American Le Mans Series

The American Le Mans Series (ALMS) is a series of automobile races. It consists of a series of endurance races based on the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

History

The American Le Mans Series was started in 1999 by pharmaceutical and motorsport magnate Don Panoz and quickly attracted racing teams from several of the well known performance car manufacturers including Porsche, Audi and others. The Series has had between 6 and 10 races in each of its last six seasons with races of different lengths up to 1,000 miles.

Over the past few years The American Le Mans Series has grown steadily in popularity and is drawing millions of spectators a year. It is sanctioned by IMSA to continue their former IMSA series. A similar Le Mans Series with 1000km races were or are staged in Europe as Le Mans Endurance Series.

The ALMS conducts several sports car racing events each year in North America, which makes it possible that cars developed only for Le Mans can also be shown in the worlds' largest automobile market. Although a one-off six-hour race known as the "Race of a Thousand Years" was held at Adelaide, Australia, on 31 December 1999, to help usher in the new millennium.

Rules

The American Le Mans Series has licensed the Le Mans rules and trademarks from the organizers of the 24 Hours of Le Mans (the Automobile Club de L'Ouest, or ACO) for use in the U.S. and top ALMS teams are allowed participation in the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.

As with the Le Mans 24 Hours, the cars are divided into several classes, each car is assigned to multiple drivers (2 or 3 depending on the length of the race), and all cars compete together simultaneously. The cars of the American Le Mans Series are divided into two major classes. Purpose-built race cars with closed fenders compete in the Prototype classes (P1 and P2) and modified production sports cars compete in the Grand Touring classes (GT1 and GT2, formerly GT and GTS).

Points are awarded in each class after every race, and the team points leader in each class at the end of the season receives an automatic invitation to the next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans. Additionally, privateer teams, teams that are not supported by the factory, compete for the IMSA Cup as well as special prizes for each race. In its history, the ALMS has been dominated by Audi, specifically the factory team Audi Sport Team Joest and now privateer team Champion Racing, both operating Audi R8s.

2006 ALMS Schedule

The premier events of the series include the season opening 12 Hours of Sebring held in March and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. The races are televised on Speed Channel and CBS. The events at Infineon Raceway and the sprint race at Road Atlanta have been replaced with the Lone Star Grand Prix at Reliant Park and a race at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah.

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