December 10, 2008
Tour de Road America. The Tour de Road America Bike Ride to Fight Cancer presented by Delta Dental concluded its 2008 fundraising campaign recently with record results. As of December 1, over $34,000 has been raised by the 350 cyclists, race car drivers, fans and supporters of the 5th annual Tour de Road America, which took place on August 8, 2008, on the historic Road America race track in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. The total was also bolstered by a silent auction of unique motorsports memorabilia, as well as donations supporting the Corvette Challenge. That competition pitted American Le Mans Series driver Oliver Gavin against his boss and manager of the Corvette Racing Team, Doug Fehan. Oliver won on-the-bike competition, while Doug prevailed in the fundraising competition. But the real winners were the beneficiaries, who received over $8,000 from the challenge to help with their cancer survivorship programs. The Tour de Road America supports three distinguished organizations that are united in the fight against cancer: the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. “Funds are still coming in,” said George Siegle, co-director of the event. “Donations received from here on out will help us reach our 2009 campaign goal of $40,000 to help in the fight against cancer.” “Support from Road America, the American Le Mans and other racing series, Corvette Racing, the race teams, sponsors, drivers, race fans and volunteers was tremendous,” said Patrick Robb, Series and Team Relations Chairperson for the event. “It was truly inspiring to see so many people come together with the goal of defeating this disease. We can’t thank them enough for their support!” The Tour de Road America – Bike Ride to Fight Cancer returns to the magnificent 4.048-mile Road America natural-terrain circuit with the American Le Mans Series and the Corvette Challenge II on the weekend of August 13 - 16, 2009. For more information about next year’s event, visit www.pelotonride.org.
(ALMS)
For the first time in its five-year history, the Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama will have a full-season television package on SPEED, series officials announced Friday. Each telecast will feature race highlights, lifestyle segments and other features. The 2009 championship also will have a $60,000 year-end purse. The season starts with a two-race weekend as part of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida in March at Sebring International Raceway. Each one-hour program on SPEED will air two weeks following an event. Patrón became title sponsor of the series in an expansion of its relationship with IMSA and the American Le Mans Series. Yokohama, one of the country's leading manufacturers of high-performance tires, followed suit by becoming the presenting sponsor and official tire supplier. The schedule for the 2009 Patrón GT3 Challenge by Yokohama includes six events at North America's finest road-racing venues. Each weekend will feature two 30-minute sprint races with the addition of a one-hour, 15-minute endurance race to close the season at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
(Dyson Racing)
Dyson Racing and MAZDASPEED Motorsports have joined forces for a long-term partnership. Sponsored by the BP energy company, the team will campaign two Lola LMP2 coupes in the 11-race American Le Mans Series for the 2009 season. The BP Dyson Racing Mazda coupes will be powered by the 2.0 liter turbo Mazda MZR- engines prepared by Advanced Engine Research (AER) Ltd. “No other car company can match Mazda’s breadth of motorsports involvement,” stated Team Principal Rob Dyson. “They are an ascendant car company and while other car companies are cutting back their on-track programs, Mazda is strengthening theirs which highlights the depth of their commitment and dedication. Throughout all of our discussions, it has impressed us how closely their passion for the sport matches ours.” Robert T. Davis, Senior Vice-President Quality, Research and Development, said, “We are excited that the Dyson team is coming onboard. It was clear in the preparations they are making leading up to the announcement that they have a family mindset that will fit in well with the Mazda family of racers and teams. We’re expecting big successes together.” “We have enjoyed great success in the past with the Lola-AER combination,” said Vice President and Sporting Director Chris Dyson. “We know how to get race-winning speed from this package and our valued partner, Michelin, will be adding their competitive expertise. When you combine this experience with the enthused support of our new partners BP and Mazda, Dyson Racing has a very promising future." The team will begin testing before the end of the year and will be announcing the driver lineup in the near future.The SCCA Trans-Am Series. After a two-year break, SCCA’s Trans-Am® Series will return in 2009 with a planned eight-race schedule. Five of the eight races were announced today (12/11) at the Performance Racing Industry show, in Orlando, Fla., as well as the series’ title sponsor for 2009 Muscle Milk®. A joint venture between Sports Car Club of America, Inc. and subsidiary SCCA Pro Racing, the 2009 Muscle Milk SCCA Trans-Am Series' technical rules will be based on the SCCA Club Racing GT-1 class. “There is a dedicated group of Trans-Am loyalists who have been working to make this happen since our last licensing agreement to operate the series expired in 2005,” SCCA President & CEO Jim Julow said. “The re-birth of Trans-Am begins in 2009 with a grassroots-based series that has the potential to grow in the coming years into a full professional racing series. On behalf of SCCA and SCCA Pro Racing, I would like to thank Jim Derhaag for his tireless efforts to help put some of the critical pieces together and Muscle Milk for coming on board as title sponsor to make the series a reality.” Races announced so far are: March 21-22 at Road Atlanta, April 17-19 at VIRginia International Raceway, May 15-17 at Mosport International Raceway, June 12-14 at Portland International Raceway and July 11-12 at Watkins Glen. All events are expected to be approximately 90 miles in length with no pit stops. Races in conjunction with Club Racing events will have qualifying and race sessions separate from the regular GT-1 competition grouping, so drivers have the potential to run both the GT-1 Club Racing event and the Trans-Am Series event on the same weekend.
(ALMS)
Flying Lizard Motorsports announced a two-car GT2 program for the 2009 American Le Mans Series season, adding American Porsche factory driver Patrick Long to its lineup. Long will reunite with Jörg Bergmeister in the team’s No. 45 Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, a combination that netted the 2005 GT2 championship. Seth Neiman will return with co-drivers Darren Law and Johannes van Overbeek in the No. 44 car. All are American drivers. Bergmeister will return to Flying Lizard in 2009 for his third consecutive season to defend his and the team’s 2008 championships. The coming season will be the third that Bergmeister and Long have competed together as a team. Two of the top Porsche drivers in the world, together they teamed for a total of eight Series GT2 races, and won in GT2 at the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans (with Sascha Maassen). While the two shared the 2005 class championship, Bergmeister claimed the 2006 championship although Long was his co-driver for all but one season. Flying Lizard expects to receive its two new 2009 Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs in early January and plans to attend the American Le Mans Series Winter Test in Sebring, Fla., in late January.