2001 Road Atlanta - Petit Le Mans

2001 was the third season for the American Le Mans Series. The rules for the series followed those of the legendary 24 Hour of Le Mans which meant there were four classes of cars competing.

Le Mans Prototype 900 (LMP900) – These were the purpose-built race cars powered by a 6.0-liter normally aspirated or 4.0-liter turbocharged engine. The vehicles could weigh no less than 900-kilograms. Audi, BMW and Cadillac entered two factory supported cars. Privateer teams entered cars manufactured by Riley & Scott, Lola and Panoz.
Le Mans Prototype 675 (LMP675) – Introduced in 2001 was the LMP675 class for cars which could weigh no less than 675-kilograms. The rules for the vehicles were written so that the two LMP classes (LMP900 and LMP675) would be contending for the overall win.
Grand Touring Sport (GTS) – This class included production-based cars such as the Dodge Viper GTS-R, Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, Saleen S7-R and Porsche 911 Turbo. The vehicles were permitted to use 8.0-liter normally aspirated or 4.0-liter turbocharged engines. These cars could weigh no less than 1,100-kilograms.
Grand Touring (GT) – The GT cars were also restricted to an 1,100-kilogram weight rule and had similar engines limitation as the GTS class. These were also production-based cars such as the BMW M3, Porsche GT3RS and Chevrolet Corvette C5-R. Unlike the GTS entries, competitors in this category could not use carbon fiber brakes.

The 2001 ALMS schedule was comprised of ten events. Lowes Motor Speedway was initially included on the calendar but it was later cancelled. The opening round, the Grand Prix of Texas, was held at Texas Motor Speedway which was the only time in ALMS history that the opening event was not the 12 Hours of Sebring. After Sebring, teams travelled to Europe for race weekends at Donington Park, England and Jarama in Spain. The first stop back in North America was at Infineon Raceway and followed Portland International Raceway. Round seven was held in Canada at Mosport International Raceway. One week later the series was at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The penultimate event took place at Laguna Seca with the championship concluding at Road Atlanta for Petit Le Mans.

The final race of 2001 would determine many driving, team and manufacturer titles. It was also a qualifying event for the 2002 running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with the class winners receiving automatic invitations to compete in the French classic.

The race was designed to be a smaller version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The race length was set at 1,000-miles or 10-hours. In the three previous runnings, the 1,000-mile mark had been reached by the race winners before the 10-hour maximum time.

A new point scoring system was implemented by the ALMS in 2001 to reduce the possibility that teammates could share the driving title. Frank Biela, on the right, celebrates the overall and class win on the victory podium with Emanuele Pirro. Pirro was also able to celebrate the LMP900 Driver’s Championship.

In the GTS class, Prodrive debuted their Ferrari 550. Prodrive had a successful record with 550s built to FIA GT specifications. but a car prepared for Le Mans rules was a new venture. The car driven by Peter Kox and Rickard Rydell qualified fifth in the GTS class but retired from the race after developing an oil leak.

The BMW Motorsport team decided to split up their regular driver pairings for the ALMS season finale. Team regulars JJ Lehto and Fredrik Ekblom along with guest driver Karl Wendlinger competed in the No. 43 BMW M3 GTR. They were the fastest qualifiers in GT but contact with the Dick Barbour Racing Porsche took them out of contention. After repairs were made to the car they bounced back to finish fourth in class.

The No. 05 shared by Chris Bingham, Oliver Gavin and Ron Johnson suffered rear-end damage when it was involved in a single-car incident at turn five during the morning warm-up. With only a few hours before the start, the crew had to replace the exhaust and rebuild the rear subframe. They were unable to take the start but despite this setback the team finished fourth in GTS.

As the race progressed, it appeared that the event would be a contest between the Audis of Team Joest and Champion Racing. But the Champion car suffered a couple of problems the most serious was losing a wheel. The duo of Johnny Herbert and Andy Wallace was able to recover and finish third which gave Audi a clean sweep of the LMP900 podium.

On lap-26, the race-leading No. 1 Audi R8, driven by Tom Kristensen, hit the turn-one wall. Although Kristensen was not hurt the damage to the car was beyond repair and he and his teammate, Rinaldo Capello, were forced to retire. The accident also eliminated Kristensen’s and Capello’s chances of winning the LMP900 title.

Petit Le Mans was not kind to the Panoz team. The No. 51 car was the first to retire after only 23-laps with an engine failure. The second car driven by David Brabham saw an opportunity to pass the leading Audi R8 while lapping a slower car. Unfortunately, Brabham’s pass was not clean and he made contact with the Brookspeed Viper. Repairs were made to the rear wing and suspension and Brabham and his co-driver Jan Magnussen finished sixth in LMP900.

The second factory Chevrolet Corvette was driven by Andy Pilgrim, Franck Freon and Kelly Collins. For much of the race they were locked in a battle with one of the Konrad Saleens, however, a couple of problems delayed the Konrad effort. By the checkered flag, the No. 4 Corvette was able to take the GTS class victory by 7-laps.

