Before the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón turns its full attention to the streets of Long Beach, we thought it would be fun to take one more look back at the 2010 season opener at Sebring. The race, of course, saw Peugeot take a 1-2 finish – much it did at Le Mans and Petit Le Mans last year.

But there were plenty of highlights throughout the 58th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida, an event that featured the full season debuts of Drayson Racing’s Lola-Judd coupe and the JaguarRSR Jaguar XKRS, the first appearance in North America for Aston Martin Racing’s Lola-Aston Martin, the new LMP and GT Challenge classes and a GT field that will continue to be mouth-watering throughout the season.

Alexander Wurz, Anthony Davidson and pole-winner Marc Gene were nearly flawless in the winning Peugeot 908 HDi FAP diesel-powered coupe that won the race by 13.817 seconds over the sister car. But there was more…

For example, there was Drayson Racing’s charge to second-place early on left fans gasping for more before the car fell back with alternator issues. Muscle Milk Team CytoSport picked a fine time for its first Series victory as the Porsche RS Spyder of Greg Pickett, Klaus Graf and Sascha Maassen took advantage of electrical problems for Patrón Highcroft Racing’s HPD ARX-01c in LMP2.

Risi Competizione proved its mettle again in GT2 with yet another endurance victory for its Ferrari F430 GT, this time with Jaime Melo, Gimmi Bruni and Pierre Kaffer. What does the rest of the season hold for a class that includes Ferrari, Porsche, BMW, Corvette, Jaguar and Ford?

The two Challenge classes broke new ground. G-Oil’s Green Earth Team Gunnar and driver Gunnar Jeannette scored the first LMPC pole position with the ORECA FLM09, and Level 5 Motorsports’ trio of Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Mark Wilkins won the race.

In GTC, Alex Job Racing celebrated its return to the Series with its three Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars sweeping the podium. Leh Keen, Butch Leitzinger and Juan Gonzalez led all but six laps.

The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach is the second round of the 2010 American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón. The race, set at the historic Long Beach street circuit, is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 17 with coverage on SPEED set for 8 to 10 p.m. ET. Live radio coverage will be available on American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche – a production of Radio Show Limited – as well as Sirius and XM. Visit the the Series’ schedule page for ticket and accommodation information. Live Timing and Scoring, track schedule, entry list and much, much more will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com.

You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes) and on our Facebook page and the official YouTube channel.

Recent News

Our Contributors