Canada's Kyle Marcelli Wins in ALMS Prototype Challenge Class

This past Saturday, the American Le Mans Series run a wickedly wet race at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course. As rain soaked the 2.258-mile road course, the racing-prepared sports cars skated through the late stages of a 2 hour, 45 minute event practically on the edge of control. Claiming some of the better, more experienced road race drivers in the American Le Mans Series field, there was one young Canadian competitor who weathered the horrific driving conditions to claim glory winning his first American Le Mans Series sanctioned event.

Partnered with experienced American road racer Tomy Drissi, the Intersport Racing #89 car Mid-Ohio event started under inclement circumstances prior to the rain drenching competitors. Competing in the Oreca-Chevrolet only Le Mans Prototype Challenge category, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge saw Marcelli and Drissi playing catch up for nearly two hours of the race’s timed distance. Early in the American Le Mans event, Drissi made contact with another race vehicle while running in 4th place. The Intersport Racing team collected a 60-second penalty from the American Le Mans Series officials for avoidable contact (one of many drivers to be assessed a reprimand in what quickly turned into a rough sports car sprint race).

When the race's first caution flew after 45 minutes into the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge, the #89 team initiated a driver change as Kyle Marcelli entered the Intersport Racing car. A lap down to the leading Prototype Challenge car, a combination of team strategy and fastest laps from the driving talent placed the #89 Intersport Racing vehicle into class winning contention.

Grabbing the lead into the final hour in the LMPC category, a last pit stop allowed the Intersport Racing’s sister #37 car. In the final 30 minutes, Kyle Marcelli would have to race around the #37 car being skillfully handled by Jon Field. An exciting dice between the two team machines resulted with Marcelli taking the advantage in turn one. A 21-year old racer hailing from the Ontario city of Barrie, emerging motorsport talent Kyle Marcelli put his inclinations on Canadian roads to use keeping his #89 Intersport Racing Prototype Challenge adhered to the slippery race track. Able to persevere the limited traction, Marcelli drove to victory and 3rd overall in the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge.

This Mid-Ohio victory was an important claim to redemption after Kyle Marcelli was spoiled out of a top Prototype Challenge class finish at the previous Grand Prix of Mosport. The only Canadian event on the 2011 American Le Mans Series schedule, Marcelli had cut his teeth on the historic 2.54-mile race track and wanted a home field victory. Posting the fastest time in class for the Mosport event, Marcelli and his #89 Intersport Racing team were forced to retire due to mechanical problems.

Marcelli's first class victory in the American Le Mans Series, this top podium finish is the sophomore driver's second major triumph in 2011. In July, Marcelli was part of the winning driving team for the 6-hour race at the Italian Imola circuit. Behind the wheel of the #99 JMB Racing/Merchant Services Limited prototype race car with co-drivers Chapman Ducote and Nicolas Marroc, this race win for Kyle Marcelli came in his European debut in sports car competition.

Able to contend for class victories in only his second year of sports car racing, Kyle Marcelli currently stands 5^th in the overall American Le Mans Series driver points for the LMPC class along with teammate Tomy Drissi.



　

24-Hour of Le Mans Weather Forecast

Photo Credit: Aston Martin Racing


Without stop for one full day, the most storied endurance sports car race will run the 13.65 kilometer Circuit de la Sarthe for its 78th time. With 56 cars expected to take green, those teams will find race preparations (which some like Audi were dedicated purely to Le Mans) will come down to chance. Mechanical and individual error could upset the entire work of one team, but weather could become a gauntlet for the entire sports car field.

Through past runnings of the 24-hour of Le Mans were made unforgettable by a solid rain shower sometime within the event. Inducing conditions which contributed to results class and even overall victories, the upcoming weather through the Saturday-Sunday within the French region is guaranteed to be a defining factor in 2010.


