Video: Muscle Milk Racing behind the scenes from Sebring

Muscle Milk's new HPD ARX 03a (Photo: John Dagys)

 Check out this video courtesy of Sports Illustrated and Muscle Milk Racing documenting the team's promising yet ultimately disappointing start to the 2012 season.

ALMS 2012: Long Beach Preview

Klaus Graf leads Dyson's Lola B12/60 at Sebring (Photo: John Dagys)

After an exciting opening round at the 12 Hours of Sebring, the American Le Mans Series heads west this weekend, for round two of the championship at the famed Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Known for its unique atmosphere and cramped racing, it is definitely a unique stop on the series calendar.

Video: Petit Le Mans night practice

 Part of the allure of endurance racing is the aspect of the racing going on into the night. Take a spin around Road Atlanta with Corvette factory driver, Tommy Milner, during night practice of last year's Petit Le Mans.

News: Toyota LMP1 breaks cover

Ironically, on the same morning Peugeot's withdrawal from international sports car racing was announced, images of Toyota's Hybrid LMP1 machine were leaked. The car looks to borrow heavily from techniques used by both Audi and Peugeot.

(Photo: Racer Magazine)

Audi's R18 (Photo: John Dagys)

Video: Onboard with Gunnar Jeanette

 Take a few laps around Wisconsin's famous Road America circuit aboard Gunnar Jeanette's LMPC machine.


Road America Helmet Camera from Gunnar Jeannette on Vimeo.

Photo courtesy of John Dagys

Video: In the Cockpit with Dyson Racing

See what its like to be "in the zone" onboard of Dyson Racing's Championship winning Lola Mazda LMP1 Car.

Qualifying: ALMS at Mid Ohio

Guy Smith and Chris Dyson will start from pole (Photo: John Dagys)

Guy Smith and Dyson Racing will start on the overall (LMP1) pole for Saturday’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge after narrowly beating out Klaus Graf’s Muscle Milk Aston Martin by one tenth of a second during qualifying with a 1:12.729 lap time. Things were far from easy for Smith though, as his car was far from compliant and he was visibly fighting the car through the corners.

“We struggled quite badly with the setup,” Smith stated, “and we pretty much threw everything at it but the kitchen sink. Qualifying was a wild ride with the car sideways a lot of the time. It was a god lap and I’m very happy with it.”

Steven Kane continued his excellent start to his ALMS career by slotting the second Dyson entry into third place with a very respectable 1:13.607. Dyson scored a dramatic win last year and will hope for a repeat of last year’s victory come race day.

read the rest of the article on motorsport.com http://www.motorsport.com/#/all/article/?id=409505

Race Preview: ALMS at Mosport 2011

Mosport 2010 (John Dagys)

After returning from the three month Le Mans break, the American Le Mans Series took to the track two weekends ago at the scenic bullring of Lime Rock Park. The tight confines of the small Connecticut track provided some good, but at times sloppy racing as the cars tried to navigate such a tiny track. The series now heads to Canada's high-speed and flowing Mosport International Raceway where the track could not be more different.

 Mosport is one of the fastest circuits in the world and features drastic elevation changes that make the track both difficult and extremely intimidating. Drivers will have to be especially careful with the infamous Turn 2, which goes up over a blind crest and quickly drops away to the left. Its blind nature makes finding the apex very difficult and it punishes mistakes. The off camber nature of the corner makes it easy to slide off after missing the apex and it has caught out some of the best driver's in the world. Turn 2 is bound to chew up somebody's car before the weekend is over.

Read the rest of the preview in its entirety at motorsport.com

2011 Mosport Spotters Guide

Andy Blackmore does some great work on these spotter's guides, if you're heading out to Mosport this weekend, be sure to download yours at http://www.spotterguides.com/

Le Mans 2011: GTE Pro Preview

The GT Battle will be fierce at Le Mans (Photo: John Dagys)

While the Audi vs Peugeot LMP1 battle at Le Mans this year will most likely steal the majority of the headlines, GTE, formerly GT2, could provide the best on track racing. With many of the world's best teams, drivers and seven different marques taking the grid this year, the field looks especially deep.With GT1 cars running the Le Mans for the final time last year, GTE takes over as the sole GT category, but the class has been split into two categories; GTE Pro for all pro driver lineups and new cars and GTE AM which features pro-am driver pairings and machinery that must be at least one year old.In our preview, we will focus on the GTE Pro.

2011 24 Hours of Le Mans Spotter's Guide

Thanks to Andy Blackmore for allowing us to feature his wonderful spotter's guides on our site. The two part guide features every car and lists every driver taking part in this year's French classic. Click on the images for a full-resolution download.

Video: Early Apex

 Very cool promotional video for EarlyApex.com made by our friend Antoine Furet. Nicely done!

Race Preview: ALMS at Long Beach

Photo: John Daygs

   The American Le Mans Series finds itself going west this weekend, where the driver's and teams will have to adapt from the wide open nature of Sebring to the tight confines of Long Beach. 2011 marks the fifth consecutive year for the series to race at the famous street circuit venue and provides many unique challenges to the participants. With the race only being two hours long and run on public roads with concrete barriers lining the circuit, one small mistake can derail a team's chances in a heartbeat.

Photos: Audi R18 at Sebring

  The 12 Hours of Sebring may be over, but Audi is still in central Florida with their new LMP1 car, the Audi R18. And lets just say the R18 looks absolutely menacing in bare carbon fiber...

Audi appears to have wrapped the cockpit area of the car in chrome. Peugeot implemented a similar look in 2009 to help keep drivers more comfortable by reflecting sunlight away from the cockpit of the car.

This photo really illustrates how aggressive the packaging of the bodywork around the radiators is. The undercut of the sidepod looks very similar to a modern day Formula One car. Also Audi has integrated a single, swan-neck rear wing mount into the mandated fin above the engine cover. With power down this year, it would appear that Audi has really focused on the aerodynamics of the R18.

The R18 is also sporting some pretty good sized front dive planes that were not on the car when it was launched. I doubt we'll see these on the car at Le Mans, however.

For more photos check out Audi's flickr

All photos courtesy of Audi USA

Video: Falken Porsche Testing

  Take a behind the scenes look at off season testing with the Falken Porsche team. Ever wonder how quick T1 at Sebring is? Check out the clip at 1:21....wow.

Video: Corvette Track To Street Ep:1

 With GT teams allowed to use paddle shift systems this season, take an inside look into Corvette Racing's first tests with the flappy paddles

Sebring Preview: LMP1

Photo: John Dagys

Its never too early for predictions and with the entry list for next month's 12 Hours of Sebring being released last week, we figured now is the perfect time to state our predictions. We'll kick things off with the LMP1 category. At the moment, a strong entry of 12 to 13 cars is set to take the green flag and a total of 5 diesels headline the bid for the overall victory.

Video: Sebring Testing

 Imagine how awesome this view (and sound) will be with 60 cars...

Photos: Oreca 03 LMP2

Photo: Oreca

   French racing manufactuer, Oreca debuted their new LMP2 challenger, the Oreca 03, earlier this week at Paul Ricard. Drivers Nicolas Lapierre and Soheil Ayari ran a trouble-free 1000km test program with power coming from a Nissan V8.

Ayari described the 03 as being "perfectly reliable and very well balanced." He went on to say that he was very impressed with the braking and the front end grip the car was able to deliver. Front grip being something manufacturers often struggle to develop in the LMP machines. Hopefully we are lucky enough to see the car cross the Atlantic for Sebring in March. Fingers crossed.

Video: Don't Mess with McNish

Just don't do it, we're not kidding