ALMS – Pagenaud Signing at Patron Highcroft Raises Questions

Simon Pagenaud has signed a contract with Patron Highcroft for 2010 to replace Scott Sharp who previously left the team to start his own GT2 team. Simon will partner with David Brabham in the newly revised Acura ARX-01c LMP2 car. This will give Patron Highcroft a very impressive driver pairing. David Brabham is one of the most talented and experienced sportscar drivers of this generation. Teaming him with a very quick and capable Pagenaud only spells wins for the team. Especially since Pagenaud is a more reliable and less erratic…

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Le Mans – Highcroft and Acura 2010

While we await formal news about Acura’s factory involvement with the American Le Mans series, the Patron Highcroft team has announced they will stay with the Acura. The car they chose is the surprising part. The team has chosen to run the ARX-01C which took Fernandez racing to championship glory in 2009. The article on Autosport states the team will continue to work with Honda Performance Development, however Acura has been relatively quiet since the season ended. Highcroft racing believes that given the performance of LMP2 car at Laguna Seca,…

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Le Mans – Acura LMP2 and Europe

The Acura ARX-01b LMP2 challenger is set to make its European debut next year in the hands of the JAS Motorsports team. JAS has been a partner with Honda for the last decade and have won both touring car titles as well as rally titles under the Japanese manufacturer’s banner. The team will take the LMP2 machine into the European Le Mans series and have listed the 24 Hours of Le Mans race as an ultimate goal as well. At this time the Milan based squad will field one car…

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Le Mans – Sharp Leaves Highcroft

It was announced just a couple weeks ago that Scott Sharp would be forming his own GT2 Ferrari team to compete in the American Le Mans series; however at the time he stated he would still drive the Patron Highcroft Acura in LMP1. Funny how quickly things change. Scott announced today that he will not defend his LMP1 crown and will instead race for his private entry team known as Extreme Speed Racing. The tea is further going to expand into a two car effort with Sharp and Patron CEO…

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Le Mans – Why Red Flag?

As we stated on Episode 10, the Petit Le Mans was a little more Petit than usual. There have been a number of people who have asked questions regarding the decision making process for the red flag. Like why did it take so long to end the race? They have rain tires, why did they not just keep going? Well the good folks have done what the FIA wishes it could do and has released a press statement giving some insight into why things happened the way they did last…

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Le Mans – Petit Red Flag Wrap-up

This weekend’s Petit Le Mans was to be the best race of the year for endurance racing aside from the 24 Hour event itself. The 1,000 mile/10 hour event would highlight the best teams from all over the world at Road Atlanta, but Mother Nature had other ideas. After about 4 hours of racing the heavens opened up and cut loose. Torrential rains saw the event cancelled at about the half way point with Peugeot taking a 1-2. However, don’t be fooled. The Peugeot was clearly not the best car…

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Le Mans – Dixon at de Ferran for Petit

Scott Dixon will join de Ferran motorsport for Petit Le Mans. Dixon has ran in three previous ALMS races with the team and even put the Acura on pole for Sebring at the start of this year. The situations will be the same with Acura trying to take it to the real contenders in Audi and Peugeot. Going one step further with this, what are the chances that de Ferran will try and scoop up Scott for the IRL program?

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Le Mans – Audi Returns for Petit

Seems as though the world economic climate may be changing after all. Audi whom dropped to only doing two races this year has announced that it will run a third for Petit Le Mans. The team currently plans to field two of its R15 TDis in what they are calling their first step towards 2010 Le Mans. The addition of Audi will surly make this the best round thus far of the 2009 ALMS calendar with the Peugeot, ORECA, and Acura entries also fighting it out. If you remember back…

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