Jorg Muller earned the Driver’s title with his second place finish in the GT class. The team was more concerned about “winning the war rather than the battle” and took a conservative approach to ensure that they got good fuel mileage. He shared the No. 43 BMW GTR with Dirk Muller.

American Viperacing team claimed the final podium spot with Mike Hezemans, Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Anthony Kumpen sharing the driving duties in the No. 45 Dodge Viper GTS-R. The team had a disappointing debut last year when they were forced to retire after an accident. The second American Viperacing car did not fare as well. Despite finishing 142-laps behind the class-winning Corvette they were fifth in GTS.

It was an easy LMP675 victory for Milka Duno, John Graham and Scott Maxwell in Dick Barbour’s Reynard 01Q. The second Barbour entry, driven by the new class champion Didier de Radigues suffered problems the entire week and they were not fully resolved for the race. De Radigues and his teammates Bruno Lambert and Earl Goddard were able to finish third in LMP675.

Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela drove the winning Joest Audi R8. Their teammates and main rivals for the championship, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, didn’t fare as well. Their car retired early in the race when Kristensen went off the track at turn one. The No. 2 took victory over the Johansson Motorsport Audi by a comfortable 3-lap margin.

The Volkswagen-powered Racing Organisation Course Reynard 2KQs were expected to challenge the Dick Barbour team for the LMP675 win. Quickest of these was the No. 39 shared by Jordi Gene, Yannick Schroeder and Jean-Denis Deletraz which started second to the No. 5 Barbour car. Unfortunately, they had engine problems and were the first LMP675 car to retire.

Mike Fitzgerald, Johnny Mowlem and Christophe Boullion drove the No. 30 Petersen Motorsports Porsche GT3RS. The team started seventh in GT and finished sixteenth overall which good for sixth in class.

After just two laps the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette of Ron Fellows, Johnny O’Connell and Scott Pruett retired. The car stopped on course with electrical problems and it would not re-fire. The car was returned to the pits where the crew was able to solve the problem. However, this practice is not allowed under ALMS rules and the car was disqualified. This ended Ron Fellows chance of winning the 2001 GTS driving title.

Second in LMP675 was the Nissan-powered Lola B2K/40 driven by Ben Devlin, Andrew Davis and Jason Workman. The Archangel team never fully converted the car from Grand Am to ALMS specs which meant they were giving up speed but they believed it would improve their reliability. This proved to be true as the team qualified fifth in class and was able to move up the finishing order when some of the quicker LMP675 cars retired.

James Weaver, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Butch Leitzinger drove the No. 16 Riley & Scott Mk IIIC entered by Rob Dyson. The team qualified eighth overall and in LMP900 but failed to make the grid as the team was still working on the car. During the race, they suffered a series of issues and completed only 94-laps before retiring with clutch problems.

Franz Konrad entered a second Saleen S7R for Walter Brun and Toni Seiler. The pair retired after 152-laps with clutch problems but completed enough laps to be classified sixth in the GTS class.

The No. 6 BMW M3 GTR of Hans Stuck, Boris Said and Bill Auberlen took the GT class victory. They finished one lap ahead of the Schnitzer prepared BMW driven by Dirk and Jorg Muller. This was Auberlen’s first win in ALMS competition. The previous year he was driving a BMW V12 LMR when it got airborne and did a 360-degree back flip. The car landed on its wheels but was unable to continue.

The last time the Callaway Corvette C12-R competed was at Le Mans where it captured the class pole position. The car’s strength was its speed, which is invaluable at Le Mans. However, handling and braking are also important at Road Atlanta. Shane Lewis, Cort Wagner and Bob Mazzuoccola qualified eighth in GT but the car retired when it broke a rear stub axle.

The No. 8 Cadillac LMP 01 was involved in an incident on the pace lap. As the field approached the green for the start Max Angelelli in the Cadillac hit Jon Field in the Intersport Lola B2K/10B which forced Field to retire. Angelelli and his teammates Wayne Taylor and Christophe Tinseau were able to continue and finished fourth in class.

Early in the race the second place LMP900 Panoz of David Brabham tangled with the No. 19 Brookspeed Chrysler Viper GTS-R. The Panoz was able to return to the event after repairs were made to the suspension and body. Unfortunately, the Viper was severely damaged and the car shared by Dino Steiner, Joe Ellis and John Cooper retired.

It was a frustrating 2001 for the GT class Porsches. After wins in the opening rounds of the season they could not compete against the BMWs. At Petit Le Mans, the No. 23 Sascha Maassen/Lucas Luhr Alex Job Racing Porsche GT3RS finished third in the GT class - they were the highest placed Porsche. The results gave Maassen a third place in the GT Drivers point’s championship and Luhr a fourth.

Capturing second in LMP900 and overall was Stefan Johansson and Patrick LeMarie in the Gulf Oil sponsored Audi R8. The pair qualified fourth overall and in class. At the checkered flag, they were 3-laps behind the winning Joest entry of Frank Beila and Emanuele Pirro.

