ALMS 2004 Milestones

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ALMS Milestones from 2004 Laguna Seca Finale

Steve Schuler 11-12-2004

(NOTE: Auto racing historian Steve Schuler compiled this piece about American Le Mans Series milestones reached or set in the 2004 season-ending event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Oct. 16)

In the 36-race history of the LMP675/P2 class, MG power has won 14 races, Judd 13, Nissan seven and Ford two. Lola EX257 chassis have won 14 races, Lola B2K/40 chassis have won 12 times, and thus Lola chassis have scored 26 wins, or 72.22% of the LMP675/P2 total. Reynard 01Q chassis have taken six wins, Pilbeam MP84 chassis three victories, and Courage has one win with its 2004 Road America P2-winning C65.

Johnny O’Connell maintained All-Time leadership in ALMS starts as he now has 53; David Brabham is second with 49. Ron Fellows and JJ Lehto are tied for third ranking at 48.

Sascha Maassen continues to lead in All-Time ALMS Victories with 22 but Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell are now in the runner-up spot at 21 apiece. JJ Lehto has 20 victories. Olivier Beretta and Lucas Luhr are tied for fifth ranking with 18 wins each.

Lehto remains the all-time ALMS Top Three Finishes leader, now with 41 over Fellows at 39.

Lehto and O’Connell continue to lead in All-Time ALMS Top Five Finishes, now with 46 apiece. Fellows is next up at 44.

O’Connell continues as the All-Time ALMS Top 10 Finishes leader, now with 51 over the 48 apiece of Fellows and Lehto.

Current win streaks in ALMS competition: Chevrolet Corvette Racing and the Chevrolet Corvette C5-R nine in GTS; Alex Job Racing six in GT; Porsche 911 GT3 RSR six in GT; Champion Audi and the Audi R8 three in P1; Clint Field/Robin Liddell, Intersport and the Lola B2K/40-Judd two in P2.

P1 competition in 2004 produced two wins from pole (Champion Audi at Infineon Raceway, #16 Dyson Lola-AER at Mosport), three wins from second starting position (Audi UK Veloqx at Sebring, Champion Audi at Mid-Ohio and Lime Rock), three wins from third starting position (#38 Champion Audi at Portland and Road America, #2 Champion Audi at Laguna Seca), and Champion Audi’s win from fourth in the Petit Le Mans.

GTS competition in 2004 produced five winners from pole (Sebring, Lime Rock, Mosport, Road America, and Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans) and four from second (Mid-Ohio, Infineon, Portland, and Laguna Seca).

GT winners in 2004 came from pole (Sebring, Portland, and Road America), second (Infineon and Laguna Seca), third (Mosport), fourth (Mid-Ohio and Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans), and seventh (Lime Rock).

P2 winners in 2004 came from the pole five times (Intersport at Infineon, Portland, Mosport, and Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans; Miracle at Road America), from second (Intersport at Mid-Ohio and Laguna Seca), from third (Miracle at Sebring) and from fourth (Miracle at Lime Rock).

The Audi R8 remains the all-time leader in ALMS Racecar Wins, now with 40 wins; the Corvette C5-R now has 31 wins.

Lehto remains the all-time leader in ALMS LMP1 wins at 16 over Frank Biela’s 15. Lehto is the all-time ALMS Overall Race Wins leader with 16 over 14 apiece for Biela and Rinaldo Capello.

Ron Fellows remains the all-time leader in ALMS GTS victories at 21 with teammate Johnny O’Connell one behind at 20. 2004 Corvette driver Olivier Beretta now ranks third at 18 GTS wins.

Olivier Beretta has tied Ron Fellows for all-time leadership in ALMS Fast Qualifier honors with14 over Dirk Muller at 13. Beretta and Fellows are now also tied for GTS Fast Qualifier leadership at 14 each.

Current ALMS Fast Qualifier streaks: Chevrolet Corvette Racing nine consecutive GTS FQs; Porsche, 27 consecutive GT FQs (streak began 2002 Sebring); Alex Job Racing, three consecutive GT FQs.

Nicolas Minassian’s pole for the Creation team driving a DBA-Zytek marked the first ALMS overall pole not won by an Audi R8 or a Dyson Racing Lola since the August 5, 2001 Portland event, when David Brabham won the pole driving a Panoz. The Audi/Dyson Lola streak encompassed 30 races (plus one race without a qualifying session)!

The last GT pole not won by an Alex Job entry prior to Lonnie Pechnik’s 2004 Mosport GT pole for Flying Lizard was the 2002 Sears Point by Kevin Buckler, Racers Group Porsche. The last GT pole not won by a Porsche? 2001 Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans by Lehto, factory Schnitzer BMW M3 GTR.

Nine Entrants have scored ALMS GT class wins. Alex Job Racing leads with 32, followed by Barbour Racing with nine, PTG Racing with five, BMW Schnitzer with four wins, Racers Group with two victories, and single victories for Flying Lizard, Petersen White Lightning, Reiser/Callas, and Risi.

The all-time ALMS Entrant Wins battle continues to see Alex Job Racing on top with 32 wins but Corvette Racing has 31 wins.

In P1 Entrant Wins, the original factory Audi team leads with 23 wins over Champion Racing’s 11 wins and Panoz Racing at eight.

