The 2010 season marked a new addition to the American Le Mans Series grids in the form of the LMP Challenge category. The new spec-prototype category featuring the Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet produced intense battles on track, with the inaugural championship going down to the wire at the season-ending Petit Le Mans.
While Level 5 Motorsports’ Scott Tucker picked up the crown, the family-run Green Earth Team Gunnar outfit didn’t go down without a fight, as Gunnar Jeannette ended the year runner-up in the standings after a hard-fought battle with the two-car Level 5 organization all year.
Take a look back at the highs and lows of the inaugural LMPC season with a team-by-team look at 2010:
Level 5 Motorsports
(No. 55) Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut, Mark Wilkins
(No. 95) Scott Tucker, Ryan Hunter-Reay, James Gue, Andy Wallace, Burt Frisselle, Marco Werner
There’s no doubt Level 5 Motorsports made a splash on its maiden season of series competition. The successful Wisconsin-based outfit scored its fifth championship in the past four years by taking the inaugural LMPC title. For Scott Tucker, it marked his biggest accomplishment to date in the motorsports world. Understandably, though, as the 48-year-old private investor only got involved in racing less than five years ago.
Winning in SCCA National and Ferrari Challenge competition, Tucker and his squad made the move up to GRAND-AM in 2008. But the David Stone-led team really began to shine with its foray into LMPC. Campaigning a pair of Oreca FLM09s, Tucker piloted both thanks to an IMSA rule that allowed gentlemen racers to drive in up to two cars, scoring points in the highest-placed entry.
That strategic move paid off on two particular occasions when the lead No. 55 of Tucker and Christophe Bouchut hit trouble. The first came at Lime Rock when Bouchut crashed the Microsoft Office 2010-sponsored machine in warmup and was forced to withdraw. Tucker rebounded for a third place finish in the No. 95 car with Andy Wallace. A similar situation unfolded at the Petit Le Mans, when Tucker relied on the sister entry led by Marco Werner and Burt Frisselle to take the win and title after the No. 55 car suffered an early accident.
Tucker visited victory lane a total of five times in 2010, four of them coming in the No. 55 entry with longtime co-driver and driving coach Bouchut. It was certainly a magical season for Level 5, which established itself as one of the leading American teams in sportscar racing.
Green Earth Team Gunnar
(No. 99) Gunnar Jeannette, Christian Zugel, Elton Julian
When the LMPC concept was unveiled to prospective teams and drivers in autumn 2009 at Road Atlanta, Kevin Jeannette was the first to put a down payment on a new car. It was then when Green Earth Team Gunnar was born. Formed from the backbone of Jeannette’s successful historic racing team, GETG had high hopes from the very start, even before its G-Oil-sponsored Oreca FLM09 hit the track for testing at Sebring.
While the plan had been for accomplished sportscar ace, Kevin’s son Gunnar, to share the wheel of the No. 99 car with historic veteran Christian Zugel, Elton Julian teamed with Gunnar for the bulk of the season, with Zugel focusing his driving efforts with Genoa Racing.
Jeannette and Julian proved to be one of the strongest driver combinations in the class, scoring four wins out of nine starts. It also provided plenty of excitement throughout the season, including Jeannette running out of fuel on the final lap, but still winning at Lime Rock and the duo being over 15 horsepower down on the competition at Road America and Mosport, yet still managing to win both rounds.
While it would have been a fairytale ending for the family-run organization to walk away with the inaugural LMPC title, a steering rack issue dashed any hopes of overturning the mights of Level 5 Motorsports in the season-finale. Yet, it was hard to imagine that Mark Shomann-engineered crew performed as well as they did utilizing a budget a fraction of their chief rivals. It certainly gave credit to the new spec formula and proof that you didn’t need millions of dollars to achieve success, even in the prototype ranks.
Genoa Racing
(No. 36) Tom Sutherland, Andy Wallace, JR Hildebrand, Tom Weickardt, Kyle Marcelli, Tom Sedivy, Christian Zugel, Frankie Montecalvo, Alex Figge, Eric Lux
The addition of the LMPC class welcomed a number of new high-caliber teams into the series, including Indiana-based Genoa Racing. While it was a return to the team’s roots in sportscar racing, having campaigned cars in Can-Am some 30 years ago, the 2010 season also brought a wave of new drivers to learn the ropes of prototype racing.
It was fitting that endurance veteran Andy Wallace was the first to shake down the team’s bright red Oreca FLM09 in Winter Testing at Sebring. The 1988 Le Mans winner remained on board for the season-opener, joined by open-wheel rising star JR Hildebrand and fellow Californian Tom Sutherland.
While the driver lineup shuffled in the following two rounds, the podium finishes kept coming. However, the Thomas Knapp-led crew was forced to miss the Salt Lake City round due to lack of funding but returned for the remainder of the year after striking an alliance with Green Earth Team Gunnar to compete as a second G-Oil-sponsored entry.
The team revisited the podium for the fourth time of the year at Mosport, when Frankie Montecalvo and Christian Zugel teamed together for a third place finish. With Zugel moving back to the No. 99 GETG machine for the season-finale, Alex Figge and Eric Lux joined Montecalvo for a fifth place result in the season-finale.
Click Below to view SPEED.com's ALMS LMPC Season Review Photo Gallery:
Intersport Racing
(No. 73) Antonio Downs, Lucas Downs, Matt Downs
(No. 89) Mitch Pagerey, Brian Wong, David Ducote, Kyle Marcelli, Chapman Ducote
(No. 73) Antonio Downs, Lucas Downs, Matt Downs
(No. 89) Mitch Pagerey, Brian Wong, David Ducote, Kyle Marcelli, Chapman Ducote
Once considered one of the smallest teams in the paddock, Intersport Racing could no longer hold that title. Expanding to a two-car full-season ALMS operation, in addition to its multi-car effort in IMSA Prototype Lites, the Dublin, Ohio-based squad took a major step forward in 2010, not only with its growth as a team, but also with its performance on the track, notably in LMP1.
The team’s LMPC entry, on the other hand, didn’t enjoy quite as much limelight. Yet the No. 89 machine of Kyle Marcelli and brothers David and Chapman Ducote recorded a season-best finish of second in class at Road Atlanta, whereas the team’s planned third entry for the Downs brothers failed to make the start after a crack in the Oreca FLM09’s tub was discovered before the race.
PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports
(No. 52) Johnny Mowlem, Tom Papadopoulos, Ryan Lewis, Alex Figge, Max Hyatt, Ricardo Gonzalez, Luis Diaz
Like many of the LMPC teams on the grid in 2010, PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports went through its share of drivers. The successful open-wheel turned sportscar outfit from Fresno, Calif. missed the opening round at Sebring but hit the ground running at Long Beach, showing potential right out of the box but for an early race accident by Tom Papadopoulos.
While the Bobby Oergel-led organization was on a steep learning curve, the team achieved success at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where Johnny Mowlem put the No. 52 Oreca FLM09 on pole. A string of four podium finishes followed, the latter two coming with the new pairing of Luis Diaz and Ricardo Gonzalez, who started the season in the GTC ranks.
There was no doubt Diaz, 2010’s Most Popular Driver, was one of the quickest shoes in LMPC, putting the car on pole a further two times. Despite coming to close to victory on more than one occasion, the 2009 LMP2 co-champion and co-driver Gonzalez would end up winless, to many people’s surprise. After all, PR1/Mathiasen had transformed into one of the strongest teams in the LMPC paddock by season’s end.
Performance Tech (Primetime-Braille Battery Race Group)
(No. 11) Joel Feinberg, Gerardo Bonilla, Kyle Marcelli
Hopes were high for Joel Feinberg and Primetime Race Group heading into 2010. Unfortunately, they didn’t pan out the way anybody expected. After two seasons in the GT2 ranks with the fan-favorite Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, the Hollywood, Fla.-based team made the move to the new LMPC category with its sights set on the inaugural championship.
Feinberg and rising Canadian star Kyle Marcelli limped home to finish 5th at Sebring in what turned out to be a race of attrition, while former B-K Motorsports Mazda ace Gerardo Bonilla filled in for Feinberg at Long Beach but suffered an early race accident.
The Brent O’Neill-owned Performance Tech outfit, which ran Feinberg’s team, failed to make any further appearances in 2010 after some off-track developments. Marcelli, though, completed the season with Intersport Racing following a one-race deal with Genoa Racing.
LMPC Drivers’ Championship:
1. Scott Tucker 183
2. Gunnar Jeannette 169
3. Elton Julian 153
4. Christophe Bouchut 147
5. Kyle Marcelli 101
6. Christian Zugel 89
7. Andy Wallace 77
8. Mark Wilkins 75
9. Ricardo Gonzalez 63
Luis Diaz 63
10. David Ducote 59
LMPC Teams’ Championship:
1. Level 5 Motorsports 183
2. Green Earth Team Gunnar 169
3. Genoa Racing 104
4. Intersport Racing 95
5. PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports 92
6. Performance Tech 28
Source: speedtv.com http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/alms-lmpc-season-review/
Posted December 23, 2010
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