving the Acura, he's quite quick in the car, that's for sure.

I have met Marco Andretti before, before he was big time. I used to race karts in upstate NY, and in a different class Marco Andretti was competing. This must have been like 7 or 8 years ago. It was pretty cool, he was a nice kid :D

Not mentioned much was the GT2 Doran Ford GT-R. Scored 25th, last car to make 1/2 distance; it certainly looked the part: