2009 American Le Mans Series Explained

The 2009 American Le Mans Series season was the 39th season for the IMSA GT Championship, with it being the eleventh season with the American Le Mans Series moniker. It began on March 21, 2009, and ended on October 10, 2009 after ten events. The series was composed of Le Mans Prototypes (LMP) and Grand Tourer (GT) race cars divided into four classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. A fifth category, known as the Challenge class, was also added for select races and featured Porsche 997 GT3 Cup cars from the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge.^[1] 2009 was also the final year for GT1, with Corvette Racing abandoning the class after Long Beach and switching over to much more competitive GT2 (renamed GT) class.

Season summary

This was the first time that the Michelin Green X Challenge championship was used throughout a full ALMS season after its initial introduction at the 2008 Petit Le Mans. Two champions were determined by the entry which is the most efficient over the season within the LMP and GT categories.^[2]

Patrón Highcroft Racing duo David Brabham and Scott Sharp won the main LMP1 standings, holding off De Ferran Motorsports pairing Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud at the final round of the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Adrián Fernández and Luis Díaz won the LMP2 title, in the final season of Fernández Racing, who closed at the end of the 2009 season. In GT2, Flying Lizard Motorsports' Patrick Long and Jörg Bergmeister won six races en route to the championship title. Husband-and-wife Martin and Melanie Snow won the inaugural GT Challenge class title, that ran at half of the season's ten races.

Team changes

Corvette Racing announced on September 9 that during the 2009 season the GT1 Corvettes will run at Sebring and Long Beach before competing at Le Mans, after which a new GT2 Corvette will compete for the rest of the season in preparation for 2010.^[3]
Audi announced on December 5 that they will no longer compete in the American Le Mans Series, choosing instead to concentrate on the DTM, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (later FIA World Endurance Championship) and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Audi's new LMP1 competitor, the R15 TDI, will compete at Sebring before returning to Europe.^[4] The cars returned for the Petit Le Mans in September.
Highcroft Racing and De Ferran Motorsports will move from LMP2 to campaign Acura's new LMP1 ARX-02a, while Lowe's Fernandez Racing will continue to race the ARX-01B in LMP2.
Porsche will not return with their factory-backed RS Spyders, campaigned by Penske Racing, choosing instead to compete on the Rolex Sports Car Series.^[5]
Dyson Racing will move from Porsche RS Spyders to full-works AER Mazda-powered Lola B08/80's in the LMP2 class.^[6]
Paul Gentilozzi announced that RSR Racing would be entering Jaguar XKRs in the GT2 category beginning in July.^[7] This however, did not happen until a one car test session during the final Laguna Seca race, starting from the pit lane.
Team Cytosport acquired and ran an ex-Dyson Porsche RS Spyder from Mid-Ohio to the end of the season.

Schedule

The 2009 schedule remained mostly identical to the 2008 schedule, although the season was shortened in length. This was done to allow teams from the American Le Mans Series to participate in events for the new Asian Le Mans Series in November.^[8] On December 18, 2008, it was announced that the Detroit race would be canceled.^[9]

The Challenge class of cars only participated in five rounds in 2009: Utah, Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, Road America, and Laguna Seca.^[10]

Rnd	Race	Length	Circuit	Location	Date
1	57th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring	12 Hours	Sebring International Raceway	Sebring, Florida	March 21
2	Acura Sports Car Challenge of St. Petersburg	1 Hour 55 Minutes	Streets of St. Petersburg	St. Petersburg, Florida	April 4
3	American Le Mans Series at Long Beach	1 Hour 40 Minutes	Long Beach Street Circuit	Long Beach, California	April 18
4	Utah Grand Prix	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Miller Motorsports Park	Tooele, Utah	May 17
5	Northeast Grand Prix	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Lime Rock Park	Lakeville, Connecticut	July 18
6	Acura Sports Car Challenge of Mid-Ohio	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Mid-Ohio	Lexington, Ohio	August 8
7	Time Warner Cable Road Race Showcase	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Road America	Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin	August 16
8	Grand Prix of Mosport	2 Hours 45 Minutes	Mosport International Raceway	Bowmanville, Ontario	August 30
9	Petit Le Mans	1000miles or 10 Hours	Road Atlanta	Braselton, Georgia	September 26
10	Monterey Sports Car Championships	4 Hours	Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca	Monterey, California	October 10

Season results

Overall winner in bold.

