The American LeMans Series (ALMS) and Champ Car have finished their pre-season testing at Sebring, Florida. For the first time in years, the Champ Car series seems to be in better shape than the ALMS. Both Sports/Endurance and open wheel racing are suffering from splits between rival series. S/E is split between the ALMS and the NASCAR owned Grand American. Open wheel has the well know IndyCar - Champ Car split.
Peugeot blitzed Audi during the official American Le Mans Series preseason test at Sebring International Raceway, on the French manufacturer's first visit to the bumpy 3.7-mile circuit.
The lone Peugeot 908 HDi turbodiesel prototype set a best time of 1 minute 42.801 seconds in the hands of Stephane Sarrazin. That was more than 2 seconds faster than last year's LMP1-class pole position time and 0.7 second faster than Audi's best, set by Allan McNish.
Peugeot has yet to confirm whether it will compete in the ALMS season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race in March. It will announce its decision on Feb. 15, when it reveals its full 2008 plan.
Audi, meanwhile, is committed to Sebring but has not announced whether it will race in the ALMS after that. McNish and Rinaldo Capello, who won the LMP1 championship last year, and a second car driven by Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat, will contest the full Le Mans Series in Europe. Date clashes mean that Audi will miss at least rounds two (St. Petersburg) and four (Houston) of the ALMS season, even if it decides to run the other races.
Champ Car, on the other hand, had an increase in the car count.
"There are 14 cars here," said team owner Dale Coyne, "which is more than we had last year. And we have a better quality of drivers than we did last year. I think things are looking pretty good."
Forsythe Racing, now called Forsythe/Petit, reflecting the participation of series minority owner Dan Petit, had one of the largest crews at the test. At any given time, the team had about 24 uniformed crewmen at the pits, servicing the team's two drivers, veteran Paul Tracy and former Formula One driver Franck Montagny.
Montagny set the fastest lap of the first two days at 50.209 seconds, a half-second quicker than the fastest lap from last year's test--and better than the two Newman-Haas-Lanigan drivers, returning sophomore Graham Rahal and Justin Wilson, who replaces departed champion Sebastien Bourdais.
Although he isn't yet signed for the season, Montagny said he hopes to stay with the team.
Wilson's best time for the first two days was 50.448 seconds, just ahead of Rahal's 50.474. The N-H-L drivers improved on the final day, with Rahal setting the second-fastest time (49.950), just a few tenths better than Wilson (50.207) and just behind Frank Perera (49.806) driving for Conquest Racing.
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