1999 American Le Mans Series Explained

The 1999 American Le Mans Series was the inaugural season of the IMSA American Le Mans Series, and is now recognised as the 29th season of the IMSA GT Championship. It was a series for Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Touring (GT) race cars divided into three classes: LMP, GTS, and GT. It began March 20, 1999, and ended November 7, 1999, after eight races.

The American Le Mans Series officially replaced the dwindling IMSA GT Championship after the 1998 season. The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which organized the 24 Hours of Le Mans, allowed IMSA's owner Don Panoz to create a series closely modeled after the formula used at Le Mans. The first official ACO-backed event had been held at the 1998 Petit Le Mans, which was part of the IMSA GT season but allowed ACO-spec cars to compete. The success of the event allowed Panoz to form the American Le Mans Series, which continued until its merger with Grand-Am in 2013.

Schedule

Rnd	Race	Length	Circuit	Date
1	Superflo 12 Hours of Sebring	12 Hours	Sebring International Raceway	March 20
2	Grand Prix of Atlanta	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Road Atlanta	April 18
3	Grand Prix of Mosport	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Mosport Park	June 27
4	Grand Prix of Sonoma	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Sears Point Raceway	July 25
5	Rose City Grand Prix	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Portland International Raceway	August 1
6	Petit Le Mans	1000 Miles or 10 Hours	Road Atlanta	September 18
7	Sports Car Championships	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Laguna Seca Raceway	October 10
8	Grand Prix of Las Vegas	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Las Vegas Motor Speedway	November 7
Source:^[1]

Originally the season finale was supposed to be the Grand Prix of San Diego held on a 1.5 mile Road course at the former Naval Training Center. However, the season finale would eventually be moved to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway due to construction delays.^[2]

Season results

Overall winner in bold.

Rnd	Circuit	LMP Winning Team	GTS Winning Team	GT Winning Team	Results
Rnd	Circuit	LMP Winning Drivers	GTS Winning Drivers	GT Winning Drivers	Results
1	Sebring	#42 BMW Motorsport	#56 Martin Snow Racing	#23 Alex Job Racing	Results
1	Sebring	JJ Lehto Tom Kristensen Jörg Müller	Martin Snow Melanie Snow Patrick Huisman	Kelly Collins Cort Wagner Darryl Havens	Results
2	Road Atlanta	#0 Team Rafanelli SRL	#99 Schumacher Racing	#7 PTG	Results
2	Road Atlanta	Eric van de Poele Mimmo Schiattarella	John O'Steen Larry Schumacher	Brian Cunningham Johannes van Overbeek	Results
3	Mosport	#2 Panoz Motor Sports	#91 Dodge Viper Team Oreca	#23 Alex Job Racing	Results
3	Mosport	Jan Magnussen Johnny O'Connell	Olivier Beretta David Donohue	Dirk Müller Cort Wagner	Results
4	Sears Point	#42 BMW Motorsport	#91 Dodge Viper Team Oreca	#9 PTG	Results
4	Sears Point	JJ Lehto Steve Soper	Olivier Beretta David Donohue	Hans-Joachim Stuck Boris Said	Results
5	Portland	#1 Panoz Motor Sports	#91 Dodge Viper Team Oreca	#23 Manthey Racing	Results
5	Portland	Éric Bernard David Brabham	Olivier Beretta David Donohue	Dirk Müller Cort Wagner	Results
6	Road Atlanta	#1 Panoz Motor Sports	#91 Dodge Viper Team Oreca	#23 Manthey Racing	Results
6	Road Atlanta	Éric Bernard David Brabham Andy Wallace	Olivier Beretta Karl Wendlinger Marc Duez	Dirk Müller Sascha Maassen Cort Wagner	Results
7	Laguna Seca	#42 BMW Motorsport	#91 Dodge Viper Team Oreca	#02 Reiser Callas Rennsport	Results
7	Laguna Seca	JJ Lehto Steve Soper	Olivier Beretta Karl Wendlinger	Johnny Mowlem David Murry	Results
8	Las Vegas	#42 BMW Motorsport	#92 Dodge Viper Team Oreca	#23 Manthey Racing	Results
8	Las Vegas	JJ Lehto Steve Soper	Tommy Archer Karl Wendlinger	Dirk Müller Cort Wagner	Results

Teams Championship

Points are awarded to the top nineteen finishers in each class in the following order:

25-21-19-17-15-14-13-12-11-10-...

Exception however for the 12 Hours of Sebring, which awarded in the following order:

30-26-24-22-20-19-18-17-16-15-...

Teams only scored the points for their highest finishing entry in each race.

