GREENVILLE, S.C. (Jan. 31, 2011) - Michelin today announced its 2011 lineup of GT category technical partner teams for the American Le Mans Series, adding a pair of Ford GTs from Robertson Racing and an exotic new Panoz Abruzzi. Continuing their long relationship with Michelin are the Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche, Risi Competizione Ferrari and Corvette Racing teams. Also continuing with Michelin after a highly successful inaugural season in 2010 is the Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari team headed by former ALMS prototype champion Scott Sharp. Each is a leader for their respective factory efforts in ALMS.
“The ALMS GT category is considered to be the most competitive category in international motorsports today,” said Silvia Mammone, Michelin Motorsports manager. “We are pleased to have all of our 2010 ALMS technical partner teams continue with Michelin and we look forward to working with the Robertson and Panoz teams and welcoming their fans and friends to the Michelin ALMS family.”
Based in Sonoma, Calif., the Flying Lizard Porsche team is a two-time ALMS GT class champion. The team claimed four wins in 2010 ALMS competition as drivers Joerg Bergmeister and Patrick Long claimed their second consecutive ALMS driver championships. The Flying Lizard team also claimed the MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge season championship for the second consecutive year.
Risi Competizione Ferrari scored three ALMS race wins in 2010, including the Twelve Hours of Sebring. The Houston-based squad has two wins each at Sebring, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Road Atlanta’s Petit Le Mans in the past three seasons. The team will debut the new Ferrari F458 in 2011.
An eight-time GT1 class champion in ALMS and six-time winner at Le Mans, the New Hudson, Michigan-based Corvette Racing team competed its first full season in the GT class in 2010, taking the victory in the season ending Petit Le Mans.
Building on a successful inaugural GT season in 2010 is the Stuart, Florida-based Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari team headed by former ALMS prototype champion Scott Sharp. Extreme Speed posted a pair of front-row starts and a second place finish at Petit Le Mans in its first GT season.
“Michelin places a tire engineer with each of our technical partner race teams,” said Karl Koenigstein, Michelin ALMS technical team leader. “We do that to provide a constant source of fresh data, insights and understanding of the performance of our tires in the extremes of competition and provide our partners with exceptional levels of feedback and support.”
“Our long and highly successful connections with Porsche, Ferrari and Corvette help us understand the different needs of rear-, mid-, and front-engine cars all running in the same class. Now, by adding diverse cars like the Robertson Racing Ford GTs and the Panoz Abruzzi we can capture an even broader range of data and experience to help us develop future tires for the street as well as race tires,” said Koenigstein.
“Everyone at Robertson Racing is delighted to be working with Michelin during the upcoming ALMS season,” said Andrew ‘H’ Smith, Team Manager of the Braselton, GA-based Robertson Racing. “Their continued success in motorsport around the world, particularly in the GT and sportscar arena, ensures that we could not be working with a more accomplished tire technical partner for the unique rigours and challenges presented by endurance racing. I am certain that it won’t be long before we start seeing the mutual benefits of this exciting new partnership as we step up our program in 2011, which includes a potential Le Mans 24 Hours entry. Naturally we cannot wait to begin developing this exciting collaboration, one which will see the iconic Ford GT race on MICHELIN tires for the first time in American Le Mans Series history.”
Michelin has 105 wins in GT class competition, including 17 of 19 over the past two ALMS seasons. In addition, Michelin has won the ALMS GT Tire Championship for 11 consecutive years.
Michelin is expected to announce its ALMS prototype technical partner teams and Le Mans Prototype Challenge entries next week. Michelin and its technical partner teams will begin the 2011 American Le Mans Series season at the Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 19.
Dedicated to the improvement of sustainable mobility, Michelin (www.michelin.com) designs, manufactures and sells tires for every type of vehicle, including airplanes, automobiles, bicycles, earthmovers, farm equipment, heavy duty trucks, motorcycles and the space shuttle. The company also publishes travel guides, maps and atlases covering Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. Headquartered in Greenville, S.C., Michelin North America employs approximately 20,900 and operates 18 major manufacturing plants in 16 locations.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
STAR MAZDA ALUMNI SHINE IN THE ROLEX 24
January 30, 2011 / Daytona, FL – With two dozen alumni of the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear among the competitors in the 49th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona, it's little wonder that when the smoke of battle cleared, the victors added another layer of luster to the gleaming reputation of Star Mazda as one of the premier driver training series in the world today – and a 'gateway' series to many forms of motorsports.
1999 Star Mazda champion Joey Hand and Graham Rahal, a graduate of the Star Mazda class of 2005, co-drove (along with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas) the race winning the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. In winning the 1999 championship Hand got a test with Team PTG in their ALMS sports car, which turned into a full-time ride with the factory team and sent him down the path of building a career at the top levels of endurance racing.