Porsche leads the all-time ALMS Marque Wins list with 48 wins over Audi’s 40. Chevrolet ranks third with 31 wins. Lola ranks fourth among the marques with 27 wins.

With the Courage P2 win at Road America 2004, 13 chassis marques have won ALMS races (Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Courage, Dodge, Ferrari, Lola, Panoz, Pilbeam, Porsche, Riley & Scott, Reynard, and Saleen). Ten engine marques have scored ALMS victories (Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ferrari, Ford, Judd, MG, Nissan, and Porsche). Courage became the fourth chassis marque to score a win in the LMP2 class.

2004 ALMS overall race podium finishes: Champion Audi 11 (seven wins, four seconds); Dyson Racing 10 (one win, four seconds, five thirds); Corvette Racing three (three thirds); Audi UK Veloqx two (one win, one third); Intersport Racing one (one second).

2004 ALMS P2 podium finishes: Miracle Motorsports 11 (three wins, five seconds, three thirds); Intersport seven (six wins, one third); Bucknum Racing four (four thirds); Race Car Company two (two seconds); Rand Racing one (one second); Marshall Cooke one (one second). 2004 ALMS GT podium finishes: Alex Job Racing 13 (seven wins, four seconds, two thirds); Flying Lizard seven (one win, three seconds, three thirds); Petersen White Lightning six (two seconds, four thirds); Risi Ferrari one (one win).

2004 ALMS Laps Completed (1667 possible): #38 Champion Audi 1662; #3 Chevrolet Corvette C5R 1585; #45 Flying Lizard Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1503; #23 Alex Job Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 1501.

2004 ALMS Driver Win leaders: JJ Lehto/Marco Werner, 6 P1 wins; Clint Field/Robin Liddell, 6 P2 wins; Timo Bernhard, 5 GT wins; Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell, 5 GTS wins; Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin, 4 GTS wins; Jorg Bergmeister, 4 GT wins; Ian James, 3 P2 wins.

2004 ALMS Entrant Win leaders: Chevrolet Corvette Racing, 9 GTS wins; Champion Audi, 7 P1 wins; Alex Job Racing, 7 GT wins; Intersport Racing, 6 P2 wins.

In 2004 P1 competition, Champion Audi led with 7 wins (Lehto/Werner, six; Herbert/Kaffer one) to one for Audi UK Veloqx and one for Dyson Racing. Champion Audi took two 2004 P1 poles (Lehto and Werner one each) while James Weaver scored four for Dyson and Andy Wallace and Butch Leitzinger one each for Dyson with Creation taking the final pole with Nicolas Minassian. Champion posted seven 2004 P1 Fast Laps (Lehto six, Werner one) and Dyson two (Weaver).

In 2004 P2 competition, Intersport (Lola-Judd) scored six wins, Miracle Motorsports (Lola-Nissan two, Courage-MG one) three victories. Intersport pilots Clint Field and Robin Liddell led with six P2 wins; Miracle driver Ian James had three P2 wins and Intersport driver Jon Field and Miracle pilot James Gue each scored two wins. Intersport Racing (Lola-Judd with Clint Field) took four 2004 P2 poles; Bucknum Racing (Jeff Bucknum, Pilbeam MP91-Nissan) took two P2 poles, as did Miracle Motorsports with Ian James in the Courage-MG. Rand Racing (Marino Franchitti, Lola-Nissan) scored one. Intersport posted seven of the 2004 P2 Fast Laps, five by Liddell, two by Clint Field. Race Car Company’s Lola-Millington Ford took one with Andy Lally while Ian James set Road America’s P2 Fast Lap with the Miracle Courage C65-MG.

Corvette Racing won GTS in all nine 2004 events. Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell took five of the wins (Sebring shared with Max Papis) while Olivier Beretta and Oliver Gavin took the other four (Road Atlanta shared with Jan Magnussen). Corvette Racing posted all nine Fast Qualifier honors (Gavin four, Beretta four, Fellows one), and all nine Fast Laps (Beretta four, Gavin four, O’Connell one). The Fellows/O’Connell Corvette completed all but one of the 1586 possible GTS laps, earning five class wins and four class runnerup finishes, on the same lap as the GTS winner in three of the races it didn’t win and one lap behind in the other (Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans).

Porsche’s 911 GT3 RSR took eight of the nine 2004 GT wins, with Ferrari’s 360 Modena GTC grabbing the other. Alex Job Racing led with seven wins to one apiece for Flying Lizard and Risi. Timo Bernhard was the only driver with five 2004 GT wins. AJR took eight GT poles (four by Romain Dumas, three by Bernhard, one by Jorg Bergmeister) to one for Flying Lizard (Lonnie Pechnik) and AJR posted six of the Fast Laps (three by Dumas, three by Bernhard). Flying Lizard (Jon Fogarty at Sebring), BAM! Racing (Lucas Luhr at Road Atlanta Petit Le Mans) and Panoz (David Saelens at Mid-Ohio) took the others.

The 2004 GT class-winning entries completed 1518 laps. The Law/Van Overbeek Flying Lizard entry led with 1503 laps completed. Timo Bernhard’s AJR entries completed 1501 laps. Bernhard finished on the GT winner’s lap seven times, with Bergmeister on the GT winner’s lap six times (Jorg missed Sebring due to an illness).