Rnd	Circuit	LMP1 Winning Team	LMP2 Winning Team	GT2 Winning Team	Challenge Winning Team	Results
Rnd	Circuit	LMP1 Winning Drivers	LMP2 Winning Drivers	GT2 Winning Drivers	Challenge Winning Drivers	Results
1	Sebring	#2 Audi Sport Team Joest	#15 Fernández Racing	#62 Risi Competizione	did not participate	Results
1	Sebring	Tom Kristensen Allan McNish Rinaldo Capello	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Jaime Melo Pierre Kaffer Mika Salo		Results
2	St. Petersburg	#9 Highcroft Racing	#15 Fernández Racing	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	did not participate	Results
2	St. Petersburg	David Brabham Scott Sharp	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister		Results
3	Long Beach	#66 de Ferran Motorsports	#15 Fernández Racing	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	did not participate	Results
3	Long Beach	Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister		Results
4	Miller	#66 de Ferran Motorsports	#15 Fernández Racing	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	#57 Snow Racing	Results
4	Miller	Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister	Martin Snow Melanie Snow	Results
5	Lime Rock	#66 de Ferran Motorsports	#20 Dyson Racing Team	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	#36 Gruppe Orange	Results
5	Lime Rock	Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud	Butch Leitzinger Marino Franchitti	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister	Wesley Hoaglund Bob Faieta	Results
6	Mid-Ohio	#66 de Ferran Motorsports	#15 Fernández Racing	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	#57 Snow Racing	Results
6	Mid-Ohio	Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister	Martin Snow Melanie Snow	Results
7	Road America	#9 Highcroft Racing	#15 Fernández Racing	#90 BMW Rahal Letterman	#57 Snow Racing	Results
7	Road America	David Brabham Scott Sharp	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Joey Hand Bill Auberlen	Martin Snow Melanie Snow	Results
8	Mosport	#9 Highcroft Racing	#15 Fernández Racing	#3 Corvette Racing	did not participate	Results
8	Mosport	David Brabham Scott Sharp	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Johnny O'Connell Jan Magnussen		Results
9	Road Atlanta	#08 Team Peugeot Total	#20 Dyson Racing Team	#62 Risi Competizione	did not participate	Results
9	Road Atlanta	Franck Montagny Stéphane Sarrazin	Butch Leitzinger Marino Franchitti Ben Devlin	Jaime Melo Pierre Kaffer Mika Salo		Results
10	Laguna Seca	#66 de Ferran Motorsports	#15 Fernández Racing	#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports	#47 Orbit Racing	Results
10	Laguna Seca	Gil de Ferran Simon Pagenaud	Adrián Fernández Luis Díaz	Patrick Long Jörg Bergmeister	Guy Cosmo John Baker	Results

Note that the GT1 class only competed in two rounds. Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen, and Antonio García won the 12 Hours of Sebring for Corvette Racing, while Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta won for Corvette at Long Beach.

Championships

Points were awarded to the top ten cars and drivers which either finish the race or complete 70% of the winner's distance, except in the ALMS Challenge category where cars and drivers only have to complete 50% of their class winner's distance. Teams with multiple entries only scored the points of their highest finishing entry in each race. Drivers were required to drive a minimum of 45 minutes to earn points, except for the Long Beach event which required only 30 minutes. The GT1 category was only used for two events and no championships were awarded in that category.

Points System
Race Distance	Position
Race Distance	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Less than three hours	20	16	13	10	8	6	4	3	2	1
Between four and eight hours	25	21	18	15	13	11	9	8	7	6
More than eight hours	30	26	23	20	18	16	14	13	12	11

Team championships

Teams with full entries were awarded points in the team championships. Teams which participated in partial season or on a race by race basis were not counted as part of the championship.