LMP Standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Total
1	Panoz Motor Sports	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 Ford (Élan-Yates) 6.0 L V8		15	25	21	25	25	21	17	149
2	BMW Motorsport	BMW V12 LMR	BMW S70 6.0 L V12	30			25	21	21	25	25	147
3	Dyson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Ford Windsor 302 H.O. 5.0 L V8	26	19	17	17	14	17	15	14	139
4	Doyle-Risi Racing	Ferrari 333 SP	Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12	19	17	15	10	11		14	13	99
5	Doran Enterprises	Ferrari 333 SP	Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12		21	12	12	8	12	17	15	97
6	Team Rafanelli SRL	Riley & Scott Mk III	Judd GV4 4.0 L V10		25	19	14	13	14			85
7	Champion Racing	Porsche 911 GT1-98	Porsche 3.2 L Turbo Flat-6	22		14	8	12	13		5	74
8	Hybrid R&D	Riley & Scott Mk III	Ford 5.0 L V8	18	9	10	5			10	11	63
9	Intersport Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III Lola B98/10	Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8 Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8	14		8		7	6	8	9	52
10	Downing/Atlanta	Kudzu DLM Kudzu DLY	Mazda 2.0 L 3-Rotor Mazda R26B 2.6 L 4-Rotor	17	8	9		6	10			50
11	Transatlantic Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Ford 5.0 L V8	15	12				9	13		49
12	Dollahite Racing	Ferrari 333 SP	Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12		11	5	6	10				32
13	Price & Bscher	BMW V12 LM	BMW S70 6.0 L V12				13	15				28
14	DAMS	Lola B98/10	Judd GV4 4.0 L V10			7					19	26
15	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi R8R	Audi 3.6 L Turbo V8	24								24
16	Robinson Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Chevrolet 6.0 L V8	12			9					21
17	Multimatic Motorsports	Lola B98/10	Ford 5.1 L V8		5	11						16
18	Nygmatech Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III	Ford 5.0 L V8						7	7		14
19	Genesis Racing	Riley & Scott Mk III Hawk MD3R	Ford 5.0 L V8 Chevrolet 6.0 L V8	13								13
20=	Sintura Racing	Sintura S99	Judd GV4 4.0 L V10							11		11
20=	J&P Motorsports	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S	Ford (Élan-Yates) 6.0 L V8						11			11
20=	TRV Motorsports	Riley & Scott Mk III	Chevrolet 6.0 L V8		6					5		11
23	Whittington Brothers	Riley & Scott Mk III Lola B98/10	Ford 5.0 L V8 Ford (Roush) 6.0 L V8		10							10
24	Team Cascadia	Lola B98/12	BMW 4.0 L V8 Chevrolet 6.0 L V8					5				5

GTS Standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Total
1	Dodge Viper Team Oreca	Dodge Viper GTS-R	Dodge 8.0 L V10			25	25	25	25	25	25	150
2	Martin Snow Racing	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	30	21	14	15	17	7	19	13	139
3	Saleen/Allen Speedlab	Saleen Mustang SR	Ford 8.0 L V8	14	17	19	17	14	11	13	14	119
4	Konrad Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	24	19		13	19	8	15	15	113
5	Chiefie Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	17	13	13	12	13	14	14	12	108
6	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C5-R	Chevrolet 6.0 L V8 Chevrolet 7.0 L V8	22			21		17	21	19	100
7	Freisinger Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	26			14	15	12	12		79
8	Schumacher Racing	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	15	25	17						57
9	CJ Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	19	15	15						49
10	Roock Motorsport North America	Porsche 911 GT2	Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6						13	17	17	47
11	Johnson Autosport	Porsche 911 Turbo	Porsche 3.6 L Turbo Flat-6	16	14							30
12	DM Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT2 Evo	Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6	13								13
13	Chamberlain Motorsport	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Chrysler 8.0 L V10						9			9

GT Standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Total
1	Prototype Technology Group	BMW M3	BMW 3.2 L I6	16	25	21	19	25	21	13	21	161
2	Alex Job Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	30	21	25	17	14	6	19	14	146
3	Reiser Callas Rennsport	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	18	12	15	14	17	14	25	9	124
4	Contemporary Motorsports	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	24		10	7	19	15	11	19	105
5	Manthey Racing	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6				21		25	21	25	92
6	RWS Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT3-R	Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6				11	9	12	9	10	51
7	Team ARE	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6		9	12	6		10		8	45
8=	Prototype Technology Group (#9)	BMW M3	BMW 3.2 L I6				25	8				33
8=	G&W Motorsports	Porsche 911 GT2 Evo Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Turbo Flat-6 Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	20					13			33
10=	Team PRC	Porsche 911 GT3 Cup	Porsche 3.6 L Flat-6			17				15		32
10=	The Racer's Group	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6				13	13		6		32
12	Auto Sport South	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	10	8				9			27
13	Alegra Motorsport	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	17					8			25
14	Freisinger Motorsport	Porsche 911 Supercup	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6						11		13	24
15=	Vanderhoof Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6		14		9					23
15=	Millennium Motorsports	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6		11					12		23
17=	Gallade	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	22								22
17=	TransEnergy Motorsports	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	15	7							22
19	Bell Motorsports	BMW M3	BMW 3.2 L I6	19								19
20	Pregrid Motorsports	Porsche 911 3.8 RSR Cup	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6					10		7		17
21	Aspen Knolls Racing	BMW M3	BMW 3.2 L I6		15							15
22	Fordahl Motorsports	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6								12	12
23=	White Lightning Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6								11	11
23=	Broadfoot Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6	11								11
23=	Team Pumpelly Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6		6				5			11
26	Toad Hall Motor Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Porsche 3.8 L Flat-6		10							10

External links

Notes and References

Web site: 1999 Schedule. American Le Mans Series. January 20, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/19991118210051/http://www.americanlemans.com/pages/info/races.html. November 18, 1999.
Web site: Season finale moves to Las Vegas . 2022-12-20 . www.autosport.com . en.