Terry Borcheller was able to capitalize on the early retirement of the Fellows/O’Connell/Pruett Corvette to take the Driver’s title in GTS. With the exit of the Corvette Borcheller only had to complete fifty laps to win the championship. He and his teammates Charlie Slater and car owner - Franz Konrad were able to finish second in GTS and thirteenth overall.

POS.	CLASS	DRIVERS	CAR	ENTRANT	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	LMP 900	Biela / Pirro	Audi R8	Audi Sport North America	394	-
2	LMP 900	Johansson / Lemarie	Audi R8	Johansson Motorsport	391	-
3	LMP 900	Herbert / Wallace	Audi R8	Champion Racing	388	-
4	LMP 900	Angelelli / Tinseau / Taylor	Cadillac Northstar	Team Cadillac	382	-
5	LMP 900	Goossens / Collard	Cadillac Northstar	Team Cadillac	364	-
6	GTS	Pilgrim / Collins / Freon	Chevrolet Corvette	Corvette Racing	362	-
7	LMP 675	Maxwell / Duno / Graham	Reynard 01Q Judd	Dick Barbour Racing	361	-
8	GT	Stuck / Said / Auberlen	BMW M3 GTR	Prototype Technology Group	360	-
9	GT	Muller / Müller	BMW M3 GTR	BMW Motorsport	359	-
10	LMP 900	Magnussen / Brabham	Panoz LMP-1	Panoz Motor Sports	358	-
11	GT	Maassen / Luhr	Porsche GT3RS	Alex Job Racing	355	-
12	GT	Lehto / Ekblom / Wendlinger	BMW M3 GTR	BMW Motorsport	355	-
13	GTS	Konrad / Borcheller / Slater	Saleen S7-R	Konrad Team Saleen	355	-
14	GT	Menzel / Pobst	Porsche GT3RS	Alex Job Racing	353	-
15	GTS	Hezemans / Kumpen	Dodge Viper	American Viperacing	349	-
16	GT	Mowlem / Boullion / Fitzgerald	Porsche GT3RS	Petersen Motorsports	344	-
17	LMP 675	Devlin / Davis / Workman	Lola B2K/40	Archangel Motorsport	341	-
18	GT	Burgess / Plumb / Buttiero	Porsche GT3RS	Seikel Motor Sport	341	-
19	GT	Foster / Wankum / Bundy	Porsche GT3RS	Kyser Racing	329	-
20	GT	Earle / Hayden / Hayden	Porsche GT3R	Sebah Automotive Limited	325	-
21	GT	Gabel / Schultheis / Lowman	Porsche GT3R	Orbit	324	-
22	GTS	Bingham / Gavin / Johnson	Saleen S7-R	Park Place Racing	312	-
23	GT	Jeannette/Policastro Jr/Policastro	Porsche GT3R	Gunnar Racing	253	-
24	GT	Lewis / Wagner / Mazzuoccola	Callaway C12-R	Aspen Knolls/MCR	221	Wheel
25	GTS	Allen / Weickardt / Fairbanks	Dodge Viper	American Viperacing	220	-
26	LMP 675	deRadigues/Goddard/Lambert	Reynard 01Q	Dick Barbour Racing	213	-
27	LMP 675	Hurtgen / Knight / Hawkins	Lola B2K/40	Roock-KnightHawk Racing	209	Half Shaft
28	GT	Hindery / Kester / Baron	Porsche GT3RS	Orbit	183	Drive Shaft
29	GTS	Brun / Seiler	Saleen S7-R	Konrad Motorsport	152	Clutch
30	GT	Willingham / Harvey / Hancock	Porsche GT3R	Dick Barbour Racing	137	Accident
31	GT	Murry / Jonsson / Cunningham	BMW M3 GTR	PTG	136	Fire
32	LMP 675	McMurry / Arsenault / Willman	Pilbeam MP84	Team Bucknum Racing	108	Accident
33	GTS	Rydell / Kox	Ferrari 550	Prodrive Allstars	103	Oil System
34	LMP 900	Weaver / Leitzinger	Riley & Scott Mk III	Dyson Racing	94	Clutch
35	LMP 675	Gene / Schroeder / Delétraz	Reynard 2KQ	ROC	60	Engine
36	GTS	Steiner / Ellis / Cooper	Chrysler Viper	Brookspeed	35	Accident
37	LMP 900	Kristensen / Capello	Audi R8	Audi Sport North America	26	Accident
38	GT	Franchitti / Burt / Kelleners	Ferrari 360	MSB Motorsport	26	Outside Assistance
39	LMP 900	Graf / Lagorce	Panoz LMP-1	Panoz Motor Sports	23	Engine
40	GTS	Fellows / O'Connell / Pruett	Chevrolet Corvette	Corvette Racing	2	Electrical
41	LMP 900	Field / Sutherland / Neuhaus	Lola B2K/10B	Intersport Racing	0	Accident

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