Petite LeMans / Road Atlanta Preview

The list of drivers scheduled to compete in next weeks Petit LeMans Powered by the Totally New Mazda6 is building up to be one of the best races held at historic Road Atlanta. The annual 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic battle will see Audi and Peugeot in a rematch from their entertaining duel at LeMans last June. Also, the battle for the Prototype 2 (P2) championship between Team Penske Porsche and Acura Highcroft team looks to be a real battle as Penske upped the ante by confirming three cars entered for the event.

With Audi drivers Lucas Luhr and Marco Werner clinching the championship at the last race they are going for the win. I spoke to Lucas after his crash in Detroit and he wants to rebound from that mistake and finish up the year with a win. Audi will bring the ?08 LeMans winners, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish back for this race. Audi wants to make a statement that they have best diesel package. Dindo and Allan will be going for a three-peat at the Petit. Peugeot has unfinished business after losing at LeMans and they want to beat Team Audi here in the States.

The P2 class is going to be a very exciting race to watch, because Andretti-Green is coming off their surprise victory in Detroit and want to win again showing Acura that they belong upstaging the other Acura teams of Highcroft and DeFerran. AGR will be running IndyCar ace Tony Kaanan and IndyCar young gun, Marco Andretti. Also 2008 IndyCar Champ Scott Dixon is going are running with Gil Deferran and 2007 IndyCar Champ Dario Franchitti will be running with Highcroft.

The entry list is going to be a great with best drivers in the world going to be at Road Atlanta. The GT2 class has been a close battle all year between the Flying Lizards Porsche and the Tafel Ferrari. Jorg Bermeister and Wolf Henzler will be sharing the car with Porsche factory driver Marc Lieb. The trio won their class at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring earlier this year. Corvette will be in GT2 next year running some of the races and doing the full deal in 2010.

The 1000-mile race “Petit Le Mans” a.k.a.,”Little Le Mans” has been held since 1998 at Road Atlanta. It is the foundation race for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) which was established in 1999. A total of 40 cars are entered for the race, including eleven P1 cars. Four automobile manufacturers ? Acura/Honda, Audi, Peugeot and Porsche are participating. The ALMS Petite LeMans gets the green flag at 11:15 a.m. ET on Saturday, October 4.

Eddie LePine

Eddie has been involved in motorsports for over 30 years as photographer, columnist, and driver. Eddie also is now a retired racer (well, retired unless a good ride pops up).

Related Posts

• 
  Snow And More Bring GT3 Cup Experience To Rolex24
• 
  A Racing Weekend
• 
  The Last American Le Mans Race