Weather Forecast for 2010 24-Hour of Le Mans (According to Weather.com)

Race Start (Approx. 2:22 P.M. Local Time): 23 degrees Celsius, 60% Chance of Rain
6-Hour Mark: 21 degrees Celsius, 40% Chance of Rain
12-Hour Mark: 12 degrees Celsius, mostly clear skies, only 10% Chance of Rain
18-Hour Mark: 12 degrees Celsius, sun with periods of cloud cover, 10% Chance of Rain
Race End: 21 degrees Celsius, cloud cover


For this year, expect another unsettled 24-hour run. Creating a challenge for drivers and crews, the rain in France will demonstrate the loyalty of the embedded Le Mans spectators. For fans at least, umbrella's and rain ponchos will be common wear for the first half but could be discarded as the race nears completion.

Naughty and Nice of Auto Racing 2009: Sports Car Racing

Counting down to Christmas, Santa Claus has been checking his list twice assuring that all the good kids (or even kids at heart) will receive at least that one gift. XSL Speed Reporter will use the 'Naughty and Nice' scale to judge this past year in auto racing. Placing events into two categories, the nice and positive movements in motorsports will be granted a 'Gift' rating. Negative moments and disappointing news will be given a 'Lump of Coal' rating.

Starting with the look back to 2009, XSL Speed Reporter will review the transpiration in the North American Sports Car series, the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) and the Grand American Sports Car Series. While both leagues were injured by the recent economic meltdown, they have also been able to gain solidarity in specific classes.

Gift: The ALMS' GT class categories- With Porsche 911, BMW M3, Ferrari F430GT, Panoz and now the Chevrolet Corvette competing in the same GT category by the end of 2009, this all-new eclectic grouping have provided the most captivating competition seen in the sports car series. One of the most memorable on-track battles occurred at the Mosport round where a Corvette C6R edged by and held off a Risi Competizione Ferrari through in the final minutes of the event.

Photo Credit Richard Prince/GM Racing Photo

Lump of Coal: Audi Sport Team Joest- We know that the current economic climate for automakers have left factory auto racing on shoestring budgets, Audi went to all the trouble to build their R15 prototype only to limit its race involvement to 3 major events.

Gift: Pursuit of more environmentally-friendly technology- The American Le Mans series has become a showcase of greener racing through recent years. Started ages ago on the Audi R8 prototypes adoption of gasoline direct injection, latest innovations inside the ALMS field have included diesel powered race engines, e85 fuel, and kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS). Of course, these green initiatives always contains a strong undercurrent of public relations, sports car racing have long since demonstrated its advantages to production cars. With the help of series brass and rewards such as the Michelin Green Challenge, created to spotlight these technological improvements, racing can remain relevant well into the future.

Lump of Coal: The Weather by Road Atlanta during the Petit Le Mans- Completing only 184 laps (less than half of the race's 1,000 mile distance within 10 hours), the 2009 Petit Le Mans was halted by an intense thunderstorm system. With around 3 inches of rainfall accompanying the troubling skies over top of the Road Atlanta, the win was awarded to the Peugeot 908 prototype after a lengthy red flag period. A bad break for the American Le Mans Series competitors, this rainstorm was crushing to the residents within the Georgia area who had been victims of up to 5 inches of precipitation over a 1 week period just a few days earlier.

Gift: Daytona Prototype Car Counts- The Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series made some massive noise when the France family-owned sports car decided to phase out the traditional sports car prototype class in the favour of their own. The Daytona Prototype class was created in 2003 on the framework of NASCAR stock car racing to make racing closer betw

een teams and ultimately more affordable. While top teams exist in the Daytona Prototype class such as Chip Ganassi Racing, 11 cars ran a full schedule in 2009 when the American Le Mans top prototype division is fighting to maintain half a dozen cars per race.

Lump of Coal: Canadian Race Promoters- With snow blanketing the Canadian landscape for as much 6 months a year, auto racing has a limited season to make use of national racetracks. This past race season, the American Le Mans Series race at Mosport coincided with the major NASCAR weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, which also featured the Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series on the Saturday. As a Canadian motorsport fan, booking two big races on the same weekend cost us either a chance to watch an incredible dice between Ferrari and Corvette at Grand Prix of Mosport or the chance watch Andrew Ranger and Jacques Villeneuve finish strong against NASCAR regulars in the Nationwide series.

Perhaps we should not be surprising as a Canadian sports fan (yes, auto racing is a sport); For almost 40 years in the Canadian Football League (CFL) there were two teams that played under the name Rough Riders.