LMP1 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total
1	Patrón Highcroft Racing	Acura ARX-02a	Acura AR7 4.0 L V8	18	20	16	16	16	16	20	20	16	21	179
2	de Ferran Motorsports	Acura ARX-02a	Acura AR7 4.0 L V8	0	13	20	20	20	20	16	16	12	25	162
3	Intersport Racing	Lola B06/10	AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8	0	16	13	13	8	13	13	13	14	13	116
4	Autocon Motorsports	Lola B06/10	AER P32C 4.0 L Turbo V8	0		10	0	10	0	8	0	13	18	59
5	Corsa Motorsports	Ginetta-Zytek GZ09HS	Zytek ZJ458 4.5 L Hybrid V8				10	13	10	10			15	58

LMP2 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total
1	Lowe's Fernández Racing	Acura ARX-01B	Acura AL7R 3.4 L V8	30	20	20	20	16	20	20	20	26	25	217
2	Dyson Racing Team	Lola B09/86	Mazda MZR-R 2.0 L Turbo I4	0	16	16	16	20	13	16	16	30	0	143

GT2 standings

Pos	Team	Chassis	Engine	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total
1	Flying Lizard Motorsports	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	20	20	20	20	20	20	10	8	18	25	181
2	Risi Competizione	Ferrari F430GT	Ferrari 4.0 L V8	30	0	16	13	16	8	8	16	30	0	137
3	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	BMW M3 GT2	BMW 4.0 L V8	0	16	13	4	13	13	20	2	26	11	118
4	Farnbacher-Loles Racing	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6	13	4	1	16	10	6	1	10	23	18	102
5	Panoz Team PTG	Panoz Esperante GT-LM	Ford 5.0 L V8	23	13	6	10	6	4	0	6	12	15	95
6	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C6.R	Chevrolet LS7.R 6.0 L V8						16	13	20	20	21	90
7	Robertson Racing	Ford GT-R Mk. VII	Ford 5.0 L V8	14	6	2	1	2	1	4	1	11	0	42
8	Primetime Race Group	Dodge Viper Comp. Coupe	Dodge 8.3 L V10	0	0	4	2	3		2	3	0		14
9	Team Falken Tire	Porsche 997 GT3-RSR	Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6			0						0	8	8

ALMS Challenge standings

Gruppe Orange tied on points for the ALMS Challenge Team Championship, but Snow Racing broke the tie by having three wins over the season compared to Gruppe Orange's one.

Pos	Team	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 10	Total
1	Snow Racing	20	10	20	20	0	70
2	Gruppe Orange	0	20	13	16	21	70
3	Orbit Racing	0	16	16	10	25	67
4	P7 Racing					18	18
5	GMG Racing				0	13	13
6	Velox Motorsport			10		0	10

Driver championships

Drivers who participated in races but failed to score points over the course of the season are not listed.

LMP1 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total
1=	David Brabham	Patrón Highcroft Racing	18	20	16	16	16	16	20	20	16	21	179
1=	Scott Sharp	Patrón Highcroft Racing	18	20	16	16	16	16	20	20	16	21	179
3=	Gil de Ferran	de Ferran Motorsports	0	13	20	20	20	20	16	16	12	25	162
3=	Simon Pagenaud	de Ferran Motorsports	0	13	20	20	20	20	16	16	12	25	162
5=	Jon Field	Intersport Racing	0	16	13	13	8	13	13	13	14	13	116
5=	Clint Field	Intersport Racing	0	16	13	13	8	13	13	13	14	13	116
7=	Johnny Mowlem	Corsa Motorsports				10	13	10	10			15	58
7=	Stefan Johansson	Corsa Motorsports				10	13	10	10			15	58
9=	Franck Montagny	Team Peugeot Total	26								30		56
9=	Stéphane Sarrazin	Team Peugeot Total	26								30		56
11=	Allan McNish	Audi Sport Team Joest	30								23		53
11=	Rinaldo Capello	Audi Sport Team Joest	30								23		53
13=	Bryan Willman	Autocon Motorsports	0		10	0		0	8		13	18	49
13=	Chris McMurry	Autocon Motorsports	0				10		8	0	13	18	49
15=	Nicolas Minassian	Team Peugeot Total	20								26		46
15=	Pedro Lamy	Team Peugeot Total	20								26		46
17=	Lucas Luhr	Audi Sport North America	23								20		43
17=	Marco Werner	Audi Sport North America	23								20		43
19	Chapman Ducote	Intersport Racing	0	16	13	13							42
20	Tony Burgess	Autocon Motorsports	0				10			0	13	18	41
21	Dario Franchitti	Patrón Highcroft Racing	18								16		34
22	Tom Kristensen	Audi Sport Team Joest	30										30
23	Sébastien Bourdais	Team Peugeot Total	26										26
24	Mike Rockenfeller	Audi Sport North America	23										23
25	Christian Klien	Team Peugeot Total	20										20
26=	Nicolas Lapierre	Team Oreca Matmut AIM									18		18
26=	Romain Dumas	Team Oreca Matmut AIM									18		18
28	Scott Dixon	de Ferran Motorsports	0								12		12
29	Michael Lewis	Autocon Motorsports			10	0							10

