Michelin started a new American Le Mans Series winning streak in a dramatic finish as the winning Drayson Racing prototype of Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker rallied from a 20-second deficit to take the lead on the next-to-last turn to win the seventh stop of the 2010 American Le Mans Series season at Road America. “After seeing our 61 race Michelin ALMS win streak end at Mid-Ohio in the last race, we were determined to start a new streak here at Road America,” said Silvia Mammone, manager motorsports for Michelin North America. “We are very pleased that our Michelin teams were able to overcome a significant disadvantage in straightaway speeds and score a very exciting 1-2-3 finish. We congratulate the entire Drayson team on their first overall ALMS race victory. We are proud that they chose Michelin as their technical partner and we hope they enjoy many more victories with Michelin.” Drayson Racing becomes the fifth different team and fourth different Michelin technical partner to score an overall win in the seven 2010 American Le Mans Series events held to date. Led by the GT championship-leading Flying Lizard Porsche of Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long in second place, Michelin teams scored eight of the top nine places in the rugged GT class, but not the one that counted as BMW Rahal Letterman scored its second victory in successfully defending its class honors at Road America. In the new LMP Challenge class, Gunnar Jeannette and Elton Julian scored their third victory of the season for Green Earth Team Gunnar to narrow the championship battle with Level 5 Motorsports to a mere four points with just two races remaining.
Mosport Next Michelin Target
Michelin and its technical partner teams now head directly to Canada for the penultimate stop of the 2010 ALMS season at Mosport on Aug. 29. Michelin technical partners Highcroft Racing and Corvette Racing are the respective defending champions at the venerable 2.459-mile circuit. One of the fastest circuits on the ALMS schedule, the race takes on added importance as the championship standings for drivers, teams, manufacturers and tire makers reach the critical stage. “Mosport is a major challenge of cars, drivers and teams and we are committed to helping all of our teams perform at the highest level,” said Mammone. “We learned a lot at Road America and we will try to apply those learnings at Mosport.”
Power Invincible at Infineon
That Will Power maintained a six-second lead and had swept bonus points for earning the Peak Performance Pole Award and leading the most laps wasn't lost on Dario Franchitti three-quarters of the way through the Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. Trouble was, the Target Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who was attempting to further close the points gap in the Izod IndyCar Series championship in the 75-lap race, couldn't do much about it on the 2.303-mile, 12-turn Infineon Raceway course. Power, much like Franchitti did a year earlier in going wire to wire on the natural-terrain course, bolted to a sizable lead on the Firestone alternate tires in the first 10 laps, stretched the ethanol when needed and held off Scott Dixon by 0.7432 of a second following a full-course caution with less than 10 laps left. Power's fifth victory of the season, supplemented by the three bonus points, gives the Team Penske driver a 59-point advantage over Franchitti with four ovals races left in the season. Power, who watched the race in ’09 from a hospital bed after suffering a season-ending back injury in a practice crash, is sixth different winner in as many Izod IndyCar Series races at Infineon. Following the final round of pit stops between Laps 54 (Franchitti) and 57 (Dixon), Power (who pitted on Lap 56) held a 3.6153-second advantage over Franchitti, who was on the Firestone primary tires for the final stint. Dixon, riding on the alternates, moved into second on Lap 62 in an effort to reel in Power. A full-course yellow on Lap 66 did the trick, and after returning to green Dixon was 0.3959 of a second back on Lap 71. He remained less than a second behind but wasn’t able to force Power into a mistake or complete a pass.
“We really needed to be ahead of the 12 car, and I pushed it as hard as I could at the end. I just couldn’t even get close enough to have a look. He was definitely hooked up and saving his tires earlier in the day. It’s still a good result. We’re happy to come from sixth all the way to second.” Drivers utilized Firestone’s softest primary and alternate road course tires in Firestone Racing's lineup, and they certainly contributed a good deal of excitement and strategy to the event. Franchitti, who won two weeks earlier at Mid-Ohio to close to 41 points in the championship, finished 6.6 seconds back in third. Allowing Dixon to slide into second cost Franchitti five points in the title race. Team Penske teammates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves were next across the line. Justin Wilson in the No. 22 Z-Line Designs car for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing was sixth and Tony Kanaan finished seventh in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven/Dr Pepper Cherry car. Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was eighth in the No. 37 IZOD entry and Graham Rahal notched his second top 5 for Newman/Haas Racing in the No. 02 Quick Trim car. Alex Lloyd advanced 12 positions to complete the top 10 – a season best on a road/street course in the No. 19 Boy Scouts of America car for Dale Coyne Racing -- and increased his points lead in the Rookie of the Year race.
