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Tim Mayer, chief operating officer of IMSA, believes encouraging close racing and the use of alternate fuels is the key to success of the American Le Mans Series. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
From door-banging GTs at Sebring to epic fights with LMPs at Laguna Seca, the 2007 American Le Mans series was an absolute classic. Open regulations pitted a wide range of design solutions against one another and produced some highly entertaining on-track action in the process, as well as a seemingly endless source of engineering interest. But despite the success of last year this season there are new rules in place.
Plans from the French Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) sanctioning body for a wider separation between LMP1 (Audi) and LMP2 (Porsche) cars in 2008 led Tim Mayer, chief operating officer of IMSA, the sanctioning body for the ALMS, to slightly stray from the ACO plans to preserve the thrilling P1 vs P2 battles of ’07.
‘The ACO has instituted some very significant rule changes, with the specific idea of separating the performance levels of LMP1 and LMP2,’ Mayer explained. This equality was most evident throughout 2007 as Porsche’s RS Spyder LMP2 battled tooth and nail with Audi’s R10 for race wins. To counter this the ACO has raised the LMP2 weight limit significantly, from 725kg to 825kg.
‘What we have said is that we will adopt these changes progressively, over a couple of years,’ Mayer said. ‘Essentially, we have taken half of the ACO increase to the LMP2 base weight for 2008, so the cars will run at 800kg. Almost all of the LMP2 cars currently in the Le Mans Series weigh over 800kg, the majority actually weighing over 825kg. So for the ACO’s purposes, taking the base weight to 825kg affects very little of the current competition.’ It’s clear that Mayer and IMSA want to preserve the close competition between Audi and Porsche (and increasingly Acura) for as long as possible.
While the Series’ divergent rules package has preserved the quality of racing thus far, Mayer found having to choose between keeping sportscar racing fans happy or the expectations and satisfactions of LMP1 entrants such as Audi was never going to be easy. Specifically, it rankled Audi Sport’s brass enough to keep the sportscar giants from committing to the ALMS series until just days before the 2008 season kicked off at Sebring in March. While Audi would prefer a clear and decisive overall victory at every round, IMSA’s gradual ACO rules integration will serve fans of the series in the sort term, while also providing Audi with its preferred P1 to P2 gap in 2009.
‘The racing in 2007 was simply fantastic, and we don’t want to change that for 2008. However, the racing
Mayer's last point deserves further exploration. The ACO, long faced with a less than threatening LMP2 field, has never been concerned with the lighter, less powerful P2 cars interfering with P1 cars for overall wins. Until 2006, the P2 category was lightly subscribed by anything close to a factory effort. Porsche's return at the end of 2005 with the first generation of the RS Spyder would set into motion a massive spike in the competitiveness in LMP2 racing.
The unexpected pace of Porsche in the ALMS LMP2 category and explosion of other manufacturers in P2 has caused the ACO to rewrite to rules in favor of the bigger LMP1 machines. (Photo: Marshall Pruett) » More Photos
With a three car Acura effort joining the fray in 2007, Dyson Racing adding two 2nd gen RS Spyders in 2007 to compliment the two fielded by Penske Racing, and Mazda elevating its game with a new turbo engine and an upgrade to the Lola chassis, the ACO found themselves with an international P2 rules package that fit the Porsche/Acura/Mazda-less LMS perfectly, yet was no longer capable of keeping American Le Mans P1 cars holding the reins over the exploding P2 class.
P2 rules were developed on results from the longer, smoother, more traditional road courses the European P2 contingent compete on. One look at the 2008 Le Mans Series calendar tells the tale: Barcelona, Monza, Spa, Nurburgring, Silverstone...they play to the clear favor of the more powerful P1 cars. In the course of one year, a throng of seven P2 cars held sway in the ALMS at any track that wasn't akin to the longer, smoother, more traditional circuits where the Audi's could stretch their legs. For the Penske duo, their dominance was such that the Audi's were threatened and beaten on many tracks where their might twin-turbo V-12 diesel was expected to shine. Three of the four street courses fell to the #6 and #7 RS Spyders--tracks where nimble handling is valued over raw power.
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