LMP2 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total
1=	Adrián Fernández	Lowe's Fernández Racing	30	20	20	20	16	20	20	20	26	25	217
1=	Luis Díaz	Lowe's Fernández Racing	30	20	20	20	16	20	20	20	26	25	217
3=	Butch Leitzinger	Dyson Racing Team	0	13	13	16	20	13	16	16	30	0	137
3=	Marino Franchitti	Dyson Racing Team	0	13	13	16	20	13	16	16	30	0	137
5	Klaus Graf	Team Cytosport						16	13		23	21	73
6=	Chris Dyson	Dyson Racing Team	0	16	16	13	0	0	10	0			55
6=	Guy Smith	Dyson Racing Team	0	16	16	13	0	0	10	0			55
8	Greg Pickett	Team Cytosport						16	13		0	21	50
9	Ben Devlin	Dyson Racing Team	0								30	0	30
10	Sascha Maassen	Team Cytosport									23		23
11=	Gunnar van der Steur	van der Steur Racing					13	0		0	0		13
11=	Adam Pecorari	van der Steur Racing					13	0		0	0		13

GT2 standings

Pos	Driver	Team	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 8	Rd 9	Rd 10	Total
1=	Patrick Long	Flying Lizard Motorsports	20	20	20	20	20	20	10	8	18	25	181
1=	Jörg Bergmeister	Flying Lizard Motorsports	20	20	20	20	20	20	10	8	18	25	181
3=	Jaime Melo	Risi Competizione	30	0	16	13	16	8	8	16	30	0	137
3=	Pierre Kaffer	Risi Competizione	30	0	16	13	16	8	8	16	30	0	137
5	Wolf Henzler	Farnbacher-Loles Racing	13	4	1	16	10	6	1	10	23	18	102
6=	Tommy Milner	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	0	16	13	4	1	13	16	0	26	11	100
6=	Dirk Müller	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	0	16	13	4	1	13	16	0	26	11	100
8=	Dominik Farnbacher	Panoz Team PTG	23	13	6	10	6	4	0	6	12	15	95
8=	Ian James	Panoz Team PTG	23	13	6	10	6	4	0	6	12	15	95
10=	Johnny O'Connell	Corvette Racing						16	13	20	16	21	86
10=	Jan Magnussen	Corvette Racing						16	13	20	16	21	86
12	Seth Neiman	Flying Lizard Motorsports	18	8	8	6	4	2	3		14	13	76
13	Mika Salo	Risi Competizione	30								30		60
14	Johannes van Overbeek	Flying Lizard Motorsports	18			6	4			4	14	13	59
15	Darren Law	Flying Lizard Motorsports	18	8	8			2	3	4	14		57
16=	Oliver Gavin	Corvette Racing						10	6	13	20	6	55
16=	Olivier Beretta	Corvette Racing						10	6	13	20	6	55
18	Marc Lieb	Flying Lizard Motorsports	20								18		54
18	Marc Lieb	Farnbacher-Loles Racing				16
19	Dirk Werner	Farnbacher-Loles Racing	13	4	1					10	23		51
20=	Joey Hand	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	0	0	3	3	13	3	20	2	0	0	44
20=	Bill Auberlen	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing	0	0	3	3	13	3	20	2	0	0	44
22	David Murry	Robertson Racing	14	6	2	1	2	1	4	1	11	0	42
23	Andrea Robertson	Robertson Racing	14	6		1	2	1	4	1	11	0	40
24	David Robertson	Robertson Racing	14		2	1	2	1	4	1	11	0	36
25	Johannes Stuck	T-Mobile VICI Racing	0		10	8	8					9	35
26	Richard Westbrook	T-Mobile VICI Racing			10		8					9	27
27=	Gianmaria Bruni	Advanced Engineering PeCom	26										26
27=	Matías Russo	Advanced Engineering PeCom	26										26
27=	Luís Pérez Companc	Advanced Engineering PeCom	26										26
27=	Jörg Müller	BMW Rahal Letterman Racing									26		26
31=	Marcel Fässler	Corvette Racing									20		20
31=	Tom Sutherland	LG Motorsports									13	7	20
31=	Tomy Drissi	LG Motorsports									13	7	20
34	Pierre Ehret	Farnbacher-Loles Motorsport										18	18
35	Lou Giglotti	LG Motorsports	0	10	0							7	17
36=	Tracy Krohn	Risi Competizione	16										16
36=	Eric van de Poele	Risi Competizione	16										16
36=	Niclas Jönsson	Risi Competizione	16										16
36=	Antonio García	Corvette Racing									16		16
40=	Joel Feinberg	Primetime Race Group	0	0	4	2	3		2	3	0		14
40=	Chris Hall	Primetime Race Group	0	0	4	2	3		2	3	0		14
42=	Richard Lietz	Farnbacher-Loles Racing	13										13
42=	Matt Bell	LG Motorsports									13		13
44	Bryce Miller	Farnbacher-Loles Racing					10		1				11
45	Eric Curran	LG Motorsports	0	10									10
46=	Nicky Pastorelli	T-Mobile VICI Racing				8							8
46=	Bryan Sellers	Team Falken Tire			0						0	8	8
46=	Dominic Cicero	Team Falken Tire			0						0	8	8
49	Martin Ragginger	Farnbacher-Loles Motorsport						6					6