Record-Breaker Loeb Wins Rallye Deutschland
When Sebastien Loeb won Rallye Deutschland for a seventh time in 2008 he equaled Marcus Gronholm’s record for the most wins on a world championship qualifier. With the Trier-based rally not running in 2009, organizers used the intervening 12 months to make a few tweaks to the event itinerary by adding a new stage and increasing the competitive distance by more than 50 kilometers. But while the event format has changed, there was a distinctly familiar face standing at the top step of the podium on Sunday afternoon after Loeb swept to his eighth victory on the punishing asphalt roads through Germany’s Mosel and Saarland regions to add another record to his impressive list of achievements. Driving a Citroen C4 World Rally Car on Pirelli’s P Zero tire, the six-time world champion was fastest on nine of the event’s 19 special stages, which covered a total distance of 407.31 competitive kilometers, making it the longest round of the WRC so far this season. His win, alongside co-driver Daniel Elena, was his 59th in the world championship. After beating Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo by 51.3 seconds in the final classification, Loeb said: “It’s a good win for me and I’m really pleased but I have to say this was not my best victory in Germany. The weather was dry from the start so the conditions were not as difficult as they have been in the past. That meant there was less pressure on me and less satisfaction to have won. But it was still not easy because this is always a difficult rally with lots of surface changes. However, I had no problems with my tires and the wear rate was good, even on the [48.00-kilometer Panzeplatte] stage.” As well as remaining dry, baking hot sunshine coated the rally route throughout the weekend with ambient temperatures peaking at 88 degrees Fahrenheit and the ground temperature rising to 104˚F on Saturday afternoon. Pirelli made available its hard and soft compound P Zero tire for Rallye Deutschland. The soft compound version is designed for cool and wet conditions, while the hard compound is designed for hot, dry weather. Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Rally Manager, explained: “In the morning stages most drivers opted for the soft compound tire because it provided better grip but in the heat of Saturday afternoon some drivers, including Sebastien Loeb, chose the soft compound tire, which can work when the surface is less abrasive and the corners are not so long. It was an experiment by him but we found that while there was some degradation, it did not cause a performance disadvantage. This is very satisfying because it showed the performance of this compound can be good in hot conditions.” As well as supplying tires to the main WRC field as part of a three-year agreement with the FIA, Pirelli’s P Zero tires are used as standard by competitors in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship, which was fought out between P-G Andersson, Martin Prokop and Patrik Sandell. After three days of close competition, Sandell prevailed by 4.7s. The Production Car World Rally Championship crews also use Pirelli P Zero tires as standard. Armindo Araujo, the reigning class champion, took the honors in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X ahead of Pirelli Star Driver Hayden Paddon, who impressed at the wheel of a similar car. A joint initiative between Pirelli and the FIA, the Pirelli Star Driver program gives the opportunity for five promising young talents, Nick Georgiou, Peter Horsey, Paddon, Alex Raschi and Ott Tanak, to contest six rounds of the World Rally Championship in identical Pirelli-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Xs. While Paddon starred, his teammates were not as fortunate as they continued their WRC initiation. Hans Weijs Jr took victory in the Junior World Rally Championship category in his Citroën C2 Super 16000 using Pirelli’s RX tire, which was used by crews in the young driver class for the first time on Rally Bulgaria in early July. The World Rally Championship resumes on the gravel-based Rally Japan from Sept. 8-12.
Team Falken on Fire at Formula D Vegas
It was an all-Team Falken night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as its Formula Drift team put on a show and once again took the top three spots. Tyler McQuarrie earned his first podium this season and secured his career-first podium topping Formula D finish, winning the Vegas "After Dark" event, followed by Daijiro Yoshihara in 2nd and Vaughn Gittin, Jr., in 3rd. Currently, Gittin, Jr., continues to lead the championship standings with his Monster Energy/Falken Tire 2011 Ford Mustang, followed by "Dai" in second place with Darren McNamara in 5th. All five Team Falken factory drivers are in the top 10 (McQuarrie in 9th and Justin Pawlak in 10th.) It was the second time in Falken's Formula Drift program that the team swept the podium. Falken previously performed the feat at New Jersey in 2009. Thus far in 2010, Team Falken has earned nine podiums in just five events. "This is why we are here!" exclaimed Jonathon Bradford, Falken's Drift Team Supervisor. "We had everything in place; the cars running great and the drivers excited to take on Vegas. It was a good night, though it's always tough to see our drivers have to compete against each other for the championship."
Pirelli Heads to Spa for GP3 Series
Spa-Francorchamps, nestling in the foothills of the Ardennes, is an epic drivers' circuit that has produced some memorable on-track battles for several years. With legendary corners such as Eau Rouge and Blanchimont, the track is an awesome test of bravery and skill. This weekend the GP3 drivers – the Formula One champions of the future - get the chance to experience one of the most thrilling circuits in the world, running on Pirelli tires. As well as the sustained high speeds, one of the biggest challenges posed by Spa is variable weather. On occasions, it can even be raining on one part of the circuit while another part of the track is completely dry. There is a reasonable chance then that the drivers will get to use Pirelli's wet weather tires at some point during the weekend, which so far have only seen competitive action in Hockenheim. On each round of the GP3 Series, drivers are allocated three sets of P Zero dry weather tires and two sets of wet weather tires. For the complex demands of the Spa circuit – situated only an hour down the road from Trier in G–the Italian tire firm and the GP3 Series organizers have opted for the medium compound tire. The medium tire will also be used for the next and final race on the GP3 calendar in Monza next month. This 13-inch tire, which made its debut on the first round of this year's GP3 Series in Barcelona, was chosen for its adaptability in view of the wide range of conditions likely to be encountered in Belgium. While it is rare to have a Belgian Grand Prix weekend with no rain, warm temperatures in August are equally possible. The new GP3 Series has been designed as a feeder series to GP2, which will also be supplied by Pirelli next year, with the Italian firm providing a ladder of talent capable of taking young drivers all the way to the very top of single-seater racing. Mexico's Esteban Gutierrez continues to lead the GP3 Series by 30 points from Robert Wickens. In the teams' standings ART Grand Prix heads Status Grand Prix by 50 points. Practice for GP3 takes place on Aug. 27, with qualifying and race one on Aug. 28. The second race takes place in the morning of Aug. 29, with both races lasting half an hour.