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2004 ALMS Audi Sports Car Championships
By: Drew Phillips
Photos the author
November 01, 2004

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The final races of the Audi Sports Car Championships take place at Laguna Seca for a good reason. The racetrack has a magical atmosphere, set in the rolling hills of the Monterey Peninsula. The memorable weekend consisted of the season finale for the American Le Mans Series and the Speed World Challenge Touring and GT racing series. To make the races even more special, the ALMS race ran into the nighttime, making it the first time a race had been run at night at Laguna Seca.

ALMS - LMP1 Class

Not too much drama was expected for the LMP1 class going into the final race of the season. Champion Racing had run away with the team championship by winning seven of the nine races of the season, and JJ Lehto and Marco Werner had already clinched the drivers' title earlier in the season. However, the race was anything but complacent for Champion Racing, starting with qualifying the day before the race. To start off, Creation Autosportif captured pole position ahead of the two Audis. In only their second race, Creation gave the Audis a run for their money by leading nearly the entire first hour of the race. Unfortunately, a sticking throttle forced the team to retire the car and allow the Audis to finish ahead of the field.

More action for the Audis happened with a spin by the #2 R8 when the car, driven by Johnny Herbert, was bumped from the rear by a Dyson Racing car, causing it to spin off the track. Although Herbert was able to get back on course, he was behind the entire field of cars. With Creation out of the picture and a promising lead over the off-course #2 Champion R8, the #38 car driven by Lehto and Werner thought they had wrapped up yet another win. Yet in a bizarre ending, the #2 R8 overtook the #38 car with only minutes left in the race. Werner had pitted the R8 when a spin on the track caused a full-course caution and the pit lane to close. Since Kaffer was still on the track during the yellow flag he was able to pass up Werner's car during the caution laps and lead the rest of the race to the checkered flag. "I really don't know what happened. I was always in the lead and behind the pace car in the end too. I don't know how Pierre overtook me. But still, it's a double win for the team. We'll just forget the first and the last race of this season. We are the Champions this year and in the end, that's what is important," commented Werner.

ALMS - LMP2 Class

The LMP2 class was still open for the driver and team championships. Miracle Motorsports had the team championship lead going into the race, and needed only a few points to clinch the win ahead of Intersport Racing. Miracle Motorsports driver Ian James led the drivers' championship over teammate James Gue and Clint Field of Intersport. Despite finishing 20th overall, the Miracle team and Ian James clinched their respective titles. "I'm just so happy to win the championship," said James. He continued, "I love this series, I love these cars. I'd love to come back next year." Intersport finished a respectable seventh overall and first in class.

ALMS - GTS Class

Corvette Racing came into the final race of the season a heavy favorite. They had gone through the entire season undefeated, and were 1-2 in the manufacturer's and team championships. To win this race would be the perfect ending to a perfect season. The Corvette had never won a race at Laguna Seca, and with the introduction of the C6-R next season, this was to be the cars last race. In excellent form, the #3 car of Fellows and O'Connell took the GTS victory and finished fourth overall, just ahead of the Corvette sister car. The #4 car driven by Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta started at poll, but the #3 car took the lead in the last hour and held the lead until the end. "It's a very special year when you can go undefeated," said Doug Duchardt, GM Racing director. "It's great for the team to finally win at Laguna Seca and this was an amazing effort from the beginning until the end. We're going to work very hard in the off season to continue with the Corvette C6-R in 2005." "This is a great way to send out the C5-R," concluded O'Connell.

The Dodge Viper GTS/R also ran its last race under the Carsport America banner. Unfortunately the Viper didn't go out in grand fashion like the Corvette, leaving the race after six laps with a clutch failure. The ACEMCO Saleen S7-R finished third in class and sixth overall despite starting last on the starting grid, and finished second in the manufacturer and team championships behind Corvette Racing.

ALMS - GT Class

Porsche continued its dominance of the GT Class, winning the manufacturer, team, and driver championships. Marc Lieb and Romain Dumas in the #24 Alex Job Racing won a very competitive race with their #23 sister car. Timo Bernhard in the #24 car led nearly the entire race, setting a blistering pace from the start. However, when the rain started to come down with twenty minutes left in the race the #23 car pitted early for rain tires. The #24 car pitted later under slower caution laps, allowing it to maintain its lead. Despite finishing behind their teammates, the #23 had clinched the GT championship in a previous race, and Timo Bernhard had already captured the drivers' championship. "It is great to be the GT driver's champion," said Bernhard. "I am sorry that Jorg can't share it with me, but his support throughout the year really helped me. It would have been nice to win the race; we were the fastest car all day and really had a nice lead until the rain. The car was handling great, there were no problems. I will trade the winner's trophy for the driver's championship trophy any day."

