Last year’s American Le Mans Series was dominated by the factory turbo diesel Audi R10s run by Champion Racing and driven by Allan McNish, Rinaldo Capello, Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela. The exhaust note-free diesel R10s were unbeaten, winning seven of ten races while the conventional R8s substituted to win two of three mid-summer races as the R10 program focused on Le Mans.
The turbo diesel Audis were the first alternative-fuelled major league racing cars of the modern era. The R10 represented a technological breath of fresh air for a sport gone stale on pursuing new technology and Audi’s success with the car was a boost for the ALMS, providing the series with a sheen of forward thinking absent in so many of today’s racing categories.
The only car to beat Audi in last year’s ALMS was Penske’s lighter Porsche Spyder LMP2 car which scored a one-two sweep over the Champion Audi R8s at Mid-Ohio, a track where light weight and nimbleness pay dividends. The Penske Porsches added to the lure of the ALMS and once the car’s early gearbox problems were sorted-out the pair of yellow DHL Spyders went on to win the LMP2 championship with Saascha Maassen/Lucas Lohr driving.
The LMP2 Porsche is powered by a 3.4 litre V-8 with a mechanically-operated throttle system because fly-by-wire is not allowed by the ALMS rules. The Porsche makes around 550 BHP and over the winter, Penske and Porsche engineers have worked together to improve the car aerodynamically and mechanically, making this year’s latest version substantially quicker than last year’s prototype. Also, a pair of the latest Spyders have been sold to Rob Dyson’s team so that there will be a fleet of four Porsche LMPS cars in this year’s ALMS.