Star Mazda veteran Terry Borcheller, who co-drove the #9 Action Express Racing Riley DP to victory in 2010 finished 3rd this year. Ricky Taylor (Star Mazda class of '06) co-drove the #10 SunTrust Racing Dallara to a 5th-place finish.
Bryan Sellers, also an alumni of the 2005 Star Mazda series, co-drove the #48 Paul Miller Racing entry to a 2nd-place finish in the GT class. The #70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 co-driven by a trio of Star Mazda graduates - including Jonathan Bomarito, 2009 series champion Adam Christodoulou and 2008 series champion John Edwards -- finished 6th in class. Bomarito, a veteran of the 2005 Star Mazda Championship season, co-drove this same car to the GT class victory in 2010.
The #41 Dempsey Racing / Seattle Children's Hospital Mazda RX-8 GT, co-driven by 2007 Star Mazda champion Dane Cameron (who will run the full 2011 Grand-Am season in the car) and 2002 series alumni James Gue, finished 10th in the GT class. The #40 Dempsey Racing team RX-8 was the highest-placing Mazda in the race, scoring a 3rd-place podium finish.
About Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.
For 2011, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will feature a 10-weekend, 11-race schedule, all on major race weekends and most with IndyCar. Two weekends are with the American Le Mans series, and one is a double-header with Indy Lights. Rising stars from around the world will be watched by more than a million fans as they compete for prizes valued at $1.5 million. Drivers 16 and older are welcome to compete and the Star Mazda Championship also features the Expert Series for drivers 30 and older. The Star Mazda Championship features standing starts, wheel-to-wheel racing at 160 mph and budgets a fraction of other top open-wheel ladder series.
The 2011 Star Mazda Championship season begins with sharing the track with IZOD IndyCars and Firestone Indy Lights during INDYCAR 'Spring Training,' March 14-16 at Barber Motorsports Park. The 2011 Star Mazda season-opener takes places at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg IndyCar weekend, March 25-27. As a part of the 2011 Mazda Road to Indy, drivers in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear are competing for a prize fund valued in excess of $1.5 million – including a scholarship to help the series champion move up to the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights series.
For more information on the Star Mazda Championship and its drivers, as well as the Mazda Motorsports ladder system, please visit www.starmazda.com and www.mazdausa.com.
1999 Star Mazda champion Joey Hand and Graham Rahal, a graduate of the Star Mazda class of 2005, co-drove (along with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas) the race winning the #01 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. In winning the 1999 championship Hand got a test with Team PTG in their ALMS sports car, which turned into a full-time ride with the factory team and sent him down the path of building a career at the top levels of endurance racing.
Star Mazda veteran Terry Borcheller, who co-drove the #9 Action Express Racing Riley DP to victory in 2010 finished 3rd this year. Ricky Taylor (Star Mazda class of '06) co-drove the #10 SunTrust Racing Dallara to a 5th-place finish.
Bryan Sellers, also an alumni of the 2005 Star Mazda series, co-drove the #48 Paul Miller Racing entry to a 2nd-place finish in the GT class. The #70 SpeedSource Mazda RX-8 co-driven by a trio of Star Mazda graduates - including Jonathan Bomarito, 2009 series champion Adam Christodoulou and 2008 series champion John Edwards -- finished 6th in class. Bomarito, a veteran of the 2005 Star Mazda Championship season, co-drove this same car to the GT class victory in 2010.
The #41 Dempsey Racing / Seattle Children's Hospital Mazda RX-8 GT, co-driven by 2007 Star Mazda champion Dane Cameron (who will run the full 2011 Grand-Am season in the car) and 2002 series alumni James Gue, finished 10th in the GT class. The #40 Dempsey Racing team RX-8 was the highest-placing Mazda in the race, scoring a 3rd-place podium finish.
About Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear.
For 2011, the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear will feature a 10-weekend, 11-race schedule, all on major race weekends and most with IndyCar. Two weekends are with the American Le Mans series, and one is a double-header with Indy Lights. Rising stars from around the world will be watched by more than a million fans as they compete for prizes valued at $1.5 million. Drivers 16 and older are welcome to compete and the Star Mazda Championship also features the Expert Series for drivers 30 and older. The Star Mazda Championship features standing starts, wheel-to-wheel racing at 160 mph and budgets a fraction of other top open-wheel ladder series.
The 2011 Star Mazda Championship season begins with sharing the track with IZOD IndyCars and Firestone Indy Lights during INDYCAR 'Spring Training,' March 14-16 at Barber Motorsports Park. The 2011 Star Mazda season-opener takes places at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg IndyCar weekend, March 25-27. As a part of the 2011 Mazda Road to Indy, drivers in the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear are competing for a prize fund valued in excess of $1.5 million – including a scholarship to help the series champion move up to the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights series.
For more information on the Star Mazda Championship and its drivers, as well as the Mazda Motorsports ladder system, please visit www.starmazda.com and www.mazdausa.com.
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