Porsche teams took the top four spots ahead of the Risi Competizione Ferrari 360 GT in fifth. Panoz Motorsports, the only other non-Porsche team, finally had a trouble-free race finishing 7th in the GT class and 9th in the overall championship. After the race, Panoz announced their plans to offer the Esperante GT-LM to private teams to race in next year's season. "We're just starting our testing and development preparations for a winning season in 2005 and beyond. Our goal is to become an economical and successful American-based alternative to Porsche and Ferrari in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS)", said Panoz team General Manager, Ed Triolo.

Speed World Challenge - GT

Even after the ALMS race on Saturday night, race fans were treated to amazing racing action with the Speed World Challenge GT and Touring races. Unlike many of the classes in the ALMS races, the team and drivers' championships were still undecided. Audi and Cadillac both entered the race tied for the championship lead, and the driver's championship had yet to be decided between Michael Galati and Tommy Archer in his Dodge Viper Competition Coupe. Teams and drivers were not only racing for the individual race win, but for the season championship as well.

Wolf Henzler started the weekend off on a good note with his first ever pole position in Speed GT and ended it in similar fashion with his second win of the season. He held his first place position from start to finish over Boris Said in a Saleen SR. Galati, leading the drivers' points coming into the final race, started with an advantage over the second place driver, Tommy Archer, who stalled the start and had to move his way through the field throughout the race, trying to catch up to Galati. Archer needed at least five more points than Galati to move into first, and all seemed lost with his blown start. "I tried to start with a little lower rpm, which wasn't a good idea," Archer said. "I then thought that the race and championship was gone." But what came next was probably the most amazing racing action anyone had seen all season. Archer caught Galati and passed him on the eighth lap, and moved into fifth place on lap eleven. Archer ended up passing Galati's Audi teammates Peter Cunningham and Randy Pobst to move into third, where he stayed until the end of the race. "Will Moody and I put a setup under the car that was just great. That gave me the confidence to move through the field. The car was the best it has been all weekend. I was able to drive hard the whole race until the tires started to fall off with about five laps to go. The team has worked hard all year, Dodge has been a big help along with c3controls and Whelen Engineering," said Archer after the race.

Despite losing the drivers' championship, Galati helped Audi win the manufacturers' championship ahead of Cadillac. At first, Cadillac looked like they would finish ahead of Audi, but the #8 Cadillac spun in the early portion of the race, and the other Cadillac couldn't pass the two leading Audis to finish in sixth. The win was Audi's third championship in four years. Cadillac finished in a close second, with Dodge in third and Chevrolet in fourth.

Speed World Challenge - Touring

The Speed Touring race provided nearly as much entertainment as the GT race. Several lead changes throughout the race kept the race exciting, and the race was close until the very end. The RealTime Racing Acura TSX driven by Pierre Kleinubing took the pole, and led the first twenty laps. With only five laps to go, Kleinubing went wide in turn eleven, allowing Jeff Altenburg to take first place in his Mazdaspeed Mazda 6. "He just went wide," Altenburg said of his pass on Kleinubing. "But, earlier I had closed up on him a couple of times. I had a little bit better brakes than him [Kleinubing] and one time he broke a little earlier than I thought he was going to in turn one and I kind of got into him. So, I backed off and let him back in, trying to be sportsmanlike. But, he just went wide [in turn 11] a little bit later and that’s when we got him." Despite slippery conditions on the track from an early morning rain, Altenburg was able to hang on to the lead to make it a Mazda win at the Mazda Raceway. The win was Altenburg's first of the season, as well as the Mazda's first win in the Speed Touring racing series. "If there is going to be a race to win, it’s this one," Altenburg said of giving Mazda a win at a Mazda track. "I guess we pick the right ones to win."

The manufacturer's championship was captured by BMW, who claimed four of the top six spots. Bill Auberlen, the defending champion from last year, once again bested the large field to finish first once again. "Winning the Championship this year was even better than last year because it was so much harder than last year," Auberlen said. "Trying to redo what you’ve already done is really difficult to do. But, man it feels good."

2005 Season

The 2005 season of the Audi Sports Car Championship begins with the Twelve Hours of Sebring from March 16-18. ALMS follows up at Road Atlanta from April 15-17, while the Speed World Challenge races at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on April 1-3. Next year's ALMS should see new entries from Aston Martin and Corvette Racing, with stiff competition from current competitors.