ALMS Challenge standings

Driver points were awarded collectively, with all the drivers who have driven for a team being awarded the same number of points.

Pos	Drivers	No.	Team	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Rd 4	Rd 5	Rd 6	Rd 7	Rd 10	Total
1	Martin Snow	57	Snow Racing				20	10	20	20	0	70
1	Melanie Snow	57	Snow Racing	20	10	20	20	0
2	Nick Parker	02	Gruppe Orange				0	13	8	16	21	58
	Donald Pickering				13	8	16	21
	Carl Skerlong			0
3	Guy Cosmo	47	Orbit Racing				0	0	16	10	25	51
3	John Baker	47	Orbit Racing	0	0	16	10	25
4	Wesley Hoaglund	36	Gruppe Orange				0	20	13	13	0	46
4	Bob Faieta	36	Gruppe Orange	0	20	13	13	0
5	Ed Brown	08	Orbit Racing				0	16	0	8	15	39
5	Bill Sweedler	08	Orbit Racing	0	16	0	8	15
6	Robert Rodriguez	69	P7 Racing								18	18
6	Galen Bieker	69	P7 Racing					18
7	Bret Curtis	05	GMG Racing							0	13	13
7	James Sofronas	05	GMG Racing				0	13
8	Shane Lewis	88	Velox Motorsport						10		0	10
	Gerry Ventos					10
	Mitchell Pagerey							0

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Series provides advancement opportunity with addition of "Challenge Class" . . 2009-03-27 . 2009-03-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090329073942/http://www.americanlemans.com/index_news.php?n=12677 . March 29, 2009 . dead .
Web site: Green Challenge Rules and Regulations Set . . 2008-06-24 . 2008-10-03 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090122081832/http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=4383 . January 22, 2009 .
Web site: Corvettes back in ALMS in 2009 with GT1 and GT2 programs.
Web site: ALMS : Audi concentrates on European motorsport. . Endurance-Info . 2008-12-05 . 2008-12-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081209015307/http://www.endurance-info.com/static.php?subaction=showfull&id=1228478354&archive=&start_from=&ucat=4&op=communiques_index.txt&npds=1 . 2008-12-09 . dead .
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=313648{{dead link|date=September 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
Web site: American Le Mans Series :: World Class . 2008-12-12 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20081217112016/http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=5051 . 2008-12-17 .
Web site: American Le Mans Series – News . https://archive.today/20090725214601/http://www.americanlemans.com/index_news.php?n=12831 . 2009-07-25 . live . 2009-07-23 .
Web site: Record Results and a Bold Five-Year Plan . . 2008-10-03 . 2008-10-03 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081114223823/http://www.americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=4841 . 14 November 2008 . dead .
Web site: 2009 Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Canceled. 18 December 2008 .
Web site: IMSA Competition Bulletin #09-21 . . 2009-08-16 . 2009-08-18 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101204233332/http://www.imsaracing.net/2009/alms/bulletins/bulletin%20alms%2009-21.pdf . 2010-12-04 . dead .