Blogginisracin

Audi victorious again at Sebring

Audi introduced a new car with the same old winning results in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, who now have a combined total of 12 victories in the sports car classic at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway, outdueled a Peugeot shared by Franck Montagny, Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazine on Saturday in a battle of diesel-powered prototype sports cars.
It is Audi's ninth win in the American Le Mans Series opener in the past 10 years — a string broken only by Porsche's victory last year — and the third time in that stretch that Audi has won in the debut of a new car.

-- The Associated Press

This week's racing schedule

Courtesy of The Associated Press and Web site reports 
All times Central

NASCAR Sprint Cup
Food City 500
Site: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (oval, .533 miles, 36 degrees banking in turns).
TV schedule: Friday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 2:30 p.m.); Sunday, race (Fox, 12:30 p.m.)
Race distance: 266.5 miles/500 laps
2008 winner: Jeff Burton
Fast facts: Jeff Gordon’s winless drought reached 44 races at Atlanta, but he remained on top of the standings after his runner-up finish. He has a 43-point lead over Clint Bowyer. ... Kurt Busch led 234 laps at Atlanta, 70 more than his entire total of 2008. He has five career wins at Bristol, but none since 2006. ... Mark Martin, 50, became the second-oldest driver in Cup history to start from the pole after being the top qualifier at Atlanta. But he finished 31st to drop to 34th in the standings. ... This is the first of two consecutive short-track events. The series heads to Martinsville on March 29.
www.nascar.com

NASCAR Nationwide
Scotts Turf Builder 300
Site: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (oval, .533 miles, 36 degrees banking in turns).
TV schedule: Saturday, qualifying (Speed Channel, 11 a.m., taped), race (ABC, 1 p.m.)
Race distance: 159.9 miles/300 laps
2008 winner: Clint Bowyer
Fast facts: Brad Keselowski won the most recent race at Bristol in August, becoming the first series-only regular to win at the track since 2004. He has two top-five finishes and three top-10 efforts among his four career starts there. ... Kevin Harvick has not won since Nov. 2007 at Texas. He was victorious at Bristol in 2004. ... Carl Edwards leads the point standings by 48 over Brian Vickers.
www.nascar.com

American Le Mans Series
12 Hourse of Sebring
Site: Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway (3.7-mile, 17-turn road course circuit)
TV schedule: Saturday, race (Speed Channel, 9 a.m.)
Race duration: 12 hours; last year's winners completed 351 laps
2008 overall winners: Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Emmanuel Collard, Team Penske, Porsche RS Spyder (LMP2 class)
Fast facts: ALMS celebrates its 100th series race in its 2009 season-opener. ... Sebring serves as an ideal "test session" for endurance drivers and teams planning to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. The past 10 Le Mans winners have raced at Sebring prior to their victory in France. ... Sebring International Raceway is the oldest course in North American, with portions of the track dating back to a World War II B-17 training base. 

ESPN to air 24 Hours of Le Mans documentary

Sports-car and endurance racing fans take note. ESPN is set to air Truth in 24, a documentary film about the Audi team at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, on Friday (March 20) at 7 p.m. (Central) on ESPN. 

Narrated by British actor Jason Statham, the film was made with nearly unlimited access to the Audi team during the endurance racing classic. The film was co-produced by NFL Films and Intersport.

Learn more about the film and watch trailers here.

-- Michele Vincze

De Ferran hires new chief executive for ALMS team

Retired Honda executive Robert Clarke is the new chief executive of de Ferran Motorsports.
Founded last year by former Indianapolis 500 and CART champion Gil de Ferran, the Brownsburg, Ind.-based team competes in the American Le Mans Series.
Clarke was president of Honda Performance Development and was in charge of the automaker's motorsports program in the United States from the mid-1990s until early last year.
De Ferran and former Formula Atlantic champion Simon Pagenaud will drive for the team this season.

-- The Associated Press

Brumos Racing team wins in closest 24 Hours at Daytona finish

David Donohue passed defending champion Juan Pablo Montoya with about 40 minutes remaining and held on in his No. 58 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley to win the 47th Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona. 

Donohue, who co-drove the Daytona Prototype car with Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia, beat Montoya to the finish line by only 0.167 seconds, the closest margin in the event's history. The top four finishers in DP, who battled fiercely on the same lap for the final few hours of the race, completed a record 735 laps. 

Joao Barbosa brought the second Brumos Racing entry (No. 59) home in third.

The Dallas-based No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley driven by Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty, NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson and Jimmy Vasser had mechanical issues early in the race but rebounded to finish seventh.

In the GT class, the TRG Porsche team earned a one-two finish with Andy Lally, Justin Marks, Jorg Bergmeister, Patrick Long and RJ Valentine winning in the No. 67 Porsche GT3. Finishing second, but one lap down, was the No. 66 Porsche GT3 co-driven by Spencer Pumpelly, Tim George Jr., Richard Leitz and Emmanuel Collard.

Read more here.

-- Michele Vincze

Donohue puts No. 58 Brumos car on Rolex 24 at Daytona pole

David Donohue edged Timo Bernhard by 0.001 seconds Thursday to take the pole position for the 47th Rolex 24 At Daytona, breaking the Daytona Prototype track record.
Donohue turned a lap in 1 minute, 40.540 seconds — averaging 127.472 mph — in the No. 58 Brumos Porsche Riley he will share with Darren Law, Buddy Rice and Antonio Garcia in the race that will start at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and end at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
Alex Gurney, the 2007 Rolex 24 pole winner, will start 11th in the Dallas-based No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley co-driven by three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, Jon Fogarty and Jimmy Vasser.
In GT, Sylvain Tremblay captured the Rolex 24 pole for the second consecutive year in dramatic fashion, waiting until near the end of the session to turn a track record lap of 1:49.455 (117.100 mph) in the No. 70 SpeedSource Castrol Syntec Mazda RX.
Read more here. Go here for a preview of this year's Rolex 24 at Daytona.

--The Associated Press

Johnson set for another Rolex 24 at Daytona

Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson will return to the Lewisville-based GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing for the 2009 Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway in January. Johnson will again team with Alex Gurney, Jon Fogarty and Jimmy Vasser in the season-opening Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series event on Jan. 24-25. Johnson helped the team finish second overall in the No. 99 GAINSCO/Bob Stallings Racing Pontiac Riley last year. Johnson was in the Fort Worth area Thursday to prepare for the race, but the weather limited him to only getting fitted for the car. Read more about Johnson's visit to the Motorsport Ranch in Cresson here. 

-- Michele Vincze

Audi pulls out of American Le Mans Series

Audi is pulling out of the American Le Mans Series, ending a dominating nine-year run in which its cars won the LMP1 class championship every season.
Audi motor sports chief Wolfgang Ullrich said Friday the German car maker wanted to concentrate on Europe “in these difficult economic times.”
The announcement came on the same day that Honda said it was pulling out of Formula One, as car makers around the world have been hit by massive declines in sales amid the global financial downturn.
Ullrich said the decision to drop out was “a difficult one” since Audi helped establish what he called a “fascinating motor sports series.”
“Our brand dominated the last season with seven wins in 11 races,” he said.
The racing cars in the series used so-called TDI technology — or Turbocharged Direct Injection for diesel engines — which “perfectly supported” the launch of the technology in the United States, Ullrich said.
Audi will continue to race in the 24-hour race in Le Mans, France, and will also keep its cars in the German touring cars (DTM) series, as well in the 12-hour race in Sebring, Florida.

-- The Associated Press