Two new manufacturers may join ALMS to participate in Green Challenge
The Detroit Grand Prix is back at the city's Belle Isle Park this Labor Day weekend and Saturday's activities will be dominated by the Detroit Sports Car Challenge. The Sports Car Challenge is the 9th race of the 2008 American Le Mans Series. We spoke to ALMS President Scott Atherton this morning about the series' green racing efforts. According to Atherton, the response to the Green Challenge that will debut at the Petit Le Mans at the beginning of October has been outstanding. The Peugeot 908s are coming back to challenge the Audi R10s again in the top dog ALMS class. The big news is yet to come though. The Green Challenge will run throughout the season starting in 2009. Atherton revealed that at least two manufacturers that are not currently involved in ALMS are seriously looking at joining the series specifically because of the Green Challenge. Unfortunately he wouldn't say who those manufacturers are but if I had to guess, I'd say Toyota and Nissan would be the top candidates. When the Green Challenge was first announced at the Detroit Auto Show last year, Honda's John Mendel told us that that Acura would be looking at alternative powertrain options in the future as well. The Acura team will be holding a press conference tomorrow to discuss their future ALMS plans. We'll be there to let you know what they say. Can you say Acura diesel?
[Source: American Le Mans Series]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ale 7:11PM (8/28/2008)
woohoo! Acura diesel, very nice, beat on those Porsches
hmm, two more manufacturers, very nice..
but lets figure out whats an lmp"1" and whats an lmp"2"
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GTrace 10:37AM (8/29/2008)
Acura's big announcement is that they are moving from LMP2 class to an LMP1 class car. Possible all four times might be making the transfer too!! as far as their powertrain goes i doubt they are going to go diesel
Autoblog obviously doesnt keep up with any ALMS news. one of those new manufacturers is BMW that has already been announced...Newman/Hass Lanigan is going to run two v8 m3s in the GT2 class. i would be prone to believe puegeot may run the full series next year as they are coming back for sebring again and are bringing two cars to petit
Stick Guy 3:48PM (8/29/2008)
Peugeot @ ALMS full season? NO WAY. Peugeot does not even sell cars in US.
They're doing Petit just because they're bitter about losing Le Mans in June, and want to prove themselves and at the same time do testing in preparation for next season.
ale 11:42AM (8/30/2008)
right, Peugeot is not going to go to ALMS, that would be dumb, Petit is just a last chance to beat Audi in an endurance event.
I doubt that its referring to the BMW N/H/LR is racing next year, but who knows. I hope to see for '10, BMW race some of their diesel 3 series, that'd be a good promotion.
would Nissan ever come back? crazier things have happened..
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