The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) arrived in beautiful Monterey, California to run round 7 of the 8 race inaugural season. Laguna Seca is a 2.2-mile road circuit that challenges drivers with significant elevation changes and the world famous "corkscrew" turn 8 and 8a. The series point battles are close but many will have to wait to be decided at the final event in Las Vegas, Nevada. The weekend featured five different races. Two Speedvision Cup races, The 355 Ferrari Challenge, and The Women's Global GT Series all filled out the schedule around the ALMS race.

The ALMS runs under ACO rules with the same categories as Le Mans; Prototype, GTS, and GT. Like at Le Mans, these three categories all run together. The ALMS race was a timed event at 2 hours 45 minutes duration. The field was full of well known drivers with no less than 10 Formula One veterans along with many other talented drivers. Temperatures were hot all weekend long. During the race Sunday Michelin tire engineers recorded a track temperature of 112 degrees f.

In the Prototype class the battle all weekend long was clearly between the BMW V12LMR (Le Mans winners) and the Panoz LMP-1. All others had to settle for a "best of the rest" classification. The car count was good with 19 cars taking the green in the prototype class. In first day qualifying it appeared as though the BMWs would take the pole but that was not to be. On Saturday the Panoz cars took the front row of the grid with the BMWs taking the second row. Pole time was set by the #1 Panoz at 1:15:974 time, or 106.04-mph average speed. This is a new track record for sports cars in this track configuration. Other notables in the field included Eliot Forbes-Robinson, the series points leader coming into this event, driving the #16 Riley&Scott Ford, four Ferrari 333SPs were in the field, and the Sintura S99 with Judd V10 power made it's US debut.

The race was close and exciting at the front with the two Panoz and two BMW cars leading the way. In the second round of pit stops the BMW team opted to double stint their tires which the leading Panoz did not do. The lead was handed to the #42 BMW driven now by Steve Soper. The order was BMW, Panoz, Panoz, and BMW in fourth. With 11 minutes to go, on lap 111, Steve Soper lost the BMW in turn ten and spun. By the time he had sorted things out and got back underway Eric Bernard was by him for the lead in the #1 Panoz. Almost as soon as the Panoz took the lead he passed two back-markers under a local yellow and was black-flagged for a stop and go penalty. As it turns out it did not matter because by the time Bernard came around to the pit lane he had a broken steering arm and was unable to continue. No doubt the BMW team breathed a collective sigh of relief at this break which handed them the win when it looked to be another repeat of the heartbreak they suffered at The Petite Le Mans back in September. This day belonged to JJ Lehto and Steve Soper, the later whom can now say he pulled a "spin and win" made so famous by Danny Sullivan years ago at Indy. The #1 Panoz driven by Johnny O'Connell came in second some 13.889 seconds behind. Jan Magnussen. and Bill Auberlen took third in the #43 BMW.

In the GTS class there were no real surprises. The Team Oreca Vipers took the front row (in class) of the grid with the Corvette C5R qualifying third. In the race the #91 Viper driven by Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger made it look easy, but he commented later that it wasn't! It looked to be yet another Viper one-two finish until the #92 car driven by Tommy Archer broke a suspension component after contact with a prototype car. Ron Fellows and Chris Kneifel were close all day and brought the #3 Corvette C5R home in second. Martin and Kelly Collins came in third in the #56 Porsche 911 turbo.

Porsche dominated the GT class. This was unusual in a division normally dominated by the BMW M3s that all seemed to struggle this weekend. David Murry and Johnny Mowlem won in the #2 Porsche RSR. Pole sitter and favored #23 Porsche 911 GT3R driven by Dirk Mueller and Cort Wagner came in second, followed by the #20 Havens-Fitzgerald Porsche RSR in third.

All in all, a great weekend of exciting racing. The series slogan, "for the fans," lived true yet again with the biggest driver autograph session I have ever seen, along with scrutinizing of the cars in downtown San Jose, California about 40 miles to the north of the track. The crowd on hand was of a decent size on Sunday and the series that was just a concept a year ago now is poised to finish it's first season very successfully with hopes towards major growth next year. Look for two races in Europe besides Le Mans along with the series finale on New Year's Eve in Australia.

J.J. Lehto (#42-P BMW V12 LMR)
"It was a very big disappointment in Atlanta. And today I was walking in the paddock late in the race, and Steve was leading by about 11 seconds, and all of a sudden I saw this cloud of dust. I didn't know it was our car, but when I found out I thought, 'Oh no! Not again!'"
(Soper interject: "It's good J.J. didn't have a gun at that moment because he probably would have shot himself. He's probably thinking, 'Bloody Muller, bloody Soper. I'll drive Vegas all by myself!'")

"I think that the most difficult race weekend we've had this year. We couldn't find the setup, no matter how hard we tried. Even this morning, we were desperately trying to make this car work. I had a problem with the left rear tire after the start -- it was snapping and forcing oversteer -- and I had to come in early to change tires. I knew I was going to have to give them to Steve, and I knew he wouldn't have an easy job driving on the used tires. When Steve got in he had to really push hard, and he was slipping and sliding all over the place, but he did it and I'm proud of him even though he brought me close to a heart attack a couple laps from the end."

Next (and last) round of the ALMS is at Las Vegas, Nevada on November 7, 1999. Look for the event to be an exciting treat for the fans, teams, and drivers alike. For more information on the ALMS, visit their web site at www.americanlemans.com.

Photography and story by Mike Veglia (copyright). Mike is a professional photographer in the US. His work can be ordered at his own Web Site: Motor Sport Visions Photography - www.motorsportvisions.com

Designed & hosted by caint.com