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The 'American Le Mans Series' ('ALMS') is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada. It consists of a series of endurance and sprint races, and was created in the spirit of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Teams compete in one of four classes: LMP1 and LMP2 for Le Mans prototypes, and GT1 and GT2 for Grand Touring cars. Race lengths vary from 1 hour, 40 minutes to 12 hours.

Contents

History

Overview

Current Schedule

Past champions

See also

External links

History

The series was created in 1999 by Georgia-based businessman Don Panoz. Panoz created a partnership with the Automobile Club de L'Ouest (ACO), the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to begin a 10-hour race in the spirit of Le Mans. The inaugural Petit Le Mans took place in 1998 as a part of the Professional SportsCar Racing series, in which Panoz was an investor. For 1999, the series changed its name to the American Le Mans Series, and adopted the ACO's rulebook.
The partnership with the ACO allows ALMS teams to earn automatic entries in the Le Mans 24 Hours. This was a practice that began with the inaugural Petit Le Mans, where 1st and 2nd place teams in each class earn entries to the next year's 24 Hours. The ALMS race at Adelaide in 2000 also received automatic entries.^[1] Invitations were extended to the series champions beginning in 2003, for the 2004 race.^[2] The ACO has always given high consideration to teams competing in ALMS races, and many ALMS teams have seen success in the 24 Hours.

The series began with eight races in 1999, beginning with the 12 Hours of Sebring, and ending at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The schedule expanded to 12 races in 2000, including two races in Europe, and one in Australia. In subsequent years, the European races disappeared, with the creation of the short-lived European Le Mans Series, and later the Le Mans Series. The series also began to move away from the "rovals", road courses in the infield of large superspeedways, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, and Texas Motor Speedway. Lately, the series has visited more temporary street courses, many in conjunction with Champ Car and the Indy Racing League. The series has raced at Laguna Seca, Mosport, Road Atlanta and Sebring in every year of its existence.

Overview

The American Le Mans Series uses essentially the same rules as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. As with the 24 Hours, the cars are divided into four classes. Purpose-built race cars with closed fenders compete in the ''Prototype'' classes (LMP1 and LMP2) and modified production sports cars compete in the ''Grand Touring'' classes (GT1 and GT2, formerly GTS and GT). Each car driven by multiple drivers (2 or 3, depending on the length of the race), and all cars compete together simultaneously.
The team points champions and runners-up in each class at the end of the season receive an automatic invitation to the next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Additionally, privateer teams (teams that are not supported by manufacturers) compete for the IMSA Cup as well as special prizes for each race. Currently, factory teams from Audi (LMP1), Porsche and Acura (LMP2), Chevrolet (GT1), and Panoz, Ferrari, and Porsche (GT2) all compete in the series. Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, and Chrysler factory teams have competed in the past.

Current Schedule

Rnd	Race	Circuit	Date
1	Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring	Sebring International Raceway	March 17
2	Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg (3 Hours)	Streets of St. Petersburg	March 31
3	Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach (1 Hour 40 Minutes)	Long Beach street circuit	April 14
4	Lone Star Grand Prix (2 Hours 45 Minutes)	Reliant Park	April 21
5	Utah Grand Prix (2 Hours 45 Minutes)	Miller Motorsports Park	May 19
6	Northeast Grand Prix (2 Hours 45 Minutes)	Lime Rock Park	July 7
7	Acura Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio (2 Hours 45 Minutes)	Mid-Ohio	July 21
8	Generac 500 at Road America (4 Hours)	Road America	August 11
9	Grand Prix of Mosport (2 Hours 45 Minutes)	Mosport	August 26
10	Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix (2 Hours 45 Minutes)	Belle Isle street circuit	September 1
11	Petit Le Mans (1000 miles or 10 Hours)	Road Atlanta	October 6
12	Monterey Sports Car Championships (4 Hours)	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	October 20

Past champions

		LMP/LMP900/LMP1	LMP675/LMP2	GTS/GT1	GT/GT2
1999	Team	Panoz Motorsports		Viper Team Oreca	Prototype Technology Group
	Driver(s)	Elliot Forbes-Robinson		Olivier Beretta	Cort Wagner
2000	Team	Audi Sport North America		Viper Team Oreca	Dick Barbour Racing
	Driver(s)	Allan McNish		Olivier Beretta	Dirk Müller
2001	Team	Audi Sport North America	Dick Barbour Racing	Corvette Racing	BMW Motorsport
	Driver(s)	Emanuele Pirro	Didier de Radigues	Terry Borcheller	Jörg Müller
2002	Team	Audi Sport North America	KnightHawk Racing	Corvette Racing	Alex Job Racing
	Driver(s)	Tom Kristensen	Jon Field	Ron Fellows	Lucas Luhr Sascha Maassen
2003	Team	Infineon Team Joest	Dyson Racing	Corvette Racing	Alex Job Racing
	Driver(s)	Frank Biela Marco Werner	Chris Dyson	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell	Lucas Luhr Sascha Maassen
2004	Team	ADT Champion Racing	Miracle Motorsports	Corvette Racing	Alex Job Racing
	Driver(s)	Marco Werner JJ Lehto	Ian James	Ron Fellows Johnny O'Connell	Timo Bernhard
2005	Team	ADT Champion Racing	Intersport Racing	Corvette Racing	Petersen/White Lightning
	Driver(s)	Frank Biela Emanuele Pirro	Clint Field	Olivier Beretta Oliver Gavin	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister
2006	Team	Audi Sport North America	Penske Racing	Corvette Racing	Risi Competizione
	Driver(s)	Rinaldo Capello Allan McNish	Lucas Luhr Sascha Maassen	Olivier Beretta Oliver Gavin	Jörg Bergmeister
2007	Team	Audi Sport North America	Penske Racing	Corvette Racing
	Driver(s)

See also

★ Le Mans Series

★ European Le Mans Series

★ American Le Mans Series seasons

External links

★ American Le Mans official site

★ International Motor Sports Association official site

★ ACO official site