Gift: Acura's continuing commitment to sports car racing- At one point during 2009, inside sources indicated to the media that Acura may have considered bowing out of the American Le Mans Series after the year wrapped. However, 2009 prototype championship team Patron Highcroft Racing have confirmed they're returning with the Acura ARX-02 for a 2010 title defense. The 2010 season also includes an invitation to the upcoming Le Mans 24-hour race for the Japanese brand's first visit to the event.

Photo Credit: Dan R Boyd/Acura Media

Photo By GM/Pontiac Racing

Lump of Coal: The loss of Pontiac- As a General Motors division since 1926, Pontiac had a long association with motorsports. Competing within the fields of NASCAR, NHRA, as well as sports car racing, Pontiac would never enjoy the immense GM support for the motorsport efforts of Chevrolet. The final triumphs for Pontiac came in the Grand American Rolex Sport Car Series. Pontiac badging adorned GM Racing engines in many of the Daytona Prototype class champions including the 2009 series winning team Gainsco/Bob Stallings Racing. As well as involvement in the Daytona Prototype category, Pontiac enlisted GT teams to compete with race cars derived from first the GTO and later the G6. In the final race of 2009 at Homestead Miami Speedway, Paul Edwards and Kelly Collins bought a Pontiac G6 GXP-R to class victory.

Petit Le Mans Running this weekend

Seemingly arriving earlier every year, the American Le Mans Series is running their crown race at Road Atlanta called the Petit Le Mans. Close to the American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz's hometown of Atlanta, the Petit Le Mans competitors have been tempted by the additional incentive since the races inception through a guaranteed spot at the next 24-hour Le Mans race in France.

With the flag having dropped at 11 am Saturday morning, this race runs 1,000 miles or 10 hours (whichever marker comes first). Remembering the race having been initially run during the second week of October, the first time of the race being run on September 26 would likely have caught a lot of sports car fans off guard. While running earlier this year, the 2009 Petit Le Mans is racing around a misfortunate scene caused by widespread flooding in the state of Georgia which has been estimated to cause up to $500 million dollars in damage. Nonetheless, as the American Le Mans Series most significant event on the schedule, the 2009 Petit Le Mans started under cloudy, ominous conditions.


Having taken the overall win in a thrilling 2008 Petit Le Mans race, Audi Sport held off a strong Peugeot as well as a LMP2 Penske Porsche with the now obsolete R10 prototype. This is only one of two occasions to see the radical Audi R15 prototype racer in North American sports car competition following the earlier season win at the Sebring 12-hour event. However, as the flag fell today on the Petit Le Mans 2009, French automaker Peugeot took the pole with one of their 24-hour of Le Mans winning 908 closed cockpit sports cars. Having previously taken pole in 2008, the Peugeot 908 competes as a stronger car manned with a more experienced, seasoned team of crew members and drivers.

In the P2 class consisting of slightly detuned prototype racers, the Porsche RS Skyder returns with Team Cytosport, not with Penske Racing. Lowes Fernandez Acura and the pair of Dyson Mazdas are going to be firm challengers for the 2009 P2 win.

In GT2, the league of Porsches will attempt to take their 9th category win in 11 previous Petit Le Mans races. Defending their 2008 GT2 win will be the #62 Rizi Competizione Ferrari F430 GT racer with Mika Salo rejoined Rizi's Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer. Worth honourable mentioning is Rahal/Letterman Racing's BMW as well as the pair of C6R prepped by Corvette Racing.

As of the 4 hour mark, the Peugeot 908 prototypes hold both first and second overall with the #2 Audi R15 on the lead lap in hot pursuit. The Dyson Mazdas handily holds onto P2 top positions with fellow P2 competitors struggling around the wet Road Atlanta circuit. GT2 is being led again by the Ferrari F430 GT fielded by Rizi Comptizione by a full lap over a heat consisting of two Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, a BMW M3, and a Chevrolet Corvette C6R.

As 4:09PM, the Petit Le Mans has been red flagged due to continuing harsh rainfall. Putting a damper on the race, this precipitation is likely to rage hard on the already disaster-struck areas in the United States. More than an hour later, racing activities for the American Le Mans Series are still halted by the rain adding to record-setting levels.